How do you come up with Jazz Licks? Transcribing, composing, just jamming? The Most Important Scale Exercise in Jazz: czcams.com/video/2Ze22BNftAA/video.html
Hey Jens, maybe pin this comment, now CZcams views you as the least important comment on the bottom 😂 If it wasn't for my scrolling abilities, I would have never found this
There was a lot of Jazz inspired lines in country complete with the five outside notes Jens. To answer your question; when composing, even if I have to use the back of my fingernail to reach the chord, it is all about the chords. Although a fourth to a third of the time I don't know what inversion I'm using, it is all about getting where my ears are leading me. After that I don't really care much if I'm even following a scale. I think the music I've been composing lately is more, fill in the blank, inspired Jazz music.
3:14 That's good advice, I've been spending hours mimicking Jazz recordings and it has really improved my composing skills. I used to think spending a great deal of time annualizing compositions including my own was a good idea. I've come to the conclusion that it is a worthless waste of time. I don't think studying calculous in music would ever make for a good composer. Although theoretically you have twelve modes, five with subdivisions, trying to put a science to it is just bad advice.
Didn’t even feel like 6 mins felt longer which is great I didn’t play music growing up… later in life I learned chords but could always visualize the understanding just missing simple visuals Something tells me there is a one page cheat sheet coming with simple understandings of how simple it is to play a song within 8 notes and then how to expand the simplicity of 8 notes to be able to plAy up and down the guitar Also I find the guitar moves up the guitar like. DNA helix where the piano is linear the understanding visually between is what so much of us are looking for. I write more words melody than I play music. I wish I can have someone help me transform poetry into music and help me see someone’s process. Bless
I cannot begin to tell you how much I have benefited from your lessons Jens... as a Blues guy now trying to seriously learn Jazz, they have been so enjoyable and instructive. Your ii-V-I video on how to tie chords, arpeggios and scales together is my favorite. Thank you for all your hard work my friend, much appreciated!!
Best Jazz Guitar CZcams channel by far 👍🏻. There’s better (and more) information given freely here than I got from the music academy (ACM) I attended many years ago, and that costs 1000’s of 💵💰 to attended. Hope people realise just how lucky they are, especially if their 3NPS players. Finding Jazz lessons that apply to something other than the CAGED System is a real rarity these days.
i was stuck just playing scales for the past couple months after i learned how to play one scale all over the fretboard and this video from the first 5 minute already helped
This was very handy, thanks. I’ve recent,y started working in triads and linking them but it was sounding pretty pedestrian. This has helps a lot to make the sound more Jazz like.
Excellent lesson. I am very happy that you continue to teach us through the C maj 7 as it is helping mastering the nuances and expand the possibilities in enriching the play. Thank you Jens. Maybe adding how to add chords and comping in 2-5-1 C maj 7 to enrich further the play on top of the solos ? Jens, I am forever grateful to your teaching ! Thank you.
@@JensLarsen quick question... I've been practicing my scale/arpeggios with a metronome, both with even 8th notes and with accents on 2 and 4. Is the aim here at first to keep the even time feel - just with accent or should i be in more of a triplet feel - or not? Thanks as always!
Great job Jens I couldn’t of said it better myself.. if I was going to study jazz guitar with a private teacher, you would definitely be the top choice guy!
I wanted to learn to play Jazz and got admission to the music college. I didn't have to do any admission because, as they said, I had "a shelf". By that they meant my Stratocaster. To play Jazz I had to have an Archtop. Unfortunately I had no money for that. So I kept playing in my attic room. Friends of mine had an Archtop, learned a lot of guitar techniques from me and were accepted at the college for music. After that these friends did not see me anymore. I no longer belonged to them because they were trained as professional guitarists. How sad can you be. Yet for years I have played as a professional musician at home and abroad, live and in the studio. Soon I will have more time and will be taking your lessons, Jens.
Another piece of the best Jazz Music Course I ever saw... and on my (humble) opinion, very useful to a huge range of Music enthusiast... since you sometimes ask for suggestions about videos, I would like (if I may) to submit a request for a video about time: which is the (ballpark) amount of time needed to acquire a particular skill? Or to hone it to a professional level?. How many hours of practice is a young boy facing, for example, when he starts practicing scales, before he gets the results he might expect... I never watched anything about that and I feel that a word from someone with your skills might be very interesting. And maybe prevent someone from getting disheartened or feel under par... anyway mi compliments again for your (impressive) work 😊. And thanks.
Thanks! I am not sure a lesson like that can give you any real answers, there are so many variables and practicing a scale is not really going to change that much anyway, so an answer would be pretty meaningless. Instead you should focus on what you want to be able to do and just work towards that.
I'm also curious about this. I know everyone has different amounts of time, but can you say something like, if you practiced 4 hours a day it would take 4 years to get to Jens level or whatever you think it actually is...
@@sgazzz Yes, but I don't think that makes any sense, there are people who practiced scales way longer than me who can't play like me and even worse: some people practiced a lot shorter and are way better 😁
@@JensLarsen ...of course you are right: a talented person goes faster. And (I would add) a motivated / focused person goes farther than a less motivated (or less focused) version of himself. Waiting for sgazzz to speak his mind, I expect that he would agree on that too. And on the fact that there is nothing more irritating than someone practicing less than you and nonetheless getting better than you (😠).Yet it's an interesting matter...and above all thank you, really thank you Jens, for teaching and motivating people like us. And for your time and kindness... 🙏. My best wishes for a nice week end to you, sgazzz and all the others 😊.
2:35 well that part of music always freaks me out: like how it can even be considered as Cmaj7 without any chords notes played ( well taking in account that you're soloing)!
Hi Jens. A bit of a left field question. But what camera and editing equipment programs do you use for your excellent videos? Are you using Mac's or Apple equipment?
Thanks! No, the only Apple stuff I have is an iPad, I am not a huge fan of their very closed approach to hardware and software. I use a (cheap) PC, a Sony camera and Adobe Premiere Pro
I use the Fractal Audio FM3 and I don't really use plugins for the guitar sound for the rest. Sometimes I will use plugins for reverb and delay like FabFilter and Echoboy, but the guitar tone is usually the Fractal
Hi Jens, love your video as always! i have question that i have been pondering for awhile tho, and its related to my mental state when improvising. So do I actually think of the melody/phrase that I want to improvise relating to the overall key or individual chords? Say, im in the key of C and the current progression is Dm7-G7-Cmaj7, should i be thinking of the phrase that i want to improvise over this progression as scale degree relating to the overall key C , or i need to switch my mental state and change my root reference for every chord? in the key of C, the chord tones of Dmin7 chord is 2461 if im thinking those chord tones relating to the key C but it is (1,b3,5,b7) if im thinking in terms of the Dmin7 chord.. so im kinda confused on HOW i should be thinking when improvising..
Thanks! Two things: When you improvise then you want to know the material so you don't really need to think stuff. It should be possible for you to have the key in mind and also the chord, your ear can hear C as the root and Dm7 as a chord, so your thinking should work with that. Only thinking in the key and only thinking from the chord is going to throw away important information, so you want to be able to see it both ways. I talk about that in this video: czcams.com/video/L6HeIzduOGU/video.html
@@JensLarsen yeap i have already watched that video! im at a point where i can hear the color of chord as a whole and its function in a progression and also the notes im improvising relating to the overall key, but i've always struggled to hear the notes relative to individual chords WHILE hearing it relative to the overall key, like my brain just cant process hearing 2 intervals at the same time.. soo when i transcribe a line and want to use that line in my playing, can i just think of that line relative to the overall key since i have already studied and analysed that line relative to the chord beforehand, i know how that line relates to the chord (i know that if i play a 4th scale degree in the key of C while a Dm7 chord is being played, i have the knowledge that it is the 3rd of that Dm7 chord, but i cant really hear it relating to the Dm7 at that point in time since im hearing it as the 4th to the overall key)
@@emmaanueeel To me, that just sounds like you have to wait for the information to sink in so that you don't have to use energy thinking and just know how the note connects to both the key and the chord.
@@prodbyaye8751 I think it is important that I make the videos that I feel are solid lessons and on topics that are essential for learning Jazz, and right now a video like that is not something that fits those criteria. Just like I don't want to make a Gypsy Jazz. For that, there are lots of other channels on CZcams you can check out.
Well, did you practice composing lines and also check out some that you like to make variations? That part of the process is often underestimated. It is easy to know that Em7 sounds great, but it takes work to be able to get it to sound great in a solo.
@@JensLarsen lol ... I didn't say he did not practice. We all know the stories that he often practiced all night long and used his thumb not to disturb his neighbours.
How do you come up with Jazz Licks? Transcribing, composing, just jamming?
The Most Important Scale Exercise in Jazz: czcams.com/video/2Ze22BNftAA/video.html
Hey Jens, maybe pin this comment, now CZcams views you as the least important comment on the bottom 😂 If it wasn't for my scrolling abilities, I would have never found this
@@SharpElevenMusic Haha, must have forgotten! Thank you :)
There was a lot of Jazz inspired lines in country complete with the five outside notes Jens. To answer your question; when composing, even if I have to use the back of my fingernail to reach the chord, it is all about the chords. Although a fourth to a third of the time I don't know what inversion I'm using, it is all about getting where my ears are leading me. After that I don't really care much if I'm even following a scale. I think the music I've been composing lately is more, fill in the blank, inspired Jazz music.
3:14 That's good advice, I've been spending hours mimicking Jazz recordings and it has really improved my composing skills. I used to think spending a great deal of time annualizing compositions including my own was a good idea. I've come to the conclusion that it is a worthless waste of time. I don't think studying calculous in music would ever make for a good composer. Although theoretically you have twelve modes, five with subdivisions, trying to put a science to it is just bad advice.
5:12 Jimmy Bruno once said that he never learned anything from theory, he said you have to learn the language.
The content of this 6-minute-video gives more than enough stuff for months of practicing. Thanks a lot Jens 😊🙋🏻♂️
Thanks Stephan! Glad it was helpful!
Didn’t even feel like 6 mins felt longer which is great
I didn’t play music growing up… later in life I learned chords but could always visualize the understanding just missing simple visuals
Something tells me there is a one page cheat sheet coming with simple understandings of how simple it is to play a song within 8 notes and then how to expand the simplicity of 8 notes to be able to plAy up and down the guitar
Also I find the guitar moves up the guitar like. DNA helix where the piano is linear the understanding visually between is what so much of us are looking for.
I write more words melody than I play music. I wish I can have someone help me transform poetry into music and help me see someone’s process.
Bless
I cannot begin to tell you how much I have benefited from your lessons Jens... as a Blues guy now trying to seriously learn Jazz, they have been so enjoyable and instructive. Your ii-V-I video on how to tie chords, arpeggios and scales together is my favorite. Thank you for all your hard work my friend, much appreciated!!
Really great to hear that you can put it to use Chris!
Very good lesson, concise and easy to follow along and understand!
Thank you William, Glad you found it useful :)
Jens! tnx a lot, have a nice day my friend!
Thank you! You too!
Bedankt voor al de mooie video's die je maakt ik leer er zo veel van . Hartelijk dank Jens TOP video's !!
🙏
I'm going to bookmark this one for when I would have beginner students. Everything you basically need in 6 minutes 👏 Great and super clear advice!
Thank you! What a huge compliment :)
Best Jazz Guitar CZcams channel by far 👍🏻.
There’s better (and more) information given freely here than I got from the music academy (ACM) I attended many years ago, and that costs 1000’s of 💵💰 to attended.
Hope people realise just how lucky they are, especially if their 3NPS players. Finding Jazz lessons that apply to something other than the CAGED System is a real rarity these days.
Really great to hear that you can put it to use :)
Very clear! Thanks Jens
Glad you like it 🙂
Great lesson Jens. Thanks.
Glad you liked it!
i was stuck just playing scales for the past couple months after i learned how to play one scale all over the fretboard and this video from the first 5 minute already helped
Great! Glad you can put it to use 🙂
I know it’s one the shorter side, but this may be one of your best videos @Jens Larsen.
Thank you very much! Really glad to hear that :)
Definitely a useful concept, I was a little concerned about the time this was posted until I realized that not everyone lives in my time zone. 🤣
Glad it was helpful! No worries about the time zone 😄
This was very handy, thanks. I’ve recent,y started working in triads and linking them but it was sounding pretty pedestrian. This has helps a lot to make the sound more Jazz like.
Great! Glad you can put it to use 🙂
I'm starting to get it.
Great, Tom :)
Excelent video as usual. Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
Brilliant lesson
You're very welcome! I am glad you like it! 🙂
Hey man, when it comes to melody or phrasing, scales are everything! Great work as always!
Thanks RC! :)
@@JensLarsen Cheers!
Love this, very useful!
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent lesson. I am very happy that you continue to teach us through the C maj 7 as it is helping mastering the nuances and expand the possibilities in enriching the play. Thank you Jens. Maybe adding how to add chords and comping in 2-5-1 C maj 7 to enrich further the play on top of the solos ? Jens, I am forever grateful to your teaching ! Thank you.
Glad you find it useful Salim 🙂 I would imagine I already have lessons on comping a II V I in C major?
I play bass and I'm more of a metal/punk/rock kind of guy, but I love your vids they always help me being creative.
Thank you Roberto Núñez Gonzáles I am glad you found it useful! 👍
Great video Jens! Somehow, I realize you are saying essentially the same things you always do, yet I learn something new every time. Fantastic!
Thank you! Yes, this is more about how you come at it than what you actually have to know :)
@@JensLarsen quick question... I've been practicing my scale/arpeggios with a metronome, both with even 8th notes and with accents on 2 and 4. Is the aim here at first to keep the even time feel - just with accent or should i be in more of a triplet feel - or not? Thanks as always!
Hard to say, you can really do whatever you want. Usually that ends with just doing different things for me? 🙂
this is an amazing example how to develop melodies and not random group of notes in a particular key... 👏
Thank you! :)
Very helpful ! Thanks !
You're very welcome! I am glad you like it! 🙂
Great job Jens I couldn’t of said it better myself.. if I was going to study jazz guitar with a private teacher, you would definitely be the top choice guy!
Thank you :)
This really highlighted what I need to work on. Your teaching method fits my learning style perfectly. Thank you so much.
Glad to hear that it is useful 🙂
This Arpeggio/scale lesson make to me sense. 👌🏾🙏🏾👌🏾
Glad to hear that :)
Jens, another great eye opening lesson. Thank you for sharing your skills
Glad you enjoyed it!
Jens sir, thank you so much for all the content you post. You are a great teacher (and player of course) of jazz.
You're very welcome! I am glad you like it! 🙂
It's like you read my mind! Great topic and great advice on a challenge many of us are trying to overcome... playing better lines. 🎶
You can do it, just go for it :)
I wanted to learn to play Jazz and got admission to the music college. I didn't have to do any admission because, as they said, I had "a shelf". By that they meant my Stratocaster. To play Jazz I had to have an Archtop. Unfortunately I had no money for that. So I kept playing in my attic room. Friends of mine had an Archtop, learned a lot of guitar techniques from me and were accepted at the college for music. After that these friends did not see me anymore. I no longer belonged to them because they were trained as professional guitarists. How sad can you be. Yet for years I have played as a professional musician at home and abroad, live and in the studio. Soon I will have more time and will be taking your lessons, Jens.
i have been following you for years and i think every video is getiing better and better man !
Another piece of the best Jazz Music Course I ever saw... and on my (humble) opinion, very useful to a huge range of Music enthusiast... since you sometimes ask for suggestions about videos, I would like (if I may) to submit a request for a video about time: which is the (ballpark) amount of time needed to acquire a particular skill? Or to hone it to a professional level?. How many hours of practice is a young boy facing, for example, when he starts practicing scales, before he gets the results he might expect... I never watched anything about that and I feel that a word from someone with your skills might be very interesting. And maybe prevent someone from getting disheartened or feel under par... anyway mi compliments again for your (impressive) work 😊. And thanks.
Thanks! I am not sure a lesson like that can give you any real answers, there are so many variables and practicing a scale is not really going to change that much anyway, so an answer would be pretty meaningless. Instead you should focus on what you want to be able to do and just work towards that.
I'm also curious about this. I know everyone has different amounts of time, but can you say something like, if you practiced 4 hours a day it would take 4 years to get to Jens level or whatever you think it actually is...
@@sgazzz Yes, but I don't think that makes any sense, there are people who practiced scales way longer than me who can't play like me and even worse: some people practiced a lot shorter and are way better 😁
@@JensLarsen ...of course you are right: a talented person goes faster. And (I would add) a motivated / focused person goes farther than a less motivated (or less focused) version of himself. Waiting for sgazzz to speak his mind, I expect that he would agree on that too. And on the fact that there is nothing more irritating than someone practicing less than you and nonetheless getting better than you (😠).Yet it's an interesting matter...and above all thank you, really thank you Jens, for teaching and motivating people like us. And for your time and kindness... 🙏. My best wishes for a nice week end to you, sgazzz and all the others 😊.
Thanks
You're very welcome! I am glad you like it! 🙂
thanks for lesson! :]
Thanks!!!!
Glad you like it 🙂
Top tips, Jens! Move over Ella Fitzgerald!!!
Haha! Thanks Mike :)
damn the quality of the content have gone to another level. Thanks for the content!
The singing phrases thing is great. Vocalising is the best. Reminds me a lot of george benson actually
Glad to be the 300001 suscriber
HOpe you find something you can use :)
Guru ji❤️❤️🔥🔥
Thank you Rahul Das I am glad you found it useful! 👍
@@JensLarsen without you i personally would have lost in this vast sea🙏🙏
@@RahulDas-zy6ut maybe check out this post: jenslarsen.nl/how-to-learn-jazz-guitar-suggestions-to-begin-studying/
A good tip I found is to actually practice and intergrate what he's presenting and the rest will start to fall in line.
Very true :)
Heel erg bedankt. Danke
Graag gedaan! :)
2:35 well that part of music always freaks me out: like how it can even be considered as Cmaj7 without any chords notes played ( well taking in account that you're soloing)!
What do you mean, they are ONLY notes from the Cmaj7 arpeggio?
Hi Jens. A bit of a left field question. But what camera and editing equipment programs do you use for your excellent videos? Are you using Mac's or Apple equipment?
Thanks! No, the only Apple stuff I have is an iPad, I am not a huge fan of their very closed approach to hardware and software. I use a (cheap) PC, a Sony camera and Adobe Premiere Pro
Good jazz sound. Which setup is used?
Thank you! Guitar into Fractal Audio FM3
Boop-a-dapppa gagga-doober!
Hi Jens. Which Jazz Guitar plugin are you use ? Or your recommends :)
I use the Fractal Audio FM3 and I don't really use plugins for the guitar sound for the rest. Sometimes I will use plugins for reverb and delay like FabFilter and Echoboy, but the guitar tone is usually the Fractal
Hi Jens, love your video as always! i have question that i have been pondering for awhile tho, and its related to my mental state when improvising. So do I actually think of the melody/phrase that I want to improvise relating to the overall key or individual chords? Say, im in the key of C and the current progression is Dm7-G7-Cmaj7, should i be thinking of the phrase that i want to improvise over this progression as scale degree relating to the overall key C , or i need to switch my mental state and change my root reference for every chord? in the key of C, the chord tones of Dmin7 chord is 2461 if im thinking those chord tones relating to the key C but it is (1,b3,5,b7) if im thinking in terms of the Dmin7 chord.. so im kinda confused on HOW i should be thinking when improvising..
Thanks!
Two things: When you improvise then you want to know the material so you don't really need to think stuff.
It should be possible for you to have the key in mind and also the chord, your ear can hear C as the root and Dm7 as a chord, so your thinking should work with that. Only thinking in the key and only thinking from the chord is going to throw away important information, so you want to be able to see it both ways. I talk about that in this video: czcams.com/video/L6HeIzduOGU/video.html
@@JensLarsen yeap i have already watched that video! im at a point where i can hear the color of chord as a whole and its function in a progression and also the notes im improvising relating to the overall key, but i've always struggled to hear the notes relative to individual chords WHILE hearing it relative to the overall key, like my brain just cant process hearing 2 intervals at the same time.. soo when i transcribe a line and want to use that line in my playing, can i just think of that line relative to the overall key since i have already studied and analysed that line relative to the chord beforehand, i know how that line relates to the chord (i know that if i play a 4th scale degree in the key of C while a Dm7 chord is being played, i have the knowledge that it is the 3rd of that Dm7 chord, but i cant really hear it relating to the Dm7 at that point in time since im hearing it as the 4th to the overall key)
@@emmaanueeel To me, that just sounds like you have to wait for the information to sink in so that you don't have to use energy thinking and just know how the note connects to both the key and the chord.
@@JensLarsen alright thanks Jens I appreciate it!
Block #5: The lick
😄 excatly!
Bro can I apply it to Blues
Of course 🙂
jens sir can u pls make a video on neo soul ?
Maybe just check out Jack's video on it: czcams.com/video/4wgu2XmA9g0/video.html
@@JensLarsen I did but didn’t get a full enclosure : (
@@prodbyaye8751 I don't know what that means, but I get the impression that you only want me to make other videos than what I am making?
@@JensLarsen now that’s what I’m talking about ,no but don’t get it wrong I want ur jazz videos but with a bit of neo soul influence.
@@prodbyaye8751 I think it is important that I make the videos that I feel are solid lessons and on topics that are essential for learning Jazz, and right now a video like that is not something that fits those criteria. Just like I don't want to make a Gypsy Jazz. For that, there are lots of other channels on CZcams you can check out.
I'm still stuck at this :( I understand the theory but I can't do it
Well, did you practice composing lines and also check out some that you like to make variations? That part of the process is often underestimated. It is easy to know that Em7 sounds great, but it takes work to be able to get it to sound great in a solo.
"...and if you're just playing the chromatic notes, it just sounds like you're playing the wrong song" :)
🙂
Jazzers don't bend!
Yes - I don't believe that Wes Montgomery ever practiced scales ...
Then you probably shouldn't either and you will be just like him...
@@JensLarsen lol ... I didn't say he did not practice. We all know the stories that he often practiced all night long and used his thumb not to disturb his neighbours.
@@fredflander4505 I didn't say you shouldn't practice, just that you should not practice scales then, that seems the only logical conclusion right?
@@JensLarsen That's right. I'm only a hobby guitarist and do not have much time to practice.