I got hooked on playing jazz guitar in my early 20's and have been playing and a serious student of all things jazz guitar ever since. Like most guitar players it was rock 'n' roll and the British Invasion that got me into wanting to play guitar around 1963-64. Discovering jazz in my 20's really opened up the possibilities of the guitar. Re-discovering the ukulele several years ago I naturally started exploring developing my jazz repertoire on the ukulele.

There' a lot of mystic surrounding learning jazz on guitar and ukulele. But it's not as hard as you might think. Is it harder than rock or country - definitely, but well worth the trip. Just think of it as artist with a bigger box of crayons, more color possibilites.

In addition to studying jazz guitar for the past, almost 40 years. I've been a private music teacher for the past 15 plus years with up 70 students a week at times of all ages and levels. That with a graphic arts background and some web programming chops, It allows me present material that is concise, well researched and tested in an orgnized and professional manner. And, making it easy to apply to ukulele.

Topics that are covered in a well rounded jazz ukulele study program.

Just like jazz guitar, jazz on ukulele is an advanced form of ukulele and is not usually your first introduction to ukulele. After the fundamentals of the ukulele are covered, here are what would be involved in learning jazz ukulele.

Organization is key to learn to play jazz on ukulele. This is where a good jazz guitar or jazz ukulele teacher would really help. Here is my organization of the subjects and material that you would cover in a well rounded jazz ukulele program of study.

• Mechanical Technique - Developing right and left hand technique. These are the motor skill for playing the ukulele.
• Ear Training - Hearing intervals, chords, root movement …

  Here is a lesson on Ear Training.

• Chords - Chord construction, core and derived chords.

  A “Jazz” chord is simply a 4-part chord used in a wide variety of contemporary music.

  Largely associated with “jazz” players, anyone can use these cool chords.

  Playing background chords in support of a singer or soloist.

• Chord Progressions - Common chord progressions.
• Theory - The principles of Music - How it all works
• Rhythm
• Improvisation - Learning to solo.

  The essential scales for ALL jazz musicians.

  Traditional, Contemporary and Modal scales that are all par of a jazz musicians bag of tricks.

• Melody
• Reading Music

  Not reading TAB - actually learning to read music. It the lingua franca of musician around the world.

• Repertoire and Songs

  Developing a jazz ukulele repertoire.

• Styles - Swing, Bossa, Latin, Jazz Waltz, Ballads and more…

  Swing, Bossa, Latin, Jazz Waltz, Ballads and more…

• Stability of Tempo - Basically playing in time
• Harmonic, Melodic and Rhythmic Analysis
• Musical Devices such as Scales, Arpeggios, Interval Development and Sequences, Scale and Chord Inversion, Voice Leading, Bass Lines, Accompaniment …

As you can see, it's quite a list. Don't despair! Like the proverbial journey of a 1000 miles, it can get done one step at a time. The biggest problem is organizing those steps. Of all ukulele and guitar based forms, jazz is the most difficult to go it alone. That’s one reason that there are more jazz guitar majors in college now than at any other time in history. I don;t know of any ukulele jazz majors in college.

My own personal development and belief supports the private teacher model. I was lucky enough in my jazz development to study jazz guitar with Chuck Anderson. I continue to use and study with Chuck regarding all aspects of my music career. There is a great need for customized, dedicated personal teaching. The old European model of master and apprentice works well in this field. It, of course, needs some modern updating. But by and large, this model is more effective than the collegiate model. I would no recommend one try and go it alone when learning the more advanced topics that are part of jazz.

• Instruments

  You can pretty much play jazz on any style ukulele. Here are a few build in the jazz guitar tradition. Plus, they are just plain cool.

• Ukulele Jazz Players

• Lessons

  Jazz ukulele lessons right here on my site.

• Books