Here is a snippet from an online forum about learning Jazz. http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tab-tips-theory-technique/253334-best-way-learn-jazz.html. I agree that "Chords are where it's at for beginners" because I cannot suddenly start jamming to backing tracks, and also in order to solo well, time a dedication is required. For a working father this is difficult, so just knowing my way around the fretboard and backing guitar is a first step. Time so dust off my Ibanez AS80 (MIJ)!
First, you gotta know the "Non-negotiables" as I call them:
1. Major scale and it's harmony, all 12 keys.
2. The fretboard. Every note, and where to grab 'em.
3. Chord formulas for major7, minor7, dominant 7, half diminished, and how to add common extensions such as 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths, as well as the alterations such as # and b 9, # and b5.
4. A bare minimum 12 chord shapes-- major7, minor7, dom7, and half diminished with roots on the 6th, 5th and 4th string. You'll want to know a lot more than that, and most definitely want to get away from always putting the root on the bottom, but this will get you started.
And you gotta KNOW em, not just know of them.
Yeah, it's hard to learn jazz. It's also totally do-able. But you have to put in time, and if someone promises you a shortcut, expect it to lead you through a bad neigborhood on a cold night, and you're wearing a t-shirt and expensive jeans and shoes and the tires on your Audi are low on air.
Harmony is the chords that can be made from a scale. There's threads on it, but here's my attempt at the most simplified version of it in history.
Take a major scale. Hey! let's do C, since thre's none of them sharps or flats.
C D E F G A B
CHords are stacks of notes a third apart. WHAT? Think this way--the space between C and E is 2 whole steps--4 frets. That's a major third. Likewise, the space between E and G is three frets--a minor third.
Luckily for us, the major scale has a nice pattern built in. Starting on any note, if you pick every other note following it, you get nice little stacks of thirds--some major, some minor, but thirds all the same. Once you stack three notes you get a chord, and in jazz, we like our chords a little more colorful, so we stack at least four.
So let's try it: C, skip D, E, skip F, G, skip A, and B
C E G B. That's a Cmaj7 chord.
EVERY major scale follows the same pattern. If you do this with every note, you get seven chords--here they are
the first chord is always a maj7, in the key of C, it's Cmaj7.
the ii (2nd chord) is a minor7th. In C, it's a Dm7.
iii is also a minor seventh--in C, it's an Em7
IV is maj7 again, in C, Fmaj7.
V is the dominant chord--G7 in our example.
vi is minor 7th again, Am7 in the key of C.
and the vii chord is a half diminished chord-- Bm7b5 (m7b5 is also known as "half diminished") in the key of C.
(by the way, notice the Roman numerals? Capital for "major" chords, lowercase for minors. Get used to that.)
So the chords in the key of C are Cmaj7, Dm7, Em7, Fmaj7, G7, Am7, and
Bm7b5.
See how that works? That's the beginning. It's absolutely common knowledge for players of just about any instrument except guitar--even the ones that can't play chords. So you gotta know it too. In all 12 keys--that's how many variations you gotta know.
C, C#/Db, D, Eb/D#, E, F, Gb/F#, G, Ab/G#, A, Bb/A#, and B.
For jazz, you'll see stuff written in terms of "flats" a little more often, so you can think Eb instead of D# most of the time (they're the same notes, you'll see)
And Startelcaster, while I think Mark Levine's book is about as good as it gets, our OP is not ready for it at all. He's gotta learn chords and tunes, IMHO. You can blow on 97% of the "great american songbook" and bop tunes without ever knowing a single scale outside of the major. Chords are where it's at for beginners.
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