These beginner jazz
Beginner Jazz Guitar Lick #1: Bluesy Walk-Up
Download the tab & notation for this beginner jazz
Swing, western swing, and even blues and country players play this one! This lick uses the basic notes in the chord, and especially brings out the major 6th of the scale. In the key of C, it would be an A (just count up the notes in the scale: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 – C, D, E, F, G, A). In the key of G, it would be an E. The 6th is a signature sound in early jazz and in fact almost all American roots music. Later when we get more into a 1950’s jazz sound, we’ll start using the major 7th more and more.
A fun way to work out using this (and any of the licks on this course) is to play it as many different ways as possible. Once you can play it comfortably along with the track, try it out on different string sets. For example, start the lick on the A string or even the E string. You’ll have to adjust your fingerings, but that will be easier now that you know the lick and your ear can guide you.
If you play it down low on your treble pickup and double up on every note, you’ll have that classic boogie-woogie bass line! Then, try mixing and mish-mashing all of the notes! Play the lick backwards, slide into notes, try starting it on different beats…very much like using a new word in a sentence. Once you’ve created variations on the lick, and used it in many different “musical sentences”, each lick will become part of your own personal vocabulary.
Beginner Jazz Guitar Lick #10: Twisting with Bird
Download the tab & notation for this beginner jazz
This lick is much less complicated than it sounds. If you study the lick slowly, you’ll notice that it simply outlines a major chord. For example, the first version of the lick uses a G chord as its starting point – a G chord is spelled G-B-D.
This lick simply leads to each note of the chord from above and then from below. A – G, then Bb – B, then E – D, then F# – G, C – B, C# – D and A – G. If you keep your eyes on the G chord notes, then the rest of the lick is not so confusing. But you have to really know the chord notes. Make sure to practice the chord notes first until you have them really clear.
Beginner Jazz Guitar Lick #21: A Basic ii V I
Download the tab & notation for this beginner jazz
This lick is a combination of “Almost Two Five” (Lick # 15) with a little dom7b9 arpeggio that gets you back to home at the I chord. After “Almost Two Five” we outline “B-D-F-Ab” which is 3, 5, b7, and b9 of a dominant 7 chord, in this case G7b9, then we end on a “G” the 5th of C major.
Beginner Jazz Guitar Lick #23: On the Bebop Stairway
Download the tab & notation for this beginner jazz
Once again we are connecting “Stairway to Swing” (Lick #16) to the ending of our “A Basic ii-V-I” lick (Lick #21). There are many ways to play the “turn”, some players will play all three notes, Ab-Bb-Ab with one pick stroke. This creates a smooth mellow sound. Others will pick the first two notes of the group, thus accenting the Bb note.
Think or sing “Boo-EE-WOO” for the first version and ‘Boo-De-Laa” for the second one. Get used to finding different syllables to sing. When the syllables swing, then play like you sing.
Beginner Jazz Guitar Lick #26: Pushing The Minor ii V
Download the tab & notation for this beginner jazz
This is another of our licks that sounds complex, but as you break it down it gets easier to understand. Each chord, just like our diminished scale in Lick #25, uses a “leading tone” to each chord, which is just the note 1/2 step, 1 fret, below the root of each chord. The lick walks up to the root of the next chord – A7 – using once again the leading tone, or the note 1 fret below the root to make it happen, then up the A7 arpeggio with a turn on the b9 and #9 (Bb and C), and a walk down back to the 3rd, and surprise!, ends on the 6th of Dm. Remember this note! The 6th on a minor chord is a cool note that all of the greats use again and again. It sounds a little bit minor and a little bit major…and very, very sassy.
So when you play that 6th on a minor chord, everybody goes “aaaah”, just like that Girl from Ipanema. The 6th – it’s that James Bond note, the secret agent note. This is the note that lets you know, “I may be all wet, but my martini is dry.” It’s the note that makes ’em swoon.
Dig these beginner jazz