# i love the sound of jazz but have no idea where to start learning it



## mikelikesmetal (Mar 7, 2022)

have any licks/scales/exercises that you could impart upon me so that i can start learning how to create the lines that i love but have no idea how to emulate? i don’t know much about jazz guitar or jazz really at all. i’ve been playing metal for 10 years and i want to broaden my horizons and spice up my playing. link me to some chord charts/scale diagrams or something. i like the really extra spicy and jarring sounding chords, i’d like to learn how to build a progression (i have a very very basic knowledge of music theory, i understand intervals, and how to build your basic triads, i know a few scales aside from the dreaded pentatonic). any and all help for a complete beginner to the genre would be appreciated. thanks in advance


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## CanserDYI (Mar 7, 2022)

Just remember, in jazz there are no wrong notes, if you play them in fast succession 

That and "do it once, it's a mistake. Do it twice, it's jazz."


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## budda (Mar 7, 2022)

Take lessons from Emil Werstler.


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## cip 123 (Mar 7, 2022)

I've done a bit of jazz at university and taken some lessons with cool jazz guys so I'll give some pointers.

Theory is going to be used, it doesn't have to be complicated but it will help you incredibly. You don't have to sight read, but if you can understand the concepts then you can get by, so don't be scared that you can't read keys or notation, most of the chords are spelled out for you.

Learn what a 2-5-1 chord progression is. A lot of Jazz is 2-5-1 progressions in different keys. You don't have to be a wiz at understanding key signatures but basic knowledge helps. But if you know how scales work you can get by super quick, if someone says Minor 2-5-1 it's just chord 2 then 5 then 1 in that key. If its major same thing only think in a major scale.

Learn your melodic minor modes, this is gonna be the foundation for a lot of your licks and other peoples licks. Most importantly learn each mode, don't learn it all as 1 key. It's great to know all of G Melodic Minor for example, but knowing how each mode works is better. You don't have to learn all keys but learn the pattern of each mode so when you need to use it you're not fumbling around trying to transpose in your head. 

Unlike metal you're not gonna wanna solo in 1 key signature hence why you should try to understand your modes and keys. Each chord you're gonna wanna be thinking about a mode/scale, while you can get by with some modes over various chords, you're never gonna hit the sweet notes and while it might sound okay it won't do you much good.
For example a basic 2-5-1, you wanna be minor mode, dominant mode (though the 5 you can get pretty wild since you go back to 1), 1 chord you wanna come home.

When you're playing chords although a lot of them seem big and complicated when you're playing rhythm you can actually get away with Root, Third, and seventh. You can add or swap the 5th for one note. For Example, if you play the Low E string fret 8 then the D string fret 9 and G string fret 9 this is a C Maj7. By moving the 3rd (note on the G string) and 7th (Note on the D string) yo can represent different chords very easily, minor, dominant, etc. These are referred to as skeleton chords as far as I'm aware.
You can get away with this as the rest of the band should be filling in, keys, bass, vocals etc. BUT these are excellent for solo playing as they allow you a lot of freedom to play lead lines if you wanna go more fingerstyle.

There's a good bit to get started but once things start to click it's easy to get engrossed in this stuff and it helps when you're writing songs knowing this stuff etc.


Also grab a "real book" it's just a collection of Jazz standards, you can find them online usually for free.

Finally your rhythm, unlike rock/metal you're gonna wanna be on the 2 & 4 beats for your rhythm and your lead playing, this is a hard one as we're so accustomed to being 1&3.

This seems like a lot, but just pick one thing and start, I'd start on chords, learn how to play a scale in triad chords and things will start to fall in to place. Then move on to that scale in 7th chords.


This is a great book particularly it's chapter on chord scale tones etc I'd highly recommend picking it up, it has a few songs in it too. You can pick it up on Amazon -
Howard Morgen's Solo Guitar: Insights, Arranging Techniques & Classic Jazz Standards (Jazz Masters)​


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## mikelikesmetal (Mar 7, 2022)

cip 123 said:


> I've done a bit of jazz at university and taken some lessons with cool jazz guys so I'll give some pointers.
> 
> Theory is going to be used, it doesn't have to be complicated but it will help you incredibly. You don't have to sight read, but if you can understand the concepts then you can get by, so don't be scared that you can't read keys or notation, most of the chords are spelled out for you.
> 
> ...


i already have a decent understanding of syncopation (the concept you mentioned about landing on 2&4 as opposed to 1&3, i think that’s what it’s called anyway). so i should start with chords, probably, and then from there i can use arpeggios to help make lines instead of just playing random notes in any given scale, right?


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## mikelikesmetal (Mar 7, 2022)

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cip 123 said:


> I've done a bit of jazz at university and taken some lessons with cool jazz guys so I'll give some pointers.
> 
> Theory is going to be used, it doesn't have to be complicated but it will help you incredibly. You don't have to sight read, but if you can understand the concepts then you can get by, so don't be scared that you can't read keys or notation, most of the chords are spelled out for you.
> 
> ...


also, melodic minor is just natural minor with a raised 6th degree, right?


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## cip 123 (Mar 7, 2022)

mikelikesmetal said:


> i already have a decent understanding of syncopation (the concept you mentioned about landing on 2&4 as opposed to 1&3, i think that’s what it’s called anyway). so i should start with chords, probably, and then from there i can use arpeggios to help make lines instead of just playing random notes in any given scale, right?


That's not quite syncopation. It's basic time keeping, not to sound mean (I have a super hard time not playing 1&3)  You want your emphasis on on beats 2 & 4. If you play that chord I mentioned earlier if you think bass note (1), chord (2), bass note (3), chord (4). It's that but when you move to soloing it's hard to keep track of for us metal guys. 

I would definitely start with chords if you actually want to learn jazz if you're wanting to learn licks and arpeggios right away I'd say you're not really thinking about jazz and more just about soloing which is definitely cool but you could just go out and learn a bunch of interesting scales which might be better time spent than learning chords you're never going to play again. 

And Melodic Minor is a raised 6th and raised 7th if I remember correctly, it's been a while since I did much with it. But you don't have to worry about it changing there is an explanation that you change the notes when ascending and descending I think I was taught not to bother, just learn it ascending.


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## tedtan (Mar 7, 2022)

Melodic minor is a major scale with a minor third when ascending (1, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, 7), and natural minor when descending (1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7). This is almost always the case in classical music, but note that jazz players often use the natural 6 and 7 when descending, as well as ascending, so practice it both ways.


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## mikelikesmetal (Mar 7, 2022)

cip 123 said:


> That's not quite syncopation. It's basic time keeping, not to sound mean (I have a super hard time not playing 1&3)  You want your emphasis on on beats 2 & 4. If you play that chord I mentioned earlier if you think bass note (1), chord (2), bass note (3), chord (4). It's that but when you move to soloing it's hard to keep track of for us metal guys.
> 
> I would definitely start with chords if you actually want to learn jazz if you're wanting to learn licks and arpeggios right away I'd say you're not really thinking about jazz and more just about soloing which is definitely cool but you could just go out and learn a bunch of interesting scales which might be better time spent than learning chords you're never going to play again.
> 
> And Melodic Minor is a raised 6th and raised 7th if I remember correctly, it's been a while since I did much with it. But you don't have to worry about it changing there is an explanation that you change the notes when ascending and descending I think I was taught not to bother, just learn it ascending.


my main goal out of all this is twofold. i want to be able to actually understand what’s happening when i listen to jazz, and i want to be able to apply jazz to metal, kind of like how dave davidson from revocation does, with the wacky chords, solos, and riffs. he’s a very out of the box player, and i want to know how the fuck he comes up with the stuff he does so i can incorporate similar concepts to my playing. i feel like i’m stuck in a box, in a sense. i know a few weird scales and the obvious ones for death metal like harmonic minor, a couple of it’s modes like phrygian dominant and that wacky lydian variation that i forgot the name of. i know the diminished and augmented scales, and have even ‘created’ altered versions of them. i know the hungarian minor, and one of its modes (double harmonic major or something like that? i don’t know) and i’ve even learned a couple of the messaien modes. i still feel like i’m stuck, or that my playing isn’t quite where i want it to be. i think my biggest downfall is that i don’t know any of those wacky friggin jazz chords.


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## mikelikesmetal (Mar 7, 2022)

tedtan said:


> Melodic minor is a major scale with a minor third when ascending (1, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, 7), and natural minor when descending (1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7). This is almost always the case in classical music, but note that jazz players often use the natural 6 and 7 when descending, as well as ascending, so practice it both ways.


you mean that jazz players play both on the same descending lick, for a chromatic feel, or that they may use one or the other? i’m sure it’s probably both, there are no set-in-stone rules when it comes to jazz from what i’ve been told and seen on the internet.


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## tedtan (Mar 7, 2022)

With jazz, you’re more likely to use the natural 6 and 7 when ascending and when descending, but you may want to use the flat 6 and flat 7 sometimes, too.


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## cip 123 (Mar 7, 2022)

mikelikesmetal said:


> my main goal out of all this is twofold. i want to be able to actually understand what’s happening when i listen to jazz, and i want to be able to apply jazz to metal, kind of like how dave davidson from revocation does, with the wacky chords, solos, and riffs. he’s a very out of the box player, and i want to know how the fuck he comes up with the stuff he does so i can incorporate similar concepts to my playing. i feel like i’m stuck in a box, in a sense. i know a few weird scales and the obvious ones for death metal like harmonic minor, a couple of it’s modes like phrygian dominant and that wacky lydian variation that i forgot the name of. i know the diminished and augmented scales, and have even ‘created’ altered versions of them. i know the hungarian minor, and one of its modes (double harmonic major or something like that? i don’t know) and i’ve even learned a couple of the messaien modes. i still feel like i’m stuck, or that my playing isn’t quite where i want it to be. i think my biggest downfall is that i don’t know any of those wacky friggin jazz chords.


Yea Dave is a legit Jazz player as far as I know and has actually studied it so the the only way you're gonna get there is by learning it. As far as applying it to metal I don't think it really works like that. 

You can make weird chords, you can add shuffle, you can play with time signatures already, none of Revocation is Jazz. It's not a "Jazz" chord just because it has a 7th or a 9th or 11th in it. As I said earlier, you can play any "Jazz" chord with 3 notes, if you tried to play a full jazz tune with full chords (root, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and any extensions) you'll be in for a rough time. 

I'd learn Jazz if you actually like Jazz, learning Jazz to play metal is stupid imo, and I say this as someone who has learned and played in various metal bands. You're not gonna apply much other than learning what scales to play over chords, but you can already research that. 

Learning Jazz won't help you make a wacky riff or chord, you can already do that. 

If you already know scales my advice then would be learn the chords of that scale. Take Harmonic Minor and learn a 7th chord for each note of the scale. That will give you plenty chords to work with.


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## mikelikesmetal (Mar 7, 2022)

cip 123 said:


> Yea Dave is a legit Jazz player as far as I know and has actually studied it so the the only way you're gonna get there is by learning it. As far as applying it to metal I don't think it really works like that.
> 
> You can make weird chords, you can add shuffle, you can play with time signatures already, none of Revocation is Jazz. It's not a "Jazz" chord just because it has a 7th or a 9th or 11th in it. As I said earlier, you can play any "Jazz" chord with 3 notes, if you tried to play a full jazz tune with full chords (root, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and any extensions) you'll be in for a rough time.
> 
> ...


very solid advice honestly. i do like jazz, tho, so i will also be dabbling in it. will i ever try to play in a jazz band? probably not. will i ever try to play in a metal band either? probably not. i just want to soak up as much as i possibly can on the instrument, because i love doing it. thanks for the advice, i really felt lost there for a bit, but now i feel like i have a little bit of direction to take my playing and songwriting abilities. cheers!


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## ElRay (Mar 7, 2022)

Similar boat here. If you're looking for YouTube videos, a good place to start is Jens Larsen's YouTube Channel


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## mikelikesmetal (Mar 8, 2022)

ElRay said:


> Similar boat here. If you're looking for YouTube videos, a good place to start is Jens Larsen's YouTube Channel


i’ve seen a lot of his videos. he’s a very knowledgeable guy, and a great player, but his stuff goes over my head most of the time lol


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## Winspear (Mar 8, 2022)

A few ideas;
-Start paying lots of attention to chord voicing/inversions for control over voice leading, great voice leading makes a progression and opens up huge potential for effective use of chromatic passing tones and nondiatonic chord alterations, vastly opening up potential for how much spice you can use whilst still sounding good.

-Start throwing in modal substitution, borrowed chords etc for a start - 

-Similarly check out the chordscale theory method for improv/chord extensions. Any triad or seventh chord at a given moment can be played over with _any scale containing it. _Think of scales in regard to their tonic chord type - then you can easily filter down to 5 or 6 or however many variant scales are possible with the 2nd 4th and 6th changed. E.g Lydian and Ionian (and harmonic major, lydian #2, ionian #6, for some spicier options) are your Maj7 scales. 
They become a dropdown menu of scales/extension to play over any chord. The more unusual the scale and the more different notes it contains to what happens in the bar either side of it, the more 'outside' your playing will sound - but match the 1357 and it will always work.

-Learn about tritone substitutions


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## SCJR (Mar 8, 2022)

A great place to start is simple 1-3-5 arpeggio shapes for major and minor and know them at every octave. When you get comfortable with those you can add the 7th to each.

That gives you chord tones as a home base and great jumping off points for runs and enclosures.


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## AMOS (Mar 8, 2022)

Jazz is tough once you've trained yourself in mostly Diatonic structures, you have to re-train your mind and fingers for something completely new. Just keep listening to the kind of Jazz you want to play, and learn as many scales as you can.


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## HoneyNut (Mar 10, 2022)

Transcribing solos is the fastest way to get you to learn the lanuage. The theory will teach you the grammer, sure, but it won't help you speak the language. 

Jazz solos are not the same language we hear in typical rock or metal solos. I suggest transcribing easy jazz solos, or sections of solos you find interesting. 

The easiest one for a lot of people is Charlie Parrker's Billis Bounce. It's not hard, except this 1 fucking fast measure. there's also a miles davis solo at the end which is slow.

Honestly, learn 50 jazz heads, you should be doing well to understand be versed in the feelings. Then you can take the theory and dissect whatever you need to. The theory is useless if you don't know what you are looking /(hearing) for. 

*another fusion jazz solo very popular to transcribe is Larry Carlton's solo in Kid Charlemange - that's an awesome one, easy on the fingers, but tough on the ears.


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## creepymcpeepers (Mar 10, 2022)

Here is a great start for guitar another useful place is the walking bass course and lead sheet reading course from Scott’s bass lessons


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## mongey (Mar 10, 2022)

Im a self taught jazz dabb'ler. Get a real/fake book and learn some standards. you'll learn all the extended chords, 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, 13 . 

the practice soloing over them focusing on the extended chord tones 

goes a long way to getting your head around a vocabulary


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## bostjan (Mar 10, 2022)

Seconded. If you have a fair foundation of music theory, a fake book is a great investment. If you can read a chord chart and jam out a melody, you can pretty much start gigging as a side man.


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## mikelikesmetal (Mar 10, 2022)

thanks for all the advice, everybody. i’m really glad i joined this community, everybody seems so willing to help each other out. it sucks living where i live because i don’t know anybody who plays music that i can talk about this kind of shit with. you guys are awesome!


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## ElRay (Mar 11, 2022)

mikelikesmetal said:


> i’ve seen a lot of his videos. he’s a very knowledgeable guy, and a great player, but his stuff goes over my head most of the time lol


I've made a play list called "Watch Again Later". There's so much stuff it's like a jigsaw puzzle: "I don't know what to do with this little weird piece with a bit of blue on it" and then after you put a few things together, you see where it fits.

One of Jens' videos is First 50 Jazz Standards You Need to Know watch that, so you get an idea of what you like and then start listening, listening, listening and then listening some more. That part is very much like the Suzuki Method. There are other folks with similarly named lists, but they can be VERY different. Kinda like two Classic Rock lists -- One with zero Led Zeppelin and the other with zero AC/DC. 

I tried a while back to build a "Jazzuki" repertoire list: a list of progressively more difficult pieces, that sound good, and form a good foundation. The feedback was basically: Just find what you like, learn to play it, and then make it your own. Rote memorizing and replicating a jazz piece is automatically not jazz. The tradition of improvisation cannot be understated.

I watched this video: An Amazing Exercise For Jazz Chords (And Your Playing In General) earlier today. It really made a lot of pieces click. It's a technically "simple" drill, but it really gets into the essence of what jazz is. You can take the melody of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and build the chords around that.

Another good "starter": Comping A Jazz Standard - This Is How To Get Started


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## creepymcpeepers (Mar 11, 2022)

september leaves


trying to get a bass tone




soundcloud.app.goo.gl




Here is a preview of what you could learn from the walking bass course in Scott’s bass lessons it’s a version of autumn leaves in c major I put the bass line on this sound cloud track here


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## creepymcpeepers (Mar 11, 2022)

creepymcpeepers said:


> september leaves
> 
> 
> trying to get a bass tone
> ...


Or September leaves or whatever


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## creepymcpeepers (Mar 11, 2022)

creepymcpeepers said:


> Or September leaves or whatever


Also learn the minor 7 flat five


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## Muzz (Mar 11, 2022)

Get iReal Pro for Mac/iPhone/iPad/Android; no windows version unfortunately. It's like playing with a band, you can pick whatever standards, change to whatever key, tempo etc


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## thorgan (Mar 20, 2022)

Lessons with a qualified teacher are by far the best way to understand jazz, if you have a university or college with a performance program near you usually the faculty will be willing to do private lessons even if you aren't enrolled, barring that you can likely find a qualified teacher locally or online. As you can see from the variety of answers here there are tons of actual components, but while looking on the internet and watching videos can give you control of these components, understanding how they work together, and having someone introduce them to you sequentially in a learnable order is something that a teacher is almost necessary for. 

Jazz is a huge language that has significantly more concepts at play than rock/pop/metal. Like all music theory, the things in that language are never random: chords are connected to progressions are connected to keys are connected to scales are connected to modes are connected to arpeggios are connected to lines are connected back to chords and etc. Knowing those connections is knowing the style. I see it often in students, often very good guitarists of other genres, wanting to learn jazz that they know some of these physical components; but the gaps, and often what leaves them feeling like they aren't speaking the language or able to apply it, are in the connections between elements, because in the genres they're comfortable in don't put these types of connections to use as much, and often knowing the components is enough to know the style.

I don't mean to try and discourage you though, it's very possible to learn, and very worthwhile as well in my opinion, just that having a guide through applying those components and being introduced to them in an order that let's you build from the bottom up will expedite your process greatly.


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## mikelikesmetal (Mar 20, 2022)

thorgan said:


> Lessons with a qualified teacher are by far the best way to understand jazz, if you have a university or college with a performance program near you usually the faculty will be willing to do private lessons even if you aren't enrolled, barring that you can likely find a qualified teacher locally or online. As you can see from the variety of answers here there are tons of actual components, but while looking on the internet and watching videos can give you control of these components, understanding how they work together, and having someone introduce them to you sequentially in a learnable order is something that a teacher is almost necessary for.
> 
> Jazz is a huge language that has significantly more concepts at play than rock/pop/metal. Like all music theory, the things in that language are never random: chords are connected to progressions are connected to keys are connected to scales are connected to modes are connected to arpeggios are connected to lines are connected back to chords and etc. Knowing those connections is knowing the style. I see it often in students, often very good guitarists of other genres, wanting to learn jazz that they know some of these physical components; but the gaps, and often what leaves them feeling like they aren't speaking the language or able to apply it, are in the connections between elements, because in the genres they're comfortable in don't put these types of connections to use as much, and often knowing the components is enough to know the style.
> 
> I don't mean to try and discourage you though, it's very possible to learn, and very worthwhile as well in my opinion, just that having a guide through applying those components and being introduced to them in an order that let's you build from the bottom up will expedite your process greatly.


it isn’t really something i can throw money at, but i will definitely consider your advice. like i mentioned earlier to another persons reply, i have a limited knowledge of music theory, but key signatures tend to elude me, mostly bc i just don’t need to use them usually. i am always in the key of my lowest open string lol.


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## thorgan (Mar 20, 2022)

mikelikesmetal said:


> it isn’t really something i can throw money at, but i will definitely consider your advice. like i mentioned earlier to another persons reply, i have a limited knowledge of music theory, but key signatures tend to elude me, mostly bc i just don’t need to use them usually. i am always in the key of my lowest open string lol.


Nothing wrong with letting it rip in the key of of power chords, key signatures are pretty important to know but luckily also pretty easy to understand and an easy place to get a foothold for jazz:

Any major scale is always formed with the same formula, from the root go: up a whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, and half step. This will take you to the next octave of the root. (A whole step being two frets and a half step being one fret, not trying to patronize but don't know your background).

Applying this formula on different notes is going to give us a different collection of sharps and flats off each note; for example off C, we get no sharps and no flats, because the "natural" halfsteps of E-F and B-C happen to fall where the halfsteps are in the major scale; between the 3/4 and 7/8 degrees ("degree" is just the number or the note in the scale)

If we apply it to something like E major, we get E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#, E. So the key signature of E major is 4 sharps (F, C, G, and D). Sharps will ALWAYS come in the order FCGDAEB, meaning if you have 1 sharp in the key it is always F, if you have three it will always be FCG, you cannot skip ahead in the order, it has to build from F up to whatever. Flats work the same way, but the order is the opposite: BEADGCF.

Every major scale has a relative minor, a minor scale that shares it's same key signature (and vice versa for major to minor). To find that you just need to go to the 6th degree of the major (or to find the relative major of a minor the 3rd degree of a minor), in the case of C Major: A minor, in the case of E major: C# minor. So both C# minor and E major have the same key signature: 4 sharps (FCGD).

From here we can build a chord off each degree of the scale which will give us seven chords that are of the key that will be our main palette for songs; this is called the diatonic progression. Much like how the major scale is a formula that is always the same, the diatonic progression is always the same order: Major 7, minor 7, minor 7, Major 7, Dominant 7, Minor 7, Half Diminished 7 (also called minor 7 flat 5). So if we were to apply this to E major which we've kinda been using as an example; we'd get:

E Major 7
F# minor 7
G# minor 7
A Major 7
B Dominant 7
C# minor 7
D# Half Diminished 7

Now that we have that palette of chords, these will be what mainly gets used in jazz songs, though not exclusively what gets used as there are lots of methods of incorporating non key chords to give you tense sounds. But these are the ones of the key that we will usually be returning to and be providing the foundation of the harmony. Each of these chords gets a roman numeral based on where it is in the progression, so the E major 7 is our first chord so it gets I, F# minor 7 gets ii, G# minor 7 iii, and so on. So when you see a common progression like vi-ii-V-I, in E major that would translate to C# minor 7, F# minor 7, B Dominant 7, E major 7. Note that minor chords (including the half diminished) are going to be lower case, while majors (including the dominant) will be upper case.

Sorry for the wall of text anyway, but I hope that maybe gives you a foothold on key signatures and the basis of what chords are drawn from in a key. Again you will see other chords, but these are the "structural" ones, the other chords tend to be there to get around to these ones in interesting ways.


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## Randy (Mar 20, 2022)

Jazz very different from rock/metal, much more like folk music IMO.

Rock music is very rigid about writing and performing the music note-for-note.

Jazz and folk both mostly concentrating on key and general things like the chord progression and lyrics, but the melody and specific chord voicings are left to taste/context. Dunno if I'm repeating what anyone else has said but the whole thing with Fake Books is that is literally "the song is these chords in this order, now make something interesting out of it". The idea of "comping" or improvisation is connected deeply with jazz music, whereas the expectation in rock music is that it sounds the same every time you or anyone else plays it.

As far as specifics of what you need to do to shift from playing in a rock-ish sound to playing in a jazz-ish sound, some people will say more range of scales/modes and some will say more use of chromaticism. Basically both, although in essence they'll mean the same thing.

In rock/metal, you're usually very rigid to playing in the key, in the scale/mode... everything is very diatonic. You're expected to use key changes or intervals to create mood. There's some tension and resolve but it's almost always within the context of the confines of scale/mode you're in.

You'll see lots of crazy chords or names of chords when you're looking at jazz but really that's 99% a boring ass chord with some chromatic elements thrown in and the chord name is there just so you can call it, er, something. If you talk to a jazz guy who's not totally up his own ass, he'll usually describe his chords/scales in plain in English and the embellishments are small alterations (a flat 2nd here, or flat 5th there). Some guys like Holdsworth (fusion, yes but close enough) you'll see solos with no key at all assigned to them. Alex Machacheck (yeah another fusion guy) plays a shit ton of pentatonic scale yet he doesn't sound like boomer blues. It's all about context.


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## tedtan (Mar 20, 2022)

Jazz soloing differs from rock/metal soloing in that the rock/metal player will look at the chords and think of what key those chords fit into and play in that key whereas the jazz player look at those same chords and will think of what scale fits over each individual chord (playing the changes). And that approach gets more and more challenging as you add more and more extensions (9ths, 11hs, 13ths, substituting a 6th for 5th, etc.).

As for introducing these ideas in the proper order, that’s not an issue. Willam Leavitt, the head of Berklee’s jazz guitar department, wrote several books on jazz guitar that have become the standard used in most university/conservatory jazz departments. The problem will be needing an instructor to help you understand the books unless you already have a serious foundation in sight reading and music theory.


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## ElRay (Mar 21, 2022)

Randy said:


> Rock music is very rigid about writing and performing the music note-for-note.


Ditto with Classical. The most exrteme I've seen is that in certain circles, It's deemed "improper" to improvise where the original composition says "improvise here". There's the expectation that you will memorize and play note-for-note one of the "great" old improvisations. There was a big brouhaha at Peabody in Baltimore in the late 80's over this. The Classical Guitar Department decided to go along with the Institute's policy on this during auditions, and provided a list of acceptable improvisations, without discussing it with the actual faculty.

I think one of the best sayings I've heard is: "If you play note-for-note the greatest Jazz Solo in the World, it's automatically not Jazz anymore."


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## mikeSF (Sep 16, 2022)

Listening is often overlooked, but before you ever put the guitar in your hands, spend time researching those who play good music, and just repeat over again to get "good" sounds into your head. This will go far when you start creating your own lines. It is quite possible to develop a fundamental jazz vocabulary without the instrument.
good luck!


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