Free Modern Jazz Guitar Resources to Elevate Your Playing
cutting-edge material to expand your jazz vocab and technique
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bite-sized material
messiaen
vocab
Using Messiaen’s Mode 3 and intervallic combinations to emphasize the major 7 over dominant harmony.
messiaen + hybrid picking
Messiaen’s Mode 3 meets hybrid picking. Expands your sound with large/small interval contrasts.
modern and traditional vocab
Same chord progression – two completely different approaches!
modern
arpeggios
Here’s a ii - V - I in G, using extended arpeggios built with 5ths and 2nds to create a fresh, open sound.
hybrid picking
monster
Killer phrase over a major ii-V-I in C plus a bunch of nasty voicings!
hybrid picking
monster - II
Another beast of a phrase plus a set of very spicy voicings. Try it ou!
Hybrid picking + intervallic ideas
A really cool exercise to improve your hybrid picking. These cells can be employed for soloing or comping!
Full fretboard arpeggios
A full-fretboard Emaj7 arpeggio using a 3 + 3 + 1 notes-per-string formula. Great for fluid shifts and breaking out of box shapes!
3-notes-per-string pentatonics
A creative way to enhance your pentatonic playing with 3-notes-per-string shapes!
5/4 + modern voicings + hybrid picking
A small but challenging exercise that will help you spice up your comping and lines. It covers odd meter, contemporary voicings, and hybrid picking!
ALTERed ii–V–I: LYDIAN ♭3 → MESSIAEN 3 → LYDIAN #9
A single phrase that alters each chord in a ii - V - I with three distinct colors: Lydian b3 (ii) → Messiaen Mode 3 (V) → Lydian #9 (I). Try it!
Lydian ♭3 Whole-Fretboard arpeggio
Whole-fretboard arpeggios are one of the missing pieces in guitar training. When you map them across the neck, you’re no longer stuck in boxes.
Altered ii–V–I with Whole-Fretboard arpeggios
Whole-fretboard arpeggios turn harmony into something you can navigate, not memorize. Here I treat each chord as its own sound-world—minor, dominant, and major—all mapped across the neck.
Alter each chord in a turnaround
Here I’m trying to merge hybrid picking, whole-fretboard arpeggios, modes from harmonic major and harmonic minor, plus Messiaen mode 3 to get a super outside sounding idea. Try it!
Positional counterpoint applied to a ii V I
I’ve always wanted to incorporate counterpoint to my lines and comping. Here’s an exercise I created for myself where I’m taking a small area of the neck and applying contrary motion over the ii and V.
Counterpoint, modern voicings, and Clusters
A little idea that explores several techniques for self-comping. Check out the 2nd + 7th (or 6th) voicings in it. Avoiding 3rds allows for a more contemporary sound, and since these 3-note shapes are small, it’s really easy to generate harmonic/melodic motion with them.
Heptatonic arpeggios + triad pairs + Messiaen 3
This phrase is really fun (and challenging!). Since the transcription is packed with information, I suggest extracting specific ideas and the concepts behind them, then applying them in different contexts (e.g., a heptatonic arpeggio over a ii chord, Mode 3 of Messiaen over a V). Have fun!
hexa and heptatonic arpeggios: lydian and messiaen 3
These whole-fretboard arpeggios are both an amazing fretboard knowledge exercise and also an incredible device to add new sonorities to your playing. You can also think of them as a new approach to playing triad pairs and triads + 7th arpeggios!
7th chord pairs and wide arpeggios over a ii V I
Here’s a fun example on how to alter every and each chord of a ii V I using 7th chord pairs. The phrase uses Lydian b3, Lydian #5#9, and Messiaen M3 plus wide arpeggios.
Combining Gm7 and B7 produces a collection over G that contains the root, 9th, minor 3rd, major 3rd, perfect 5th, ♭13, minor 7th, and major 7th. It can be applied over Gmaj7, G7, Gm(maj7), and Gm7!
7th chord pairs! Gm7 + B7 from Messiaen 3 over a V chord
sweep picking extended arpeggios
Here’s an excerpt from one of the compositions on my upcoming album, built from extended major, minor, and altered-dominant arpeggios moving across the full range of the guitar.
major ii–V–I: Altering every chord!
This phrase uses D Dorian ♯11 over Dm7, G altered over G7, and Cmaj7(♯9,♯11) over the tonic. A repeated-note pattern is transposed down by a half step from the ii to the V, preserving its rhythm and intervallic structure, before resolving to a three-octave Cmaj7(♯9,♯11) arpeggio and voicing.
how far can a minor ii–V–i go?
This challenging phrase combines C♯m7(♭5) and D♯7 to imply C♯ Dorian ♭5 over the ii chord, uses Messiaen’s third mode over F♯7, and resolves with a wide Bm(maj7,♯11) arpeggio and voicing with the ♯11 on top.
MINOR II–V–I: ALTERING EVERY CHORD AGAIN!
This phrase uses D Dorian ♭5 over Dm7(♭5), Messiaen’s third mode over G7, and C Lydian ♭3 over the tonic, resolving with combined C minor and B major triads for a Cm(maj9,♯11) sound.
3:2 COUNTERPOINT + CLUSTERS OVER A II–V–I
A contrapuntal ii–V–I using clusters, contrary and oblique motion, an altered dominant, and a 3:2 polyrhythm.