Jazz guitar is incredibly diverse. Complex intricate harmonies, challenging solos, and the ability to bend rhythm without fully breaking it are just some elements of this highly improvisatory genre of music that requires great jazz guitar instruction. It truly is an art form to learn to play the jazz guitar. Learn to play songs from Jazz greats such as Django Reinhardt, Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Lenny Breau and more with our beginner jazz guitar lessons taught by some of the top jazz guitar teachers in the province.
Toronto Jazz Guitar Lessons
Our Toronto jazz guitar lessons are definitely challenging. Jazz guitar features improvised melodies and harmonies, multiple four note chords, challenging chord progressions, syncopation, and jazz forms. There are two types of melodies used in jazz guitar lessons: written and improvised. Written melodies are often altered by jazz guitarists as they add additional notes and change some of the rhythms. For improvisation, many jazz guitarists use modes and scales, chromatic notes, and chord notes. In terms of harmony, jazz guitar uses seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth, and altered chords. Playing four different notes per chord is definitely tricky. Common jazz chord progressions used in jazz guitar lessons are: I VI ii V and ii V I as well as variations on these. Accenting weak beats or syncopation is common in jazz guitar. Traditional jazz forms are derived from the blues. The twelve bar blues and forms such as A A B A are common in jazz music. Try our jazz guitar lessons in Toronto and online!
Beginner Jazz Guitar Lessons
Our beginner jazz guitar lessons focus on the fundamentals such as scales, chords, arpeggios, rhythm, and form. Pentatonic scales and jazz scales are widely used in jazz music. Four note chords are also prominent in jazz guitar. Playing four note chords as arpeggios and solid chord blocks is important. Solid chord blocks are used when comping and arpeggios can have a melodic effect. We also teach guitar students how to improvise with melody and harmony. In terms of improvising melody, using chromatic notes and organizing them into passing notes, neighbour notes, and appoggiaturas is widely used when improvising melodies in jazz guitar. Improvising harmony consists of comping which is a type of guitar accompaniment where rhythms are improvised by the guitarist. Comping can be challenging since many jazz guitarists don't always play on the beat! Also, syncopation, swing rhythms, and triplets can be tricky to play. It's not easy to accent a weak beat or delay every second note of a beat. Stretching out a triplet can also be tough for guitarists. As you can see we cover a great deal of material in our Toronto jazz guitar lessons. Not only do we teach jazz guitar lessons for adults but we also teach jazz guitar lessons for kids.
Free Jazz Guitar Lessons
All new students receive one free jazz guitar lesson when they sign up for private jazz guitar lessons with us. We do this to allow students to 'try' before they 'buy' so to speak. It's similar to auditioning a guitar before you buy it. Most people want to try something first without a commitment. Not everyone will like jazz guitar lessons so a free introductory guitar lesson is a good idea. Our jazz guitar lessons are eclectic. We cover a broad range of concepts such as jazz scales, blues scales, pentatonic scales, major scales, modes and more! We teach all four note chords including sevenths, ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths, as well as altered chords. Jazz guitar students will learn all about rhythms used in jazz music such as triplets, swing rhythms, and syncopation. Students will not only learn how to play arpeggios, but they will also learn all about jazz forms which covers musical structure. To find jazz guitar lessons near me please check our lessons page.
