One of the most common alterations you will come across as a beginning and intermediate jazz guitarist is the 7#11 chord. Built by taking a normal dominant 7 chord, R 3 5 b7, and lowering the 5th by a 1/2 step, R 3 #11(b5) b7, these chord symbols come up time and again in big band charts and standard tunes.

While learning to play George Benson’s licks can be a great way to dig into his sound and bring some of his lines into your solos, it can be much more beneficial to dissect his licks to see what concepts he was using to build these great-sound lines.

While there are many different voicings you can use to comp or solo over this common progression, with many offering important chord colors that should be explored in your practice routine, sometimes the easiest way to navigate this progression is to stick to one voicing and use it for multiple chords in a minor ii V i.

When learning how to play jazz guitar, one of the things that many players want to explore and get under their fingers is walking basslines. Though learning how to walk a bassline (and comp at the same time) can take a lot of experience and time in the woodshed, there are a few rules and pointers you can follow in order to get you off on the right foot as you begin to explore the world of basslines for jazz guitar.