In the jazz scene you’ll run across people whose job seems to be to tell you what jazz is, and what it isn’t:

“You can’t ever bend the strings when improvising jazz!”

“I’m sorry – but you’re completely incorrect. You said it was a G7#5 chord, but technically it should be a G7b13”.

“You can’t play jazz on a solid body guitar!”

These are known as the Jazz Police. Strutting around with their trusty jazz theory and history books at hand, ready to pounce on any offender that dares to be a culprit of Jazz Heresy – (gasp) the most appalling and heinous crime.

Ugh.

This kind of attitude annoys me. Music needs to evolve and grow, rather being stuck in a dusty institution like some sort of museum exhibit.

Now, let’s get something straight – it’s important:

To get to where you want to be as a jazz player, reading a load of theory books and stuffing your head full of “rights” and “wrongs” will not help you. You need to get your hands dirty. Learn a bunch of jazz standards, mingle with other jazz players, and actually start playing music with real people – this is the real way to build your jazz skills.

So take that, Jazz Police. 

Greg O’Rourke,

Founder, Fret Dojo

World Leader in Online Jazz Guitar Education

P.S – By the way, Ed Bickert, one of the greatest jazz guitarists who ever lived, played jazz on a solid body Telecaster. Even with a single coil pickup at times. So there.

I thought I would share this very interesting video with you today.

It’s a scientific study by medical researcher Charles Limb on what neurologically happens in the brain when you improvise, as opposed to playing pre-learned musical material from memory.

What was the scientific method for this study?

The answer:

Putting experienced jazz improvisers in an MRI scanner to monitor their brain function, as they played jazz on a magnetically resistant MIDI keyboard lying down, whilst trying to keep their head as still as possible.

No easy task for a pianist. (Keith Jarrett comes to mind!)

Although it’s a preliminary study, I think it does shed light on what we could learn from an experienced improviser’s brain functioning.

This is a couple of big takeaways I got from the video:

1. When an experienced jazz musician improvises music (as opposed to playing pre-learned material), areas of the brain associated with self-expression become activated, whilst areas associated with self-inhibition reduce in function.

I found this fascinating as it correlates with my own and others anecdotal experience that improvised music flows best when you are able to transcend your own self-monitoring, be prepared to explore musically and to allow mistakes without inhibition.

2.Improvised music activates areas of the brain associated with language learning

The idea of jazz functioning as a spoken language is often used by jazz performers and teachers. In fact, this concept heavily influenced the way I designed my Fundamentals of Jazz Guitar Improvisation course that I’m currently taking students through at the moment. In the course, students learn a collection of often used jazz ‘words’ and phrases from general jazz vocabulary, and then learn how to string these basic musical words together in various ways as they improvise.

Now the exciting bit:

If you're keen to have a structured, step-by-step approach to learning jazz guitar, it might be worth checking out my online learning system, the FretDojo Jazz Guitar Academy.

Here's what you get when you join up:

• Detailed step-by-step video lessons on new classic jazz tunes and essential jazz guitar skills added to the club website each month. Includes listening recommendations, demonstrations of the melody, analysis of the harmony, and detailed explanations on how to solo over the tune.

• Key improvisation concepts and techniques for soloing, and classic licks and example solos that relate to each tune, so you can continue to expand your jazz vocabulary and have more options when it comes to soloing.

• Detailed comping ideas to suit the style of each jazz standard covered

• Lessons on how to make chord melody and solo jazz guitar versions of tunes featured - play a complete jazz standard completely on your own like Joe Pass!

• Members only forum - A worldwide community of jazz guitarists from all around the globe.

• Regular workshops, masterclasses, and Q & A Sessions - get direct answers from me on anything holding you back in the practice room. Replays of all sessions are available to access for all members even if you can’t make it live.

• Massive searchable database of jazz licks and soloing concepts - the ultimate idea "grab bag" for your solos.

• Optional monthly challenges where members participate to get feedback on their playing, reach new milestones and be eligible for cool prizes.

The best part:

You can access this all of this and more for just $1 by signing up to a 14 day trial. Go here for more info: https://www.fretdojo.com/signup-offer

Anyway, over to YOU. What do you think about this video?

Let me know below.

Greg O’Rourke,

Founder, Fret Dojo

World Leader in Online Jazz Guitar Education

Recently I got booked to play a classical wedding gig.

Ouch. I haven’t done that for a while.

So I dusted off my neglected classical guitar and tried to remember some of the ol’ Bach and Albeniz I used to play years ago.

This is when I noticed something weird – and very cool.

Even though I hadn’t touched that sort of music for years (having become completely obsessed with jazz guitar in the meantime)…

I was BETTER at these classical tunes then way back when I was dedicating hours on classical practice.

Musically, I found it easier to get into the flow of the music.

Rhythmically, it was more secure.

Technically, I was more accurate and found it easier to play fast runs (thanks, Charlie Parker).

And I could comprehend the harmonic structure of the music, and how this related to the fretboard, with much more clarity than before.

I couldn’t believe it.

In that moment, I realized something:

Studying jazz guitar not only gets you better at playing jazz, but other styles of guitar as well.

Why?

Jazz advances you, on all musical fronts, to a much higher level. Studying jazz guitar enables you to understand the nuts and bolts of what makes up the music, and relate this to the unique, complex layout of the guitar.

And if you understand something, the easier it becomes.

So even if jazz guitar isn’t your main musical interest to study, it’s important to think about studying it for this very reason:

It could directly improve ALL the other musical styles you like to play on guitar, and give you a framework to better understand music in general.

As I’m writing this to you late tonight, I’m sitting in my kitchen after putting out some leavin(that’s a fancy way of saying starter culture), so it can merrily bubble away and get excited at the prospect of me making some crusty, delicious bread out of it tomorrow morning.

And it got me thinking…

This is a good metaphor for how think about learning jazz guitar. Or learning anything in fact.

I’ll explain:

When it comes to learning a skill, there is a counterintuitive process you can take advantage of that is completely different to what you might expect, that runs in direct opposition to what is normally taught about mastering an instrument.

To illustrate, let’s think about the process of bread making.

With bread making, most of the ‘making’ is actually letting the dough sit there and ‘do it’s thing’ all on it’s own.

Even though it takes a while for an grey, sticky, slightly dubious starter culture to become tasty, fluffy bread (about 24 hours or so), the actual time you need to attend to it is only 5 or 10 minutes here and there, before finally putting it in the oven.

You only really need 30 minutes total time in that 24 hours which requires any action on your part in the bread making process.

What’s really interesting here:

Your mind works the same way.

Studies have found that the brain creates and strengthens neural pathways and associations mostly after a study session – not during the session itself.

Just like dough rising on the kitchen bench, the most efficient learning strategy is to present your conscious mind with some material (this is like mixing the ingredients) and then going about your merry day for a while and letting your subconscious mind get to work (akin to leaving the dough to rise).

Which leads me to an important point:

The stereotypical music student desperately slogs it out in practice sessions that can last anywhere from 3 to 8 hours. Why? Because, apparantly, that’s what music students need to do to make any real improvement, right?

Wrong. This study strategy is hopelessly counterproductive.

It’s like me getting up in the middle of writing this letter to you, and instead mixing together the ingredients for bread dough and then kneading it for hours on end to in the desperate hope of getting it to rise.

This is, of course, ridiculous.

Not only is this strategy a complete waste of energy (and would be very hard on your hands!), by doing this you would actually inhibit the bread to rise.

So next time you practice:

Let the mental ‘dough’ rise for a while.

Present your brain with some material for a short session, then go and do something relaxing – and let your subconscious mind do the heavy lifting for you.

You’ll find more often then not:

Your subconscious mind will have quietly made the connections and solved problems behind the scenes while you go and relax.

When you come back to the guitar…

As if by magic, you’ll be able to play, and remember, the material you attempted in the previous session much more fluently.

Pretty cool, huh?

This practice tip is a real game changer.

By leveraging the subconscious mind, I’ve been able to learn material and develop my playing at a much faster rate than ever before.

Give this idea a try – you might be surprised how well it works.