Transcript How To Improvise On Guitar

A Jazz Guitar Primer
Case School of Music
Suggested Equipment
• Full or semi-hollow body electric
guitar
• Medium to heavy gauge strings, flat
wound preferred - .011 - .050 or .012
- .052 (jazz light gauge)
• Medium to heavy gauge plastic pick
• A quality guitar amp of 35 watts or
more.
Tuning Your Guitar
Tuning Your Guitar
• Tuning your guitar is important - no
matter how good a player you are, if
your guitar is out of tune you’ll sound
bad! To learn the tuning notes,
memorize this sentence - Elephants
And Donkeys Grow Big Ears.
• The best way to tune your guitar to
these notes is with a battery powered
guitar tuner, available at most music
stores, or a free guitar tuner app for
your cell phone.
• You can also use a piano to tune
your guitar – just play the notes
(E,A,D,G,B,E) and match the pitches.
Getting Started
Basic Moveable Chords
• To begin playing jazz on rhythm guitar, you
need to know a basic group of six moveable
chord shapes. These chord shapes provide
the foundation from which most jazz chords
will be built upon. Memorization of these
chord shapes is a must!
6th String Root Chords
Root, 7th, and 3rd chord shapes; no 5ths.
Only play the strings
pressed; mute the
other 3 strings.
These chords are root
chords and moveable up
and down the neck of the
guitar. They may be
substituted for 9th, 11th,
and 13th chords of the
same type (Major, Minor,
Dominant, Diminished).
5th String Root Chords
Root, 3rd, and 7th, chord shapes; no 5ths.
Only play the strings
pressed; mute the
other 3 strings.
These chords are root
chords and moveable up
and down the neck of the
guitar. They may be
substituted for 9th, 11th,
and 13th chords of the
same type (Major, Minor,
Dominant, Diminished).
Diminished 7th Chord Shapes
Only play the strings pressed;
mute the other 3 strings.
These chords are root chords and moveable
up and down the neck of the guitar.
Getting Started Improvising
A Moveable Scale Pattern
Moveable Minor Penatonic
Scale Pattern The white circles indicate
the root notes. This scale
pattern is a root position
pattern.
Memorize this pattern and practice moving
and playing it up the guitar neck, naming it
as you go (fret 1=F minor pent., fret 2=F#
minor pent., fret 3=G minor pent., etc).
How Do I Know What Scale
To Play When??
• What Is In The Key Signature (flats, sharps)?
• What Key Is The Music In?
• If it’s a Major Key, What Is The Relative Minor?
(C Major=A Minor; play A Minor Pentatonic)
• If It’s In A Minor Key, Play That Minor
Pentatonic Scale.
What Do I Do With The Scale To
Improvise??
Simply stay within the scale pattern playing the
notes using various rhythms. Try adding
bends, vibrato, and repeating various note
combinations to add variety to your solo.
What’s Next??
If you want to continue your jazz guitar studies,
contact Case School of Music at
605-274-6683
or email us at
[email protected]