Listening
Apart from books, your most important source of information and inspiration will be recordings. You can learn the right notes, chords and fingering patterns from a book, but you need to listen to lots of Jazz to get the feel of the music into your playing. Listen to any good Jazz guitarist and you will hear intervals, arpeggios, modes, sequences, blue notes and chromatic notes all woven into lines which sound dynamic, natural and musical.
Some guitarists to look out for:
Lonnie Johnson, Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Jim Hall, Joe Pass, Kenny Burrell, Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel, Grant Green, George Barnes, Jimmy Raney, Tal Farlow, Emily Remler, Bruce Forman, Pat Metheney, John Abercrombie, John Scofield and Bill Frisell.
It is also important to listen to musicians playing instruments other than guitar, as this will help you learn to play more from what you are hearing, rather than simply reproducing finger patterns. Listening to horn players is particularly valuable.
Some other essential instrumentalists and singers:
Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Ben Webster, Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davisf Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Clifford Brown, Dexter Gordon, Art Pepper, Chet Baker, Freddie Hubbard, Art Farmer, Paul Desmond, Wayne Shorter, Ornette Coleman, Lester Bowie, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, David Liebman, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Randy Brecker and Michael Brecker, as well as singers Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Mel Torme.
When you are listening to albums, try to sing along with the solos and visualize which strings and frets you would play and the techniques you would use to achieve the sounds you are hearing. This helps you absorb the music and before long, it starts to come out in your own playing. It is also valuable to play along with albums, sometimes imitating what you are hearing and other times improvising. This is very good ear training and is also a lot of fun.
