Learning to play jazz guitar from tutor books and DVD’s is great fun but it can be expensive but a lot less expensive than private tuition!
It ‘s easy to end up with a large pile of books and a row of DVD’s and not be any better at improvising than when you just had one book or DVD.
The truth is, there comes a point where a huge effort is required in order to break through that barrior – going from copying others to the point where your own music flows from your fingers, or more specifically from your head or inner ear and out through the guitar.
The problem is, the more choice you have, the more ways you have to achieve the freedom you search for, but the more difficult it becomes.
Choice can become the biggest obstacle along with an ever-growing knowledge where the balance becomes weighted too heavily on scale construction and not enough on just playing the notes in musical phrases.
Of course you need to listen to the players that you like and fill your head with the sounds that you eventually want to make – you won’t get anything out if you don’t put anything in.
So what is good advice?
Get a good balance between listening, learning and playing – put stuff in, learn how it works and start playing – play as much as you can!