r/jazzguitar

Hey guys

I currently play a Fender Vintera II Telecaster through a Boss Katana 50. I often experience the amp sounding very dull and unlively. I recently played a Fender Blues Jr, and immediatly knew i wanted a tube amp. One necessity is that it needs to be able to handle pedals, even some unusual ones like polyphonic octavers and attack removers (like Kurt)

Do you guys have any recomendations?

Been playing guitar for years, write songs in an indie/alt rock band, play live regularly, can learn songs by ear decently well, and can write riffs/chord progressions/melodies pretty naturally at this point… but improvisation has always been my biggest insecurity and I really want to finally fix it the right way.

I’m realizing I don’t want to just sound like “pentatonic box guy” anymore.

The kind of playing I’m obsessed with is Larry Carlton / Steely Dan stuff. Kid Charlemagne completely broke my brain. That style of improvisation sounds SO intentional and melodic and horizontal across the neck compared to the way I naturally play now.

Current situation:

• I know the pentatonic shapes pretty well
• Know basic major scale stuff
• Starting to understand chord tones/arpeggios more
• Recently been focusing on targeting chord tones over changes instead of just running scales
• Working on hearing the chord underneath and landing on notes that actually sound connected to the harmony
• Learning parts of Kid Charlemagne right now
• Have been practicing singing phrases and trying to find them on guitar
• Starting to understand guide tones (3rds/7ths) and why they matter

BUT…

I still feel completely lost improvising in real time once things move away from familiar box shapes.

Like if someone says “solo over this progression,” my brain still often goes:
“okay where’s the pentatonic…”

I don’t naturally see the neck horizontally yet. I don’t instantly know where the chord tones are during fast changes. I can FEEL musical ideas in my head, but translating them to the fretboard in the moment still feels clunky and anxiety-inducing, especially jamming with my band. It’s honestly been one of my biggest musical insecurities for years.

I want to get to the point where:

• I hear something and my fingers just go there
• I can actually follow chord changes melodically
• I stop sounding trapped in shapes
• I can play THROUGH the harmony instead of over static scales
• I can move across the neck fluidly instead of vertically inside boxes
• My phrasing sounds more vocal/jazzy/melodic like Carlton, Robben Ford, etc.

What I DON’T want:

• random disconnected exercises
• another “learn all the modes” answer
• vague advice

What I DO want:
A genuinely structured plan.

Like:

• what should I practice daily?
• weekly?
• in what order?
• what skills matter MOST first?
• what resources/books/apps/videos actually helped you make this transition?
• what made things finally CLICK?

I’m very willing to practice seriously. I just feel like I’ve never had an actual roadmap and have kind of pieced things together randomly over the years.

Would really appreciate advice from players who made the jump from “good rock player” to truly melodic/harmonically aware improviser. THANK YOU!

Edit: Thank you so much everyone. I'm really grateful for everyone's expertise! Something I forgot to mention is i've been playing guitar since I was about 16 and I'm 35 now. Only I never dove deep into it until recently. Mainly just focused on rhythm and songwriting. I'm more of a vocalist/songwriter first. So for instance, I am able to play some of the more difficult solos with practice at a bit slower tempo with ease. But improvisation and knowing what I'm doing and how to get to where I want to be is my current focus. Thanks again.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on when to move to more non-functional post-bop stuff to improvise over. I really enjoy that sound, but not sure if it’s the right time right now to start studying it.

My current improvisation level is at like All the things you are, Recordame, Stella by starlight.

What do you guys think

How long did it take you to feel confident enough to sit in with a band? What tunes would you recommend learning? There’s a local establishment that I’ve been frequenting and the band seems to play a mix of more traditional tunes and newer ones. They’re really good, so I’ve been nervous about sitting in and falling on my face.

In 1982 I was a playing musician in Philadelphia, PA. Unfortunately all my guitars were stolen, and I needed a new instrument. Thing is, I'm left-handed so in order to get anything decent I would have to have it made. Several people recommended that I see John Zeidler, and he made this instrument for me. After his untimely death, I contacted his wife to see if she knew anything about my guitar. She told me she didn't know much but she believed that he only made two left-handed archtop guitars out of the approximately the 160 instruments that he produced, so this really is a unicorn.

https://preview.redd.it/sxrsr48lea2h1.jpg?width=684&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9ec07d9c1f7c782ecf1036b11b69170bbe22fd41

Hello!

Sometimes while letting a chord ring out at the end of a phrase I like to do a little walking bassline figure on the low E string with my right hand.

I do this by making a "quiet coyote" type of gesture (like a dog shadow puppet) and fretting the notes with my index finger while plucking with my pinky.

This has worked for a while and I love the effect it produces but lately I've started noticing some wrist pain while doing it and I don't particularly want to destroy my tendons forever.

Has anyone tried something similar and if so how do you do it?

(I've tried using my thumb to pluck the string but that ends up too close to the fretting finger and sounds a little too thin.)

So all the tone is in the fingers crew are right of course. But just something I’ve noticed as I’m transcribing a Pat Martino tune. The closer I get to nailing his phrasing, the better I sound.
I’m just playing a p90 thinline into a strymon iridium, and while it sounds nice, I often get a bit bummed out with my tone when I’m noodling around. But actually taking the time to mimic the articulation just improved the sound so much.
Bit of a shame in a way. Turns out that buying gear won’t make me sound great, learning to play properly will. And that’s not going to happen!

It was bad Jazz, but Jazz, nether the less.

If you squinted your ears

it's been a year into my guitar journey and 3 months into my jazz adventure. However every time it comes to improvising, i either ended up sounding 'scaley' or defaulting to blues style licks, more Stevie ray than Grant or Wes.

I have been studying consistently with a teacher for those 3 months and my technique and ability has jumped, but it never translated in Jazz vocabulary (not that i expected miracles).

The things that made the most difference IMO

(*disclaimer this is all obvious advice to experienced)

fellow newbies would have heard these, but maybe not focused on it as much.

1. Listen to non-guitar Jazz and listen to their lead lines
2. sing the melodies, both of songs and the melodies in your head.
3. Practising Rose Room solo. Now I'm not yet at the level to transcribe something like this and yes, i used tab. However this gave my fingers the workout to do patterns and progressions that feel very different under the fingers that the pentatonic stuff i spent most of times previous and all the arpeggio work

To be honest, i actually found the cliche 'scat singing' jazz instructor a bit of cringe and i was turned off by it. 90s TV has a lot to answer for this. But like many cliches, it's founded in a proven formula for success.

Here are a few examples of the different approaches to percussive hammer-ons that have become a signature part of Metheny's sound and how one can incorporate such techniques to add a bit of spice and energy to any phrase. Hope you enjoy it. If you want to dive deep on concepts like this I love to share all my explorations and writings and have plenty of material available on my educational site at Moern Jazz Guitar Books