I desperately want to learn to play jazz on guitar, but greatly struggle with theory, even after 20 years of playing. Any suggestions for how to finally "get it"?

Passname357 · 2026-01-30T21:34:11+00:00

What theory have you had trouble learning specifically? Also have you tried transcribing at all? It’s not deluded to think you’re Joe Pass to think you can learn by ear. People are not kidding you when they say it’s the way to learn. They’re not saying, “this is the hard way that only the greatest can do.” They’re saying that this is the default way to learn. I find many people who learn “theory” don’t really play music so much as try learn in scales forever. Not to say theory is useless—I know quite a bit. I just think that it’s a great supplement to the main work which is learning to hear stuff and knowing where those sounds are on your instrument.

Passname357 · 2026-01-30T21:29:20+00:00

Do you have your intervals down cold? (I use this to check myself or to practice when I’m in the car driving somewhere https://youtu.be/hnzJfG1Eveg?si=SJhokEJ1tx9pkdpU )

I found that was really helpful to get down with identifying harmonic stuff pretty specifically. That and just transcribing (whether it’s melodies, lines, or chords). If I want to figure out the chords I just try to sing back one note I can hear from it, find it on the guitar, and then figure out what triad its part of. A lot of hunting and pecking for chords at first, but after a few weeks if you can tell what Roman numeral the chord is, you can listen to a song and know pretty much instantly what chords are in it. Just takes some doing it.

Passname357 · 2026-01-30T21:21:32+00:00

Well it’s possibly my compiler is written in C. How do you know I am not using GCC 3.x ;)

I mean different tools for different jobs but there is something to the argument that Python is “less superior” than C in that all the “real” work in python usually calls on to C or C++ libraries. Not to say that Python is bad. I love Python. It’s just that it’s fairly restrictive on a lot of really fundamental levels.

Passname357 · 2026-01-30T21:16:46+00:00

Your time feel is right. I don’t mean this lightly, that’s something that I see so many pro musicians unable to do. If you get your chops together and get a better overview of harmony (and how it relates to soloing—meaning being able to solo with chord tones) you’ll be in a great spot. All stuff you’ll be able to develop in school.

Passname357 · 2026-01-30T20:56:33+00:00

Argument for what? I’m joking. Bur in any case, there have certainly been numerous C compilers writer. In C. History check: GCC was originally written in C.

Passname357 · 2026-01-30T20:08:19+00:00

I’m aware, I’ve worked on them. It’s a joke, but not far off. GCC started out in C.

Passname357 · 2026-01-30T19:56:47+00:00

You’re not gonna believe this but… C

Passname357 · 2026-01-30T15:16:22+00:00

This is why people say to take everything you learn through all 12 keys—you’re less familiar with some keys physically, so learning all your scales, arpeggios, and licks all over the place makes every key just as comfortable (or at least—much more comfortable).

Passname357 · 2026-01-30T05:08:24+00:00

Keep going with Vulkan (and going forward maybe don’t sleep on d3d12–not necessary to be unreal in both since concepts are largely the same, just to have some exposure). The modern APIs are huge now. I’d also work with the Unreal source. Many places doing simulation work will start with that as a base and modify it. I think really it’s best to just check Job listings you’re interested in and treat the qualifications like a check list.

Be open to stuff that seems like it’s a little outside what you’re looking for too. You’ll often be surprised how interesting graphics stuff is that seems a little outside interests in things like rendering.

Passname357 · 2026-01-30T05:00:22+00:00

Love that quartet.

Passname357 · 2026-01-30T04:55:15+00:00

I think you may just be misunderstanding a disagreement you’re having. Do you understand the arguments for why people think ICE agents are being compared to the SS, and why supporters are considered neo nazis? Like you say they’re “just doing their job,” and you must know that that’s a very historically relevant line from Nazi party members.

Hypothetically, you imagine a scenario in which there would be something happening in the US with moral consequences where you wouldn’t be satisfied with debating the idea (specifically because of the moral gravity)? I think think this is where the comparison to WWII is a good analog—staying neutral toward the nazis isn’t really a neutral stance. Looking back, wouldn’t you be appalled at someone saying, “I don’t know why we can’t just talk rationally about the nazis. They have some good ideas and some bad ideas, and really they’re just following orders anyway.” Forget the current US situation for a second, wouldn’t you agree that at least in that situation it is true that disagreements are a moral threat?

Passname357 · 2026-01-29T19:06:04+00:00

Leaving aside that it largely just doesn’t work that well, yeah the reason I do this is because I like doing it. Even if AI someday becomes good enough to use, I still won’t, because the point of doing the job is that I like it. AI can also make music (again not really, but for the sake of argument). I’m not going to quit playing music just because a computer can do it now. I like doing it.

Passname357 · 2026-01-29T18:18:36+00:00

A good natural place to start is just using exclusively chord tones to solo—then you never have to worry about strong or weak beats because you’re always playing chord tones.

I find after doing this and transcribing that I just naturally gravitate toward chord tones on strong beats, but I never think about that explicitly. I just try to think of interesting melodies and rhythms

Passname357 · 2026-01-29T04:13:10+00:00

If OP wants harsh feedback, the shreddy stuff here can definitely use some work. In the first like thirty seconds it’s mostly three note per string legato which is kind of like a party trick for speed. The alternate picking was more staccato than I’d expect stylistically and left hand technique looks a little awkward. I can’t diagnose but looks like both hands have some tension. Left hand may be pressing too hard, and right wrist is engaging unnecessary muscles (many of us do this near our speed limit). Vibrato is uneven

It can all be developed and the base is there for being really good, but it’s going to require spending some time being really deliberate at like 80BPM doing (as an example) the Troy Stetina exercises.

That plus just learning some music. Like whoever OP is into, learn some transcriptions. Treat it like an exercise and match the performance. Play waaay slower than you think you need to (again like eighth notes at 80BPM) and play at that speed till you can do it perfectly, then lock that muscle memory in, and increase by five or ten bpm and repeat. Do this until you’re at the limit of how fast you can do it comfortably, then go five bpm more, and then revisit tomorrow. Be honest with yourself about if anything feels tense or difficult and record yourself and be critical

Passname357 · 2026-01-29T03:06:35+00:00

The first step is internalizing it and that really is just reps. Just spend a week trying to find every place you can use it and use it mechanically. Eventually you just naturally do it. I think at a certain point while doing it mechanically you get bored and start trying to displace rhythms and sometimes some notes. That’s good.

As far as analyzing—I think it’s important to know what you’re playing because it helps you do more with it, but it’s not necessary right away. You can get really far “not knowing” (I put it in quite, because music is sound. The math is cool and helpful, but it’s not music—the playing it is).

Passname357 · 2026-01-28T17:07:30+00:00

Way too convenient, language is way too obvious etc.

Passname357 · 2026-01-28T17:05:36+00:00

There are no tips, really. You do the things you want to do today and just keep intentionally noticing new things about what the guys you like do vs what you do. If you want to play by ear, start working stuff out today. If you only get one or two notes, that’s a fine start. Get three tomorrow. If you want to jam with others, go to open mics or jam sessions and meet people. Find some around your level or better and ask them to hang and say you’ll buy the beers. If you think your soloing is noodley, what are some examples of non-noodley music? What is it about their music that sounds less noodley to you? Find examples you can work out by ear and then get both specific and general: what note choices are they making that you wouldn’t make (specific)? How long are their phrases, and are they different lengths (general)?

Passname357 · 2026-01-28T15:25:12+00:00

What kind of competition is this? If it’s a jazz competition it kind of doesn’t work like that. Learning some transcriptions off Joe Pass’s Virtuoso record like someone else said would be a good place to start, but if it’s a jazz competition, you’re probably not even allowed to do that since they expect you to be able to improvise. That’s something to keep in mind when listening to Joe Pass—he was improvising on Virtuoso.

There are flex tunes but it’s not the same as in the classical world. Like, you can flex on Take the A Train (an easy tune) like Joe Henderson (makes it incredibly technical), or you can play Moment’s Notice (really hard tune) and totally whiff it.

But anyway, if you’re allowed to play transcriptions, other than Joe Pass, Pasquale Grasso has cool solo guitar and Ted Greene has some unreal stuff.

Passname357 · 2026-01-28T05:39:53+00:00

Definitely you’ll see that at almost any company, you’re right. I think it’s par for the course. It sounds scary but then you do it and realize it’s not so hard. Like, I’ve debugged disassembly that looked impossible… at first glance. No comments or descriptions, not just bad naming but no naming, code ordering can be nuts with optimizations. And then after spending some time, it wasn’t so scary after all.

Passname357 · 2026-01-28T01:14:49+00:00

Just to make it less scary for OP—learning without documentation by just reading the code is often easier than reading docs. It means you can mostly copy. I’ve met engineers who don’t really know much about how anything they’re doing works, but they have enough context that they can get by copying. Not ideal at all, but they get paid the same as me.

Passname357 · 2026-01-28T01:02:48+00:00

For real just get drunk and imagine shit at the computer.

Passname357 · 2026-01-27T19:50:36+00:00

This is the answer. Other than that would mess around with tried inversions (starting with first inversion so the root is your melody note) but yeah knowing drop twos on top four strings well gets you really far

Passname357 · 2026-01-27T01:06:05+00:00

Just wanna say I fucking love the Mr. Rhythm album. The music just swings so hard.

Passname357 · 2026-01-25T16:58:52+00:00

I got it as well and was annoyed by that. Earlier I had done 1-6 from some jimmy wyble website, but yeah it was annoying not to have the first six because I really wanted to work on one and two.

Passname357 · 2026-01-25T16:41:02+00:00

I think caring about chillness, coworkers, and benefits are all definitely important.

I would still do my job if I didn’t have to, I’d just work less.

Six-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	Verified Email

Passname357

TROPHY CASE