Intermediate guitarists
You don’t need to be a theory expert to play jazz. We’ll take your foundation and teach you how to play like an authentic jazz guitarist.
3 months
John will guide you through 6 grades of step-by-step instruction with daily practice plans and assessments.
Find your voice
You’ll leave this Learning Pathway with a solid base of jazz fundamentals the freedom to express yourself through it.
Take the next step
Keep your momentum going with advanced classes and guided pathways to push your playing further.
What you'll learn
Intimidated by the world of jazz? We've got your back. Join John as he teaches you how build authentic jazz vocabulary without getting lost in the complexity that turns most players away.
- Demystify the art of comping
- Learn to think like a jazz musician
- Level up your soloing by 'playing the changes'
- Use practical theory to improve your playing in any style
Curriculum
Stay focused with this step-by-step learning program designed by our expert team of music educators.
Your guided Learning Pathway
In this 3-month Learning Pathway, John Storie will help you develop a college-level command of jazz guitar. You’ll leave this class ready to comp, solo, and play authentically in any jazz setting.
Intro to Jazz Guitar
Every great jazz guitarist started somewhere. This class is your launch pad to advanced playing.
You'll kick off your jazz journey with John by building the harmonic and rhythmic foundation that defines the genre.
Across 7 guided lesson days, you’ll explore the core pillars of jazz, rhythm fundamentals, and basic melodic ideas, all while learning how to think like a jazz musician.
Chord-Scale Relationships
Chords and scales are cut from the same cloth.
In this grade, you’ll learn how they connect across the fretboard so you can outline ii-V-I progressions and start thinking like an improviser.
Comping
A great jazz guitarist makes the whole band feel better, and that’s what comping is all about.
This grade teaches you how to groove, shape harmony in real time, and communicate with the rhythm section... AKA all of the skills that make other musicians want to play with you.
Grade 4. Improvisation
Improvisation is where you stop sounding like a student and start sounding like you. In this grade, you’ll learn to build real jazz lines, not by memorizing licks, but by understanding how melody follows harmony through the most common progressions in jazz
Grade 5. Melody
This grade is all about learning melodies the way jazz guitarists actually do: straight from standards. You’ll study how melodies connect to chord changes, how to play them with feel, and how they shape your solos and chord melody playing.
Grade 6. Learning Jazz Standards
Everything you’ve learned so far leads here. In this grade, you'll dive into the time-honored tradition of learning standards. You'll nail the melody, comp the changes, and take a solo to cap off the pathway like a true jazz guitarist.
Grade 1. Intro to Jazz Guitar
Start your journey by learning the absolute fundamentals of what it takes to become a certified jazz cat. You’ll get familiar with foundational jazz skills and concepts, like shell voicings, chord melody, jazz rhythms, and more.
Day 1. Jazz guitar roles
The first step on your jazz journey is understanding the three roles that jazz guitarists fill in a band: comping chords, playing melodies, and improvising solos. Often, you’ll take on these roles in the same song. This lesson will introduce you to these roles and prepare you for the rest of the class.
Day 2. Chord-scale relationships
Understanding how chords and scales connect will give you a cheat sheet for matching melodic and lead ideas to the underlying harmony. If you’ve ever wondered what “playing the changes” means, this lesson will start to demystify the process so you can leave randomness behind in your solos.
Day 3. Jazz rhythm
What sets jazz apart from other genres? Short answer: its unique rhythms. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to feel the beating heart of jazz through syncopation, common rhythms, and the swing feel.
Day 4. Blues to jazz
The blues and jazz are intricately connected. Learning the 12-bar blues form will unlock thousands of standards and give you a strong foundation for comping and improvising using the blues scale.
Day 5. Shell chords
From comping to chord melodies, shell voicings are the jazz guitarist's secret weapon. Made up of the root, 3rd and 7th, shell chords include only the most essential harmonic information. You’ll learn how to apply these pared-down voicings to the standard After You’ve Gone.
Day 6. Call and response
Jazz is perhaps the most conversational genre, and throughout a song you should be listening and responding to what the other musicians on stage with you are doing. The concept of call and response lets you make your playing more intentional and unique to your voice.
Day 7. Chord melody
Whether you’re playing in a band or on your own, the guitar lets you blend chords and melody seamlessly to perform an entire jazz standard. For this lesson, we’re taking inspiration from the king of chord melodies: Joe Pass.
Performance pieces
Choose a song to learn that takes what you worked on in Grade 1 and puts it in a musical context. Here, you'll get to jam with a live-recorded band of professional L.A. musicians as your backing track.
Personalized feedback
Submit a video of yourself playing a performance piece from this grade for custom video feedback on your playing from our team of pro guitarists.
Final Quiz
Make sure you're ready to move on to Grade 2.
Grade 2. Chord-scale relationships
In this grade, we’re leaving boring scale drills behind and instead diving deeper into the components of jazzy chords and progressions using modes and arpeggios. This is where you’ll start outlining chord changes and creating sophisticated lead lines.
Day 1. The major ii-V-I
In this lesson, John will walk you through using Roman numerals to communicate with other musicians and internalize the core progressions that make up the genre, starting with the most important of all: the major ii-V-I.
Day 2. Major 9 extensions
Build on your basic 7th chords with the 9th. This nostalgic-sounding note adds a subtle and sophisticated flavor to your chords. To keep things from getting muddy, John will introduce you to rootless chords as a way to stay sonically considerate to other musicians in the band.
Day 3. Minor 9 extensions
Now, you’ll learn how to spice up the ii chord by throwing in the minor 9. John will also show you a lick that combines the arpeggio and scale shape to perfectly outline the minor 9 sound.
Day 4. Dominant 9th extensions
Inject some funkiness into your ii-V-I with a G9 chord. You’ll learn how to play over this chord using the Mixolydian scale and the G9 arpeggio.
Day 5. Common ii-V-I comping moves
John’s got a stock rhythmic phrase for you that will ensure you’ll never be at a loss for what to play over a ii-V-I progression ever again. But you’re not just gonna use this phrase without context. You’ll learn how to tune in to the drummer and respond to the groove.
Day 6. Common ii-V-I licks
Now, you’ll shift focus to build some ii-V-I licks that highlight each of the chords. These licks are pre-made phrases that you can pull out to play over a ii-V-I progression instead of trying to improvise over everything.
Day 7. Major ii-V-I workout
Put on your workout fedora because we’re hitting the Jazz Gym with a workout that will lock in your comping and lick phrases.
Performance pieces
Choose a song to learn that takes what you worked on in Grade 2 and puts it in a musical context. Here, you'll get to jam with a live-recorded band of professional L.A. musicians as your backing track.
Personalized feedback
Submit a video of yourself playing a performance piece from this grade for custom video feedback on your playing from our team of pro guitarists.
Final Quiz
Make sure you're ready to move on to Grade 3.
Grade 3. Comping
Soloing is fun and all, but being able to comp well will make you every musician’s favorite guitarist to play with. By the end of this grade, you’ll have a toolkit of pro-level comping skills that will get you through pretty much any session.
Day 1. Rootless blues voicings
Remember those rootless chords we looked at in the previous grade? Well, they’re back and they’re bluesier than ever. Combine your rootless voicings with the Charleston rhythm to swing through a 12-bar blues in Bb.
Day 2. Freddie Green-style comping
Ready for a masterclass in simplicity? Freddie Green set the bar for jazz comping, often paring down rootless voicings to just the 3rd and 7th. We’ll take a page from Green’s book by learning how to comp with jazzy dyads.
Day 3. The half-diminished chord and the minor ii-V-I
You won’t hear the half-diminished chord very frequently in rock, pop, or folk. But it’s everywhere in jazz, especially as the ii chord in the minor ii-V-I progression. Learn how to apply this chord over a traditional bossa rhythm inspired by the standard Blue Bossa.
Day 4. Common V chord alterations
The V chord in a minor ii-V-I is where all the tension is. In this lesson, John will show you how to make this chord even more dramatic with extensions like the b9, #9, and b13.
Day 5. Diminished 7th chords
One of the beautiful things about jazz is that we can sometimes add chords no one asked for. The diminished 7th chord is one of those chords! It’s a passing chord that we can use, for example, between the I and ii chords for voice-leading. John will show you how to play it in multiple positions around the fretboard.
Day 6. Autumn Leaves
In this lesson, John will use the jazz standard Autumn Leaves as an example to help you navigate a song without getting lost in the form (particularly when the melody or singer drops out). Learn the patterns that will help you avoid getting lost when it comes time to solo.
Day 7. Must-know intros and endings
If jazz is a conversation, you don’t want to just jump in at 100%. You want to introduce yourself and offer a hello, then wrap it up with a goodbye that resolves everything. This lesson will give you multiple ideas for beginning and ending songs to create an interesting and productive conversation.
Performance pieces
Choose a song to learn that takes what you worked on in Grade 3 and puts it in a musical context. Here, you'll get to jam with a live-recorded band of professional L.A. musicians as your backing track.
Personalized feedback
Submit a video of yourself playing a performance piece from this grade for custom video feedback on your playing from our team of pro guitarists.
Final Quiz
Make sure you're ready to move on to Grade 4.
Grades 4-6
Learn how to play the changes, master a melody, and get the most out of jazz standards.
Grade 4. Improvisation
Ready to step out and take your solo? Well, by the end of this grade, you will be! With a toolkit of minor scales, bebop techniques, and licks for common progressions, you’ll leave behind memorized scale runs to improvise with confidence.
Day 1. Minor scales explained
With so many possible minor scales to use, it can be overwhelming trying to figure out which to learn. Fortunately, for jazz guitar, you really only need four: Dorian, Aeolian, harmonic minor, and melodic minor. In this lesson, John demystifies these minor scales so you know exactly when and how to use each.
Day 2. The minor ii-V-I
You already know how to comp over major and minor ii-V-I progressions. Now, you’ll learn how to solo over minor chord changes using three modes: Locrian, Phrygian dominant, and Aeolian. If this sounds overwhelming, you can also use the blanket approach with the harmonic minor scale we learned yesterday.
Day 3. Short major and minor ii-V-I
Jazz can move quickly, and you won’t always have the luxury of outlining each chord in a ii-V-I. No need to fear, though! John is here with three different approaches you can take to tackle short ii-V’s. These include the blanket approach, linking arpeggios, and using scales to connect chord tones with step-wise motion. After today, no ii-V-I will be too fast for your mind and fingers.
Day 4. I to III7
With the ii-V-I under your belt, it’s time to look at another common progression using the secondary dominant chord. By replacing the minor iii with a III7, you introduce tension and set up for a possible key change. You’ll learn how to solo over this chord in the key of C using both the blanket approach and the E7 arpeggio.
Day 5. The turnaround
Turnarounds act like a reset button, signaling either the end of a tune or a looping back to the top. You’ll find turnarounds throughout jazz history, and it’s vital to know how to solo over these using several methods. From scales and the blanket approach to arpeggios and certain phrases, you’ll have a variety of options to address this rhythmically fun progression.
Day 6. Minor blues
Back to the blues! Jazz blues progressions often include some interesting chord choices that you might not normally find in a traditional blues. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to comp and solo over a jazzy 12-bar blues that includes a turnaround.
Day 7. Chromaticism and enclosure
What makes a solo jazzy? Two key ingredients are bebop-style chromaticism and enclosing a note. You’ll learn the bebop scale and then make it musical with two licks you can copy and paste into your own lines.
Performance pieces
Choose a song to learn that takes what you worked on in Grade 4 and puts it in a musical context. Here, you'll get to jam with a live-recorded band of professional L.A. musicians as your backing track.
Personalized feedback
Submit a video of yourself playing a performance piece from this grade for custom video feedback on your playing from our team of pro guitarists.
Final Quiz
Make sure you're ready to move on to Grade 5.
Grade 5. Melody
Melodies are the most memorable part of any song. In this grade, you’ll explore strategies for learning the melody to six jazz standards. You’ll then focus on using embellishments to make them unique to your guitar voice.
Day 1. When the Saints
There are many different resources out there that claim they are the definitive version of a melody, but not everything is high quality. Using the classic tune When the Saints Go Marching In as our reference, John presents a 4-step approach to learn a melody. These include listening to the original song if it’s available and referencing a lead sheet or TAB to double check.
Day 2. When the Saints (with embellishments)
Now that you’ve got the melody for When the Saints locked in, it’s time to spice things up with a few soloist techniques. Play the melody up an octave to cut through the band and stand out. Add call and response with a few of your own ideas. Finally, you’ll learn how to add chord stabs and chord melody to blend harmony and melody.
Day 3. Blue Skies
Learn the melody for Irving Berlin’s hit Blue Skies. John will introduce you to three different versions of the song you can listen to on your own to internalize the melody to this classic tune.
Day 4. Pickup, No Chaser (F blues)
We took inspiration from Thelonious Monk’s Straight, No Chaser for this tune. This song is especially vital to learn because it’s in the key of F. Certain keys (like F and Bb) are common in jazz thanks to horn players. Having licks available in the key of F will help you navigate your next jazz session.
Day 5. After You’ve Gone
Following the same process as previous days, you’ll learn the melody for After You’ve Gone. You’ve already learned the chords for this song back in Grade 1, so learning the melody should be much easier.
Day 6. Purple Bossa
Learn John’s take on the melody of Blue Bossa, one section at a time. You’ll focus on seeing the chords as you play through the melody (chord-scale relationships, anyone?!). As a bonus, the melody to Purple Bossa works as a contrafact (fancy word for a new melody over the chord changes of an existing tune) over backing tracks of the original Blue Bossa.
Day 7. Bye Bye Blackbird
This standard is a great example of a memorable melody that uses just a handful of notes. You’ll work on getting the melody in your ear and adding some fancy musical embellishments to make it your own.
Performance pieces
Choose a song to learn that takes what you worked on in Grade 5 and puts it in a musical context. Here, you'll get to jam with a live-recorded band of professional L.A. musicians as your backing track.
Personalized feedback
Submit a video of yourself playing a performance piece from this grade for custom video feedback on your playing from our team of pro guitarists.
Final Quiz
Make sure you're ready to move on to Grade 6.
Grade 6. Learning Jazz Standards
To cap off the class, you’ll combine all the jazz guitar roles to memorize seven real standards. Once you finish this grade, you’ll truly be a well-rounded jazz cat ready for the smoky jazz lounge.
Day 1. Lah-bee-doo (Bb blues)
It’s time to think like a real jazz guitarist. You’ll learn to comp, play the head, and solo over this standard. You’ll have plenty of chances to make the chords and melody your own, as well as to create a solo that responds to the other musicians in the track.
Day 2. Purple Bossa (Blue Bossa)
We’re returning to Rio de Janeiro for some bossa vibes. John’s version includes a few vital jazz concepts to have in your pocket, including the ii-V-I progression in two different keys and arpeggios that use the 9 on the top.
Day 3. When the Saints
This classic tune is often called in jam sessions, so having it memorized will serve you throughout your jazz journey. John has some tricks for you with this one, including “riff comping” (using minimal chords and call and response) and double stops to play the melody.
Day 4. Pickup, No Chaser (F blues)
We’re returning to this horn-friendly tune and including some must-know jazz techniques. These include rootless voicings, double stops to harmonize the melody, and bebop-style lines.
Day 5. Bumpin’ on Wes (minor blues)
We’ll return to our minor blues, but through the lens of one of the greats: Wes Montgomery. Wes was famous for using his picking-hand thumb to strum and play single notes.
He also used octaves to add more character to melodies and solos. Finally, he was a fan of block chords, which include a melody note on top and a pared-down version of the chord below it. We’ll use these techniques to build momentum in our track.
Day 6. Blue Skies
This is a classic AABA form with 32 bars, so it’s essential to get it locked in. Another reason we want to return to Blue Skies is the inclusion of a useful minor cliché walkdown over the minor chord. You’ll learn three different ways to play this walkdown across the fretboard.
Day 7. Bye Bye Blackbird
This tune is one of the most commonly called standards in all of jazz history, so it’s worth the extra time to memorize it. This song also poses some challenges, such as its AABC form that’s easy to get lost in. It also switches from a 2 feel at the top to a 4 feel in the bridge.
This all means you’ll have to stay extra locked into the melody and rhythm section to navigate this jam.
Performance pieces
Choose a song to learn that takes what you worked on in Grade 6 and puts it in a musical context. Here, you'll get to jam with a live-recorded band of professional L.A. musicians as your backing track.
Personalized feedback
Submit a video of yourself playing a performance piece from this grade for custom video feedback on your playing from our team of pro guitarists.
Final Quiz
Make sure you're ready to move on to the next stage in your jazz guitar journey.
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Your Instructor
John Storie
Learn how to comp, solo, and think like a pro jazz musician. John is an acclaimed guitarist and educator who's here to jumpstart your jazz journey.
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