Difference between a jazz guitarist and a rock guitarist

[Leonard Smalls]

Arf!

 

 

[MacDaddy]

A rock guitarist plays 3 chords to 1,000 people, a jazz guitarist plays 1,000 chords to 3 people 😜

[Waddo Soqable]

You can fake a bit of "jazz gitarr" with a couple of simple chord shapey type things, but you'd prob  only get away with it for one "tune" ( so about an hour then..) 

 

ps. Some bloke on YouTube gives precise instructions on how to do this btw..

Edited May 1, 2023 by Waddo Soqable

[paul_5]

IME Jazz guitarists know more than just a pentatonic scale.

[chris_b]

59 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

A rock guitarist plays 3 chords to 1,000 people, a jazz guitarist plays 1,000 chords to 3 people 😜

 

Ha! You beat me to it.

[Shaggy]

4 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

A rock guitarist plays 3 chords to 1,000 people, a jazz guitarist plays 1,000 chords to 3 people 😜

 

More than a modicum of truth in that, although the most romantic memories of my late teens / early 20”s were spent at Cambridge Jazz club in the early 1980’s (“The man in the moon“ on Norfolk St.), which was always completely packed out.

 

Listening to good Jazz music live is an amazing experience, but for some reason I simply can’t do it in the house - of all the many hundreds of CD’s I own, only one is a Jazz one (almost inevitably; Miles Davis “Kind of blue”).

[bassace]

The difference between a jazz guitarist and a 12” pizza?
 

 

 

 

The latter will feed a family of four.

[Chienmortbb]

My old guitarist used to say “One bum note is a mistake, two is jazz”. So I suppose jazz guitarists make more mistakes.

 

As for the pentatonic scale, has any music of note been written using any other?

 

[Leonard Smalls]

19 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

As for the pentatonic scale, has any music of note been written using any other

Yes! 

Frinstance, classical music 😁

And even the Clash wrote in the Phrygian mode - London Calling...

And the intro to Riders on the Storm is in the Dorian Mode, as is Mad World by Tears for Fears...

And even the rarest of all modes is used occasionally - like in the verse of Bjork's Army of Me.

 

 

[yorks5stringer]

Personal hygiene?

[Hellzero]

Indeed @Leonard Smalls, but I doubt The Clash knew they were playing modal music... I think it's called an accident.

 

And to answer the question, a rock guitarist will run away as soon as he sees a partition. Old joke, I know.

 

That said Christophe Godin is a hell of a player and has a terrific knowledge of music and he's always kidding and joking (saw him a few times live).

 

And @bassace I helped him buy the ingredients and cook a tartiflette once by buying the CD's of The Mörglbl Trio when meeting him in a store in Paris, ... well that's what he said. 😂

[iconic]

[Leonard Smalls]

36 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

I doubt the Clash knew they were playing modal music

Of course they did!

Joe Strummer was even the inventor, or at least early adopter of, one mode, the Punkian.

 

[casapete]

7 minutes ago, iconic said:

Seen a fair few rock guitarists in berets - Clapton, Roy Buchanan, Richard Thompson, Captain Sensible etc,

but am struggling with jazz guitarists in the other one TBH……🤣

[Chienmortbb]

2 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Yes! 

Frinstance, classical music 😁

And even the Clash wrote in the Phrygian mode - London Calling...

And the intro to Riders on the Storm is in the Dorian Mode, as is Mad World by Tears for Fears...

And even the rarest of all modes is used occasionally - like in the verse of Bjork's Army of Me.

 

 

Yes, but apart from some of the finest contemporary music of the last 50 odd years?

[nilorius]

The difference is that a good jazz guitarist can always be a good rock guitar, too, but good rock guitarist - can't

[casapete]

33 minutes ago, nilorius said:

The difference is that a good jazz guitarist can always be a good rock guitar, too, but good rock guitarist - can't

Not necessarily - I’ve played with one or two jazz guitarists who know every chord under the sun but

can’t/ won’t play straight rock stuff convincingly.

 

Having said that, my buddy in our acoustic duo can do it all, but that’s truly rare my experience.

[nilorius]

7 hours ago, casapete said:

Not necessarily - I’ve played with one or two jazz guitarists who know every chord under the sun but

can’t/ won’t play straight rock stuff convincingly.

 

Having said that, my buddy in our acoustic duo can do it all, but that’s truly rare my experience.

Please listen to jazz guitarist instrumental songs, they can play rock easiely, it's a question of drive on/off. Jazz guitarists start to learn guitar playing from 7 years living. The only thing is that they didn't play rock before and 2 hours to listen what they must do. That's it. Rock guitarists mainly create their experience starting allready from easy rock song covers and then, try to create something like that on their own. Yes, a lot of them have musical theory experience, but if the interest was born in rock, they never be able to play jazz in future.

[Leonard Smalls]

For those who hadn't already spotted it, the video in the OP was a little bit tongue in cheek...

[Burns-bass]

2 hours ago, nilorius said:

Please listen to jazz guitarist instrumental songs, they can play rock easiely, it's a question of drive on/off. Jazz guitarists start to learn guitar playing from 7 years living. The only thing is that they didn't play rock before and 2 hours to listen what they must do. That's it. Rock guitarists mainly create their experience starting allready from easy rock song covers and then, try to create something like that on their own. Yes, a lot of them have musical theory experience, but if the interest was born in rock, they never be able to play jazz in future.

Not true at all. Jazz is all about clarity and articulation. Rock is mostly about attitude.

 

Just because jazz players know the notes, it always sound like something from Rock School.

[nilorius]

2 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

Not true at all. Jazz is all about clarity and articulation. Rock is mostly about attitude.

 

Just because jazz players know the notes, it always sound like something from Rock School.

Listen to fusion jazz and You will undersatand.

[Leonard Smalls]

11 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

Just because jazz players know the notes, it always sound like something from Rock School.

Not necessarily!

Listen to some Christophe from the OP in Morglbl. Goes from nice jazz to screaming metal to face melting rock within one song... 

Similarly, David Fiucynzski of the Screaming Headless Torsos plays everything from crazed microtonal free jazz on a fretless guitar to ultimate shredding.

 

[SubsonicSimpleton]

Good rock music is simple and energetic and listening to should make you want to jump up and down, fusion always feels contrived and cerebral no matter how good the technical execution is.

 

Lets be real, the only way anyone is getting laid after a jazz fusion/prog concert is if an absent minded farmer leaves his livestock tied to a lamp post outside the concert venue.

 

 

[Hellzero]

1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Not necessarily!

Listen to some Christophe from the OP in Morglbl. Goes from nice jazz to screaming metal to face melting rock within one song... 

Similarly, David Fiucynzski of the Screaming Headless Torsos plays everything from crazed microtonal free jazz on a fretless guitar to ultimate shredding.

 

The late Shawn Lane was an impressive all types of music player too, just like Ron Thal still is, even if he played with Guns N' Roses... Money can be tight sometimes.

[bassace]

Jazz musicians never play the same phrase once.

Edited May 3, 2023 by bassace