Below is the lesson for Fingerpicking Etude no. 39: “Jazz Chords”

Helpful Tips

Learn to play jazz chords without playing jazz. I know what you’re thinking… “Wait, what?”

I (Andrew) taught private lessons for over a decade, and one thing I noticed was that many folks tended to shy away from jazz. Either they didn’t care for the genre, or they thought it was too hard to play. But the problem with avoiding jazz entirely is that we miss out on valuable opportunities to grow as musicians.

One of the biggest takeaways from studying jazz is learning intricate chord voicings, or to put it simply, unique chord shapes. So, I wrote this etude to introduce you to the types of chords we often find in jazz music, but in a song that’s only slightly jazz-sounding rather than full-on jazz.