How many of you are able jazz players?

[Jkater]

I know a few but wonder how many more there are.

[jlw001]

I'm hoping to be able to call myself an able Jazz guitarist in the future.

I'm learning the ropes and doing as much listening as I can. I'm a fairly competent player technically, but learning the chordal knowledge (substitutions, standard progressions, comping techniques), learning how to speak Jazz improv, and increasing my general know how in music theory is where I am.

I'm the cliche guitarist who started on rock, discovered blues, and then discovered jazz.

[aclarke]

Able? You had to throw that in there, eh?

I sit in with a couple of jazz session nights every once in a while. One is a little on the funk side (suprising number of Tower of Power fans out here), while the other tends to be more experimental. I prefer the latter.

I can hold my own. I tend to get polite applause from the audience that`s listening, and nods from my fellow musicians that say: "it`s the thought that counts"...

[GothicLlama]

 

I'm hoping to be able to call myself an able Jazz guitarist in the future. I'm learning the ropes and doing as much listening as I can. I'm a fairly competent player technically, but learning the chordal knowledge (substitutions, standard progressions, comping techniques), learning how to speak Jazz improv, and increasing my general know how in music theory is where I am. I'm the cliche guitarist who started on rock, discovered blues, and then discovered jazz.

 

 

Thats me as well. I'm in the process right now of taking a song, figuring out everything I can with my limited knowledge. Figuring out how to improvise over it all over the fretboard and then rewriting the song in a different key and pretty much starting the process over.

 

I'm thinking after I do a few songs in 3 or 4 keys each I should have a much better understanding of music theory and jazz than I do now.

 

What I'm saying is... ask again in 5 years.

[mcinku]

able Jazz guitarist.... not really but I try 'cause I like it.

If progression is simple, I can play a little.

[Chunkytele]

I am an OK jazz player I cant improv in every key. i can mimic some simple Wes mongomery or more contempary Ronny Jordan. I have not learned to build chord fragments and roots on my own from improv set. I still copy others

[Mr_GoodBomb]

I'm not an able player at anything.

[guitarNed]

Not me. I am tremendously lucky, because there's a jazz group that plays in my town every Thursday night. They've been playing every week for over 4 years. They are incredible.

 

I go most weeks and sit and watch and listen. To me, it's like some kind of black magic. I don't have a clue. I don't understand the music at all. But I like it.

[Faber]

I'm hoping to be able to call myself an able Jazz guitarist in the future. I'm learning the ropes and doing as much listening as I can. I'm a fairly competent player technically, but learning the chordal knowledge (substitutions, standard progressions, comping techniques), learning how to speak Jazz improv, and increasing my general know how in music theory is where I am. .

 

 

 

Yup, me too. So far i'm an unable jazz player, except those times where I can extrapolate on my jump-blues knowledge. As soon as we get into the really heavy/heady stuff, I'm lost (but learning)

[bigfatmonkeyboy]

I'm the cliche guitarist who started on rock, discovered blues, and then discovered jazz.

Is this a standard progression? when am i likely to find the blues?

I have never attempted jazz.

[wilmer]

I

[slinkyoz]

I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool jazzer, but I can get around some standards, some chord melody and some Charlie Parker heads.

My guitar heroes are Wes and BB, among others.

[Swimrunner]

started a few months ago, yeah just like everyone else i want to be able to play it but it could use more than a little work

[Burgess]

I'm no jazzer. I love that {censored} but I can't play it to save my life.

Oh well, you you can't have everything.

[Attila]

I can play some jazz progressions, but definitely do not consider myself to be anywhere near an accomplished jazz player.

[Berndt111]

The thing I notice when I read the replies here is that Jazz players seem more humble than their shredder or rocker counterparts. And no doubt, many who have been modest here have very good skills.

One more thing I could say is that every time a thread about jazz show up, some dude reply the advice to play "wrong" notes and pretend it was on purpose. It may be just a funny joke but it show the understanding that some have (or dont have, should I say) about the Jazz idiom.

[dewees]

I had these two jazz guitar teachers in high school. I was a jazz snob.

Then I thought I'd like to play music that was easier for people to hear and joined a country rock band.

Then I became a solo acoustic act.

Now I'm too old to put much over.

But you're never too old for jazz.

[Jkater]

When I joined this forum some time ago, I was playing (learning) a lot of Jazz. I was teamed with a real Jazzer who is a saxophone player. As I was living in Germany then and speaking only german, I chose the user name "Jazzkatz" which means Jazzcat. Then I realised that I was really only a student of this genre and not (yet) a real jazzer.I decided to change my username to something less "pretentious" and found JKater which also means jazzcat (or more precisely JCat).

My thing in Jazz playing is comping. I am technically quite able and I have become pretty efficient, if I may say, through a lot of practice, at reading charts (the so-called "jazz chords"). Where I must be very humble is that I have not created anything new as such. I have a good ear and have used it to create a good vocabulary but none of it is really mine. Nevertheless, it works for me and those, better skilled at creating, who play with me.

[slinkyoz]

'The thing I notice when I read the replies here is that Jazz players seem more humble than their shredder or rocker counterparts. And no doubt, many who have been modest here have very good skills.'

 

Well, not necessarily. I've met some really arrogant arseholes who think they are superior because they play jazz, but they are mostly horn players.

 

But in general, people who seriously get into jazz are humbled by the breadth of the music and the absolute creative genious and virtuosity of the innovators who came before them. Pops, Prez, Bird, 'Trane, Miles, Wes, Cannonball, etc,etc.

I rest my case...

[Dru Edwards]

Funny, I've been playing 19 years and I've never attempted it. Never really enjoyed listening to Jazz but I imagine one day I'll get around to it.

[zepfan976]

not me but on of my freinds has recived his masters in Jazz guitar