Jazz Guitar Ideas – Count Out Loud – Improve Time and Groove !

Hey everyone!

Here’s some ideas I have learned (and am still learning) about how to play music – specifically jazz guitar! Please let me know if you have any comments, questions, etc!

Please check out some other ideas about time, groove, practicing, etc:

• Improve Solos – Right Hand Groove (Jazz Guitar version)
• Groove and the backbeat
• Practicing Jazz Groove, Lesson 2
• Practicing jazz groove, Lesson 1
• 7 five minute practice ideas
• Ideas for Learning to Play Jazz (Bebop, 2nd Line, Swing)
• Better Time – 10 Ideas for Musicians

This video shows some ideas about how to practice chords and improv while counting beats and bars out loud! I’m just playing 12-bar F blues to demo.

1. Count beats “1, 2, 3, 4”
2. Count beats and bars “1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 3, 4, 4, 2, 3, 4
3. Count while playing 1 chord per measure
4. Count while while playing quarter-note comping
5. Count while doing Charleston/NOLA comping
6. Count while comping more modern style
7. Count while soloing
8. Count while mixing solos and comping.

Remember:

• Try counting out loud with the guitar and without the guitar!
• Try counting while playing chords, and while muting the strings
• Try counting while playing just one note or while playing a chord.
• Try counting just beats and also beats&bars!
• Try with and without a metronome!
• Try it with a recording!

Intro Practices/Exercise to Counting Out Loud

The above video may not have included some preliminary exercises that you may to try out.

Let’s use this song/album to practice along to. It’s Oscar Peterson playing Count Basie. The play a slow jazz blues in C.

We used in the track in Practicing Jazz Groove (Slow C Blues with Oscar & Count Basie). It’s a great recording, with a solid beat, that’s not too slow or fast. It would just loop it.

Intro. Count along to the music without playing guitar.

I would suggest starting out trying counting quarter notes along to the track before you try with your guitar. You can either say the numbers or a syllable.

• So, say out loud, “One, Two, Three, Four“.
• You start out saying a syllable instead if you want like, “Da, Da, Da, Da“.

Of course, you don’t have to use this track – you could use a metronome instead. It’s worth checking out both a recording at a good solid, medium-slow tempo as well as a metronome.

If you use a metronome – set it to comfortable tempo. Maybe start somewhere between 60-85 bpm.

Detailed Explanation of Counting Out Loud Exercises (Using a C Jazz Blues)

Count beats “1, 2, 3, 4”

No do the same counting exercise you did above, but with your guitar – muting the strings.

Try either/both the numbers or a syllable, like “da”

• So, say out loud, “One, Two, Three, Four“.
• You start out saying a syllable instead if you want like, “da, da, da, da“.

Here’s the form for the blues from the Oscar Peterson and Count Basie Slow Blues video shown above. You don’t have to use this track, but imho it’s a great track to practice along to.

Count beats and measure/bars “1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 3, 4, 4, 2, 3, 4

So, here’s a chart of a jazz blues progression in C showing how you could count count out loud with the chords.

If a number has 2 syllables (like EIGH-T, ELE-VEN TWEL-EVE). Skip the 2nd syllable, or swing the syllable on the “and” of the beat!

Count while playing 1 chord per measure

So far we’ve:

• Counted Out loud to the recording (1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4) and/or metronome
  • and/or used a syllable for the beat (like “da”)
• Counted outloud to the recording while strumming muted strings (1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4) and/or metronome
  • and/or used a syllable for the beat (like “da”)
• Counted out loud to the recording – counting beats and measure/bars (1,2,3,4, 2,2,3,4, 3,2,3,4, 4,2,3,4, etc)
• Counted out loud to the recording – counting beats and measure/bars (1,2,3,4, 2,2,3,4, 3,2,3,4, 4,2,3,4, etc) while playing with muted strings

Now we count out loud (with or without with the bars/measures) and play the chord on the first beat of the measure.

Congrats on making so far! You’ve learned a lot – if you keep this up for different songs and pieces you play, (imho) you’ll improve your groove and musicianship!

Count while while playing quarter-note comping

So counting the beats (1, 2, 3, 4) out loud (with and without counting the bars/measures) while playing quarter-note comping is the next step!

Please check out Playing 4 on the Floor! (Classic Jazz Guitar Groove) to learn more about the beauty of quarter note comping and why (imho) it’s such a big part of building a good foundation for jazz guitar playing!

Count while doing Charleston/NOLA comping

So do what we’ve done with the previous exercise (quarter note comping) while counting.

Now try it with a different set of grooves. The Charleston and the Tresillo – the tresillo (when swung) is played in a lot of music from New Orleans.

Please check out Learning Second Line (for Guitarists)! to learn more about the second line. Also, please check out How to Play Salsa Guitar! to learn about the tresillo as well (and how it relates to other elements of groove)

The Charleston

The Tresillo!

I am going to leave the explanations for now. I will get back to this soon!

Count while comping more modern style

So, (in terms of comping) you’ve practiced:

• On the first beat of each measure
• Quarter Note comping
• The Charleston
• The Tresillo aka (when swung) 2nd Line

Now, let’s start mixing it up AND adding some more elements of what we would call “modern” jazz guitar comping.

1. To start out, just play sparsely while counting beats AND bars/measures!
2. At this point, you don’t have to count out loud all the time, experiment with counting out loud 50% of the time, 70%, 25% of the time, etc
3. Still focus on groove while counting.
4. Try mixing up the comping feels
   1. For example – do a chorus (chorus of the blues = 12 bars) with quarter note comping
   2. Then more “modern”, sparser comping
   3. Then NOLA style
   4. etc

Count while soloing

Welcome to the “next level”!

If you’ve completed the other exercises (but please keep working on them for different songs/styles, etc), then check this out!

Count of loud beats AND bars while soloing!

• Play really sparsely at first
• Make sure you focus first on the counting and the form!
• Be patient – this will probably take some weeks/months to really start getting the hang of!
• Try repetitive phrases – something simple every 2 or 4 bars!

Count while mixing solos and comping.

You can mix up just playing solos with playing solos and comping!

• Remember to focus on counting out loud!
• Trade Fours (Bars/Measures) with yourself 🙂
  • Play your solos – say 4 bars
  • Then comp – 4 bars
  • Since the blues is 12 bars, every chorus will “flip” which comes first – the solos or comping
• Trade Choruses (12 bars for most blues forms) with yourself
  • Play a chorus solo
  • Comp a chorus
• Remember to count!
• You can try to doing this with melodies, too!

Video Explaining Counting Out Loud by Adam Neely

Check out Adam Neely’s video about counting out-loud, too!

Special thanks to kordi_vahle for the beautiful photo of the beach!

https://pixabay.com/users/kordi_vahle-4934524

Practice Makes Progress!

• Six 5-10 Minute Groove Practice Ideas!
• Five 5-10 Minute Practice Ideas
• Make your Own Backing Track (5 Minute Practice Ideas)
• 30 Lessons in Jazz Guitar (Groove, Fundamentals, Soloing, Songs)
• Kindness in Learning Music
• Musicality: Nature, Nurture & 10,000 hours?
• How to Play Drums (for Guitarists)!

Check out Douglas Niedt’s Article about Counting Out Loud

Douglas Niedt wrote a very good and thorough article about how to count out loud as a way to improve groove and timing.