For many beginners, the half diminished chord or m7b5 chord is a weird mysterious chord, but it is actually a very flexible chord to have in your vocabulary
In this video, I am going to talk about how to construct and play them and then go through how you can use them in a song, not only as half-diminished chords but also as a lot of other chord sounds.
The PDF with examples for this video is available through Patreon. You can check out my Patreon Page here: https://www.patreon.com/jenslarsen
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This is a question I get very often. And that is in no way strange. Starting to learn Jazz guitar is the beginning of a long journey with a lot of interesting stops along the way.
In this video and post, I will try to give you some places where you can look for the things you feel you need to check out and of course also what you think is interesting.
Learning Jazz, or any other style of music is not a set path the fits everybody. We all take different routes and need to work on different things longer or shorter. That is also the reason that there is no set way to go through this and why I am calling it suggestions. You need to figure out for yourself where to go next. If I have a student learning Jazz it is common that I take a few lessons to figure out what to work on and how to work on it, so expect that when you start working as well.
That said, I will try to make this a little less complicated and stop the information overload a little because I don’t think that is really necessary.
To keep it a bit short I am going to focus on three main topics:
Technique and Scales
Chords
Improvisation and Songs
Technique and Scales
Keep it simple. Start with the Major scale. Don’t overdo technique practice.
Start with one position and one key. You can add positions and keys along the way, with basic exercises.
Start with these exercises:
The Scale
The Scale in 3rds
The Diatonic 7th chords (Maybe Triads first, but many don’t have to)
For more information on what to do work on and how to use it:
It is practical to learn some jazz chords so that you can play chords on songs. As jazz guitarists, we spend more time comping than soloing. It is also a huge help to be able to hear the harmony that you are soloing over.
Especially I would start with a set of diatonic chords for the major scale which is exercise one or two of this lesson: How to play Jazz Chords on Guitar
From that material you can gradually expand chord vocabulary, learn songs and progress into rootless voicings and more complex comping and harmonization ideas.
Improvisation and Songs
This is the most important part of how to learn jazz guitar because this is where we talk about playing music. So it is about using the material that is practiced in the scales.
If you want to play jazz you need to spend time playing the songs and improvising and you should start doing this from the very beginning. Even if you can’t really play solos that sounds like jazz, just by trying you are building repertoire and skills to use later.
Maybe you already feel comfortable with the things I covered here, and you are looking for more challenges and explore the music further. Of course, you can browse the YouTube channel and my Website.
Another option is to join the 6000+ members of the Jazz Guitar Insiders Facebook group and ask there, get inspired by the posts and comments of others:
My online course is a series of lessons set up so that you start at the beginning and work towards playing solos and making lines.
✅ An organized approach for practicing and learning Jazz Guitar
✅ How to get you started playing solos that sound like Jazz
✅ What you need and how you start coming up with Jazz lines
But don’t take my word for it:
“This is by far the best Course out there for anyone wanting to get into Jazz Guitar and overwhelmed by the amount of study material available. Jens Larsen has a way of providing you with what you need at the level you are at and you will be amazed at how much improvement you will see both in your playing and understanding of Jazz Guitar and associated Jazz vocabulary.
Thanks, Jens and I look forward to a follow up course if possible!” – Ger Leahy
Or join me on Patreon where you can support and help shape the content on the channel in the future. Patreon is really what has made all these lessons and the channel possible. Check it out here: Jens Larsen YouTube Lessons on Patreon