Jazz can be intimidating. This otter holding a guitar may help:
Enough cuteness…. Back to the lesson… Why do I say this should be your first lesson to learn jazz guitar? Well, I’m assuming you’re already an accomplished blues guitarist and have familiarity with a 12-bar blues. In this lesson, we’re going to take a traditional 12-bar blues and substitute in jazz chords. Sounds easy right?
As you well know, this is a 12-bar blues. Let’s keep things simple and focus on the key of A:
Here’s were the jazzy part comes in. An instant way to turn blues into jazz is to replace traditional blues chords with jazz chords. Using the same 12-bar blues progression replace the A7, D7, and E7 chords with A13, D9, and E7#9. The TABs and chord diagrams are shown below:
Click here if you want to give it a listen (this link will take you to my Soundslice page).
Not too tricky right? Once you learn the chords it’s a breeze. Jazz and blues have a lot in common and the 12-bar blues progression is commonly used in jazz. Essentially, all we’ve done here is taken a progression you’ve played at least a million times and substituted some fancy chords. This is one of many possibilities as there are many seventh and altered chord variations that you could just as easily substitute.
Keep at it! This lesson won’t give you all this answers to learn how to play jazz guitar but hopefully it’s a start. For practice, see what other jazz chords you can substitute in a 12-bar blues. Also play the progression in different keys! As always, drop a comment if you have questions or want to say hello.