This is an updated and extended re-release of a DVD course 'Jazz Guitar Exercises and Examples' which is all about improvisation. This course has the most elaborate and extensive notation/TABS of all the Matt Otten courses, and at all levels from basic scale-based exercises to advanced soloing. Furthermore, an exclusive full 14-page transcription of a popular Youtube track (>300.000 views) has been added as bonus material.
Check out the introduction (top) and the previews (all the way down below) to see and hear what this course is about.
Introduction to this course and also the written guide to all of the levels of exercises.
This section contains free previews of various lessons, to get an idea of the course content and format.
Even though guitar technique is not the main focus of this course, you cannot do well with these exercises when your basic technique is poor, so some basic advice is given here.
When you start exercising, you should keep some basic rules of good guitar technique in mind.
Here are three video lessons with some solid advice on how to develop good tone and technique.
This level deals with the basic skills, that is knowing basic scales and being able not only to play the scale, but to ''play with'' the scale; that means being so comfortable with a scale that you can play around with it, and build your own phrases. This is at the core of improvisation if you don't want to be stuck with playing the same licks over and over.
These exercises contain may example phrases, to get you started. But also do try to build your own phrases, after trying these exercises! This chapter tells you how.
It's time to take it to the next level: building phrases, from basic to extensive, on a backing track, with musical feeling. One set of exercises is in A minor, swing tempo, the second set is in C Major, bossa tempo.
Although the exercises are still in a single key, the way that phrases are built is quite mature.
In these exercises a bossa like backing is used, in which eight notes re played as straight eighths, so not with swing (shuffle) timing.
Most jazz tunes are not in a single key, so how do you deal with key changes, and different scales?
A turnaround is a short chord sequence that is used to connect the end of a tune back to the beginning. On its own it is just a short loopable chord sequence, that can be used to improvise over. It has one main key (Bb in this case), but the transition chords also provide an opportunity to experiment with other scales.
So in fact you can play basic single key phrases, no problem, but the more comfortable you get, the more you can insert more advanced phrases, using specific chord notes or even multiple scales.
Key Change Exercises, based on a simple backing in two keys, D Minor (Dorian), and Bb Minor (Dorian). These keys are selected so as to not have many notes in common; you HAVE TO change keys many times during your improvisation. The trick is to do it fluently and naturally. That's what this is all about.
These exercises are on a backing track with a gentle jazz-rock feel.
The first part is in C Minor (Dorian) and the second part is in Eb Minor (Dorian).
This type of feel naturally leads to somewhat different kind of phrasing and licks.
Licks are phrases that are kind of generic, and can be used in many musical contexts, they kind of stand on their own. Most phrases in a jazz solo tend to be part of a development, part of a whole, and not necessarily strong in isolation. But if they are, they can be used as licks.
It is a long journey from playing scale exercises to playing a full and mature improvisation over chord changes. Here's some advice along the way.
This track has been added to the course as an exampe of a 'real life' improvisation.