Preparing to Jam
Jamming Ammo
- Secret weapons
- Call and Response
- Building up phrases
- Expanding the scale
- Moving positions
- Jamming around positions
Playing Techniques
Preparing to Jam - A model Progression
In this section we will use the chord progression from Masquerade by George Benson as a model and look at ways in which two guitarists can sit together and jam in a jazz style.
The simplest way to approach this is for one player to play the rhythm guitar part and the other the lead.
First we must decide how to voice the chord accompaniment. A chord progression based on the George Benson track is given below together with a suggested voicing for the chords. It is also a good exercise to look at other possibilities for chord voicing, including different positions on the fret board and different inversions.
| Fm | / | / | / | | | Fm maj7 | / | / | / | | | Fm7 | / | / | / | | | Bb7 | / | / | / | | |
| A maj7 | / | / | / | | | Db maj7 | / | / | / | | | G | / | / | / | | | C7 +5 | / | / | / | | |
| Fm | / | / | / | | | Fm maj7 | / | / | / | | | Fm7 | / | / | / | | | Bb7 | / | / | / | | |
| Db maj7 | / | / | / | | | C7 +5 | / | / | / | | | Fm | / | / | / | | | Fm | / | / | / | | |
To get the ChordCoach Chord Set right-click this and save it to your hard drive.
Now we need to consider what the lead guitarist needs as ammunition. To play a solo in any style we need to understand the key of the track and therefore the scales or modes that are used.
In this case the key is F minor and the easiest scale to use in this chord progression will be F harmonic minor, also known as F Jazz minor.
The following ideas are intended for both guitarists to go away and practice.
Ideally, each guitarist should learn both the rhythm and the lead. This
way you can both have input into one another's playing during the jamming
session.
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