Does Solving the Jazz Guitar Puzzle work for any song?
Yes. The ideas for scales, modes, chord construction, and solos are not limited to jazz. Solving the Jazz Guitar Puzzle works great with blues, rock and fusion. Modal playing works with many styles of music, and the pentatonic scale exercises apply to blues songs very easily. Solving the Jazz Guitar Puzzle provides a solid foundation for expanding your musical knowledge when playing chords (comping) and creating solos, either as a solo artist or in a band.
How do I get started?
- Use the Self Check and Skills Inventory to identify your strengths and areas to grow.
- Review musical notation, the Circle of Fifths, modes, and chord notation pages. These are used throughout the book and help when learning new songs.
- Read the Daily Practice Ideas chapter. There are lots of ideas for the right way to practice, plus tips on sight reading and different picking techniques.
- Try a few of the Improvisation Ideas to discover new ways to solo or comp over your favorite song. Note: Each idea fits on one page and includes a definition, examples, and practice ideas.
- Put it all together in Diagramming a Song. Add notations for keys, substitutions, scales, and modes to expand your solo ideas.
How do I apply these ideas to songs?
The step-by-step guide in Diagramming a Song provides details for:
- How to label where the chords fit in the key signature
- What chords can be substituted to enhance the song
- What scales fit over which chords
- What modes fit over which chords
What are the most valuable parts of Solving the Jazz Guitar Puzzle?
- Daily practice ideas help you design a lesson plan to learn and remember new ideas easily.
- Root String Method: learn three shapes per chord or scale to know the entire fretboard, makes creating, finding, or adding chords and notes much easier.
- How to diagram a song shows where the chord fits in the key signature, suggests Tritone substitutions, and labels scales and modes to organize your choices for comping and soloing.
- Ten improvisation ideas help you discover new ways to substitute chords and scales, plus how to create motifs for solos.