• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Az Samad Lessons

Guitar, Ukulele and Music Lessons

  • About
  • Lessons
  • Music Reviews
  • Book, Video & Course Reviews
  • Podcast
  • Creative Fridays
  • Store
  • Contact

Video Review: Simplifying Jazz Guitar by Randy Johnston

September 4, 2018 by azsamadlessons Leave a Comment

In this almost 70-minute video lesson, we have the opportunity to learn from master jazz guitarist Randy Johnston. This video introduces some very useful key concepts to build a strong foundation in jazz guitar fretboard understanding.

If you’ve been playing jazz guitar and are familar with the CAGED system, 3-note per string , Leavitt style fingerings or Jimmy Bruno’s fingering system – prepare to learn something extremely elegant (different but complementary) in this video. Randy shares his take on using tetrachords to have a simplified way of visualising the fingerboard.

I actually learned this approach from Randy in person in a private lesson earlier this year (at the Thailand International Jazz Conference 2018) & having the opportunity to revisit his explanations in this video is very helpful. There are also a lot of cool and strong lines that Randy plays throughout the video.

The only thing that may deter some folks is the fact that there are no notated material, there are no accompanying PDF files for this video. However, I strongly feel that with a notepad (or open virtual notepad), one could take notes to help digest the material. For me, the section on tetrachords alone was extremely helpful along with his demonstration of utilizing it on the melody Stella By Starlight.

Pros: Great teaching, lots of examples, amazing lines worth transcribing throughout the video
Cons: No accompanying PDF File, no notated examples
TLDR: Strongly recommended video though I would say probably not for complete beginners as it can be overwhelming to digest the concepts he covers in the video especially if you’re not really familiar with the fretboard via other (more popular fingering systems).

Buy or rent the video here:
https://mikesmasterclasses.com/course/simplifying-jazz-guitar/

[Read more Reviews]

Review #26

Book Review: Triad Pairs – The First Step by Tony Greaves

Review #25

Book Review: Four Etudes for the Right Hand by Gyan Riley

Review #24

Book Review: Beyond Chord Melody by Martin Taylor MBE

Review #23

Book Review: Daniel Donato – The New Master Of The Telecaster: Pathways To Dynamic Solos

Review #22

Course Review: Understanding & Applying the Chromatic Scale by Frank Vignola

Review #21

Book Review: Movable Shapes – Concepts for Reharmonizing ii-V-I’s by Sheryl Bailey

Review #20

Video Review: Accompanying A Vocalist by David Cook

Review #19

Book Review: Developing Bebop Lines by Jeff Ellwood

Review #18

Book Review: The Acoustic Jazz Guitarist by Sean McGowan

Review #17

Video Review: Essential Percussive Guitar Riffs with Jon Gomm

Review #16

Video Review: Minor Line Concepts by Jay Umble

Review #15

Video Review: 8 Sets of Jazz Blues Changes by Randy Johnston

Review #14

Book Review: The Thesaurus of Scale Tone Chords by Alex Rogowski

Review #13

Video Review: Bebop Flow – Connecting Harmonic Concepts with the Family of 4 by Sheryl Bailey

Review #12

Book Review: Improvising Without Scales – The Intervallic Guitar System of Carl Verheyen

Review #11

Course Review: Liquid Fire Legato by Nick Layton

Review #10

Video Review: Dave Hill – Motif Development (Jazz Guitar Society)

Review #09

Book Review: A Guide to Developing a Chromatic Approach to Improvisation by Tony Greaves

Review #08

Course Review: Fundamentals of Picking by Fretboard Anatomy

Review #07

Book Review: Principles of Music by Bryan Baker

Review #06

Book Review: The Tao of Badass Guitar by Ben Higgins

Review #05

Book Review: Bach Shapes by Jon De Lucia

Review #04

Book Review: Extended Scale Playing for Guitar by Joe Puma

Review #03

Book Review: Between the Voicings by Hristo Vitchev

Review #02

Book Review: Voicing Modes – A Chord Voicing Approach to Hearing and Practicing Modes by Noel Johnston

Review #01

Book Review: The Outside Sounds and Substitutions of Modern Saxophonists for Jazz Guitar by Kevin Miller

[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 azsamad2 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? 🙂

Join my newsletter to get more guitar playing tips & lessons!

* indicates required


Filed Under: Guitar Chords, Guitar Scales, Guitar Technique, Jazz Guitar, Jazz Guitar Harmony, Jazz Guitar Harmony, Music Theory, Philosophy, Practice Secrets, Reviews

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Sign Up For Free Guitar & Music Tips!

Search for a topic, review or lesson:

Recent Posts

  • Video Review: Perfect Practice Makes Perfect with Sheryl Bailey (Chase’s Guitar Academy)
  • Video Review: Martin Miller Mechanics Workshop by Martin Miller (Cracking The Code)
  • Video Review: Comping Fundamentals with Rodney Jones (Chase’s Guitar Academy)
  • Video Review: How to Learn Tunes with Rodney Jones (Chase’s Guitar Academy)
  • Video Review: Practice Essentials with Rodney Jones (Chase’s Guitar Academy)

Categories

  • Ask Az (2)
  • Beyond Music (122)
  • Blues Guitar (15)
  • Book Reviews (228)
  • business book (27)
  • Chord Melody (46)
  • Composition (33)
  • Course Reviews (20)
  • Creative Fridays (14)
  • Film Review (1)
  • Fingerstyle Guitar (30)
  • grant cardone (1)
  • Guitar Chords (134)
  • Guitar Scales (124)
  • Guitar Shopping (3)
  • Guitar Technique (320)
  • Gypsy Jazz (13)
  • Interviews (23)
  • Jazz (109)
  • Jazz Guitar (241)
  • Jazz Guitar Harmony (169)
  • Jazz Guitar Harmony (79)
  • Licks (218)
  • Music Business (14)
  • Music Review (49)
  • Music Theory (217)
  • News (4)
  • Philosophy (155)
  • Practice Secrets (347)
  • Reviews (12)
  • Rhythm Lessons (26)
  • Strategi Bina Kerjaya Muzik (6)
  • Transcription Set Review (6)
  • Ukulele (3)
  • Ulasan Filem (1)
  • Ulasan Muzik (2)
  • Ulasan Video (1)
  • Uncategorized (21)
  • Video Games (3)
  • Video Lessons (143)

Recent Posts

  • Video Review: Perfect Practice Makes Perfect with Sheryl Bailey (Chase’s Guitar Academy)
  • Video Review: Martin Miller Mechanics Workshop by Martin Miller (Cracking The Code)
  • Video Review: Comping Fundamentals with Rodney Jones (Chase’s Guitar Academy)
  • Video Review: How to Learn Tunes with Rodney Jones (Chase’s Guitar Academy)
  • Video Review: Practice Essentials with Rodney Jones (Chase’s Guitar Academy)

Copyright © 2025 · Genesis Sample on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in