Steep into the Blues and then Jazz is Easy - 2008 Bay Area Guitar Workshop

Hey y’all. This week has been really a blast. I have been doing a small guitar workshop with a few students on “blues and jazz”.

I was not quite sure what my students were requesting when they asked for a blues meets jazz type workshop,but we managed to strike gold about 2/3 of the way through the week.

Most guitar players can get a pretty good blues feel happening but experience a “disconnect” when they switch into what they “think” is playing on jazz chord changes.

Here’s what we re-discovered:

What’s getting lost is the basic notion of what a key is. A key is a “central tone around which the others revolve” , not a scale. So, “D Blues” has D as it’s central tone. “D Blues” can be a major or minor key blues.

Now, if you have a ii-v-i in D Major, D major or minor blues could work. In the minor key, D minor blues will work.

Here’s what is important though, and here is the essence of the experience rather than the book smarts – you can get the depth, the nuance and the magic in your blues going and then plop it onto jazz changes.

Doing this and only this is limited – but spiritually, it is more correct than running scales and licks.

Once I was able to get the students into this “place”, or “zone”, or get their playing into the behavior of grooving, soulful blues, I had them play over me playing chord changes to tunes like “Autumn leaves”.

With ear to ear smiles and in a state of utter disbelief, here’s what they said:

“This feels too easy.”
“This feels like cheating.”
“I’m not even thinking.”
“I feel so relaxed.”
“I am not even trying.”

And so while I strongly advocate music school and becoming literate with reading, scales and theory, there is a BIG difference between learning vocabulary and learning how to speak or write with a “flow”. Essentially it’s “book smarts” and “street smarts” on a musical level…

Unless a teacher can take you into that “flow” all the scales and licks (book smarts) don’t mean squat!!!

Until next time…. keep swingin’

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adamrafferty

I’m Adam Rafferty – a guitar player born and raised in New York City, and currently spending most of my time on tour playing concerts and doing workshops. Get free lessons at adamrafferty.com and get personal online guitar coaching from me at studywithadam.com