learn jazz guitar

That was money well spent. This guitar plays beautifully now. It has great acoustic tone for a hollowbody, and sounds from gutsy to earthy and from mellow to screaming when played into my little Tascam trainer. Sat down to test it tonight and did not look up for an hour! Very nice playability – I can play new things, and feel like I’m learning.

Find yourself a good luthier. I’ve spent £220 total and got a guitar playing 95% as well as one costing £2k.

Really looking forward to Sunday’s workshop now.

So I contacted Richard the luthier, and took him the Ibanez for a fix up. He grabbed it and played some intricate jazz tunes, and said it had a high action. I agreed wholeheartedly, as I had deliberately set it high! It will need neck adjustment and fret dressing, and he will fix the bridge. Floating bridges are just a bad idea when it comes to restring time.

I discussed with Richard what sort of guitar is good for playing jazz on. In most of my prior research I have seen archtops described as the ultimate guitars for jazz. But I also couldn’t help observing that most gipsy jazz guitars are flat-top acoustics. He was of the opinion that the best sounding guitars are pure flat-top acoustics, and that archtops are over-rated (besides costing a fortune if properly constructed). It’s interesting that he has played the types of jazz I want to learn, and arrived at this conclusion. Especially being someone who can fundamentally design and build their ideal instrument.

So I got him to show me the guitars he keeps for himself to play on, and had a play. Very gorgeous instruments

with enormous tonal quality. Very slick to play; small-bodied so easy to hold & balance. Interesting sounds acoustically and when plugged into a Fender valve amp. (My Takamine does not sound great through my little Champion 600)

Now all I have to do is save up £2000 to buy one.

He still occasionally performs, and might be available for some lessons, which could prove really useful.

Good progress here:

Bought myself a lovely Ibanez Artcore hollowbody electric guitar – needs a fret dressing, but sounds great and plays well.

Had one lesson so far with a young guy starting out as a professional jazz musician. I have a ton of scales to practice, and am curiously enjoying it.

Next job: buy an amp!

I now have four lovely books on the theme of how to play jazz guitar in the style of Joe Pass, who of course was the ultimate master. One of them has a CD, and notation in tab, so looks like the one to start with. The other three all demand scary levels of comprehension of musical notation, and theory. I can’t help wondering at this stage whether I will really make much progress unless/until I find a good teacher. I also wonder whether practising on a (good) acoustic will work out in the long run. Maybe an intermediate goal is to buy an Epiphone Joe Pass signature :-)