Everyone Learns Jazz Guitar Wrong (Here's What Actually Works)

Learning fewer scales actually makes you a better jazz guitarist.

But Most players don’t realize and stay stuck, spending months or even years learning jazz the wrong way

So in this video, I’ll show you which traditional advice to ignore, the Barry Harris technique you need to play great jazz lines, and the practice routine that actually works.

The goal is to play lines like this:

So let me show you how to get there.

The Jazz Skill Problem

The reason so many guitarists get stuck is that they overload in exercises that SEEM useful, but they only learn them superficially.

This incredibly bad habit has almost become a tradition in Jazz education: Overwhelm beginners with lists of things they need to practice in all variations.

If you ask online about learning jazz, you are very likely to get a list like this:

And so on..

It’s exhausting just to read it.

And even if you spent years practicing all of this, it is no guarantee that you can play even just two notes together that sound like jazz. There is no music in that list at all.

Compare it to learning a language. Imagine if your first lesson in French, your teacher gave you a similar list that you had to learn before speaking any French:

So you are sitting in that classroom, staring at that list, knowing you won’t speak a single word of French today or the next few months for that matter.

That is the problem with the first list: There is no music in any of that. It’s just technique.

That is NOT how we learn languages, and it is not how you learn jazz either.

Learn Jazz Like You Learned Blues

But of course, you do need some scales to play jazz. Just not all of them in all keys at the same time.

I am sure you remember how you learned the box 1 pentatonic scale

And then you were taught to use that to play solos over a song.

You were not told to learn all 5 pentatonics scales before soloing, and if you check out famous solos, they are also mostly using that box, so they were probably also not taught to learn all positions in all keys.

You can take a similar approach to Jazz: whatever song you want to play, find one position on the neck and find all the scales you need in that position.

For a simple Jazz Blues in C you need:

Show sheet music: Blues – Jazz Triad Solo 1

A scale for C7,

we need one for F7,

and another one for A7,

and finally one for Dm7

G7.

With this minimal set of scales in one position, you can check out diatonic triads and arpeggios,

which are useful and do not require years of work.

From there, you start building your vocabulary like you would in a language lesson: simple, basic, but useful phrases. Stuff like:

You can let me know if you think that is the jazz version of “Which Way to the library?”

That is how you gradually build a vocabulary of jazz phrases and a foundation for your own solos.

Just practicing scales is not going to get you there.

If you want more videos on how to actually play jazz solos and chords, not just exercises, subscribe to the channel. I make new videos on this every week.

So let me show you what actually does work — and it starts with something you already know how to do.

The Missing Jazz Link

If you are learning a language, you are taught phrases like:

‘Where is the library?’

And then you are taught variations of that phrase:

‘Where is the supermarket?’

‘Where is the local jazz club?’

Same phrase, different context. You already know how to use it before you’ve even thought about it.

And this is what actually makes your solos sound like jazz.

Let’s take an even simpler lick for the C blues:

I am sure you can see the C7 arpeggio inside this lick:

You just need this enclosure around the 3rd:

And slide into the first note:

The point here is: it is not just notes, it is a real phrase, a short piece of music. It teaches you more than what notes to play.

The first way you can create variations of this that help you solo over the jazz blues is to move it through the chord progression.

You need a version of this for each chord.

The simplest way to do that would be this:

You already have the phrase on C7:

For F7, you can play it here:

Next, the chord we need is A7

And finally, for the II V, Dm7:

And G7:

“

Like this, you are learning that phrase and figuring out how to use it over other chords, which is very useful, because it gives you something to play everywhere, but you can also make a variation similar to the language example from earlier, by changing the ending:

The basic version is still:

And then you can add a few notes like this:

Or maybe this nice arpeggio trick:

This is how you build more phrases from one original lick, and it helps you improve your phrasing and ability to hear melodies that sound like jazz. It is not just notes. It is a real lick, a short piece of music. That teaches you far more than what notes to play.

If you want to work through these examples without memorizing them off the video, so you can start building your jazz vocabulary straight away, grab the free PDF — there’s a link in the description.

But where do you get the licks from? Let’s talk about that next!

Who Speaks Jazz?

For this to work, you want to have some sources of good licks that you can learn and use to expand your vocabulary.

There are 3 main sources, and how much you use each one matters just as much as using them at all.

#1 Listening To Jazz. – Just listening to a lot of jazz without actively trying to learn every solo will teach you much more than you think! This is SO underrated

#2 Learning Solos By Ear – Finding easy solos that you can learn and play to really get the feel and the phrasing in your own playing is very effective. The main thing to get right here is to not pick solos that are too long or too difficult.

#3 Written out solos and licks are easy to absorb, but you don’t learn phrasing and feel with your eyes, so rely less on this.

From the solos you play, you can take out phrases and explore how to make your own licks from that.

Make sure to spend time composing lines — figuring out how to turn scales, arpeggios, enclosures and all that into real jazz lines.

Barry Harris spent his masterclasses composing and teaching solos to his students — it was the whole method. So that will also be useful for you.

Composing lets you work out your lines slowly, making sure they actually make sense and sound right, just improvising in time doesn’t allow you to do that. It is the best way to build a solid foundation for your solos

And that is exactly the kind of work we do in my Jazz Guitar Roadmap Course to help students learn to play real solos. You get a few exercises and a step-by-step method for turning them into solos that sound like jazz on an actual jazz standard. To date, more than 8,000 students have used it to get a strong start.

If you want to join them, there’s a link in the description.

Playing Better Solos

If you want to play better solos, you, of course, need to spend time soloing, but there are a few things to get right.

Think about your jazz solo like a novel. What makes a novel good is the story, not how the sentences were written.

So if you want your solo to be great, it needs to have a story. Good lines alone are not enough.

Listen to pretty much any famous jazz artist, and you will hear a connection between the phrases. It is not just a great lick on Am7 and an equally good lick on Dm6. There are motifs and call-and-response between phrases all over the place.

So when you solo over a song, try to think of ways to connect the phrases. Repeat things and make the listener curious about what comes next.

For the blues, you can do this in a very simple way, like this, where I am moving a 1-bar motif across the beginning of the form:

This is a very clear example, but if you want to hear great examples of simple yet incredibly strong melodies, check out Wes Montgomery’s solos.

For this to work, you also want to focus on learning actual songs. They are easier to tell a story on because they have a form, and if you only practice 4-bar loops, you will never really learn how to do that.

Remember that all the examples from this video are in the free PDF — so you’ve got everything you need to start leveling up your solos right away. Link in the description.

So to sum up: the reason most guitarists get stuck is that they overload on technique without ever making music. The fix is to treat jazz like a language — build your vocabulary from real phrases, learn solos by ear, spend time composing your own lines, and when you solo, think about telling a story, not just playing good licks.

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Wes Montgomery Is The King Of Jazz Guitar

Wes Montgomery is one of the best to learn from when it comes to melodic solos with a story. If you want to see exactly how to learn from his phrases and play solos where the listener wonders what comes next, then check out this video where I cover some of his phrases and how to learn from them.

Check it out!

Learn Jazz Make Music

https://jenslarsen.nl/just-practice-like-this-every-day/

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