The term jazz guitar refers to several aspects of the guitar as it is used in jazz and jazz fusion music. The term may refer to a type of guitar or to the variety of jazz playing styles (e.g. chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines) performed by guitarists in different jazz genres. These jazz guitar styles were developed by decades of influential jazz guitarists. The guitar has a long history in jazz music, both as an ensemble instrument performing chordal accompaniment, and as a solo instrument. For other uses, see Guitar (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ... Jazz fusion (or jazz-rock fusion or fusion) is a musical genre that merges elements of jazz with other styles of music, particularly pop, rock, folk, reggae, funk, metal, country, R&B, hip hop, electronic music and world music. ... For other uses, see Music (disambiguation). ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... For other uses, see Guitar (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ...

In jazz ensembles of the 1920s, the banjo was the standard stringed, chord-playing rhythm instrument. Even as late as the early 1930s sophisticated jazz orchestras such as Duke Ellington's still used a banjo. In the late 1930s, guitar began being used in jazz ensembles to provide rhythmic chordal accompaniment, and by the 1940s, some guitarists began also playing a solo role. In the 1950s, jazz guitar became an important small combo instrument, a role that was continued in the 1960s and 1970s-era organ trios. In the 1970s and 1980s, a new language for jazz guitar was developed by the merging of jazz and rock styles in jazz fusion. For other uses, see Banjo (disambiguation) The banjo is a stringed instrument developed by enslaved Africans in the United States, adapted from several African instruments. ... The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known as the [[. In East Asia, the rise of militarism occurred. ... This article is about the American Jazz composer and performer. ... The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known as the [[. In East Asia, the rise of militarism occurred. ... An organ trio, in a jazz context, is group of three jazz musicians, typically consisting of a Hammond organ player, a drummer, and either a jazz guitarist or a saxophone player. ... Jazz fusion (or jazz-rock fusion or fusion) is a musical genre that merges elements of jazz with other styles of music, particularly pop, rock, folk, reggae, funk, metal, country, R&B, hip hop, electronic music and world music. ...

[edit] Type of guitar

While jazz can be played on any type of guitar, from an acoustic instrument to a solid-bodied electric guitar such as a Fender Stratocaster, the archtop guitar has become known as the prototypical "jazz guitar." Archtop guitars are steel-string acoustic guitars with a big soundbox, arched top, violin-style "F" holes, a "floating bridge" and magnetic or piezoelectric pickups. Early makers of jazz guitars included Gibson, Epiphone, D'Angelico and Stromberg. Epiphone Emperor, an archtop design. ...

The earliest guitars used in jazz were acoustic. While acoustic guitars are still sometimes used in jazz, most jazz guitarists since the 1940s have performed on an amplified electric guitar, typically an archtop with a magnetic pickup. In the 1990s, there was a resurgence of interest among jazz guitarists in acoustic archtop guitars with floating pickups. Sitka spruce, European spruce, and Engelmann spruce are most often used for the resonant tops of archtop and flattop guitars, although some guitar builders use Adirondack Spruce (Red Spruce), or Western Red Cedar. Archtop guitars often have Curly Maple or Quilted Maple backs. Two different electric guitars. ... For a device which detects vibrations from music instruments, see pickup (music). ...

Mass-produced archtop guitars are made by several different manufacturers. There are also a smaller number of handmade archtop and flattop guitars made on a small scale. Builders of handmade guitars take about six months to make each jazz guitar. Builders have to spend time choosing the maples, spruces and exotic woods, building the instrument, adding decorative inlays and purfling, and applying a hand-rubbed lacquer finish. ^[1] The most expensive archtop guitars may have a range of high-end features, such as "boutique" pickups with hand-wound magnets, wooden volume and tone knobs, and built-in condenser microphones, piezoelectric pickups, and preamplifiers.

[edit] Playing styles

Jazz guitar playing styles include "comping" with jazz chord voicings (and in some cases , walking basslines) and "blowing" (improvising) over jazz chord progressions with jazz-style phrasing and ornaments.

[edit] Comping

When jazz guitarists play chords underneath a song's melody or another musician's solo improvisations, it is called "comping", a portmanteau of "accompanying" and complementing. The accompanying style in most jazz styles differs from the way chordal instruments accompany in many popular styles of music. In many popular styles of music, such as rock and pop, the rhythm guitarist usually performs the chords in rhythmic fashion which sets out the beat or groove of a tune. In contrast, in many modern jazz styles, the guitarist plays much more sparsely, interminging periodic chords and delicate voicings into pauses in the melody or solo, and using periods of silence. Comping (an abbreviation of accompany) is the art of harmonically, rhythmically, and melodically supporting a jazz soloist with improvised chords. ... Rhythm guitar is a guitar that is primarily used to provide rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment for a singer or for other instruments in an ensemble. ...

Jazz guitarists use their knowledge of jazz theory and harmony to create jazz chord "voicings," which are usually rootless and which emphasize the 3rd and 7th notes of the chord. Some more sophisticated chord voicings also include the 9th, 11th, and 13th notes of the chord. In some modern jazz styles, dominant 7th chords in a tune may contain altered 9ths (either flattened by a semitone, which is called a "flat 9th", or sharpened by a semitone, which is called a "sharp 9th"); 11ths (sharpened by a semitone, which is called a "sharp 11th"); 13ths (typically flattened by a semitone, which is called a "flat 13th").

Jazz guitarists need to learn about a range of different chords, including Major 7th, Major 6th, minor 7th, minor (with Major 7th) dominant 7th, diminished, half-diminished, and augmented chords. As well, they need to learn about chord transformations (e.g., altered chords, such as "alt dominant chords" described above), chord substitutions, and re-harmonization techniques. Some jazz guitarists use their knowledge of jazz scales and chords to provide a walking bass-style accompaniment. Generally speaking, a diminished chord is a chord which has a diminished fifth in it. ... The half-diminished seventh chord (also known as a minor seventh flat five) is created by taking the root, minor third, diminished fifth and minor seventh (1, â™­3, â™­5 and â™­7) of any major scale; for example, C half-diminished would be (C Eâ™­ Gâ™­ Bâ™­). In diatonic harmony, the... A chord substitution is the use of one chord in the place of another in a chord progression. ... In music a walking bass is a bass accompaniment generally consisting of unsyncopated notes of equal value, usually quarter notes (known in jazz as a four feel). Walking bass lines are used in rock, blues, rock-a-billy, ska, r&b, gospel, latin, country, and many other genres (Friedland 1995...

Jazz guitarists learn to perform these chords over the range of different chord progressions used in jazz, such as the II-V-I progression, the jazz-style blues progression, the minor jazz-style blues form, the "rhythm changes" progression, and the variety of chord progressions used in jazz ballads, and jazz standards. Guitarists may also learn to use the chord types, strumming styles, and effects used in 1970s-era jazz-latin, jazz-funk, and jazz-rock fusion music. A chord progression (also chord sequence and harmonic progression or sequence), as its name implies, is a series of chords played in order. ... (Redirected from 12 bar blues) Twelve bar blues is a typical blues chord progression, taking twelve 4/4 bars to the verse. ... In jazz, rhythm changes are a modified form of the chord progression of George Gershwins song I Got Rhythm, which form the basis of countless (usually uptempo) jazz compositions. ... Jazz standard refers to a tune that is widely known, performed, and recorded among jazz musicians. ...

[edit] Improvising

When jazz guitar players improvise, they use the scales, modes, and arpeggios associated with the chords in a tune's chord progression. Jazz guitarists have to learn how to use scales (whole tone scale, chromatic scale, etc.) to solo over chord progressions. Jazz guitar improvising is not merely the recitation of jazz scales and rapid arpeggios. Jazz guitarists need to learn to use these basic building blocks of scales and arpeggio patterns and integrate them into balanced rhythmic and melodic phrases that make up a cohesive solo. Improvisation is the practice of acting and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of ones immediate environment. ...

Jazz guitarists often try to imbue their melodic phrasing with the sense of natural breathing and legato phrasing used by horn players such as saxophone players. As well, a jazz guitarists' solo improvisations have to have a rhythmic drive and "timefeel" that creates a sense of "swing" and "groove." The most experienced jazz guitarists learn to play with different "timefeels" such as playing "ahead of the beat" or "behind the beat," to create or release tension. Look up swing, swinging in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Another aspect of the jazz guitar style is the use of stylistically appropriate ornaments, such as grace notes, slides, and muted notes. Each sub-genre or era of jazz has different ornaments that are part of the style of that sub-genre or era. Jazz guitarists usually learn the appropriate ornamenting styles by listening to prominent recordings from a given style or jazz era.

Some jazz guitarists also borrow ornamentation techniques from other jazz instruments, such as Wes Montgomery's borrowing of playing melodies in parallel octaves, which is a jazz piano technique. Jazz guitarists also have to learn how to add in passing tones, use "guide tones" and chord tones from the chord progression to structure their improvisations, and create "chord solos" by adding the song's melody on top of the chord voicings. John Leslie Wes Montgomery (6 March 1923 - 15 June 1968) was an American jazz guitarist and the grandfather of actor Anthony Montgomery. ...

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Yahoo Jazz Guitar Group - Jazz Guitar discussion group on Yahoo
• Jazz Guitar FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) site for the Yahoo Jazz Guitar discussion group
• Classic Jazz Guitar: a website about jazz guitarists and their music from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
• Jazz Guitar Forum: Jazz guitar forum with discussions on jazz guitar chords, improvisation, scales, arpeggios, chord-melodies, and music theory.

[edit] See also

• List of jazz guitarists - a list of notable jazz guitarists
• Jazz guitarists- a timeline of the most influential, widely-known jazz guitarists
• Swing (jazz performance style), a term of praise for playing that has a strong rhythmic "groove" or drive

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