smooth jazz Summertime ( Gershwin ) - Smooth Jazz Guitar

[admin]

Here you can learn all smooth jazz guitar parts of the song " Summertime " by George Gershwin. I first talk about the theme and show you the very simplified version of the theme in the key of Am. Then I show you how you can spice up the theme with your own interpretation or by adding fillins or addons. After that part I show you the chords which I have used which you can use in a band setting or in a solo guitar setting. The chords and the form are displayed here :

Am7 / E7#9 / Am7 / A7b13 / Dm9 / F13 / E7#9 / E7#9
Am7 / E7#9 / Am7 / D9 / C Am / D E / Am7 / E7#9

After that I give you some insight how you can improvise by using the A minor pentatonic, A blues scale, the A minor scale, octaves in the Wes Montgomery or George Benson style and how you can do scatting ( singing the playing your improvisation at the same time ) I also explain how you follow the chords by using target notes of the chords A7b13 , E7#9 and D9.

At the end I give you some final notes how you can train your ears that you can hear the notes you are playing in an improvisation better by singing what you are playing.

Here you find the chapters of this tutorial

0:00 Introduction
3:25 Theme
11:57 Chords
17:15 Improvisation
27:01 Final Notes

I have composed a smooth jazz backing track in the key of Am ( original ) on 80 BPM for this tutorial but you can practice this with any other backing track as well.

Summertime.pdf

Summertime.gp

summertime.mp3

[Sara]

I loved this lesson.  Thank you so much.

I think it was helpful when you talked at the end of the lesson about listening to what you are playing.  It seems like something so simple, but it is not simple for me.  I have been recording my practice sessions and I sometimes am very surprised by how different my solos sound from how I think it sounds when I am in the middle of playing.  I do feel like I am improving bit by bit though, so that is encouraging.

Also, I am glad you reminded me to sing with my guitar more often - I think that will help too.

[admin]

1 hour ago, Sara said:

I have been recording my practice sessions and I sometimes am very surprised by how different my solos sound from how I think it sounds when I am in the middle of playing.  I do feel like I am improving bit by bit though, so that is encouraging.

Hey Sara,

yes thats very common that the result of improvisation or even playing sounds different from what you thought it is when you record yourself. Thats why it's important to record yourself often to monitor how you sound and improve your playing like this - and singing your soloing indeed helps. It's a matter of practice - just do in small steps as I showed in this lesson and then improve step by step. The singing also shows your " true " playing and hearing ability which can be a bit frustrating once you start with it... same as the recording.

[Sara]

Yes, you are totally right about how it is frustrating to start, but I will keep at it.  Thanks!  ? 

[Greg]

Would love a similar version for “Fly M to the Moon”....Any chance?
 

[admin]

8 hours ago, Greg said:

Would love a similar version for “Fly M to the Moon”....Any chance?
 

That's possible - give me a few weeks for that....

[Greg]

2 hours ago, admin said:

That's possible - give me a few weeks for that....

That would be wonderful .....enjoying your slow jazz versions of both Autumn Leaves and Summertime although my smooth jazz chording is far from smooth...

Regards

[admin]

I can do something with chords - with the regular youtube video's it's a bit tricky since I need to also think about popularity. With the premium member content I could do a course on that.... 🙂

[Greg]

That would be great and very much appreciated for whatever effort you are willing to provide.  You must be very busy and I thank you for taking time out to respond.  As for me, I am working my way out of 50 years of playing “cowboy chords” so smooth jazz is a whole new world for me.

Kind regards and please stay safe.

[admin]

21 hours ago, Greg said:

You must be very busy and I thank you for taking time out to respond. 

well I create a lot of my stress myself with different projects. I always depends what I have the focus on. In general everything is possible - and somehow thats the problem because the day only has 24 hours. 😄

Smooth jazz is a pretty popular topic so it makes sense to work something out there and to help you with your cowboy chords. What exactly do you mean with that ? 😄

[Greg]

No help needed with “cowboy chords” it is simply a rut I have been stuck in for the last fifty years which is picking and playing open chords in the first three frets.......sorry if I gave you that impression. “ Fly me to the Moon” is the only piece that I thought would be nice to add to my tiny smooth jazz repertoire that includes only your “Summertime” and “ Autumn Leaves”.  It will be a long while yet before I will be able to play those two pieces as smooth and relaxed as you so easily do.  As an explanation, I am a 73 year old senior citizen trying to learn something new with old stiff fingers and love those two smooth jazz lessons that you produced that are so well done and thought out.

Thanks again for your attention and please don’t be stressed over this as you have enough to do in the development of your business.

Kind regards,

Greg

[medikon]

A special thank you for this great tutorial. Your Summertime has finally led me here. Just great. I will have to nibble on this for a while though. At some point I'd like to be able to play your chords fluently and improvise on them accordingly. Thanks for this version of Summertime!
Kind Regards, Roland

[admin]

That's nice - I must say Summertime in any version is just  a great song and you will always find something new to create during the inprovisation. 🙂

[Rossi]

I like this Summertime version and learning a little improvisation will be great to re-learn Summertime with the improvisation .  Thanks I'm enoying this alot. James

[admin]

Hey James, yes summertime is in fact worth going through several times. You can learn a lot from that improvisation.

[Jeff W]

On 7/26/2020 at 5:21 PM, admin said:

Here you can learn all smooth jazz guitar parts of the song " Summertime " by George Gershwin. I first talk about the theme and show you the very simplified version of the theme in the key of Am. Then I show you how you can spice up the theme with your own interpretation or by adding fillins or addons. After that part I show you the chords which I have used which you can use in a band setting or in a solo guitar setting. The chords and the form are displayed here :

Am7 / E7#9 / Am7 / A7b13 / Dm9 / F13 / E7#9 / E7#9
Am7 / E7#9 / Am7 / D9 / C Am / D E / Am7 / E7#9

After that I give you some insight how you can improvise by using the A minor pentatonic, A blues scale, the A minor scale, octaves in the Wes Montgomery or George Benson style and how you can do scatting ( singing the playing your improvisation at the same time ) I also explain how you follow the chords by using target notes of the chords A7b13 , E7#9 and D9.

At the end I give you some final notes how you can train your ears that you can hear the notes you are playing in an improvisation better by singing what you are playing.

Here you find the chapters of this tutorial

0:00 Introduction
3:25 Theme
11:57 Chords
17:15 Improvisation
27:01 Final Notes

I have composed a smooth jazz backing track in the key of Am ( original ) on 80 BPM for this tutorial but you can practice this with any other backing track as well.

Summertime.pdfUnavailable

Summertime.gpUnavailable

summertime.mp3Unavailable

Cool lesson HP!.........thank you.

[admin]

Thanks Jeff - this one is a classic tune... no way to skip that.