Environments for Jazz Guitar

Jazz guitarist and educator Christopher Woitach, from Portland, Oregon, explores ways to orchestrate your improvisations and arrangements using techniques you already have. He calls these orchestrations environments — the musical settings in which an improvisation or arrangement lives — and shows how changing the environment changes the way you play.

What's covered

• Using techniques you already possess in new ways
• The guitar's many roles: rhythm instrument in jazz, pop, and funk; lead instrument in blues and bluegrass
• Self-accompanied guitar concepts for solo playing and small ensembles
• Emulating sounds and styles outside typical jazz guitar — big band shout choruses, Latin rhythms, folk-style picking
• Changing the feel: stride, shuffle, and other grooves
• Putting it all together over Autumn Leaves, a familiar tune with a mix of major and minor harmony

The overarching theme is imagination: drawing on a wide range of influences to enrich your playing and discover new ways to express ideas. For intermediate to advanced players who want their arrangements and solos to sound fuller and more varied. The class includes a download. Full video is 1 hour and 5 minutes.