Quote:
Originally Posted by AX17609
I don't know how to learn jazz. I have failed in my many attempts. It seems as though there is so much background knowledge required (fretboard, scales, chords, arpeggios, music theory) that the task quickly becomes an overwhelming academic task. I end up just feeling like a talentless idiot. I have yet to see a well-organized, step-wise approach that encourages the student's enthusiasm rather than squash it.
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It's not an academic task, but it is a lifetime's worth of study. It takes years to be half-way competent at jazz, never mind good. It's not a music you can just dabble in occasionally: you have to devote serious amounts of time to it.
And it's not about technique or scales (that's just about
knowing your instrument, that goes without saying). It's about material, vocabulary, a whole language.
A step-wise approach might be the following:
1. Get thoroughly competent with blues. Spend a few years digging deep. You want the subtlety, feel, economy and dynamic variety of really good blues. (Forget rock-blues.) Blues is the soul of jazz. It has the same attitude and vibe, it's just a lot simpler chord-wise. (Every jazz master worth his salt knows how to play the blues.)
2. Study classical diatonic theory: major and minor keys, and all the diatonic 7th chords. (There are only six basic types.)
Expand that into chromatic theory, which involves secondary dominants and substitutions. Altered dominants, etc.
3. Learn a few dozen old jazz standards. Melodies as well as chords. Be able to play them by heart. This should be done
alongside step 2, btw. (Sorry it's not a one-step-by-one-step method...)
IOW, for each new tune you learn, try to analyze the chords according to whatever theory you know. And vice versa: whatever theory concept you're studying, look for a tune that employs it.
So it's not about learning a whole ton of theory and THEN learning some tunes. Nor is it about learning a whole ton of tunes and having no idea what's going on with the chords.
Each step should comprise
one tune, that you take apart as thoroughly as you can (how the chord changes work, and how the tune fits the chords); and listen to as many versions of it by jazz masters as you can. Steal any cool little licks you hear.
What theory knowledge should do is make everything
simpler. It should enable you to spot patterns, how the same old tricks occur again and again in 100s of tunes. (If you think theory is making it complicated, you're doing it wrong.)
OK, those are all REAL BIG steps
. But jazz is not like any other popular music; it's much more sophisticated, much more complex.
At the same time, there's no need to be overwhelmed. You'll never learn it all. You can start simple, with some blues or old standards, work your way up. (For a guitarist, Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt are good places to start: CC is clean and simple, and the chords are usually straightforward; DR is more challenging technically, but often based on very simple melodies and chords. But don't only listen to guitarists: be inspired by horn players too.)
Just don't expect it to be quick. Enjoy the trip.
There's some great masterclasses on youtube, which are often more about jazz attitude and philosophy than technical specifics - but all the more revealing and inspiring because of that. Try these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7V_vgjX9XA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyRGB_x7VSg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NehOx1JsuT4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2XnB5G6oSc