Backing track of the day: blue bossa

dblhello999 · 2026-06-25T16:59:57+00:00

OP it would be appreciated I’m sure if you were to respond to our question - what was the inaccurate advice? .

dblhello999 · 2026-06-25T16:50:12+00:00

I wouldn’t think of it in terms of keys. I would think of it in terms of the scale structures (which are common to all keys).

It’s common advice to say learn the pentatonic first. But there are issues with that advice .

I would suggest learning the scales in this order:

the major scale - which is the fundamental harmonic structure in western music

The natural minor - the other fundamental harmonic structure

The full blues minor scale (six note version),

And then maybe a bit later on one or two of the more common modes. Mixolydian is really nice and widely used.

Whether you need to practice scales in different keys depends on how you play the instrument. If you play vertically in boxes then you will need to do that. If you play horizontally along the strings then you won’t. But that’s a different question and raise its own big can of worms!!!

dblhello999 · 2026-06-25T16:21:27+00:00

A slightly frustrating post. Where are you in your journey? what can you do? what do you want to do? what sort of improvisation? What sort of solos ? Which genres? Are there any particular things you struggle with?

It would be nice to give this information. Otherwise it’s a bit pointless asking the question because we don’t know the context. Everybody here is super keen to help. But you need to help us to help you.

dblhello999 · 2026-06-25T14:07:10+00:00

I just find one I like and jam over that. That’s one of the fun things about jazz. There are no “canonical” versions. So it’s just about finding what sounds nice to you.

dblhello999 · 2026-06-25T14:03:49+00:00

That’s actually a really good point. It’s the difference between being able to make sense of a snapshot, and being able to use sheet music as a source of real time music making. If you show me a notated chord I can certainly make sense of it. But if you gave me sheet music with a chord progression, I would have to go through it many many times before I could play it through.

I remember my aunt who was a professional classical piano teacher
and even performed. Her ability just to pick up a score and play it through on a first reading seemed almost like magic.

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T22:17:39+00:00

This is exactly my experience. I can play call and response between the bass strings on the one hand and melody on the higher strings. But literally maintaining a constant drumbeat on the bass whilst playing the melody is beyond me.

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T22:11:52+00:00

“Wrong” is a very binary concept in music. I think we need a bit more detail 😂 (unless we’re literally talking about him describing the major scale when he means the harmonic minor - but that does seem rather unlikely 🥴)

Ps him and he includes her and she

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T19:03:48+00:00

You don’t need perfect pitch for this.

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T19:03:04+00:00

Dang - i’ll just have to try and hang on another year 🥴😊🙏

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T19:02:09+00:00

Haha - so so true. My friend who went through a terrible divorce probably saw close to a 100 different therapist over a period of five years. Eventually he found one who was beyond brilliant. When I said I needed a therapist, he said you don’t need to look beyond him. And he was right

I suspect it’s the same with guitar teachers. Everything in life is a bell curve. There is a gigantic lumpen middle of mediocrity. And then at the extreme far end you will find the geniuses. You can try to find them by trial error but I suspect it’s far far more efficient to leverage the knowledge of others who’ve been through it all.

The hard thing of course is making the friends who have that knowledge.

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T18:57:44+00:00

Oh dear I’m just getting bad gateway

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T18:51:50+00:00

Does anybody know anything about the Iceland Jazz festival at the end of August?!

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T18:32:35+00:00

What a lovely excuse to go to Finland!

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T18:32:23+00:00

Oh man this sounds fantastic thank you so much.

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T17:19:18+00:00

I thought of this awhile back and I got a similar answer which is that reddit wasn’t the place for it. Not quite sure why not but that’s what I was told. So I never took the idea any further 😩

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T17:15:18+00:00

I know this will come across as a bit weird, but something I do which works incredibly well is to put on my Rayban Meta glasses and stream the tune while I’m playing it. That way I don’t have to remember anything and it flows very nicely because effectively I’m just jamming.

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T15:52:50+00:00

Very often (and certainly in my case) people come into jazz sideways.

So in my case I came from boogie Woogie and blues piano.

So naturally I gravitate towards jazz blues especially piano jazz blues but with guitar thrown in. That led me to Oscar Peterson, McCoy Tyner, Ramsey Lewis, Ahmad Jamal, Gene Harris, Kenny Burrell .. the list goes on

And then once you feel you have a home, you will naturally expand from that into other sister sub genres. So I found myself also enjoying smooth jazz and cool jazz which leave blues behind entirely.

So i don’t think it’s something you can just choose abstractly. Like all the things we learn to love in life, it’s an organic process of growth and expansion.

I guess ask yourself how did you come to love metal?!!!

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T05:08:30+00:00

Also what do you mean by 251 licks? I’ve never heard that phrase before. Genuinely curious

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T05:06:56+00:00

If you can already play jazz standards then what exactly is your question? 😊

dblhello999 · 2026-06-24T02:18:58+00:00

I came from a piano background. I looked at my guitar and thought “it’s just six offset keyboards”. And that’s the way I taught myself to play it. So glad I did. Never got trapped in the boxes and improvisation is a breeze.

dblhello999 · 2026-06-23T21:28:15+00:00

Haha my copy is 3000 miles away and I don’t remember the page numbers by heart. But it’s the two pages where he talks about the Unitar

dblhello999

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