Good sources for picking up some jazz licks/chord progressions?

[Inertiatic_SKS]

I'm mainly looking for websites/videos, but if anyone has some suggestions for books and such, I'll take them

[jonfinn]

If you want to learn more about jazz, spend some time on websites like spotify and youtube. Type in "jazz" as your search criteria. Keep listening until you've established some solid opinions about what artists/styles you like/don't like and why. Spend 6 months to a year at least. Really get to know the genre as a listener. Next, pick 10-15 of your favorite songs and learn to play them.

 

After that, any book or website that talks about theory will have context and meaning. Skip that step and you're pretty much fumbling in the dark like a blindfolded painter.

 

I don't want to sound mean. My opinions come from my own experiences. I grew up as a rock guitarist. For the past 25 years, I've been teaching guitar ar Berklee where even the rockers want to know a little about jazz.

 

Cmon brother, in our time, research has never been easier!

[mc9320]

 

If you want to learn more about jazz, spend some time on websites like spotify and youtube. Type in "jazz" as your search criteria. Keep listening until you've established some solid opinions about what artists/styles you like/don't like and why. Spend 6 months to a year at least. Really get to know the genre as a listener. Next, pick 10-15 of your favorite songs and learn to play them. After that, any book or website that talks about theory will have context and meaning. Skip that step and you're pretty much fumbling in the dark like a blindfolded painter. I don't want to sound mean. My opinions come from my own experiences. I grew up as a rock guitarist. For the past 25 years, I've been teaching guitar ar Berklee where even the rockers want to know a little about jazz. Cmon brother, in our time, research has never been easier!

 

 

Solid advice here. You have to listen to this music a lot to get a sense of the style. Once you find some pieces you like, learn to play the solos. Slow down the audio with a program like Audacity and work out how to play them a few bars at a time. You will learn some of the vocabulary and play with the right feel. After this look at the theory and it will make loads more sense!

 

You can find books with jazz licks and I even own one myself! However, I can honestly tell you I hardly ever use licks from this book. When I do play them, they are usually from solos I have listened to and transcribed.

[JonR]

I'm mainly looking for websites/videos, but if anyone has some suggestions for books and such, I'll take them

Best sources for jazz:

 

1. Recordings (CDs, DVDs, youtubes...)

2. Books of tunes, eg the Real Book (various volumes)

 

The former will give you licks (you will of course need to learn by ear, but that's the way all the best jazz players learned anyway).

The latter will give you melodies and chord progressions, if you can't get those by ear from the recordings. (You need to read notation to get the melodies, but you should to be able to do that anyway.)

 

A good site for simplified sequences for jazz standards is this one:

http://www.ralphpatt.com/Song.html

He also has backing tracks, but I haven't checked these out for quality:

http://www.ralphpatt.com/Backing.html

 

It's a tough job transcribing from recordings, but if you like jazz enough, you'll do it (not everyone wants it enough...). You often don't have to get exact note-for-note details. You can pick up good tips from transcribing solos, but you shouldn't be too slavish about it; just lift whatever grabs your ear. If you know the head melody and the chord progression (both essential), all you may need from a recording is the feel, the vibe, the kind of rhythms they play, the shapes of the phrases.

It's like getting the accent right in a foreign language, or a kind of street slang. It's not so much what you say, as how you say it. Maaan...

 

 

Also check out Hal Galper's masterclasses for inspiration and attitude (how not to do it, as much as how to do it). Here's two of my favourites:

Mulgrew Miller has some great advice and tips too:

[jeremy_green]

Firstly let me just say to the OP - please take no insult in the following comment/observation. It is not at all levelled at you specifically, more with threads like these.

 

BTW - fully agree with all said above.

 

From what I have seen round Internet forums, they are filled with questions about learning jazz and they ALWAYS ask for book this or lesson that. Yet someone wants to learn any other kind of music and they already know a lot of songs or have tabs or what have you. It SEEMS like people want to learn jazz... But not because they like it. Because a lot of great players tell you you should, or they want to be better players thinking this is the route... But the people seem to have no actual interest in jazz itself?

 

Sure jazz is harder... But learning it follows the same path as any genre. You hear a song. You like the song. You learn the song. Over and over again. I don't know much but one thing I know for sure - you can't fool people with cliches. If you want to sounds jazzy you gotta get jazzy. Get all in ya!

 

So it begins with a song.

Not a book, lesson or website

[mosiddiqi]

Agreed with the guys 100%. As a rock guy, I've been guilty of exactly what Jeremy describes, thinking "it would be a good thing to learn some jazz licks"...when I really don't enjoy almost any jazz that I've heard. If I hear a jazz tune that really grabs me, then I'll do what I did with Zep, Priest, Van Halen etc....slow it down and learn it!..ask people who can already play it..check out YT etc..but that will all come from a real desire to learn the tune 'cos I love it!