I've been a self taught guitarist for about 10 years, but it turns out I'm not a fantastic teacher, so I've been taking jazz guitar lessons this year to fill in some of the blanks. It's forced me...
I've been a self taught guitarist for about 10 years, but it turns out I'm not a fantastic teacher, so I've been taking jazz guitar lessons this year to fill in some of the blanks. It's forced me to sit down and actually practice specific skills, rather than just noodle around, play songs I know, and not stretch myself.
So I knocked together a pretty basic practice routine, and I was wondering if anyone else has a specific routine that they follow when practising?
Here's my routine:
7th Chords & Arpeggios
With root on the E, A, and D strings: Maj7, min7, Dom7, dim7 chords
With root on the E, A, and D strings: Maj7, min7, Dom7, dim7 arpeggios (1 octave)
With root on the E and A strings: Maj7, min7, Dom7, dim7 arpeggios (2 octaves)
Scales
Stepwise; 3rds; 4ths; 1-4-3-2 clusters; adding a chromatic note: Major, Dorian, and Mixolydian scales
Chord scales
(Not sure what this is called properly, but it's just learning the chords that apply to each note in a scale)
With root on E, A, D: 1 octave of chords and arpeggios
Staying in a major scale position: 1 octave of chords and arpeggios
ii, V, Is
7th chords around a ii, V, I
Alternate voicings around a ii, V, I
"Single note" riffing over a ii, V, I
Scale riffing over a ii, V, I
Arpeggio riffing over a ii, V, I
Unrestricted riffing over a ii, V, I
Standards
Pick a couple of jazz standards and have a play around with them. No need to get them perfect, just become comfortable looking at chord sheets and semi-sight-reading the songs.