Jazz

There are so many ways to learn jazz guitar now. It used to be the case that you could:

study with a teacher privately
learn from recordings
go to music college to study jazz
take gigs and learn on the job
buy VHS tapes, DVDs, books and audio instruction cassette/CD or book combos to learn from more famous guitarists

Then came the growth of instructional material online.

In the late 90s and early 200s, most material were still adaptations of books and private lessons. I remember checking out material from Joe Diorio and Jody Fisher which were basically scanned copies of their handwritten handouts. Then came videos in Real Video format and video that took forever to download because of dial-up internet.

When YouTube came, everything changed gradually, eventually leading to our current state of jazz guitar education online. So many people teach jazz guitar on YouTube now from the tablature on screen lick folks to concept-based instructors to rock guys teaching some jazz to real heavyweights of the style sharing their personal approach.

Even books changed from CD and DVDs into online media and of course came online video courses and eventually membership websites, of which some of the earliest ones were the Jimmy Bruno – ArtistWorks project and then many other sites over time. Bigger sites like Truefire serve all kinds of genres, JTC Guitar focusing more on the rock & fusion side, Pickupmusic addressing the younger generation of guitar fans and specialist sites like Mike’s Master Classes continue to release new specialist jazz courses.

So where does Chase’s Guitar Academy (CGA) fit in all this?

Well, for one – Chase is a working guitarist, experienced music educator (even prior to CGA), someone who understands the online landscape and is someone who has studied and connected with many experienced professional musicians in the space. That – alongside his brother Kevin Maddox’s joint work experience creating and growing the Jazzmemes social media channels has led to CGA being an important player in today’s jazz guitar education arena.

I still remember the first time I encountered Chase’s educational side of things when some of the earlier eBooks were released and later on the Dan Wilson courses. In fact, I reviewed most of them on the site prior to checking out Chase’s Guitar Academy. In case you missed those, here are those reviews:

eBooks:
1) Book Review: The 60 Master II-V-I Lines by Chase Maddox
2) Book Review: Master Jazz Workouts by Chase Maddox
3) Book Review: The Master Arpeggios Book Vol. 1 For Guitar by Chase Maddox

Guitar Courses:
1) Course Review: Fretboard Freedom by Dan Wilson
2) Course Review: Harmonic Freedom by Dan Wilson

Then, when I first saw Chase’s Guitar Academy being launched I was honestly fascinated with what they were doing, especially since it was still under the bigger banner of Jazz Memes at the time. Later on, CGA became it’s own thing, which made sense in order to separate the educational work and their more meme/content work.

Now, into the site… what do you actually get in Chase’s Guitar Academy?

Well, now when you start Chase’s Guitar Academy, you begin with the Welcome Course. This includes a simple questionaire that lets you know:

Your current skill level (Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced)
Your recommended pathway (Levels or Skills-based)
Your first course to start
Which live classes match your level

This alone is a recent addition that has made Chase’s Guitar Academy into a better platform than before. Previously, you might get overwhelmed or confused where to start with the abundance of materials in the website. Now, you get a clear guide that becomes your roadmap and checklist to begin improving your playing.

For me, I was recommended the Advanced Pathway and for the Skills Pathway, I was recommended to embark on the Improvisation Track.

This was what I saw:

After receiving this recommendation, I started and completed the Secret Jazz Chord Course. This was a topic that I previously studied via jazz guitarist Barry Greene’s own courses firstly on Mike’s Master Classes (many years ago) and then later via his own website, Barry Greene Video Lessons.

Having that background it was interesting to see how Chase (who studied with Barry directly) explained the same topic. Personally I loved how Chase subdivided the topic even more and gave a lot of step by step and supporting materials to make sure you really got the topic down. And… that’s just one course!

It’s important to note that I’ve already been studying via Chase’s Guitar Academy prior to this new Welcome Course being introduced. I can see how this makes the studying experience even more manageable for new students to the site.

I’ve reviewed some of these other courses/masterclasses individually prior to this.

Here are the ten I’ve written about so far, individually:

Talking about the other materials on the site, there is so much to dig into, and you can learn so many things from developing a repertoire of songs to play, melodic language and improvisation, chord melody, comping and anything surrounding the study of jazz guitar specifically.

Some other cool aspects of the website is that it is organized in a good way where you can basically mark which videos you’ve watched, and for the courses with exercises, you can post your own video playing those etudes/exercises so you can get feedback from the community.

The community is also a warm and welcoming one, which is a major plus point. Sometimes it can get lonely and confusing when you’re learning jazz guitar, so having a community that is positive can really help you feel more supported on those down days of shedding your jazz lines.

If you are interested in a variety of styles, you can check out other sites, but for a step by step approach to jazz guitar, I have not something designed with this kind of detail elsewhere. Sure, you could get more courses in another website or learn for free on YouTube, but if actually improving your skills in a steady way is important to you, CGA might be able to help.

In addition to Chase’s own classes, there are so many master classes from icons including Dan Wilson, Tim Fitzgerald, Corey Christiansen, John Storie, Rodney Jones, Chico Pinheiro and most recently even Mark Lettieri!

That means… you get all the courses and the organized existing material but also new material and live classes from great players… and these get added to the library of resources for your study!

In conclusion, I find that Chase’s Guitar Academy probably represents the best value that you can get from a single website if your goal is to develop your jazz guitar playing, to have some kind of system and structure and get support within a community.

Pros: Great jazz guitar website, with an abundance of high quality lessons and materials to improve your playing.
Cons: None.
TLDR: Want to learn jazz guitar? Want a one-stop place to level you up? Check out CGA and see if it’s for you.

You can sign up for a 7-day free trial at Chase’s Guitar Academy here (affiliate link).

Thanks to Chase Maddox for inviting me to experience Chase’s Guitar Academy. Although I received complimentary access to the community, my reviews reflects my personal honest experience of the material.

[Review Archive]
I wrote a lot of other book, course and video reviews too.
Check out the rest here:
[Read more reviews]

[Submissions for Review Consideration]

Are you an author who wrote a jazz, guitar or music book?
Have you created a DVD or an online video course or subscription based website?
Would you like me to review your book/course?

Please send me a message at azsamad3 at gmail.com with:

For courses: a link to the course/video/product + access info etc.
For books: a link to the book (Dropbox) or PDF attachment (if it’s small) for review consideration.

Depending on whether I dig the book/course, I’ll let you know if I do plan to review it!

I cannot guarantee a review for every submission & if I’m not too into it, I may opt not to review it. I mean, it’s better to get a good review that for me to write a bad review just because it’s not a match for the kind of stuff I dig right? :p

NOTE: All reviews reflect my honest personal opinion so be aware that I will point out both cool Pros and Cons that I see in the work. You dig?