Jazz Beginners: Grant Green Is The Most Important Guitarist To Check Out!

As a Jazz Beginner, the goal is to SOUND like Jazz, and a great place to start is by checking out Grant Green! Listening to him and checking out his solos is an amazing place to learn solid Jazz Blues and Bebop phrasing as you will see in this video!
Joe Pass and The PERFECT Jazz Blues Solo:
• This Jazz Blues Solo i...
How Grant Green will teach you easy Bebop vocabulary:
• I Wish I Had Checked O...
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Content:
00:00 The Most Difficult Skill To Learn
01:41 From Blues To Bop
02:14 Mixing Major and Minor Blues
02:58 Changing Things Up
05:00 Grant Green - A Tale Of Two Tones
06:02 Raw Minor Blues
07:08 It's Not Melodic Minor
08:48 Melody and Rhythm
10:27 Another Intro To Jazz Blues: Joe Pass
My name is Jens Larsen, Danish Jazz Guitarist, and Educator. The videos on this channel will help you explore and enjoy Jazz. Some of it is how to play jazz guitar, but other videos are more on Music Theory like Jazz Chords or advice on how to practice and learn Jazz, on guitar or any other instrument.
The videos are mostly jazz guitar lessons, but also music theory, analysis of songs and videos on jazz guitars.
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[@JensLarsen]

What are solos or guitarists you recommend checking out? 😎😎 Do you know this Perfect Jazz Blues Solo? kzbin.info/www/bejne/hnOyoYWva8ybgNU

[@tomcripps7229]

Dave Stryker

[@stratcat9432]

​@@marvin----- Boogaloo Joe Jones is a damn good in the pocket player . Groovalicious! And the Grant Green live in Paris performance is funky perfection!

[@siriusra2692]

.......Grant Green is the king of how to start a solo. ..love Grant Green

[@Musicislifeya]

Grant Green makes sounds easy, but in fact it has lots of finesse and depth. Very deceptive

[@matt_greene]

Grant Green is the perfect gateway into Jazz. easy to love

[@SzabacsiNandor]

Grant Green is one my favourite jazz guitarists of all time. He changed my attitude towards guitarists and opened my ears, led me to play more horn-like.

[@JensLarsen]

Can't go wrong with Grant! 👍

[@enricosenno7767]

In his recent interview with beato, Benson mentioned Green as One of his greatest inspirations

[@JensLarsen]

Yes, that is indeed a the case, which is also why I mention him in this video

[@NickGranville]

Love Grant Green’s playing. He’s a vibe to be reckoned with - everyone should check out his music. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to Solid

[@pandaredemption]

Green is my favorite guitar player ever. Any genre, any era. You are one of the best guitar teachers on this whole website. Thanks for bringing these lessons to so many people!

[@JensLarsen]

My pleasure!

[@alexanderpotts8425]

every time I ever played with anyone else, the phrases I played that got the most positive reaction out of them was something I stole from grant green. without fail. he's the king.

[@cheesesteak59]

I have a number of Grant Green albums. My absolute favorite song by him is "Go Down Moses" from his "Feelin' The Spirit" album. His soloing on that blows my mind. The whole album is great and is probably overlooked.

[@titosmith7942]

Yes, love Solid as well! It's his most modern sounding jazz album to my ears

[@JensLarsen]

Yes, it has a more modern sound, probably because of the musical director who wrote quite a few of the songs.

[@reginaldparker3248]

Grant Green, I am going to check it out.

[@JensLarsen]

Go for it 👍

[@antoinec765]

I started jazz guitar 4 months ago thanks to grant green, I started with Green with envy, now Round about midngiht (way easier), and I'm stealing some licks from his blues songs ! I'm happy to hear all the similar licks he has accross multiples songs/albums. I finally start to understand his recipes, I find he doesn't have that many different ingredients...

[@blakehimself2816]

Grant Green is my favorite jazz guitarist. Love your channel and this type of analysis. Thank you.

[@bozakarlin9034]

Great lesson, thanks.

[@JensLarsen]

Glad you liked it!

[@BrendaBoykin-qz5dj]

Thank you,Jens ⭐🌹⭐

[@JensLarsen]

Glad you like it Brenda!

[@01taira]

2:21What a beautiful melody line here. I cannot play even half as fast as you and Mr.Green, but it still touches my soul. Thanks for posting this.

[@JensLarsen]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Mattrace]

Another brilliant lesson Jens. Pls keep them coming. The thing i love about Grant Green is how accessible his playing feels. And because of that, it builds confidence. His lines don't feel out of reach, as many / most other player's lines can. Never in a million years could i (or most amateurs!!) play like Metheny, Martino, Hall etc but when i listen to Grant i think, shit, i could do some of that!! And yes it might be comparatively "simple", but just about every guitarist lists GG as an influence. So, if that's simple, i'm happy playing simple! 😆

[@l6srob990]

Just started to listen to his music great lesson

[@JensLarsen]

That is certainly the place to start!

[@steellemonstudios]

Great video, Jens! I’ve been listened to (and learning) Josh Smith lately, and he mentions Grant Green often, so this is a good chance to revisit Grant Green’s playing. Thank you!

[@JensLarsen]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@MarkAnderson-iv1zt]

So much fun.

[@JensLarsen]

Glad you enjoyed it Mark!

[@kwyatt261]

Grant Green and Kenny Burrell are my two favorites

[@socialmeaslesinpartnership1252]

Thanks! Grant Green...new to me and excellent. Jazz guitar is also new to me after years of playing everything else. Since I have a decent semi-solid guitar (much like yours) I can get plenty of sounds from a single amp setting. I'm pretty well-versed and confident in blues and I'm getting better at exploring the crossover between the old pentatonic handful and the transitions that lie between these basic chords. The hand-and-fingering techniques are different in seeking the more "vocal" and legato expression of blues and they sound delicious on a jazz-cool palette but I also like to whack the treble pick up in with treble and bite and deliver some of that "Screaming-and vibrato" from time to time. Then go back to the neck pick up to deliver a different take on the smokier, cooler sound. I'm learning and I like the accessibility of some of the licks you played. Others...well...practice. I don't say it always works but - it does add a colour that definitely fits and it's heading towards a mayhem mixture because blues playing can be every bit as textured as bebop when it "learns" to start playing and syncopating with and across the beat elsewhere than just at the end of the bar and....because I'm also pretty comfortable with slang hand positions to "wring its neck" and (pretty much) "dissolve" everything into some of the anti-social or animal noises an electric guitar can make....just that I haven't "got that down" yet. Thanks, nice playing and nice Grant Green - new to me.

[@danielcyr3562]

I really love that album Solid and Street of Dreams are my two best by Grant Green.Thanks again Jens for your great vidéo on KZbin so inspiring.

[@JensLarsen]

Glad you enjoyed them!

[@tomcripps7229]

Thanks!

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you so much for the support, Tom!

[@Jeppe805]

Super godt! Grant Green har også været en inspiration for mig på trompet.

[@JensLarsen]

Tusind tak! Ja han er helt sikkert også umagen værd for andre instrumenter!

[@RocktCityTim]

"Joe's Blues" +100!

[@baronsnobolla6393]

Thanks for all you do Jens. Great content as always. Forgive me for asking something completely off topic but I need some advice. What do you do to avoid tendinitis? I seem to persistently have some in my fretting hand and have tried not playing for months but it seems to have never recovered entirely. Do you know of any exercises to treat and/or stave off tendinitis? Or any videos that are helpful? I'm not sure if you have any on this topic for that matter. Whatever guidance you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for everything.

[@samanthony2950]

Jens you should consider making three volume dvds that cover a whole jazz course. Books are great but dvds even better. I think there’s would be a substantial demand for something like this.

[@JiriPrajzner]

i started with grant green solos when i was learning jazz :)

[@JensLarsen]

👍

[@aschneider70]

I really like to dig Dexter Gordon melodies into the guitar.

[@diegoserna4157]

Great vid! It definitely seemed like GG figured out his tone later in his career lol. I think his overall best sounding album tone wise is “Visions.” Best tune tone wise I think is “Cease the Bombing”

[@JensLarsen]

Great! I'll have to check that out 🙂

[@cyusef]

One of my favorite videos of yours because Solid is fire but yeah, my access point to Grant was through the records you are not a fan of.

[@cbolt4492]

Please Jens, come to the UK

[@JensLarsen]

I would love to!

[@larrylorenzen2449]

Turning down treble and bass while turning up middle will give you a flat response on 60s Fender amps. That’s what I do for a jazz tone on those amps.

[@Chris-hq7nl]

Jens, IIRC the "two control" Fenders had a tone stack that essentially dimed the mids if you turned the treble and bass knobs all the way down.

[@JensLarsen]

That is indeed true for later Deluxe reverbs, but I am not sure if it is true for the early 60s models.

[@chrisr530]

This was so great! Green Street is a personal favorite album for me. I’ll definitely be checking out Solid. Jens - can you do a similar style breakdown of Kenny Burrell?? That would be much appreciated!

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you! A Burrell video could be fun! I did two a few years ago: kzbin.info/www/bejne/apOUiqVuec13mdk kzbin.info/www/bejne/nWqsl2yKdtJ-apY

[@chrisr530]

Nice!! I will check them out. Thanks for all you do Jens, your hard work is much appreciated in this great community my friend

[@claygrier4673]

George Benson's version of Billie's Bounce is great! Funny thing, for the past couple of years I thought that the warble was an anomaly with the version loaded onto Spotify and not with the master.

[@JensLarsen]

Yes, it is absolutely amazing! I did a video on it a few years ago. Apparently the studio lost power for a few seconds and that is how that ended up sounding on the tape 😁

[@m.charron]

Lines, notes, changes... that's all fine and good, but what we really need to take away from a dive into GG is *personality*. As in, he has one. He didn't care about how he was supposed to sound to be 'jazz'. His tone and attack was coming out of Lonnie Johnson, TBone Walker, Charlie Christian, and likely early BB and Freddy King. He was playing jazz, and could play some hot licks, and he didn't care - in the best way possible. He was grooving because that's what feels good, that's what moves the music forward, and he was speaking as himself. Also, he was a working musician that played for actual people who took their free time and the music they listened to very seriously. The people wanted musicians and storytellers with groove and personality, hence the careers of the men I mentioned.

[@m.charron]

TLDR: GG is great for beginners, and a kick in the pants for advanced players.

[@barisaxo]

@8:20 Chord/scale theory usually does not tell the full story on how tonal music works. It should be a starting point and a tool for practicing arithmetic, but not the answer of what's happening in music. It's one abstraction that does have a lot of validity and can be used to answer many questions, but all patterns found in music seem to have at least some overlap. I suppose this is an example of where the entire idea of melodic minor came from, though many classical theorists dislike the ideas of melodic and harmonic minor scales and consider them to be complete misnomers. As a side note, the whole first two beats could be thought of as a sort of expanded enclosure. Down a 5th, up a 4th, down a 3rd, up a 2nd. Pretty cool pattern.

[@kencutter1094]

You should check out the jazz guitar of Howard Roberts early sixties hired to play background for the television show the lawman he just improved Peace n serenity

[@JensLarsen]

I have listened to some but it didn't really resonate with me until now. Which albums would you recommend?

[@matteolatinov6630]

Great video, thanks for sharing! I absolutely love Grant Green! Regarding his tone, I think he's got a great tone in his very first album grant's first stand. Have you listened to that one? The tone seems even thicker than in Solid IMO

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you! Yes, I know that album (there's an example in the video), not sure I really agree with you on the tone though 🙂

[@matteolatinov6630]

@JensLarsen yeah my bad, you do go over an example from blues for willarene. Agree to disagree on the tone! 😉

[@InformedMisery]

The Grant Green/George Benson lick is very similar to what Charlie Christian plays at the end of his Seven Come Eleven solo.

[@JensLarsen]

Well, any I IV with root position triads will sound similar, it also sounds like Rhythm-a-ning. I can only guess, but I think the Benson/Green connection is stronger

[@wojciechadamek1957]

Wow

[@j.p.7708]

Check out GRANT GREEN JR. too, he is also amazing

[@mrdf730]

hello ,can you make a list of classic jazz guitar albums to listen for begginers in jazz?

[@JensLarsen]

Try this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJPRgHRpZaiDqsk

[@jacobhorowitz9735]

How do you know what chord is being played when doing the transcription?

[@InformedMisery]

What song from Grantstand is the not-harmonic-minor lick taken from?

[@JensLarsen]

Do you mean the example that is not melodic minor?

[@InformedMisery]

@@JensLarsen lol yes.

[@JensLarsen]

@@InformedMisery That is from "Green's Greenery" But I think he uses that phrase on I'll Remember April and Cool Blues as well

[@andercoyote4170]

Why are all the linked videos not showing up? Is KZbin messin’ with our success?

[@JensLarsen]

Don't know. It might depend on what device you are watching on 🙂

[@thijs199]

8:37 yeah of course, and there are a gazillion ways to describe the same thing in another way. but it is about putting a definition on it, and with this let people know you know whatsup ánd are able to communicate clearly in a language we all (should) know, rather than just say ''oh so beautiful'', or ''oh so great''. I find defining music theory superior to that for sure. It's objective

[@markhammer060]

underated, he didn’t ate enough🥴, or underrated?

[@JensLarsen]

Thanks Mark!

[@donsimons9810]

Not sure whether the trending algorithm is pointing us all the same but i was looking into grant green lately and saw one of his videos playing with Barney Kessel and Kenney Burrell. I’m not a jazz expert, but those two really blew him out of the water to my ear. It wasn’t close and i was frankly embarrassed for him, even though he appeared to be leading the trio as perhaps the most famous one? I guess “beginner” is the key word here. Why do people idolize grant green? from what i heard, he sounds pretty low on the totem pole

[@JensLarsen]

Interesting! If it is the same video then I had the opposite conclusion 😂

[@donsimons9810]

huh. maybe I missed something. it wasn’t just him sounding more ‘pentatonic’. He sounded less creative in dynamics and percussively. i even noticed his face after Barney’s first solo. He looked worried and almost annoyed - like ‘why you gotta show off, Barney?’ I think Kenny wasn’t in top form, so there’s an argument there, but he seriously looked distressed by Barney lol

[@JensLarsen]

@@donsimons9810 Funny how we can hear that differently 😁 that is not my impression at all

[@thijs199]

If you were to ask me, I would recommend you to come up with synonyms for your own theoretic lessons/analysis. You should kinda at least explain the same thing in two ways, so people can confirm they know what you're on about.

[@thijs199]

son

[@thijs199]

remember, you may have a good camera and nice audio now. but you're still the worst teacher ever lolllllllllll this comment is dead-serious