Playing Solo Jazz Guitar (8 Ideas & 8 Exercises)

Would you like to play music on unaccompanied, solo jazz guitar?

Solo guitar is very beautiful to hear and very rewarding to play.

I’m still learning a lot about everything musical, but I’ll try to share what I’ve learned so far from playing different solo guitar gigs (and what I’m still working on, too).

What are basic elements of good solo jazz guitar?

Start of by focusing on a Clean Melody, Good groove from start to finish, Good form, and an Simple, Elegant solo. You’ll sound good and the music will feel good, too.

Table of Contents

Overview of Ideas for Solo Jazz Guitar

Here’s the run down for how I try to create a classic solo jazz guitar song.

Play the melody
Focus on groove and good time
Keep the groove while soloing
Your solos don’t have to be complicated at first, just play off the melody – you can build your solos later on
Keep the form and “display” the chords for the listener
End the song well
Add an intro
Record yourself playing solo jazz guitar

1. Play the melody

While all the cool licks and reharmonizations sound awesome, most people still just want to hear the melody. It’s presenting the melody in a coherent, simple way, while passing on the good vibes and feel, that takes subtle mastery of the idiom as well as of the guitar.

More about learning the melody.

Exercise #1 – Find the melody by ear

Pick a simple song/melody. Say “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star“.
Do you know the lyrics? If, yes, then good. If, no, then learn them.
Play the melody on your guitar (by ear).
Now play the melody up an octave and down an octave.
You’ll probably want to try the melody in a variety of keys. Some keys work better for solo guitar than others because of the way the fretboard is laid-out. Plus in some keys the melody will carry better, in terms of EQ, etc.
Now do the same thing with the next melody!

2. Focus on groove and time

I’ve been at solo gigs where I knew I couldn’t get through the melody with good time. And so I played the melody rubato. It’s not the best way to do things, but it still can create a good representation of the song. (And it’s probably better than messing up the groove)

The next step up – add groove and solid time. Keeping good time, in any situation, will allow the music to spiral upwards. Melody, rhythm and harmony create music. Since we’ve already got the melody, add the groove!

One of my issues with solo guitar – I sometimes think I’m playing something too boring. But that usually means I need to focus more strongly conveying the intention of the song. And one of the best ways to create and maintain that intention is to focus on groove.

Example/Exercise #2 – Solo Guitar Chord/Groove

With a metronome or other time-keeping device:

Play the melody (with no chords) in time.
Then instead of playing a solo, just play the chords, like you were comping (or quarter notes).
And then play the melody again (without the chords, but with good time)

More about good time and groove in jazz.

3. Keep the groove while soloing

I’ve noticed myself (and a lot of other jazz guitarists) choose fancy solo lines over good groove. I’ve done it – I’ve risked the groove to play just a couple more notes!

Once you’ve got the melody down, focus on playing it in time and with good groove (especially if you practice along with the greats).

Instead of trying to fit in too many notes in your solo, just play less and make less and make each note count more. Make each note have more melodic meaning, groove and content. In terms of groove, just start out making sure each note obviously makes sense rhythmically.

Exercise #3 – Simple Solos

Once you feel comfortable with the previous exercise, try this (with a metronome!):

Play the melody
Play a simple solo with good time (no chords) – remember to sing your lines, too!
Play the melody again

4. For solos, try playing off the melody

Playing variations and quotes from the melody during your solo can help in several regards:

It’s an easy way to start soloing in a solo guitar setting
It helps you create melodic nuggets
It helps the listener comprehend whats going on
It helps you keep the form
Playing variations of the melody allows you to create a fuller solo guitar sound.

Exercise #4 – Variations of the Melody

So take the example of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star“:

First rubato:

Play the melody
Now do things to alter the melody while still keeping the feel of the melody
Play the melody again
Create another variation.
Repeat
With each variation try more and more different ideas. You can allude to the melody, just keep it in mind so you’re connected to the basis of the song.

In time (with a metronome):

Do the same thing as above. Play the melody, then create a variation/solo based upon the melody. Repeat.
Now play the melody, then play the variation, then play the chords. You’re basically combining the

5. Keep the form and display the chords

Just like you can emphasize the melody, you can also emphasize the chords (with good groove). If you play just the chords with good groove, it will generally sound good and allow you take a break from simultaneously managing the melody, groove, solos and chords.

Of course, I always try to keep the form. Even if no one knows that form ‘got messed up’, they’ll still probably feel it. With solo guitar, I always choose groove over form, if I have to sacrifice one or the other. Obviously, keeping both the form and groove is best.

If you feel like you’re going to lose the form, especially for solos, you can: 1) play the melody with variations or 2) play a vamp for the solo section and then come back to the form for the melody.

Exercise #5 – Keep the Form

With a metronome, etc:

Play the chords (1 chorus)
Play a single line melody
Play the chords (1 chorus)
Play a single line melody
Now play chords for 4 bars, solo 4 bars – keeping the form
You can do all sorts of different mixes between the two (chords and solos). Maybe 3 bars solo and then 1 bar chords, etc.

6. End the song well

Ending a song well counts for a lot! There’s tons of classic ending ‘licks’ in whatever style of music you’re playing. Learn a few (or make up a few), and you’ll find that your song endings will have a little bit more sparkle.

Exercise #6 – Add endings

Find a few of the classic endings
Play the melody and add the ending at the end of the song!

7. Add an intro (i.e. start the song well)

Intros are always fun and you can make up intros to add some more spice and contrast between the melody and solo sections.

Usually intros are 2-16 bars long, but depending on how you want to create your interpretation, you can really do what you want.

Also, some songs have very classic intros that are associated with the song. You can also play these for your intro.

Exercise #7 – Create/Play Some Intros

If you are playing a certain tune, and it has a classic intro, consider learning it.
Also, just make up you own intros. Have fun!
Try to make the Intro have a structure, especially in number of bars, like 4, 8, 12, 16, etc – it will give the intro greater clarity.

8. Record Yourself Playing

Another great way to improve your playing is to record yourself playing – both with and without a click.

I’ve done this many times!

For solo jazz guitar, recording yourself is especially important because a lot of what we (as guitarists) think works, may not. And a lot of musical ideas we think are boring, overly repetitive and obvious may actually sound really good on the play back.

Exercise #8 – Record Yourself

1st method – record yourself playing solo jazz guitar
- Record yourself playing solo guitar – just the head
- Then Record the solo section – just the solo section
- First use a metronome (and include it on the recording to hear if you’re in time with the metronome)
- Then without a metronome, like you’d be performing it live
- Then record the whole song
2nd method – make your backing tracks where you alternate choruses between comping for yourself, and actually playing what you’d play as a solo guitar piece. On the play back, you can solo for a chorus, and then listen to what you played for the solo jazz guitar style.

In Summary

I hope these ideas help you to round out your solo jazz guitar chops. I believe that when I try to incoporate these ideas into my playing, I usually see some good results. Of course, there’s tons of other aspects to playing, but these ideas have definitely helped me improve my playing (when I can use them!)

Hope these help and best wishes!