Learning some old standards...

[milod]

Now THAT is a great idea!

 

m

[daveinspain]

Or another idea is to do it yourself with pencil and paper, take a photo of the chord with your phone, up load it to Photobucket and post it here... You can start with the 26 chords you mentioned earlier Larry... Put me on the list of pre orders too, please...

[daveinspain]

This is one of the books Larry mentions… I love when he is describing whats in the book...

 

[L5Larry]

 

A quick and (maybe) interesting story about this book (I've posted this story before somewhere here):

 

A friend of mine was one one the pioneers of the "vintage" guitar craze that began in the mid-70's. He catered to a lot of "rock stars" and wanna-be's (like me), and had a nice little store-front shop.

 

One day he gets a phone call from Steve Howe. Steve says he's in town for a concert on an Asia tour, and was going to come by the store that afternoon. So he comes in, wanders around the store, and walks up to the cash register with a copy of the Mel Bay Deluxe Chord Encyclopedia book. My friend says "you want to buy that?", he says "yes, I've probably forgotten more of what's in this book than I remember".

 

So Steve Howe, at the absolute pinnacle of his rock god stardom was still studying, practicing, and looking for new chords (and buying a Mel Bay chord book).

[zigzag]

What am I missing here?

 

It seems to me that if you know intervals (they are easy to learn; most people can learn how to figure intervals on the neck in a couple of hours) and you know how chords are structured, you can figure how to play any chord on a guitar, including inversions, rootless chords, and chords with different notes in the bass. Knowing how find intervals on the neck saves you from having to memorize hundreds of chords. You can figure out any chord in an instant if you're good at it. Plus, if you're playing with another instrumentalist, you can communicate what you're playing easily. But, like anything else, you have to practice it.

 

I understand using the Mel Bay chord book may come in handy as a reference, but there is a much easier and better way to learn chords.

[daveinspain]

 

I understand using the Mel Bay chord book may come in handy as a reference, but there is a much easier and better way to learn chords.

 

Everyone is different in what learning form works best for them. Some people are visual others are conceptual. Those forms work better or worse depending on what kind of person you are. I was never good in math so conceptualizing music in mathematical terms for me just never worked. On the other hand I have always excelled in art forms and I am very visual so learning the chords drawn out and printed in a book is ideal for me.

[JazzGtr]

At $15 bucks, this book is the cheapest guitar thing you can buy for the bang. Just order one myself. Thanks for sharing.

 

Jazz,

 

http://www.amazon.com/presents-Deluxe-Encyclopedia-Guitar-Chords/dp/0786652500/ref=lh_ni_t?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

[Drog]

I find that voice leading is a great tool to use for solo jazz guitar. You can come up with some new takes on classic songs. Voice leading is playing the melody, building a chord on some of the melody notes as you play. You will find you have to use inversions and extensions. Its a great tool for learning chords all over the finger board

[jdgm]

Here are 3 extremely useful online resources with free download though you may have to give your email address:

 

http://www.jazzguitarlessons.net/

Very good indeed, try the simple version of 'Summertime' in chord melody -

http://www.jazzguitarlessons.net/summertime.html

 

This chap has lots of excellent stuff for free, impressive -

http://mattwarnockguitar.com/

 

And; the master, several notches further up -

http://www.tedgreene.com/

 

As for hearing chord sounds, I'm certain Larry is being modest and knows very well what a sixth and a mi7b5 sound like!

[milod]

I think that sometimes "jazz" is related specifically to the guys who became famous into, during and then, influenced by the bebop sort of music.

 

To me that's a bit simplistic in terms of definition - and I've made the same comment about "country," "blues" and "rock." There's a huge variety of music and style embodied in those blanket terms. To make it more difficult, one might make a good case that there is a lot of carryover among those terms. For example, Patsy Cline and "Crazy" to me were pretty doggone close to jazz - and a lot closer than it was to Carter Family material.

 

One of the early criticisms of Chet Atkins was that he was too much jazz.

 

In the late 50s I was told that Armstrong, Bunny Berrigan and Ruby Braff weren't jazz trumpet/cornet players. It hadda be Diz or Miles. Okay. Whatever.

 

I s'pose one might make a case that what I do with fat chords and chord/melody solo pickin' and sometime vocal backup ain't jazz. It certainly ain't following what's on anybody's music printout.

 

I'm also reminded of a "standard" that's a favorite of mine. "Deep Purple." That's been done in so many ways that... isn't it the tune, then the arrangement and then how it sounds to an audience that might define it to them? And doesn't that definition fit mostly their preconceived ideas of "what kind of music is this?"

 

No matter what, I'm still convinced that what makes a true standard is whether folks tap their feet, perhaps dance to a danceable rhythm, and whether they can hum the basic tune.

 

m

[zigzag]

I find that voice leading is a great tool to use for solo jazz guitar. You can come up with some new takes on classic songs. Voice leading is playing the melody, building a chord on some of the melody notes as you play. You will find you have to use inversions and extensions. Its a great tool for learning chords all over the finger board

 

+1

 

No matter how you learn it, the goal is to play what you hear... to master the medium. This is a great bit of advice. Melody is the meat, everything else is the spice.