Watch Jens Larsen Teach Me About Jazz Guitar!

I want to get back to playing Jazz guitar - it's always been fun for me, but there were a few hurdles that I couldn't get over before. But Jens Larsen knows his stuff, and I'm hoping he can give me a hand this time around. :)

💡Check out Jens Larsen's YouTube Channel! He's an awesome Jazz guitarist with excellent guitar lessons for you.

I had a 1-hour session with him the other day and decided to make that available to you. It helped me with my Jazz guitar questions and might help you too!

Justin's Jazz Guitar Background

Long story short - I played Jazz quite a bit over the years. I played in a Swing band when I was about 15 or 16, playing standards like "Night and Day," but I never did much soloing because we had an incredible saxophonist with a Paul Desmond vibe, so soloing wasn't my bag. And I never felt very comfortable in that zone anyway because, at that time, I was still primarily a Rock guitar player.

However, I've always enjoyed Jazz, and I've particularly liked Joe Pass, who was always a big hero for me with his solo guitar. I've learned a few Joe Pass things that I've transcribed over the years, and at some point, I could play roughly along with him. But mostly, I spent my time learning Fusion things like Larry Carlton and Robin Ford.

I haven't played much Jazz in the last 15 years. So, like now and again, I've picked it up, and I've tried to walk a bass, and I've done a few lessons on kind of slightly jazzy things, even maybe made a couple of arrangements of Jazz songs that I've enjoyed just as something creative to do. But there have been a couple of sticking points that I've had each time when I've tried to push through, and Jens Larsen doesn't appear to suffer from any of them, so I thought, "Let's see if Jen's can help me through." :)

Making the Changes: Connecting Scales & Arpeggios

My primary problem when playing Jazz guitar is not sounding like I'm making the changes. If I'm playing a Blues, I've got enough Blues vocabulary to play and imagine it. I always think too much when playing Jazz, which is probably a problem. That might be a separate one, but I tend to be running arpeggios because I'm thinking.

If I play Blues, I outline the chords, all arpeggio-based things. I make it melodic and find a little phrase. But I have trouble finding a motif to run through a pattern of changes when playing Jazz. :( Does that make sense? According to Jens Larsen, yes, it does - and he highlighted several things we can do to approach that. Keep reading to learn more about it.

Jens explained we must be able to play the changes, and there's nothing wrong with playing arpeggios. However, you still want to make it melodic, and it has to be more than just technical - more than just playing the right notes. One really useful thing is this idea of connecting scales and arpeggios so that you're not only playing arpeggios but also putting them in the context of where you need to make melodies. You're not only going to be playing arpeggios; you need to put them together with the scale to create the vocabulary of lines you listen to. If you listen to Joe Pass, Parker, or any of these guys, there's a mix of arpeggios, scales, and many other things. That's the thing to look at!

Watch for More!

Jens Larsen provided me with a valuable lesson in Jazz guitar. We discussed the challenge of connecting scales and arpeggios and how to overcome this challenge. He draws upon the teachings of the American pianist Barry Harris. He highlights the importance of understanding Diatonic chords in a scale and how to use them to connect different musical elements. Interesting insights!

Moreover, Jens Larsen stresses the significance of listening to and transcribing Jazz musicians like Grant Green, George Benson, Joe Pass, and Charlie Parker, who mostly use one-octave arpeggios. He explains how learning from these musicians can help in mastering the art of Jazz guitar and how this technique is often used in saxophones due to their limited range. By staying within one octave, jazz musicians can create intricate and complex musical phrases that are expressive and impressive.

We discussed practicing Diatonic arpeggios, Jazz linguistic marks and vocabulary, and other learning systems and things we should be practicing to be able to play Jazz guitar freely!

💡Jazz is not only the notes; it's also how you play them. :) Explore some of my Jazz experiments and lessons here!

👉 Check out Lens Larsen's Jazz Guitar Lessons to learn more from him!