Practice Routine for Jazz Guitar

Here’s a practice routine tailored for beginning fingerstyle jazz guitar on electric guitar:

Warm-up (10 minutes)

• Finger Exercises: Start with chromatic scales across all strings (index, middle, ring, pinky) to improve finger independence.
• Right-Hand Picking: Practice alternating between thumb, index, and middle fingers while plucking strings (P-I-M) on simple chord shapes.

Basic Chord Practice (15 minutes)

• Focus on learning basic jazz chord shapes like major 7th, minor 7th, dominant 7th, and diminished chords:
• Cmaj7: x35453
• G7: 320001
• Dm7: x57565
• Bm7b5: x2323x
• Practice switching between these chords smoothly while keeping a consistent rhythm with your fingerpicking hand.

Walking Bass & Melody (15 minutes)

• Work on simple walking basslines combined with basic melodies. This helps develop coordination between bass and melody in a fingerstyle approach.
• Start by playing the root notes of chords with your thumb and using your fingers to pluck the melody or fill in the harmony.

Arpeggios & Scales (15 minutes)

• Practice major, minor, and pentatonic scales using fingerstyle. Focus on playing each note cleanly.
• Learn arpeggio patterns for common jazz chords, e.g., Cmaj7 arpeggio (C-E-G-B).

Song Practice (30 minutes)

• Learn the chord progression and melody to a simple jazz standard. For example “Autumn Leaves” as it has a beautiful, accessible melody and common jazz chord changes (II-V-I progressions). Practice fingerpicking the melody and bassline simultaneously.

Cool Down (5 minutes)

• End with slow, relaxed fingerstyle exercises, focusing on clarity and dynamics.
• This structure builds finger independence, jazz harmony understanding, and rhythm skills over time.

Standard Notation

Study standard notation from (Leavitt, 2020)

References

https://www.guitar-chord.org/articles/jazz.html

https://youtu.be/Y7anD0WNkrc?si=DDWhyY74yFDET6KF