Articles

A plain-spoken look at the harmonic major scale: how it's built, its modes, and how guitarists actually use it.

A working guitarist's take on how guitar soloing really comes together: vocabulary, technique, and listening, from MMC instructors.

Off-the-cuff playing is the part of jazz most resistant to teaching. The vocabulary side is necessary but not sufficient; the spontaneity has to come from somewhere else. A look at the practice routine behind apparently-improvised playing.

How does a jazz guitarist turn the written head of a standard into a solo that still sounds like the tune? Tom Lippincott's MMC class breaks down the toolkit — phrasing, repetition, paraphrase — for connecting melody to improvised line.

Time is the thing every other element of jazz guitar leans on. UK guitarist Jamie Taylor's two MMC classes on rhythm guitar break down what time feel actually consists of — and how to build the vocabulary that makes it interesting.

Triads are the building blocks every guitarist learns first and quickly forgets. Tom Lippincott's Diatonic Triads Complete series — particularly the cluster class — brings them back as one of the most flexible harmonic resources on the instrument.

Relative pitch is what lets you follow a chord progression by ear, hear where a passage is heading, and play coherent ideas inside it. UK guitarist Jamie Taylor's "Gravity Concept" class lays out a working method for building it.

Every working jazz guitarist hits the same wall: you've played the standard five thousand times and your clichés precede you. John Stowell's MMC class on modulation as an arranging technique is one of the cleanest ways back in.

"How Deep Is the Ocean?" is one of those tunes where the chord changes can sound rich under the melody but turn slippery the moment you try to solo. Guide tone lines are the technique most instructors reach for when teaching it.

The harmonic vocabulary Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy developed at the turn of the 20th century has been quietly informing jazz guitarists for almost as long as jazz has existed. Mike Godette's MMC class translates their piano voicings to the fretboard.

Tritone substitution is one of those jazz moves that sounds more sophisticated than it is. Any dominant 7th can be replaced by another dominant 7th a tritone away — same critical pair of notes (3rd and 7th), different bass line.

"Back cycle" is one of those terms that gets used loosely in jazz pedagogy. Strictly speaking, it's a chain of ii-V resolutions cycling backward through the circle of fifths to a target. Randy Johnston's MMC class lays out the specific lines and voicings.