Forget Chords and Scales: Learn the Real Secrets to Jazz Soloing

Most people focus on the notes when learning to play jazz guitar solos. But there are other elements that can make your solos sound better now. In this video, you'll learn three techniques you can use to play killer solos without worrying about scales or chords.

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ABOUT ME
I'm Dr. George Hess, I was a professor of music for 30 years at leading universities in the US and Asia and I've been performing for with top professionals worldwide for over 40 years. I help busy adult guitarists start playing and having fun playing jazz guitar as quickly as possible.

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[Jameskegler]

Great lesson class act this guy knowns what he's talking about thank you Freshwater Records

[faanmuller]

As an octogenarian who, unfortunately due to an accident, stopped playing Jazz guitar over half a century ago, this is the most enjoyable presentation I have ever come across on YouTube. Beautiful in simplicity, tuneful demo and instructive advice. “The music of the years gone by”. (Stardust). Well done!

[RobertHayes-tufp]

I think George intends that you use the pentatonic as start to jazz soloing but I really like his emphasis on rhythm and swing which is so bang on! I think Grant Green is a great example of someone using pentatonic but with huge swing and development. Thanks for this it's given me a lot of confidence in something I had thought of but hadn't seen expressed!

[djmileski]

I recently added a tube screamer to my acoustic guitar for my jazz sound and I’m liking it

[joepassable]

Really useful lesson George-for the most part I play guitar in a big band and IF you get a solo it's usually only 8 bars long. You don't have time usually to hear much in your head so this is my go-to approach also. As Joe Pass once said-"You can't play and think at the same time".

[shamu]

Sounds like jazz to me with use of a lot of bluesy lines. What's wrong with that?

[octavio-blues-sound]

Thanks George, you're right...!...
It took me a long time to come to believe that, any "basic" scale or a simple chord even, could be practically infinite in its emotional-aesthetic possibilities of expression...!!! Not to talk about of a song of three or four simple chords...!!!.... I suppose that's what Hendrix discovered intuitively at a very, very young age and that, accompanied with a real deep inner sense of rhythm that primitive blues gives, made all the difference in his own style so... Even only the "simple" pentatonic scale plus dinamics, bendings and leading tones in a "very own personal style" which means, to be able to trust in your own sound even so simple at first but with endless hours of "repetition" and "extension"and "alteration" of your own licks and chords can make... A whole new universe of possibilities every time you practice and then apply it to a specific melody idea or a "basic" song...
Musical Theory is good but you must trust and believe also in your own instinct by ignoring sometimes the rules... I suppose that's what Hendrix and Beatles did from the beginning and... Pat Martino and Joe Pass have talked at times somewhat deeply on those approaches to come to develop something that could be called, an "original" or more individual Style...

So... I agree with you in that we could ignore the rigid rules sometimes in order to trying to develope a more individual, personal or original style of playing...
In fact, that's what the great guitar heroes in every style did from the very beginning of their musical careers...

Thanks again George...

[johnstephen]

The title of this video is pretty misleading. "Forget Chords and Scales" sounds great, but at 10:05 into the video, he says to make sure you know your scales. And he talks about scales at several other points in the video as well. And the solo he plays in the first part of the video is based on the pentatonic scale. So I don't think "forgetting" chords and scales is gonna work, for this approach.

[josdurkstraful]

"Forget the link to the scales".

[EricRobillard-bj]

Great but it’s not what I expect when I read jazz soloing.

[rothwellaudio]

No, it doesn't sound like jazz. It sounds like a blues/rock guitarist trying to bluff jazz. That's why you shouldn't "forget chords and scales".