How do I play jazz guitar?

How do I play jazz guitar chords?

• there seems to be a set of chords only jazz players use, does any one know what they are

• Answer:

  Nice answer, Devon. The first link you gave seems to be broken. It's really good to understand how chords are constructed, but for practical use, it helps to know some of the common fingerings, which you can find in the very last link Devon gave. Go to the bottom of that page for more links to jazz guitar chord fingering charts. To help you organize this info, first watch the video that Joe linked. These chords are basic movable chord shapes rather than essential jazz chords; i.e. you'll run into these chords almost everywhere, not just in jazz. But once you have these chords under your belt, you'll have a foundation upon which you can build more jazzy-sounding chords. To do this you'll add extensions to the basic chords shown in the video Joe linked. For example, the dominant 7th chord in the video is not particularly jazzy, but if you extend it to have a 9th, or a #11, or a 13, now you're gonna hear a real jazz sound. But if you try to build chords based on theoretical knowledge alone, you very quickly run out of fingers. That's where chord form charts come in handy. For example, your theoretical explanation would say that a 13 chord has a root, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13. That's six notes but you've only got four fingers on your fretting hand, maybe five if you use your thumb too. So you have to leave a note out. Which one? And chords voiced in root position almost never lie comfortably under your fingers. So which notes go where? This is where the chord chart comes in handy - it shows you how other guitarists have already solved this problem, sometimes showing you multiple ways to play the same chord. For example, the most common voicing for a 13 chord with the root on the sixth string is root, 7th, 3rd, 13. You can also double the root on the top (highest pitched) string, or leave it out on the bottom string, or leave it out entirely, playing just 7th, 3rd, and 13. These three notes alone instantly define the sound of a 13 chord. For example, playing F B E on the 4th, third, and second strings respectively (with your index finger fretting the F at the third fret on the 4th string) gives the sound of G13 and its a very comfortable fingering as well. You can slide this fingering up and down the neck to play other 13 chords. For example playing this same formation one fret up (closer to you) is Ab13 and playing it one fret down (towards the end of the neck) is Gb13. There are two good books that explain the basic moveable chord shapes pretty well: one is by Mickey Baker and the other is by Joe Pass. Ideally, work through these books with a guitar teacher who is an accomplished jazz player. If you can't do that, you'll probably find the Baker book more accessible because it does show dot patterns for the whole moveable chord system. The Pass book is fantastic if you can read standard musical notation; if not, you may have difficulty with this book because it shows all the chords in musical notation, not dot patterns or tab.