About a month ago I accidentally started learning jazz guitar. I’ve always wanted to learn to play jazz, but it’s always felt beyond me. I didn’t understand the sounds, the lack of sustained notes, the lack of pentatonic sounds. I’ve been wanting to work with a teacher, though, to address some of the issues I know I have, timing, interesting soloing ideas, out-of-the-box scales and sounds. I found Jake when I asked for teacher recommendations at my favorite guitar store. At our first lesson, I started to tell him what I wanted to work on but he stopped me, saying “everything you want to work on can be addressed by learning to play jazz. I love playing jazz, so Ima teach you to play jazz!”
The first lesson was the following five scale patterns. I am to learn each pattern completely, fluently, by playing each scale through the cycle of fourths. I knew the cycle of fifths a bit, but hadn’t thought about working backwards through the cycle (which gives us the cycle of fourths). Fourths are a much more common sound in western music so it makes sense to play the scales in that cycle–it trains the fingers and the ear.
An easy way of memorizing the cycle of fourths (at least in this part of Oregon) is the mnemonic: Country Fair BEAD Guy. C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb.
Here are the five patterns: The number/letter combo refers to the finger and the string. Ie. 2nd finger, E-string.
