How To Play Jazz Guitar


Jazz music is fairly difficult to play. It takes most guitarists many years of hard practice to even comprehend Jazz music and what it means. However, this doesn’t mean you should be discouraged from learning to play Jazz guitar, even if you are a beginner. Instead it means that you should simply be prepared for a somewhat uphill learning curve.

Since Jazz is complicated, we won’t be going over every single thing about Jazz guitar. Instead, we’ll be going over the scales and chords that make up Jazz music.

Jazz Scales

In order to become a competent Jazz lead guitarist, you must know and master several Jazz scales. Even if you aren’t planning on playing lead guitar, scales are still very helpful for you to learn because they will make the songwriting process easier. We’ll go over three Jazz scales right now. Once mastered, you should be able to derive some Jazz solos from the scales.

G Lydian Flat-Seven

E: |----------------------1-3-5-3-1----------------------|
B: |-----------------2-3-5---------5-3-2-----------------|
G: |--------------2-4-------------------4-2--------------|
D: |---------2-3-5-------------------------5-3-2---------|
A: |----2-4-5-----------------------------------5-4-2----|
E: |-3-5---------------------------------------------5-3-|

The G Lydian Flat-Seven is an extremely useful, flexible scale. Even those who aren’t looking to play Jazz guitar can benefit from learning this scale. The best way to play the scale is to use your index and ring fingers for the notes on the low E and G strings. You’ll use your index, middle and pinky fingers for the high E, B, D and A strings. As the tab indicates, you’ll be playing the scale in order and then playing it in reverse. Practice the scale as many times as it takes for you to memorize it. Then move on to learning another Jazz scale.

G Diminished

E: |--------------------------------------------------------|
B: |---------------------------7----------------------------|
G: |--------------------5-6-8-9--9-8-6-5--------------------|
D: |-------------4-5-7-8----------------8-7-5-4-------------|
A: |------3-4-6-7------------------------------7-6-4-3------|
E: |-3-5-6--------------------------------------------6-5-3-|

The G Diminished Jazz scale isn’t normally used as the backbone of a Jazz solo, but is still used for some soloing purposes. The notes, as you can tell, go all over the fretboard, making the scale ideal for composing solos. For this scale, you’ll want to use your four fingers to play the notes on every string except the low E and B strings. Master this scale and watch your Jazz soloing ability improve.

C Diminished

E: |--------------------------------------|
B: |--------------------------------------|
G: |-----------2-4-2----------------------|
D: |----1-3-4-6-----6-4-3-1---------------|
A: |-3-5-------------------5-3------------|
E: |--------------------------------------|

The notes on the C Diminished Jazz scale are obviously fewer than that of the other two scales discussed, but the C Diminished is still a terrific diminished scale for aspiring Jazz guitarists to learn. As you can tell by the tab above, you’ll only be playing on three strings (the A, D and G) and will want to use your index finger and ring finger for notes on the A and G strings and all four fingers for notes on the D string. It’s pretty simple to learn and definitely worth mastering.

Jazz Chords

Jazz makes heavy use of chords the like the Seventh Major, Seventh Dominant and Ninth chords. Since the Seventh Major chords are covered in our lesson on How To Play Blues Guitar, we’ll just cover the 7 Ninth chords.

A9
E: |-----|
B: |-----|
G: |-4---|
D: |-5---|
A: |-4---|
E: |-5---|

B9
E: |-2---|
B: |-2---|
G: |-2---|
D: |-1---|
A: |-2---|
E: |-----|

C9
E: |-3---|
B: |-3---|
G: |-3---|
D: |-2---|
A: |-3---|
E: |-----|

D9
E: |-5---|
B: |-5---|
G: |-5---|
D: |-4---|
A: |-5---|
E: |-----|

E9
E: |-2---|
B: |-0---|
G: |-1---|
D: |-0---|
A: |-2---|
E: |-0---|

F9
E: |-8---|
B: |-8---|
G: |-8---|
D: |-7---|
A: |-8---|
E: |-----|

G9
E: |-10---|
B: |-10---|
G: |-10---|
D: |-9----|
A: |-10---|
E: |------|

The above chords, as you can tell, really stretch the fretboard (especially the F9 and G9!). They’re also mostly barre chords, meaning you’ll have to use one finger to fret two or more strings. If you’re not familiar with barring, please check out our lesson on barre chords. Otherwise, you’ll have great difficultly learning the Ninth chords.

So how do you master the above chords to use them in Jazz guitar? Well, you can first practice each chord and get used to the fingering. Once you do that, you should move on to practicing switching from one Ninth chord to another. Create some exercises based off these chords to effectively master them.

Applying What You’ve Learned to Your Playing

Now that you know all these chords and scales, you’re probably wondering how you can apply them to your playing, even if you’re not looking to play Jazz guitar. Well, it’s fairly easy to apply these scales and chords. Whenever you go to write a guitar part, be it a rhythm section or a solo, try to mix in some of the Jazz chords and scales you’ve learned. Doing so should give your music a fresh sound, which is why the Jazz chords and scales are worth mastering in the first place.