Most Helpful Exercises For Jazz

[Tim Toberer]

Without going into too many details of tuning, pedals, picking, blocking etc, just in general music theory. What are the most helpful exercises for jazz style soloing? I am in the process of trying to adapt some of the standard guitar exercises to steel and it is really highlighting some of the unique difficulties with this instrument!

This video has some good ones based around playing diatonic arpeggios and adding enclosures and chromatic pickup notes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_38IgSxcyb8

[Daniel Baston]

Here is my two cents FWIW.

Ultimately to play what you want to hear and/or to be able to improvise you have to play by ear.
Exercises can be useful, because they can help you to hear different harmonies as you play them and build lines from them. They are also useful when you learn something new (a phrase from a solo that you like for example), knowing theory helps you to analyze it, so you can try different variations and play it in different keys/over different chords etc. And all of that ultimately with the goal of absorbing it 'into your ear', so to speak. When improvising, you don't have time to think about all of this stuff, 'thinking' is for the practice room.

This is just my opinion, but I would suggest trying to figure out lines that you like by singing them first and figuring them out on the instrument. If you can't sing the line, keep trying until you can. If you can sing it, you are a step closer to being to play it. A lot of people (including me for a while) seem to be resistant to singing lines before playing them when learning difficult material. I am not sure why, it works! Then try playing the same line over a different chord. If it doesn't sound good over the chord, try altering the line until it works over that chord. The more theory you know, the more ideas you may come up when doing that. Or you can just try variations by ear. Or both. Being able to play things on the fly involves knowing intuitively where to find what you want to hear (or more accurately the best you can do in the moment!) and that just comes from doing this stuff.

I think that it is tempting to put the cart before the horse. Rather than learning theory so that you can play jazz, just start playing jazz. Apply whatever theory you have when practicing and learn more so that you can expand on what you know. Theory can help you analyze. But when you are actually playing, if you think "here comes an enclosure" you are already lost. Just try stuff. Theory-wise, recently I have been looking into Barry Harris' rather unique take on things.

I hope this response is on topic, it can be hard to tell sometimes! Sometimes when you ask a sincere question like you did here, it seems like everyone just kind of answers with a blurb about their own personal pet theory. Haha. I tried to avoid doing that here, but heck who knows if I succeeded .

I guess something more direct might be to say that I have been trying and enjoying using phrases that I learn as exercises. When I play 'exercises' I find that I get better at playing those exercises and it doesn't really help me as much as learning something that I actually want to play. That's me though I guess. Oops that was long.

Actually, one other thing. A lot of people (again, including me for a long time) are kind of 'afraid' of playing something 'wrong'. But really, who cares? While working on new/difficult material, embrace sounding bad. It's part of the process. Just try stuff.

[Larry Allen]

Learn the MELODY on the Jazz songs and then start using it to creat your solos..

[Phillip Hermans]

Depending on what era of jazz you are trying to play, this differs. But lets say be-bop is the most sophisticated and difficult form, and the best explanation of that I have found is via Barry Harris. I have tried many approaches over the years and Barry's feels the most elegant and results in the most "hip" and "bebop" sound

There are hours of this stuff on Youtube. It actually distills down to a handful of simple concepts that take a lifetime to explore
Barry himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU387hq ... bRzkEq31im,
Former student of his explaining the concepts for armpit guitar: https://www.youtube.com/@thingsivelearnedfrombarryh2616
Armpit guitarist explaining it to a pianist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jysZfWL71k4

My quick summary:
- for any given chord in a song you should be able to play: arpeggio and scale in many patterns (additionally there are concepts like tritone subs, upper extensions... i won't go into it all)
- in a descending melodic line, insert chromatic notes (or another note from the scale) so that chord tones fall on downbeats (the passing tones go on upbeats)
- not a Barry Harris rule, but a general rule of thumb: arpeggios on the way up, scales on the way down (i.e. when ascending melodically, use arpeggios, when descending use scales with chromatic passing notes)
- for playing harmonies / comping, you can use Barry's 6th diminshed scale variations

[Bill McCloskey]

Exercises transcend genre. I think for me the question is; what are the best exercises for learning steel? Which are the best for my right hand, which for the left, leaning the fretboard, etc. I’ve been on a back to basics kick and have collected all of Jeff Newman’s lessons for E9 and C6. This has been a real revelation for me. I’m also working through the Herby Wallace books for both E9 and C6 and he provides lots of exercises to help build speed, attack, how to pull emotion from your playing. Spreading out to more jazzy stuff: There are Buddy Emmons tab for all his work with his Swing Band.

Like yourself no doubt, the idea of jazz on steel has always intrigued me. There is a Barry Harris book for guitar sitting on my music stand right now. But as much as I want to play jazz on steel, after joining a band I realized a couple of things: no one is going to invite you to join their jazz band. 2. I really needed to invest time in learning the instrument’s repertoire, licks, runs, intros…. Realizing that steel is more of a supporting instrument than a lead instrument or a solo instrument.

And while one can play jazz on steel, Reece Anderson and Buddy, and a number of our current members attest to that,,, it is still a “special” type of jazz which will never replace jazz guitar. If you want to play jazz guitar, play jazz guitar. But if you are learning steel, learn steel. And for me, at least at this moment in time, that means getting back to basics, learning the core steel repertoire, and studying the master teachers: Newman, Wallace, DeWitt. I recommend Newman’s Right Hand Alpha.

At least that is where I am in October 2025.

[Detlef Webert]

I fully agree to what Bill has said,- starting and building up from scratch the chords and pedal mythology.
After almost 40 years being me on E9th, the C6th looks like to give me a hard time as well.
Start it slowly and take your time; it comes with trying, improving and doing all the time.

[Tim Toberer]

Ok there is some good stuff here, I guess it may be hard to respond because it is pretty vague. Exercises for jazz could be exercises for any genre I realize. This video has some good ones so I have my hands full already. Exercises can be a huge waste of time, so I guess I am looking for specific exercises people have done that they really felt improved their playing. I like some of the suggestions of singing a phrase and then trying to play it. I do this with my standard guitar in my lap, I will play something then try to find it on steel. I also like the idea of using song melody to create an exercise. The melody is the obviously the most important part of the song and you can learn a lot just by learning Jazz heads. It is also good to remember to keep chord tones on the downbeat. I know a lot of the Barry Harris method involves inserting extra notes to make 8 note scales which is sort of this same idea.

I have worked out (in C) the diatonic arpeggios starting with thirds and triads (which is just the most basic music theory for any genre) I worked out playing through the scale in 4 note 7ths arpeggios. I also worked out playing through the scale in the 4 inversions. Trying to get this stuff very fluid is going to take a while! Adding a chromatic leading note makes things much more interesting and I like to vary the rhythm as I move through the scale. When I move out of C and try to take it through the circle of fifths I realize quickly how far I have to go!

[Dale Rottacker]

Tim THIS is a great informational thread ... Thank You!!

[Tim Toberer]

I wanted to add I had a sort of epiphany moment when trying to work out playing through the diatonic arpeggios from the third (in the video I posted). This is also a Barry Harris thing, he calls it the important arpeggio. So instead of playing it straight CM7-Dm7-Em7-FM7-G7-Am7-B half dim-CM7 you are playing Em7-FM7-G7-Am7-B half dim-CM7-Dm7-Em7 you are sort of spelling out the most common substitutions for these chords. Notice the C has 2, Am7 being just C6 and Em7 which is just CM9 no rt. This is also en easy venture into the world of chord superimposition which sounds really hard, but it is actually supposed to simplify things.

One of the most confusing things for me when I first started was understanding substitutions. I just couldn't wrap my head around it until I started learning about functional harmony. What you are really playing is just rootless versions of the primary chords and by thinking of them as substitutions, you expand the possible extensions. You aren't changing the primary chord at all it just changes the flavor a little or alot depending how far you go.

[J D Sauser]

I don't know of a single "exercise" that would do the "trick". Frankly, besides for technique, I am not a big fan of exercises in modern music. Schools do (SELL) that. But I believe that for creative music, the best is to start making "music" and not some kind of "rigid" routine and exercise would seem to be.

I rather think that one needs to have a road map for the two main things involved in playing music (in this case "Jazz"):
1- HEARING things and developing own "ideas", "sounds" and "lines"
2- FINDING where/how to play all that on an instrument
one may say "well #3-Technique"... to which I would say, that comes with applying #1 to #2... there is no need to be able to play faster than what one can "mouth" and find on the neck.

So, I can only share what -looking back over the last 5-6 years- has worked for and become the red thread of my progress, discarding all the dead ends.
In other words, IF I were to ever guide someone to learn Jazz on steel guitar, I would probably format it along these thoughts:


1. BASIC NECK KNOWLEDGE
Start by finding your root positions — these will form your pockets.
On C6th (since we’re talking “Jazz,” I’ll assume this as the main tuning, though the same concepts apply to E9th), there are at least three root-tracking strings:

• 7th string → Major triad
• 8th string → Minor triad
• 9th string → Major triad

Even if you don’t retune your 10th string, think of it as a D, with the string above it representing the minor third of a D minor triad — this helps you visualize positions.


From there, develop Dominant 7th pockets off all four root positions.
Practice blending one pocket into another — still staying within Dominant 7th sounds (unless you’re already more advanced).

Once that’s comfortable, ask yourself: “Where is IV?”
Learn to move from any of the four positions up a fourth to the next chord — either:

• On the same fret (two strings back)
• Two frets below (two strings forward), or
• One or two frets above (next string in front).

2. INCORPORATE MINOR CHORDS
Develop minor chord pockets from the two minor positions (8th string and “D” on the 10th string).
There’s also a commonly used minor root on the 6th string, two frets below — you’ll need to move back up two frets to complete the arpeggio.
Practice moving from any minor position up a fourth into a Dominant 7th position (the classic ii–V movement).

3. SOME THEORY
Learn the Circle of Fifths counterclockwise (in fourths).
All you really need to internalize is:
B (vii), E (iii), A (vi), D (ii), G (V), C (I), F (IV) — and then continue into flats (Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb → back to B).
Understand that vii, iii, vi, ii, V, I, IV is the longest chain of fourths that stays within the key (the diatonic system).

Most jazz standards stay mostly diatonic, with a few modal interchange or borrowed chords — meaning a chord that’s normally minor might appear as dominant, or vice versa.
If you see a series of chords clearly outside the diatonic system, that often indicates a key change — sometimes subtle (think Body and Soul).
Being able to see and eventually hear progressions moving in fourths (the Circle of Fifths) will help you recognize these shifts.
Next, learn about:

• ii–V–I (ending on a Major I)
• ii–V–i (ending on a minor i)

There are excellent YouTube lessons on this from guitarists, saxophonists, and pianists.
(Saxophonists are great if you want to focus on single-note playing without chord voicings getting in the way.)

Also realize that a ii–V–I doesn’t always start on the key’s natural degrees — it might start on the iii- or vii-, but the shape and behavior remain the same.
That means you can shift all your ii–V–I language and chord movements around the neck as needed.

4. LISTENING AND LEARNING TUNES
Apply each step within a basic blues progression first — and in all keys.
As you internalize ii–V–I language, start working on jazz blues forms. You don’t need to learn specific tunes right away — focus on the progression and the feel.

Listen to B.B. King — he may be the King of Blues, but really, he was a jazz-blues musician.

Then move on to:

Autumn Leaves – Study it away from the instrument.
Keep a chord chart in front of you while you listen. Watch videos analyzing the harmony — you’ll see how crucial ii–V–I patterns are and how they’re displaced.
Don’t play it yet — just learn the tune by ear until you can sing or hum it and follow the chord movement (ii–V–I–IV in major, ii–V–i in minor).

Blue Bossa – Do the same process.
It introduces minor blues movement (i–iv) and similar ii–V–I structures.
Learn these two tunes as deeply as you know childhood songs like Twinkle Twinkle or My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.

While you’re doing this, keep applying your fretboard work to blues progressions:
Start with simple I–IV–V blues,
then move to jazz blues, which typically goes something like:
I, IV, I, V–m → I7 (ii–V–I into →) IV, #IV° → I, iii/VI (ii–V into →) ii, V, I.
If you get tired of Autumn Leaves or Blue Bossa, move on to All of Me.
Once you truly know these tunes (in your ear and head), start working them on steel. They don’t have to be perfect or “finished.”

When you can apply some language, move on and cycle between tunes — try them in “inverted keys,” meaning a fourth or fifth apart (e.g. F or G relative to C, Bb or C relative to F).

And remember: don’t count fret numbers, rahter count fret distances: how many frets up or down, how far from your key center (the I or i in a ii–V–I).


Over the years, I’ve followed this approach myself — though without guidance, which led to some dead ends I had to backtrack from.
I always return to The Blues and Jazz Blues, applying everything I’ve learned elsewhere.
My “home base” tunes are Autumn Leaves, Blue Bossa, All of Me, and Fly Me to the Moon.
I know them so well I can “play” them while staring at the ceiling. I know their chords in numbers, their sub-sequences (chord analysis), and their positions on the neck.
They’re my “coming home to roost” tunes — never finished, always evolving.
I challenge myself by modulating these tunes in fourths and now in thirds too — playing them bluesy, melodically, or bebop-style.

Speaking of Bebop — study enclosures in single-note playing.
That’s the gateway to truly sounding like a jazz musician. You should eventually be able to play enclosures for every chord and scale tone, in all chord types (Major, Dominant, minor, half-diminished, and diminished).
You’ll have moments of excitement, then boredom — that’s normal. Every new discovery leads to deeper levels.
That’s the real history of jazz: an endless process of growth and refinement.


Finally — LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN. ... and not "only" to Buddy Emmons, rather listen to whom HE listened to (like Charly Parker, Cannonball Alderly etc)
But learn to listen consciously — to the point you can sing or hum solos.
If you want to be an ear player, you must train your ear and your mouth away from the instrument.
You need to know a tune before you try to play it.

— J-D.

[Bill McCloskey]

Of course, no thread on practice and exercises is complete without the words of wisdom of the great Jimmy Bruno:

https://youtu.be/zisCvYjk6-o?si=g4i9PG29f08fKpBb

[Fred Treece]

Of course, no thread on practice and exercises is complete without the words of wisdom of the great Jimmy Bruno:

https://youtu.be/zisCvYjk6-o?si=g4i9PG29f08fKpBb

Love that guy!

[Brooks Montgomery]

Of course, no thread on practice and exercises is complete without the words of wisdom of the great Jimmy Bruno:

https://youtu.be/zisCvYjk6-o?si=g4i9PG29f08fKpBb

Love that guy!

so effing classic. probably what every teacher wants to say

[Christopher Woitach]

As a long time jazz guitarist who made the arguably fraught decision to not only learn pedal steel, but play jazz on it, here are a couple thoughts, some things that helped (continue to help) me:

Bert Ligon’s book Connecting Chords Through Linear Harmony is one of the clearest books on the subject of playing lines in jazz, completely applicable to all instruments, including steel. There are simple exercises to first learn the outlines of classic bebop lines, then a thorough and easy to apply chapter on the devices used to create lines from the outlines, then in depth examples of transcribed ii-V-I lines with explanations, then several exercises over common jazz progressions. I love this book, and have used with many students over the years, as well as to help my own steel playing.

Pat Martino’s Linear Expessions - I regularly warm up Pat’s 5 “activities”, which help with both mental and physical (picking, positions, etc) practice on the steel.

Nobody has ever been anything but helped by playing transcriptions, whether you did the transcription or they’re published. I use books like the Charlie Parker Omnibook, Barry Galbraith’s chord melody book, Joe Pass Chord solos, etc, to learn where all that stuff is on the pedal steel. It helps.

Other people here have mentioned playing tunes - one of the great “exercises” there is, especially in 12 keys.

Reading never hurt anyone’s playing, ears are crucial too, together they make a formidable combination.

Proud of you for picking something so tricky and looking for a rational approach to learning it - wonderful!

[Dave Grafe]

So far "One Note Samba" is exercise enough for me on the E9 neck, with arpeggiated verse lines and harmonies on the bridge. When you get through with that let me know.

[J D Sauser]

As a long time jazz guitarist who made the arguably fraught decision to not only learn pedal steel, but play jazz on it, here are a couple thoughts, some things that helped (continue to help) me:

Bert Ligon’s book Connecting Chords Through Linear Harmony is one of the clearest books on the subject of playing lines in jazz, completely applicable to all instruments, including steel. There are simple exercises to first learn the outlines of classic bebop lines, then a thorough and easy to apply chapter on the devices used to create lines from the outlines, then in depth examples of transcribed ii-V-I lines with explanations, then several exercises over common jazz progressions. I love this book, and have used with many students over the years, as well as to help my own steel playing.

Pat Martino’s Linear Expessions - I regularly warm up Pat’s 5 “activities”, which help with both mental and physical (picking, positions, etc) practice on the steel.

Nobody has ever been anything but helped by playing transcriptions, whether you did the transcription or they’re published. I use books like the Charlie Parker Omnibook, Barry Galbraith’s chord melody book, Joe Pass Chord solos, etc, to learn where all that stuff is on the pedal steel. It helps.

Other people here have mentioned playing tunes - one of the great “exercises” there is, especially in 12 keys.

Reading never hurt anyone’s playing, ears are crucial too, together they make a formidable combination.

Proud of you for picking something so tricky and looking for a rational approach to learning it - wonderful!

Great point of view!
I think the one “exercise” which indeed stands out here is “transcribing” solos and lines (like over sequences like “ii V I’s”), and I put in quotes because by “transcribing” in Jazz the “writing” part is generally skiped, it’s all about listening, learning and then laying it out or adapting it to the instrument and not just that, but to “play around” with it.
Pat Martino’s handful of “Line Activities” are not etched in granite either and can be “bent” and morphed to work over many comon sequences of chord changes.
So, excercising becomes a creative activity and not a chore.

… JD.

[Tim Toberer]

Bert Ligon’s book Connecting Chords Through Linear Harmony is one of the clearest books on the subject of playing lines in jazz, completely applicable to all instruments, including steel.

This one comes up a lot, I will find it. I have been trying to exhaust my free resources mostly through YouTube, but a good book is nice for deeper study and you can always look back at it. I will look into the others as well. Thanks for all the tips and the encouragement!

I don't know of a single "exercise" that would do the "trick". Frankly, besides for technique, I am not a big fan of exercises in modern music. Schools do (SELL) that. But I believe that for creative music, the best is to start making "music" and not some kind of "rigid" routine and exercise would seem to be.

JD, I get what you are saying and for years I avoid exercises like the plague! I am getting a bit stuck on steel and a month or so ago I decided to work out a couple exercises just for Major and minor triads and their inversions up and down the neck. I am noticing improvement, way more than just creative noodling which is what I usually do! I try to be aware when I have this stuff figured out to move on to something else and not just mindlessly keep doing the same thing. Then I can go back to it every so often.

For a more creative exercise, one I forgot about but have used on guitar for a while, is from Joe Diorio. He suggests doing this every day as a warm up, but you basically throw away everything you know and play notes and rhythm randomly up and down the neck, basically free jazz. I think he purposefully avoids harmony, scales anything you would normally apply. It is very liberating and actually can improve your playing.

[J D Sauser]

Thanks Tim.
I think we all may have a different interpretation of what "exercise" means.
That Jens Larsen video -like many- is more like braking ground on a concept worth studying when you feel you are ready for anther view angle at how to master those 12 available semitones.
What I would refrain from, is treat many of these mini courses as a "linear" exercise, running up and down.
Again, LISTENING, getting a grasp of the "sound", the "mood" each certain concept has is key to becoming able to "make something" with it beyond parroting some examples. IF one turns out to have been ready for that new "angle", one will quickly incorporate it into existing "pockets" or shapes and start "running with it". It always ought to be connected to experimentation and inclusion, connecting with existing concepts.


Example:
Last Spring, I felt I was ready to got get a bite at "Dominant Altered".
I first started by studying the theoriES (keep in mind, when it is not a Law Of Physics, it's just a "theory" and theories are plentiful and are at BEST a well explained opinion), which was wasted time because I was again too eager to bypass LISTENING FIRST and just ran up a world of approaches to something I first needed to develop a auditive relationship with. So, after driving myself nuts, I came back to my own rules, selected a good bunch of examples of V7 ALT playing in context.... in my case I chose minor ii V i-. So, I downloaded playing examples and listened to them for a week until I could hum along and then start to imagine ii V i- lines of my own (that I have played in the past) but replacing what I'd use to "play" on the V with the newly acquired ALT-language.
THEN, I went to the guitar and started to hunt for those notes and create new pocket shapes over existing ones.
While I am ranting about ALT V's, I might add that my final approach is very different then what most show:
V leads to I or i-, V7th ALT DEFINITELY HAS to resolve to I or i-. So instead of locating these "odd" notes off my V7 pocket, I relate them to I or i-... because ALT is all about pushing the tension further and further... like a heave passenger jet over the landing strip but not touching down to the point all bet that it will over run ("tension building up", but finally DOES land perfectly ("tension RELEASE"). So, I need to see my chord tones of I or i- because to "release" I will need to "land" exactly and unambiguously ON a defining chord tone ( 3rd, 7th or a dumb root)... and preferably with a final half step.

One could call that a major exercise, I don't know.

And that goes for every approach and concept. Barry Harris Major or minor diminished concept, or "his" chromatic approach with the little "swirls" to get the two half steps (where there's no sharp of flat in between two scale degrees), Altered, playing "outside on minor chords and minor sequences (something I keep myself busy with now)... Are these "Exercises" or "a New Chapter" or "Next Level"?...

... J-D.

[Tim Toberer]

Thanks Tim.

What I would refrain from, is treat many of these mini courses as a "linear" exercise, running up and down.
Again, LISTENING, getting a grasp of the "sound", the "mood" each certain concept has is key to becoming able to "make something" with it beyond parroting some examples. IF one turns out to have been ready for that new "angle", one will quickly incorporate it into existing "pockets" or shapes and start "running with it". It always ought to be connected to experimentation and inclusion, connecting with existing concepts.



... J-D.

I always approach these video lessons with a bit of skepticism, Jens has proven to me that he is worth watching. He goes over the same ideas in a lot of different videos, but from different angles, relates them to different things. For exercises, I am trying to first be able to run through it in a linear fashion, which is usually pretty tricky to start, but as I get in, I start varying things. Mostly different picking patterns and rhythms. I play a bit of banjo, not well, but I learned the basic rolls and such. Forward rolls going down the neck backward rolls going up and mixing the 2 etc. I use those and most of my fingerstyle guitar techniques just to vary the basic chord.

Going forward I can see adding enclosures or leading notes, the pivot arpeggio and changing the linear progression into Major and minor 2-5-1 or 3-6-2-5-1. Also you can easily change these exercises into blocking exercises or comping exercises. This all makes it more musical and more creative. So I feel like this one exercise is kind of a Swiss army knife, I just have to keep at it!

[J D Sauser]

don't forget the VII at the beginning and the IV at the end to 3,6,2,5,1... it's a big deal when it comes to Jazz language based on "The Blues". Incidentally, Autumn Leaves, if instead of taking the final minor chord as the Key, one'd take the 3rd chord (the Major Key Center of the opening ii.V.I ) as the key... from the B-sections goes up all in 4ths v11, iii, vi, ii, V, I, IV following the Diatonic ruler.


YouTUBE Teachers:

I "like" Jens Larsen's videos too. But for me he talks too much first and then fails to go into detail at the tail end.
I think that improvisation solo players tend to rush or entirely miss the conversion from theory and explanation into improvising, because yes, once you "can" (or are supposed to "play") one cannot be thinking of all the theories. One should have become "fluid" at it thru hard practice in application and "playing with" what has been learned from theories and explanations and "transcribing" (and consolidation of transcribed solos into one's "pockets" and "shapes").

I also think that "teachers" are people and in a way are like any good music... they appeal to some and not so much to others. There are many way to skin a cat, and most have a defined approach to teaching.

There are some I feel have an enormous wealth of knowledge but what the show or HOW they try to convey it, seems to pass me by. Again, their message may stick on others.
Then there is TASTE... there are those that teach stuff I can't stand even only listening too. I've really come to accept that even on solos I learned, there are parts I just DON'T like and have to just make up a part I do like and that's actually not a bad exercise by itself. Learning a solo should only be the foundation to learnING FROM a solo... "play" with it and make it one owns.

I would like to share some of the online teachers I feel I have learned the most from:

- Brent Vaartstar at: https://www.youtube.com/@Learnjazzstandards
- Chase Maddox at: https://www.youtube.com/@ChaseMaddox
- Nathan Borton at: https://www.youtube.com/@NathanBorton
- Jack Ruch out of Nashville: https://www.youtube.com/@JackRuch
- Adam Smale at: https://www.youtube.com/@JazzRockswithAdam
- Frank Vignola at: https://www.youtube.com/@FrankVignolaGuitar
- Dave Pollack: https://www.youtube.com/@DavePollack
- Dr. Wally Wallace at: https://www.youtube.com/@drwallysax

I would also want to mention:

- Aimee Nolte at: https://www.youtube.com/@AimeeNolte to me more of a "Study Time" source away from a guitar.
- Kent Hewitt at: https://www.youtube.com/@KentHewittpiano88 whom I am studied mostly working with my son on his quest to become a Jazz piano player and learned a LOT with in the process.
- I like to watch the guys at Open Studio, but the are quite ahead of me and difficult to match with a PSG off their piano playing, but VERY informative. This is something I watch in my leisure time AWAY from the steel: https://www.youtube.com/@OpenStudioJazz

- Rick Beato I also watch mostly away from the guitar. I got his book... I don't read beyond going note by note counting lines... I can kind'a read time and evidently see the directions it goes. I like his insight, interviews etc: https://www.youtube.com/@RickBeato

- Chris Park (I believe his name is) at Things I've Learned From Barry Harris, is one I am still scratching my head over. I LOT of input and sharing, but IF you are looking for EXERCISE he definitely is a source of that, what I seem to miss is application in common tunes, but still I watch him every now and then at: https://www.youtube.com/@thingsivelearnedfrombarryh2616 IF one likes "Exercises" he could prove a good source of these!

- I seem to be more productive on the BH subject with this guy, who's name escapes me right now not at: https://www.youtube.com/@JazzSkills I was enrolled at his online course, but found if difficult to make it thru his tests one needs to manage to gain access to higher levels battling material mostly designed for piano.

Barry Harris is an "underground" subject which has become almost "mainstream" because of the propagation of videos of his seminars. Some folks even recollected all usable material and issued a course with the videos and a book. We have it, because of my son. It's too bad he is not around anymore even when he left us at very old age, it seems way to early. There are a few main subjects he was insisting on, but only part of the greater picture of PLAYING MUSIC. And sadly, most that is being disseminated online, is conceptual. One should also observe that most of his student attendance in his classes CAN play most anything he would "sing"/scat or play on the piano without much hesitation, so much of it seems to be too fast to most who are tying to learn to play their instrument AND Jazz together.

I always should want to mention Maurice Anderson who set the ground work for me a long time ago "let's organize this neck!". Even helped me while I took a sabbatical from steel guitar and went on to play Gypsy Jazz rhythm guitar for some years. I can't put into words how I miss being able to just pick up the phone, call Texas and get a clear answer, like calling a parent. I never understood how I earned that friendship.
I recommend to ALL starting out (on E9th) to try to find his The Missing Link course before the use any tablature. I wished I had gotten it attached to my first PSG.
Paul Franklin who's course I followed for a year, not note by note, but getting some ideas, observing technique (I think his course is a MUST for anybody who wishes to seriously study PSG (both E9th and C6th), and last but not least, the great and very generous Doug Jernigan, I have just come back from a week of daily classes up "there" near Nashville, TN feeling brain washed.
I must say, that in general, I don't study much off steel guitar players, not just because I try HARD to follow my own advice ("don't "just" ask what Buddy Emmons can do for me, rather ask whom he studied"... yeah, another JFK'ism, I know ) but because it seems that studying other instrumentalists (and I even have downloaded and transcribed scat solos like Ella Fitzgerald's solo on All Of Me, which lays out real well on C6th) brings me closer to what I want to do on PSG.

... J-D

[Tim Toberer]

Thanks for the links JD! Those are great resources, I got sucked into Nathan Borton's opening video on Grant Green almost immediately. It is true what you say about Barry Harris going mainstream. There was/still is a large void in jazz education, theory vs. application that this is filling it seems. I wonder what he would think about all this! Most people want a relatable approach that gets you playing real music faster instead of dropping you in the middle of a forest of scales, inversions and abstract theories. The greats became great without YouTube and there might be something to that. They practiced and jammed instead of staring dead eyed at a digital device. The thing they had going for them really though was, Jazz was alive and still developing.
I don't listen to much if any jazz past 1985 it seems. I think there are many musicians like me who don't necessarily want to be "jazz" musicians, but are drawn to the mystery and difficulty of it. I personally just want to get better!I am more into jazz adjacent music like prewar Blues, Rockabilly, Bluegrass etc. I prefer 1930'3 to 1960's Jazz, but the late 40's to late 50s is definitely the peak. I wish Doug Jernigan would do a solo album! I saw a few clips of him recently that blew me away.

If you watch Jen's early videos you can see how much more produced they are now, and the Youtube lessons business seems to be booming. I like small morsel bites of music theory and I generally just scroll around YouTube till something catches my interest. The problem these Youteachers face is they have to constantly churn out material so the quality at some point becomes suspect.

[Fred Treece]

The thing I like about Jens Larsen videos is that in ten minutes you get about 12 lessons that are less than a minute long. I don’t think he talks too much. He packs a lot of useful information into a very short period of time, with no BS. The pause/rewind buttons are your best friends sometimes.

[J D Sauser]

Thanks for the links JD! ...
I don't listen to much if any jazz past 1985 it seems. I think there are many musicians like me who don't necessarily want to be "jazz" musicians, but are drawn to the mystery and difficulty of it. I personally just want to get better!I am more into jazz adjacent music like prewar Blues, Rockabilly, Bluegrass etc. I prefer 1930'3 to 1960's Jazz, but the late 40's to late 50s is definitely the peak. I wish Doug Jernigan would do a solo album! I saw a few clips of him recently that blew me away.

If you watch Jen's early videos you can see how much more produced they are now, and the Youtube lessons business seems to be booming. I like small morsel bites of music theory and I generally just scroll around YouTube till something catches my interest. The problem these Youteachers face is they have to constantly churn out material so the quality at some point becomes suspect.

Funny, I grew my teenage years out in a Rockabilly Band. Interestingly, that's where I got asked if I could learn Steel Guitar. And before you think this is a 90 year old writing, that was in the 1980's when Rockabilly and 50's Rock & Roll had a revival (when bands like Stray Cats etc formed and older stars like Carl Perkins, Wanda Jackson, Jack Scott, Jerry Lee Lewis a many more had a huge revival.
I came out of a household where only classical music was accepted as "music". My uncles used to smuggle Jazz and Swing Records behind my stepfather's back. My first record was "FireHouse Vive + Two Goes To A Fire" (Dixieland Jazz), and I got a lot of Django Reinhardt, Satchmo etc. I like Glenn Miller a lot and I think "In The Mood" prepared me for the Rockabilly revival. But classical music, while I have never studied it, is in my head and I think it has forme what I try to coin as MY style in Jazz or Bebop.
Rockabilly and Steel Guitar got me into Hillbilly, Western Swing and later in the US even into Country (and E9th) until in 2000 I felt Country had given up on us all and I was going to return the "favor", ditch it and return to 30's & 40's Swing (Gypsy Swing).


Videos: The thing "over at YouTUBE" is, that the majority of "serious" Tutorials posted there for "Free" are either meant to promote a paying online course, like Patreon or to make money off the annoying commercials ("monetized"), or both.
While 25 years ago (is it really already that long ago?) Videos were to be less than 10min. because of the cost of storage, today, video's can be as long as you can keep people watching commercials.
So, "Content Creation" appeared (and now accelerated by AI generating BS left and right just to glue idiots to the screen to expose them to commercials every couple of minutes.
Now any video has an introduction, a "why", "like and subscribe"... and "comment", and "blah blah" and the first commercial interruption... and then comes "but before we..."... and more "blah blah..." and on and on, and many NEVER really touch down on the promised subject.

Jens Larsen is SUCCESSFUL with his courses and in getting people interested enough to sing up (and pay) on his only portal. NOTHING wrong with that, and I am quite sure that he is helping some players to reach their goals.

It's ME who is NOT too successful making much progress with his videos and teaching style. To me he has way too long introductions (my "talks too much" comment). Still, I DO recommend him.
I am not a multi-tasker. I prefer one subject at a time and then see it demonstrated and applied to commonly appearing context like "The Blues" or 2.5.1 of some sort, or Rhythm Changes or at lest common tunes a Jazz student should learn and thus will become able to extract the new findings and apply them to other tunes.
I am an engineer, I like concepts, logic, a "system", relativity, methodology etc. even when I don't think of myself of much invested in theroriES. I know just about as much as what I am writing about. It's enough for me to be able to "incorporate" something which is EXPLAINED to me and start learning to "run with it".

All I am saying is choose your "Yogi" as carefully as your lawyer, preacher or to whom confess your sins!
Don't let your time being wasted by fake teachers luring with overly spectacular click bait titles promising to in 5 minutes reveal "The ONE Trick only PROS use", "how to sound like the Pro's", "a SECRET NOBODY wants you to know" (and "just like this" casually disseminated on a free platform like YouTUBE or even worse TikTOK), etc.
Even though, I have lately started to use AI quite a bit to research some musical theoriES, on YouTUBE, I bail out at once of videos using an AI-voice (it's "Content Creation" for commercials time)... AI can be resourceful where YOU control the prompts, but it's already virulently used to just milk our time for "consumerism".

... J-D.