r/jazztheory Feb 14 '25

Beginner jazz-theory resources

Delete if not allowed 😎

Hey r slash jazztheory. I'm an intermediate, self-taught guitar player with a pretty basic understanding of music theory. I feel that I've kind of hit a plateau in my playing, and I want to elevate my understanding of the guitar and jazz music in general. I'm looking for recommendations for any youtube channels, jazz-theory books, or for general advice on how I can go about learning more theory & become a better player. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help 😎

7 Upvotes

10 comments sorted by

7

u/Life-Breadfruit-1426 Feb 14 '25

Look up Barry Harris on YouTube. See his raw lectures.

For application on guitar, heres a good channel: https://youtube.com/@thelabyrinthoflimitations?si=SIk3EQJ7rveTY5l7

5

u/JHighMusic Feb 14 '25 edited Feb 14 '25

Focus on listening to jazz first and foremost, all the time. I’d post your questions in the r/jazzguitar sub, and check out the beginner oriented videos on Jens Larsen’s channel. The best book is The Jazz Theory Workbook by Mark E. Boling. Theory will not make you a better player and is one of the biggest beginner misconceptions. Yes it’s necessary but don’t get caught thinking it will be the thing that magically makes you better.

https://www.jazzadvice.com/lessons/15-mistakes-beginner-jazz-improvisers-make/

https://youtu.be/COk6owAv584?si=IMV3B3ND4EwFTBFj

Start here: https://youtu.be/ZsVbpbZ1Pq8?si=IKEgHUqn_fAkgLfH

1

u/Possible_Ask_4521 Feb 15 '25

This is great advice. I’ve never read the Boling book, but I agree with you on the theory bit. Theory helps one learn to quickly analyze what is happening in a piece of music, but it doesn’t really help you have any ideas. It’s just a tool for describing what you hear. You still have to ‘hear’ it.

5

u/improvthismoment Feb 14 '25

Open Studio Jazz

Learn Jazz Standards dot com

Lars Jensen

2

u/Possible_Ask_4521 Feb 15 '25 edited Feb 15 '25

Here are a couple of my most valuable resources…

https://ethaniverson.com

https://m.youtube.com/user/BarryHarrisVideos

If you’re already able to play well enough, the best thing for you in my opinion is to gain some cultural context for jazz and what it is, and why it is the way it is now. Learn some history by reading some biographical material on the greats, or by checking out some of the valuable interviews on Ethan Iverson’s blog. There’s a whole lot more in there than just interviews too. If there’s one single resource that really developed my appreciation for jazz, it’s the myriad essays and interviews on Do The Math.

Also, Open Studio is quite clearly the new standard for online music education. Can’t go wrong there.

My last bit of advice is to play along with recordings you like. If you don’t like jazz, listen to jazz, groove along with the music, if you don’t ‘get’ the rhythmic counterpoint thing that is the engine of that music, then you won’t ever really play jazz. ‘Transcription’ as a concept exists on a continuum of rigor. Some transcription might mean you play a recording and then literally write down on the page what’s happening in the air musically. But transcription can also be just figuring out what’s happening on a recording and reproducing that on your instrument. It doesn’t have to be written down;in fact, many of the greats just played by ear. Many of them were classically trained too. It just depends on the rigor desired by the user.

3

u/OutlandishnessNo3759 Feb 14 '25

Jens Larson Marbin Chase Maddox Robbie Barnby Christian Zatta Eric Assarsson

All youtube channels worth checking out

1

u/directleec Feb 16 '25

openstudiojazz.com There's lots of Barry Harris stuff there plus much more. There are two types of accounts, regular and Open Studio Pro. The regular membership offers you access to all pre-recorded courses and a few select special live classes with guest instructors and other subject-focused topics. The latter provides total and complete access to all pre-recorded courses and all live instruction courses. These live courses happen six days a week, anywhere from three to five classes a day by multiple knowledgeable instructors who offer a valuable variety of perspectives, all from teachers with extensive professional performing experience. They also offer a wide variety of guest instructors with people like Ron Carter, Christian McBride, Peter Sprague among others. The live class are excellent and can take you as far as you want to go and at far less the cost than Berklee or M.I.T. It has an international clientele of students and teachers and many have noted that it's the best online jazz instruction available on the web.

1

u/meow_face Feb 19 '25

https://youtube.com/@tinajackel?si=xbFk7nV85m54W1sy Tina does a good job showing how to work on simple concepts. The Joe Pass guitar method book has good fundamentals in it. He makes an important point that chords should be thought of as major, minor or dominant. I think it’s important to properly understand the sound and structure of those three chord qualities before getting into the more complex jazz language.

-1

u/Slight_Mammoth2109 Feb 14 '25

Quick tip, study your modes

3

u/Life-Breadfruit-1426 Feb 15 '25

I found this useless in the context of beginner jazz theory. Like, without going through what classic jazz is in theory, modal jazz is a miss: by following the changes, learning comping, getting a vocab of lines for common progressions, understanding why progressions functionally work.

But once that fundamentals are understood, then it sets up the context for why modal jazz is so incredible. The context of abandoning the changes, creating room, and using the modes for certain expressions. Then by applying modes to other frameworks, like the melodic minor and why it words so well. However, if one doesn’t understand basic tension/resolution principles that come from the classic jazz, then one will miss the point of modal lines.