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 - Rhythm Ideas
The chords presented earlier on were deliberately voiced at the lower octave of the guitar. To add contrast to the sound, try finding the same chords in different areas of the fret board. One good way of doing this is to set yourself an area of the fret board to work within i.e. find the same chord names but locate them between the third and eighth position of the fret board.
The chords may look something like this:

Remember that a jazz guitarist cannot only play cool jazz solos and riffs; he is also able to improvise nice chord voicings at the drop of a hat. He can only achieve this by knowing the fret board and chord voicings inside out.
Set this task for yourself and use other fret board parameters, say between frets 5 and 10 to locate new chord voicings.
You can do this by creating your own Chord Set using ChordCoach. · Choose the chord you are looking for
- Select a voicing that in the right area of the fretboard.
- Drag the chord box onto the chord window.
- Repeat for the other chords in the progression.
- Save your chord set and print it out.
You can now use this as the basis of your practice - just concentrate on moving between the chords. Relocate or re-voice those that don't sound too good until you get the sound that you are happy with. Practice the chords until they are perfect.
Once you can do this you are ready for your jamming session as a rhythm player.
More articles on Preparing to Jam