Playing Guitar in a Jazz Ensemble

Many jazz ensembles are directed by a band director who has been trained in woodwinds, brass, and percussion but with little or no guitar experience. When recruited for jazz ensemble, guitar students often do not read music notation well, or at all. The goal of this book is to simplify things for the jazz guitarist. By focusing on Freddie Green style, inexperienced jazz ensemble guitarists have a window into jazz style that will help them become solid contributing members of a swinging rhythm section. Starting with Freddie Green chords and voicings, the book tracks these voicings across different styles from blues and swing to bossa nova. From there, the book explores voicings on higher strings that can be used for accompanying soloists (known as "comping"). Finally, the book explores jazz scales for the guitar that can be used for soloing. Chord shapes and voicings are shown in tab, standard notation, and chord charts to appeal to all guitar levels and backgrounds.