
In this lesson series, you will be exploring the world of Jazz guitar with Jane Miller.
Lesson 1
This exciting interview takes a close look at the playing and teaching of Jane Miller. Learn about her influences, some jazz recommendations, and her musical experience.
Length: 43:05 Difficulty: 0.5 Members OnlyLesson 2
Jane Miller talks about her new jazz series and provides a couple quick tips to get you started.
Length: 9:03 Difficulty: 1.0 Members OnlyLesson 3
Jane Miller explains the importance of hand stretches and warm-up exercises.
Length: 4:06 Difficulty: 0.5 Members OnlyLesson 4
Jane explains the chord changes used in a 12 bar jazz style blues.
Length: 17:30 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 5
Jane Miller shares some fun ideas about soloing over a 12 bar blues.
Length: 22:08 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 6
Jane talks more about the ii-V-I progression and how to work it into your jazz playing.
Length: 7:25 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 7
Jane Miller shares some valuable thoughts regarding chord tensions.
Length: 20:10 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 8
Jane provides an introductory lesson on the melodic minor scale.
Length: 2:44 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 9
Jane explains how the melodic minor scale and its corresponding modes are used in jazz melodies.
Length: 18:09 Difficulty: 3.0 Members OnlyLesson 10
Jane takes a look at movable chord forms played on the treble strings.
Length: 20:39 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 11
Jane Miller expands on her discussion of movable chord forms and how they apply to jazz.
Length: 19:18 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 12
Jane Miller shares a wonderful lesson about the importance of rhythm.
Length: 7:58 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 13
Jane Miller explores more rhythm and groove with another lesson using the metronome.
Length: 7:40 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 14
Jane Miller continues her discussion on rhythm and using a metronome.
Length: 6:15 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 15
Jane Miller concludes her discussion on metronomes and forming daily practice routines.
Length: 10:27 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 16
Jane Miller dives into her first lesson on right hand techniques.
Length: 3:58 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 17
Jane Miller dives right into part 2 of her Right Hand Techniques mini-series.
Length: 5:00 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 18
Jane Miller talks about fingerstyle playing exclusively in the third installment of Right Hand Techniques.
Length: 18:05 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 19
Jane Miller explores drop 2 voicings in this lesson.
Length: 18:06 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 20
Jane Miller talks about a "bargain chord" in this lesson. Learn what a bargain chord is and how it can be applied to your playing.
Length: 15:35 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 21
Jane Miller talks about chord solos in part one of this fascinating mini-series.
Length: 18:43 Difficulty: 2.5 FREELesson 22
Jane Miller explores another aspect of chord solos in part two of this fun topic.
Length: 6:27 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 23
Jane Miller concludes her discussion on chord solos.
Length: 13:59 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 24
Jane Miller explores some common Latin vamps in this lesson.
Length: 10:49 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 25
Jane Miller shares her insights on the topic of practice versus repertoire practice.
Length: 7:39 Difficulty: 0.5 Members OnlyLesson 26
Jane Miller plays an original song called "Bedtime Story" that showcases techniques discussed in earlier lessons such as the use of open strings and Bossa Nova comping.
Length: 4:19 Difficulty: 1.0 Members OnlyLesson 27
Jane demonstrates another original song called "Free Alongside Ship" that uses techniques learned in previous lessons.
Length: 3:00 Difficulty: 1.0 Members OnlyLesson 28
Jane Miller shares an original tuned called "The Other Room." Similar to songs taught in the past few lessons, "The Other Room" showcases techniques that Jane taught earlier in the series. See if you can...
Length: 4:55 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 29
Jane Miller takes a look at diminished chords in this lesson. She also touches on diminished scales and their relationship with diminished and dominant chords.
Length: 11:36 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 30
Jane Miller continues her discussion on diminished chords. In this lesson, she touches on their inversions and how they can be used in chord progressions.
Length: 11:43 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 31
Jane Miller changes gears and talks about diminished scales that go along with the diminished chords you learned.
Length: 12:48 Difficulty: 3.0 Members OnlyLesson 32
Jane Miller touches on making diminished 7th chords a substitution for dominant 7th chords.
Length: 15:38 Difficulty: 3.0 Members OnlyLesson 33
Jane Miller returns to the subject of diminished scales. This time she explains how they fit in with the chord substitutions you learned about in the last lesson.
Length: 14:28 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 34
Jane Miller starts explaining arpeggios. In continuation of the last couple of lessons, she starts with diminished 7th chord arpeggios.
Length: 10:07 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 35
Jane Miller continues her discussion on arpeggios in this lesson. This time around, she focuses on major 7th chord arpeggios.
Length: 9:42 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 36
In continuation of her last lesson, Jane Miller discusses another use for major 7th arpeggios.
Length: 8:50 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 37
Jane Miller gives a few more examples of using major 7th arpeggios against minor chords and explains how you can better incorporate them into your playing.
Length: 14:45 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 38
In this lesson, Jane Miller talks about major 6th chords and their relationship with minor 7th chords.
Length: 8:35 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 39
Jane Miller talks about scales & patterns in this lesson. She addresses some popular questions including how to improve the melodic element of your improvisation.
Length: 10:10 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 40
Jane Miller revisits her last lesson and explains how to apply major scales.
Length: 7:24 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 41
Jane Miller continues her lessons about scales & patterns with a discussion on the pentatonic scale.
Length: 14:43 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 42
Jane Miller continues her discussion of the pentatonic scale and its patterns. She talks about how to start applying some of the lines you learned in the previous lesson.
Length: 13:36 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 43
Jane Miller talks about the whole tone scale. This scale consists entirely of whole steps.
Length: 13:41 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 44
Now that you've learned all about the diminished and whole tone scales, Jane Miller discusses the chromatic scale.
Length: 9:21 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 45
Jane Miller continues her discussion of the chromatic scale with a great exercise to help you practice dynamics.
Length: 6:58 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 46
Jane Miller continues her discussion on dynamics in this lesson. She invites you to think about volume as a way to add feeling or catch attention while improvising.
Length: 7:01 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 47
Jane Miller discusses bass lines in this lesson. She begins by explaining how you can get a bassline going by itself first. Then, she explains how to add in chord voicings.
Length: 15:53 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 48
Jane Miller begins a discussion on upper structure triads. In this lesson, Jane refers to the top part of a major 7th chord as well as added tensions.
Length: 12:37 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 49
Jane Miller continues her discussion of upper structure triads.
Length: 15:14 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 50
Jane Miller picks up where she left off in her last lesson and shares a great technique that will provide you with some new comping options.
Length: 4:58 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 51
Jane Miller concludes her discussion of upper structure triads. In this lesson, she helps you turn the E minor triad you have been using into a G major triad.
Length: 9:29 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 52
Jane Miller changes gears and focuses on the E Lydian mode in this lesson.
Length: 13:31 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
About Jane Miller
View Full Biography
Guitarist, composer, arranger, and Berklee Associate Professor, Jane Miller has roots in both Jazz and Folk circuits. In addition to leading her own jazz instrumental quartet, she is in a working Chamber Jazz Trio with saxophonist Cercie Miller and bassist David Clark, for which she contributes many compositions. She has been a frequent guitarist with singer-songwriter SONiA, of disappear fear.
Jane is a contributing writer to Acoustic Guitar Magazine, writing lessons for the popular intermediate column, The Woodshed. She also writes a monthly column for Premiere Guitar Magazine called the Jazz Box . She has contributed several lesson columns for the Mel Bay publishing company’s on-line magazine, Guitar Sessions.
The Jane Miller Group has released three CDs on Jane’s label, Pink Bubble Records; all three received national radio play and press. She has performed solo and in duo and group settings regionally and around the country at clubs, festivals, and concerts as well as live TV and Radio appearances in New England.
Since joining the faculty in 1994 at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Jane has contributed many arrangements for solo guitar to the Guitar Department library, and has performed solo recitals and concerts with her group in the Berklee Performance Center and Recital Halls.
Discography
The Jane Miller Group "The Other Room" (2000)
The Jane Miller Trio "Secret Pockets" with guests Jay Ashby and Bill O'Connell (1998)
The Jane Miller Group "Postcard" with guests Patty Larkin, Mick Goodrick, Mili Bermejo and Ken LaRoche (1993)
SONiA "Me, Too" (1998)
Performances
Regattabar, Scullers, The Berklee Performance Center,The Firehouse, The Iron Horse, Club Passim, The Acton Jazz Cafe, The Hatch Shell, First Nights in Boston, Hartford, and Worcester, NOW Summit in Washington, D.C., Pride Festivals in San Diego, Baltimore, and Worcester, Susquehanna Music and Arts Festival, MD, Capital Region Guitar Show, Saratoga Springs, NY.
TV and Radio
Live appearances throughout New England, including WGBH-FM, WICN-FM. Composed and recorded theme music for "Barbara...and You," for Leominster Cablevision, as well as other jingles and themes. Former Jazz Coordinator for WCUW-FM, Worcester, MA.
Arts Lottery Grant recipient, award given to worthy artists and composers funded by Massachusetts Arts Lottery.
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Member Comments about this Lesson
Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.Hi Jane, I've bween on JP for almost a year now and only just discovered your lessons, WOW!! it's opened a whole new genre for me. I've had a 25 year break from the Guitar (sad I know) I was following Hawkeye and Michael Maddis as my desire was to learn the blues. I progressed well as I'd reached a good standard all those years ago and was amazed how many things came flooding back, but now I've discovered Jazz thanks to you and it's wonderful. I didn't realise Jazz was so closely related to the blues, and I think your lessons are GREAT!! - Please keep posting them!! Kind regards, Richard, aka Goodbar UK, West Yorkshire UK
I think this (sadly) is too advanced for me - I need more help with the v, vi, vii type stuff... these chords are ok but beyond what I need now. i love your teaching style! I wish you had more 'beginner/int. type tutorials'... maybe you do and I haven't found them yet!
I feel like at the end of the video when you are playing that amazing thing blues with all those voices, I am completely lost like I'm not sure if I should continue or keep on studying the last part.
Very Cool! Thanks
The supplemental content does not match the video. This needs to be fixed - there is no reason a student looking at this video should need to lookup the chords in a separate chord instruction and transpose.
this is great
This is great, its really helping me out with the Jazz thing. :) I really like the chords
Thanks Jane - I am really enjoying your series. My question refers to chord selection for the blues. I see you have added 7ths, 9ths and even used ii, vi and vii in different variations. To keep with the 12 bar concept - can you provide some help as to when these chords can be used and substituted?
The supplemental content has first position chords but she starts playing up the neck. The roots seem right it's not what she is playing.
I made a typo, it's just that the tab shows her playing in first position and the video has her playing up the neck.
Thanks for helping me find the direction I've been looking for. And I appreciate the way you teach.
This is the lesson series I've been waiting for. I have to say, though, that I wish the tabs would occasionally match up with what the instructor is playing. I know that it's part of the learning experience, and particularly part of the jazz experience, to figure things out on your own, but there's a lot of material here that is completely foreign to me. Sometimes I would just like to imitate for awhile until I get the basics down.
Great lesson! - the first time through a lot of seemingly unanswered questions come up that were actually addressed when I studied it the second time through - such as why a Gmin works in the 7th bar (ii-V-I) in the jazzier version when a C7 is the standard 7th bar cord in the 12 bar blues in F.
I guess watching it three times through is needed - the ii-V (Gmin C7) replaces the V-IV in the 9th and 10th bars, not the 7th and 8th.
Over the next several days, I'll be working on transcribing a few choruses of of Jane's blues comping. Hopefully, that will help your understanding of how all of the voicings can be used. Also, I'll add some written information under the "Info" tab explaining concepts such as the ii chord substitution, the tritone substitution, the ii-V turnaround, the I VI ii V "turnback" turnaround, and other important ideas presented in this lesson. Stay tuned!
Thanks, Matt. The new tabs you've added are a great help.
I'll be adding my take on all of this in the next day or two as well. Thanks.
hi, thanks for your comment. If you play the chords as shown on the 2 pages of the notation (shown as pdf in supplemental content) then you will have played the chords that I played. They will not, as you noticed, be in the same order, but they will for sure all be there. I wrote out diagrams for a few times around the 12-bar form, giving a lot of room for some freedom. If it's easier to look at the page and memorize what's there first, then do that, and then come back to the video. I promise you will then see the chords go by as I play them. I agree with you that it is better in jazz to figure things out, in the spirit of spontaneity. I like to think of comping as I think of improvising: learn to use the language "in the moment" as you play, similar to having a conversation with someone and using familiar phrases without reading a prepared speech over and over again. Hope this helps. It really is all there for you to use in your own way.
Thanks for the reply, Jane. I've started clawing my way through the supplementals. I can play the third version with the metronome if the metronome is on 10. I'll come back to the video when I get up to 12 or so. Ah, the pain. Who needs talent when you've got masochism? All BS aside, I really am looking forward to your series.
I love jazz guitar. Listening to you play is a joy and I would love to play just a fraction as well as you. However I was hoping this course of lessons would start off in a more simple way and gradually build up to the complicated chords and improvisations as the lessons went along. I'm afraid to say for me it's a bit like being thrown in at the deep end, and I'm a bit disappointed. This is no reflection whatsoever on you as a tutor, and I'm sure advanced players on the site will enjoy it.
Hands on that. Enjoying your lesson Jane !!Thanks.
Thanks for a great lesson. Would it be possible to indicate how you finger the different chords. Sometimes I can't find the exact ones you use on the chord chart. For many of us these chords are new and unfamiliar. Many thanks.
great to have you here Jane, looking forward to regaining some of my traditional jazz chops, in my opinion you are a tremendous addition here. cant wait to see the charts when matt posts them and hope we cover some standards as well as blues
Thx all! It's great to see such quick response to our questions. The folks at JamPlay are impressive!!!
Jane, there is nothing in the "Supplemental Content" folder! I was looking for those chords that you mentioned. Really cool lesson! Like the progressions used!
Where possible we try to have the supplemental content up with the lesson. It's not always possible depending on the instructor however. They will be posted as soon as Jane provides the content for us to post.
I'll be adding all of the chord charts over the next week or so. I'm not sure when Jane is planning on adding the tabs.
i cant wait to be playing like that. i wanna be able to playajazz sooo bad
It takes a bit of time for the good people of Jamplay get the Supplemental up. No worries, they'll be there soon.
Great lesson Jane. I only can't find the supplemental content.