Is It Worth Getting Good At Jazz Guitar? Jazz Capitalism

[@lrowlands53]

Thanks Denis. Great video and inspiring thoughts qualified by your hard work and dedication. Most people shy away from dedication because never trying means you don't have to risk failing, but ironically, never trying is assured failure.

[@anouman100]

You better get good at jazz, or die trying. (Or the classical version: You better get good at Bach, or die trying.)

[@paulgibby6932]

One of my favorites of your vids Denis. Keep the faith, baby

[@commissarchad]

Man, your video titles are always S tier!

[@ZarekSilberschmidt]

Interesting, thank you for the upload, Denis.

[@yikiwang1177]

Always great videos! Thank you Denis!

[@oliverfranks1983]

It’s definitely worth getting good at jazz guitar. Everyone loves a good guitar solo and there’s so much to learn and discover in jazz and classical music. It’s not a bad way to spend your time! Learning Japanese is probably even more useful however ;)

[@ralphstanfield3734]

There's a dialogue gets kinda of sterile with metronome

[@regularbloke7410]

can you tell what guitar model you play in this video ?

[@DenisChangMusic]

This is an AT guitar , made in Japan

[@regularbloke7410]

@@DenisChangMusic thanks for reply

[@chrissguitarshow206]

Sounds like what joe pass used to do playing solo guitar alone.

[@lee95757]

Man you are just rambling. Play whatever it is you are talking about plain and simple. That's it.

[@DenisChangMusic]

but if i followed your advice, I would sound like you 😂

[@hylandg1171]

The rambling is what we're here for.

[@Ludwig_Cox]

Great video and advice Dennis. Just DON'T study music at a conservatory, it's a waste of time and money. I study jazz but also i'm getting a high paying degree, that's my advice. I know people who have masters degrees in jazz academy's and are unemployed or work really bad jobs. Only 1% of jazz players can play for money and live of it so best to have a solid job if you don't want to be a dishwasher and be 1000's of euros in debt. Anyway, really solid advice on only studying towards your goal, i feel there's a lot of nonsense teachers out there waisting their students time with pointless exercises etc..

[@DenisChangMusic]

I think in certain countries in Europe, education is really cheap. I made a video about that a few weeks ago. In that case, the financial risk is relatively low. If things don’t work out, go back to school for something more practical

[@landonskalsky735]

Thanks for the video Denis 😊. These past 6 months or so I’ve been becoming more and more serious about guitar and music in general. And this channel has helped with that very much. Your philosophical video are by far my favorite, keep it up 🤌🏻😎. Thanks 🙏

[@Obscurity202]

Bro you are really beebopping those triplets 😊

[@Pete_B_773]

Who speaks Japanese better, you or Marty Friedman?

[@DenisChangMusic]

I don’t know how far Marty took his studies, but he speaks very well! To what degree of freedom he can speak, I have no idea but he can clearly speak day to day Japanese.

[@gregowens1005]

Great advice @ 21:00. If you don't mind, could you post an excerpt of your GJ Playalongs Vol.1 with the full band? I'd like to hear what it sounds like for a possible solo gig. Thanks.

[@stfnmila]

funny.. im working on miss jones right now, theres a whole solo guitar + self comping/line playing from pasquale grasso on miss jones on youtube ( live at the flat in greenwich village #36- rosanno sportiello/pasquale grasso), i transcribed the whole thing and its super nice. ( theres also a transcription of grasso playing miss jones on some channel but thats the one where he was demonstrating a trenier guitar and he mostly played art tatums intro/runs)

[@fouroutoffour]

Off topic but out of curiosity, how does your reading and writing in Japanese compare to your spoken facility?

[@21Million]

My liveihood depends zero on me playing guitar and therefore, I often de-prioritize it.

[@bwbillwilliamsbw]

Good to know I'm not alone 🙂

[@luisalvarez4452]

Denis, you da man!

[@j.garnergtr]

Do they use looper for these gigs? I do quite a bit now. Bookers even ask for it sometimes. Two musicians for the price of one, sort of. If much rather play with another person, but I'll take the gig. Got to pay rent. I loop changes during vocal and solo over it. Or I'll just run the changes once and then play over the top.

[@DenisChangMusic]

So far, I have not seen anyone do it. I think it’s part of the general education in Japan to learn how to play completely alone… If I may add one thing, it’s that a lot of them also are not good at playing in band situations. I’ve noticed for example if there’s a pianist and guitarist, and a horn player is soloing, often they don’t know how to cooperate together in comping duties. Pianists/gutiarists tend to overcomp and play all the weird subs indiscriminately without listening to what the soloist is doing… This is a big generalization, of course, but in my experience, it happens more often than not, at least at jam sessions.

[@j.garnergtr]

Ah, yes, the solo pianist curse. Happens here in the states, too. If they are too used to playing solo, they overplay and time is wonky in band situations. Playing solo is a great challenge , though. @@DenisChangMusic

[@julesbrunton1728]

Make a stand and tell those cheap venues to pay up for a musician or stop being a music venue

[@j.garnergtr]

yeah, that's noble and all, but they will just hire someone else. unless we all decide to do this, all the musicians, like a union or something, this won't work. i live in San Diego, there are tons of musicians here, american and mexican and that spot will get filled, with a good musician, too. so without a union, forget that noise. @@julesbrunton1728

[@jfar3340]

Wait a minute. 1) playing chords : check 2) playing the melody: check 3) improvising: wait what? Comping, unless you do some more advanced quartal harmony, reharm, syncopated rhythm etc, isnt that hard (follow the lead sheet using shells or drop2s and a 4x4 or charleston rhythm). But improvising??? Now thats super hard

[@DenisChangMusic]

I’ve addressed improvisation in many other videos. It’s such a huge topic, but I specifically say “coherent improvisaiton”. That’s not a tall order: being able to play something that makes sense over the chord progression, not getting lost, decent sense of time. If anyone can do those three things, then a solo could not be considered “bad”. There are tons of “average” (and I don’t mean this in a negative way) who can do this, so anyone can achieve this fairly quickly if they just know what to focus on.

[@jfar3340]

I know you vr talked about improv in other videos im an avid listener of your material and i even bought your book. Actually I rewatched today the amazing interview you did with Jonathan Stout and he talks about preplanned solos. Having a solo thats at least in parts pre planned for a given song, with variations here and there, is imo tremendously helpful instead of trying to play something completely new every single time. As long as the player who plays that solo has an understanding of what he/she s playing (ie not just learning something mindlessly off a tab but coming up with a preplanned solo based on arpeggios and vocabulary), would that be good enough for a coherent solo? Cheers