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80/20 Jazz Guitar
by Sam Smiley


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©2014 Sam Smiley Music|samsmileymusic.com
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Table of Contents
How To Use this Book
Limits and Creativity
Why 20??
How to Learn from this Book
Organization
Approach
Questions
Preliminary Stuff
Know all of the Notes on the Fretboard
Know the 5 Common Major Scale Fingerings
Know the 5 Common Minor Pentatonic Scale Fingerings
Scale Practice Suggestions
One and Two Octave Arpeggios
1 Octave Arpeggios
Major 7
Dominant 7
Minor 7

Half Diminished
2 octave arpeggios
Major 7
Dominant 7
Minor 7
Half Diminished
Arpeggio Practice Suggestions
Voicings
Box Shapes
Spellings
Vocabulary
Chord Families
Major
Dominant
Minor
Half Diminished
Diminished
The Chords
Major
Dominant
Minor
Half Diminished
Diminished
Exercises
Ear – Hand Connection
Flexibility
Prepare the Ear for Improvisation
Play from Memory
The Exercises
Melodic Patterns

Diatonic
Thirds
Triads
7th Chords
Four Note Pattern
1321
Chromatic plus Third
Non-Diatonic
Coltrane Pattern
Major Triads in Minor Thirds
Major 7th Chords by Whole Step
ii-V Patterns
Basic ii V
ii V Voice Leading
Basic ii V 3 to 9
Basic ii V with Eighth Notes
Basic ii V with alterations
Short ii V – 1
Short ii V – 2
Short ii V – Descending
Short ii V with Alterations
Short ii V with b9


Rhythms
Big Band Rhythms??
The Roots of Modern Jazz
Usefulness
Practicing Rhythm as Vocabulary
Deeper Groove

Reading vs Hearing
My Story
Making These Rhythms Happen
The Rhythms
Rhythm 1 – “Do dit dah”
Rhythm 2 – The Charleston
Rhythm 3
Rhythm 4 – Moten Swing “Do Dit Dah”
Rhythm 5 – “One O’Clock Jump”
Rhythm 6 – Lester Leaps In (solo)
Rhythm 7 – Blues in Hoss Flat
Rhythm 8 – Bill’s Mill
Rhythm 9 – Moten Swing
Rhythm 10 – Jeep Blues
Rhythm 11 – Everyday I Have the Blues
Rhythm 12 – Everyday I Have the Blues 2
Rhythm 13 – Yardbird Suite
Rhythm 14 – Yardbird Suite (solo)
Rhythm 15 – Scrapple From the Apple
Rhythm 16 – Ornithology
Rhythm 17 – Moose the Mooche
Rhythm 18 – A Night in Tunisia
Rhythm 19 – Dexterity
Rhythm 20 – Dexterity
Licks
Language
Study the Masters
Find Your Own Interests
What if I Sound Too Much Like…
Organization

“Using Your Ear”
Learning the Licks
Onto the Licks!
Blues/Static Chords
Lick 1 – Wes Montgomery “D Natural Blues” 1
Lick 2 – Wes Montgomery “D Natural Blues” 2
Lick 3 – Kenny Burrell “Chitlins Con Carne” 1
Lick 4 – Kenny Burrell “Chitlins Con Carne” 2
Lick 5 John Scofield “A Go Go” 1
Lick 6 Grant Green “If I Should Lose You”
Lick 7 Pat Martino “Just Friends”
Short ii V
Lick 8 Wes Montgomery “SKJ”
Lick 9 Pat Martino “Just Friends”
Lick 10 Joe Pass “Joy Spring” 1
Lick 11 Joe Pass “Joy Spring” 2
Long ii V
Lick 12 Wes Montgomery “S.K.J.”
Lick 13 Grant Green “If I Should Lose You”
Lick 14 Jim Hall “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”
Lick 15 Stock Lick
Lick 16 Stock Lick
Minor ii V
Lick 17 Jim Hall “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”
Lick 18 Grant Green “What is This Thing Called Love”
Lick 19 Grant Green “Green Dolphin Street”
Lick 20 Grant Green “If I Should Lose You”
Theory
Diatonic Harmony
Triads

7 th Chords
Extensions
Progressions
ii-V Progression
Minor ii-V
Cycle
V/V – Secondary Dominants
Guide Tones
Half Step Resolutions
Alterations


Levels of Alteration
Major Chords
Dominant Chords
Diminished Scale
Melodic Minor
Substitution
Tritone Substitution
Transposing
Blues Form
Song Form Basics
Glossary of Terms
Where to Go Next
20 Limiting Tips
Practice very slow tempos
Selective Metronome Beat
Metronome Every Other Bar
Memorize tunes
Sing!

Sing a solo
Transcribe entire solos
Memorize a transcription
Transcribe just the best parts
Create a chord melody
Mean every note
Practice Up the Neck
Listen to one album at a time
Play Counterpoint improvisations
Learn pop songs
Alter the time feel of a tune
Work on different meters
Record yourself
Play free improvisations
Write solos
Appendix
20 Ways to limit yourself in order to increase creativity
Twenty Tunes to Memorize
Twenty classic jazz guitar albums to check out
20 Jazz Guitarists to check out
20 Great (Jazz) Guitar Books
20 Solos to Transcribe
20 Books about jazz and music (not only guitar)



How To Use this Book
What in the world is 80/20?? And how does it relate to the guitar?
The 80/20 principle, also called the Pareto Principle, says that 80% of results come from about 20% of your efforts. In business,
this usually means that about 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. In basketball 80% of a team’s points will come

from 20% of its players. About 80% of the cars on the road are driving on 20% of the roadways. It is a principle that is found in
many areas of life, including music.
This means that about 80% of your progress comes from 20% of your practice. About 80% of your material is drawn from 20% of
your idea. Think about that one. If the vast majority of your ideas come from 20% of the ideas you’ve practiced, you can cut your
practice time down in those areas and focus on other things that are ignored– like rhythm and timing, repertoire, etc.


Limits and Creativity
There is much power in limiting yourself. Many of the world’s greatest artists have worked within specific boundaries and are
extremely creative within those bounds (Picasso’s Blue Period comes to mind).
Have you ever had the experience of having a day free of all obligations and end up getting nothing done? And conversely had an
experience of a very busy day where everything gets done like clockwork? Boundaries are actually very helpful to the human mind.
We work much better within boundaries than without them.
I want to ask you in your jazz learning journey to stick to very few things at a time. If you learn the things in this book all the way,
while cutting the fat of your other practice, you will find yourself making huge strides in learning jazz guitar that you would not make
otherwise.


Why 20??
This book takes the “20” part of 80/20 pretty literally. Jazz is a very complex style of music that has an almost infinite number of
subgenres, styles, and artists to learn about. In fact, learning 20 of anything (licks, chord voicings, etc) does not even account for
20%!
I chose to use the number 20 to set up a boundary that is representative of the overall theme of the book. While we may not be going
over 20% of jazz, we are limiting the number of things to the ‘lowest effective dose’ and learning it completely. This will end up
opening doors down the road that being overwhelmed will shut.
Plus it’s catchy!


How to Learn from this Book
This book is not meant to be linear. Don’t start on page one and work through it all to the last page. A jazz language is something that

develops over time and is multilayered. You will start to learn one topic that will shed some light on another. Then you might go on
to a new topic that unexpectedly reveals something about a previous topic or idea. This is a natural way of learning music.
Many of the keywords will be linked to the theory chapter (in Kindle and eBook formats of course). You may click on a word or
phrase that you are unsure of to learn more about that topic.
The theory section is especially useful in this way. It should be treated as a reference instead of read from start to finish. If you are
working with chord voicings and don’t know what a major 7th chord is, go to that section to learn it. Learn the theory you need and
move back to the what you were working on.
You won’t miss what you need. Trust the process!


Organization
The book is organized in the order that I have found most people want to learn about jazz but informed by the ways I have found to
be the most effective in learning the jazz language.
The first section is on the preliminary things you should know before entering this type of study. Jazz is accessible to all guitarists,
BUT you should know a few things to make things easier. If you are lacking in some of these areas I suggest either starting with
these.
The second section is over chord voicings. This seems to be one topic that many jazz guitar beginners focus on. The main reason is
that it gives one almost instant jazz-cred.
Rhythm is particularly important, but often overlooked. As I was learning to play jazz and reading, watching, and listening to jazz
improvisers’ interviews, I noticed that nearly all of them mentioned somewhere that rhythm was the key to playing jazz. Experience
has proved this to be true. Spend more time and attention on rhythm than you might think is necessary. The approach is to learn
pieces of ‘rhythm vocabulary’ or rhythmic phrases that come up in jazz over and over.
Theory seems to burden most jazz guitar beginners. It is purposely placed last here to help ease the overemphasis on theory.
Remember it is a reference. Read these short chapters/articles on theory as needed instead of going through the entire section at
once.
The exercises section will give you exercises to help train both your ears and fingers. These are pretty dry, but they will help to
ingrain some of the major concepts of jazz into your playing and ears. Learning licks and exercises is a form of ear training. You
will end up practicing the ideas over and over and get a sound in your ear. That way when you are performing or jamming with
people those sounds that you hear are instantly accessible.
The licks section is full of classic licks taken from transcriptions. There are twenty licks here (in keeping with the 20s concept of the

book) but you can find more of these all over my website and by transcribing them yourself (the MOST effective way to learn jazz!).
The final section should help give you ideas on how to actually use the things you’ve learned throughout the book. It also provides
many ideas on where to go next, once you’ve mastered most of the ideas and topics here.


Approach
The best way to approach this book would be to pick out 1 or 2 things from each section. Focus on 1 or 2 chord voicings, 1 lick, 1
exercise, and 1 rhythm.
One final note before we get started: focus all of this work on tunes. It is tempting to practice this stuff in a vacuum, and sometimes
necessary when you are just learning something. But practice these things with a tune (or tunes) as soon as possible! This makes
things come alive and takes it out of the practice room. You can find a list of 20 tunes to memorize in the last chapter.


Questions
If you are having a tough time with any of this material, don’t hesitate to ask me a question. You can reach me at
facebook.com/samsmileymusic or Twitter @samsmileymusic. Both are great places to ask a question. And chances are someone
else has the same question!
Find the bonuses for 80/20 Jazz Guitar at />


Preliminary Stuff
Jazz guitar is accessible to any guitarist, but there are several things that will make learning jazz guitar much, much easier. These
foundational topics will help you with the rest of the material here.
Very few guitarists will come to this book with all of these things down, so don’t worry if you have a few holes here. The best thing
would be to take one or two of these things and work on it while you are practicing other parts of the book. Most of these are things
that can be mastered with 5-10 minutes of practice time on a regular basis. This should not be your focus during practice.


Know all of the Notes on the Fretboard
If you haven’t worked on learning all of the notes on the fretboard it is time to sit down and do it. When you are improvising on the

guitar (or in any style, not just jazz), it is very important to know the notes you are playing. It is important to know where you are at
all times so you can use the material you learn. Not knowing the notes is like not knowing the names of the streets you’re on. If you
are walking somewhere familiar you can usually make it without the names of the streets, but to go somewhere new it will be
essential to know the street names.
Everyone has ‘dead spots’ of the neck when starting on this. It is normal to have a difficult time learning some sections of the neck
that you don’t use very often. When a spot is unfamiliar we tend to avoid those areas – for me it was the 9th-12th frets on the D and G
strings. Stop avoiding your dead spots! The best way to learn them is to go right to them.


Know the 5 Common Major Scale Fingerings
Jazz is based on the major scale. Many of the sounds come from other scales, but you can always trace it back to the major scale.
Having a singular ‘alphabet’ that you always come back to can help simplify things. Instead of a seemingly infinite number of
possibilities there are just small changes to one basic thing.
There are five different main fingerings. You can create about as many major scale fingerings as you could think of, this is just a
starting point.
These fingerings are sometimes taught as ‘modes,’ which is unfortunate because each scale has all of the modes built in. For the
most part, modes are a very confusing way to explain some of the principles of improvisation, right now just forget about modes.
You will need some organization of the fingerings. Call them by their starting finger and starting string. The first fingering is called
‘2E’ because it starts on your middle finger (2) on the 6th string (E).


Know the 5 Common Minor Pentatonic Scale Fingerings
The pentatonic scale is the next most useful scale (after major). The reason it is included here though is that most guitarists are very
familiar with this scale.
We’ll use the same naming system as the major scales – finger and starting string. The fingering that most guitarists learn within their
first few lessons is called the “1E” fingering.



Scale Practice Suggestions

Improvisers need to be able to work within the scale fingerings at any point within the scale. You don’t want to be tied to going from
lowest note to highest note and back. It is important to practice scales in different ways to gain the flexibility to move within that
scale as freely as possible.
One of the best ways to develop this is by melodic patterns. Melodic patterns are short phrases that can be repeated throughout a
particular scale. Start with one or two beat phrases. Once you get more comfortable with the concept you can expand it, but start
small.
Here are two phrases that are useful and easy to start with. The first pattern is called ‘Thirds.’ The idea is to play a third interval
(skipping a letter) throughout the scale. The example is in the key of A. The first third would be skipping from A to C# (skipping the
B). Then going from B to D and on through the scale. If the theory of the exercise is strange, just try playing through the example
several times. As you play it will start to make sense to your ear and fingers. Trust your ears first the theory will follow. The
example uses the 2E fingering.


The second pattern is called the ‘Four Note Pattern.’ The name describes the pattern – just play the scale in groups of four notes.
Start by playing the first four notes of the scale, then play the second group of four notes, then the third, and on throughout the scale.
If you were to write this using numbers you would end up with “1234, 2345, 3456, etc.”



One and Two Octave Arpeggios
The arpeggio is very important music fundamental to an improviser. An arpeggio is a chord played one note at a time.
They are helpful to learn both the notes in a particular chord and to get the sound into your ear.
A major factor in playing authentic sounding jazz solos is resolving your lines to chord tones. The arpeggios show you where all of
the chord tones are.
The guitar has its own built in challenges with arpeggios – like the number of fingering possibilities and that they you need to know.
Divide arpeggios into two groups – One Octave Arpeggios and Two Octave Arpeggios. Then group them by starting string.
The major 7th arpeggio is presented first as it is the ‘blank slate’ arpeggio. All of the other arpeggios can be built from the major 7th
by changing one, two, or three notes by a half step.
Think of this section as sort of an arpeggio dictionary – a reference to come back to. Don’t play all of these from start to finish and
move on, the material will not be absorbed that way. Practice suggestions follow the arpeggios.

1 Octave Arpeggios
Major 7

Dominant 7

Minor 7

Half Diminished