7 Easy Jazz Guitar Songs for Beginners

7 Easy Jazz Guitar Songs for Beginners Megan L. Looking for some easy jazz guitar songs to get you started?  Jazz music can sound very complicated, at first. It requires a combination of skills like speed, precision, and endurance. There are many great jazz guitarists that can attest to that. While advanced jazz can take quite a while to work up to, beginner jazz guitar songs arent difficult or time-consuming to learn. In this article, well provide videos and tabs for seven jazz songs that any beginner can start learning today. Lets jump right into it! 7 Easy Jazz Guitar Songs for Beginners Summertime Summertime is a catchy jazz standard composed by George Gershwin. It was originally written for the opera Porgy and Bess. Sublime’s Summertime is based on this piece. This eerie melody will stick in your head all day! Below is a simplified tutorial. I think this person does a good job breaking it down (even better than reading tabs): Jazz musicians like to embellish simple melodies. Here is a more advanced version of Summertime: Autumn Leaves Autumn Leaves is medium tempo jazz piece by Joseph Kosma. Here is a nice recording by Eric Clapton. Listen to the song, and then learn the chord progression. Be sure to look up any chords youre unfamiliar with. Strum along with the recording and pay attention to the tempo! It’s not very fast. Take a look at the chords here. Fly Me To The Moon Fly Me To The Moon is a jazz standard made famous by Frank Sinatra. The steady quarter note pulse is a great way to practice changing 7th chords, a staple of jazz music. This is one of our favorite easy jazz guitar songs. Watch this video of the Jason Mraz version to find out why! You can find the the accompanying chords here. Blue Monk Blue Monk is a B flat blues piece written by Thelonious Monk. Try learning both parts and playing it with a friend! Look  here for the chords and tabs. Here is an advanced version of the piece: Next, check out this simplified version: Blue Bossa Blue Bossa is a bossa-nova piece with an infectious groove. (Bossa-nova is Latin-influenced jazz). Here are the chords and tabs to the song.  Watch the video below  and familiarize yourself with the melody. Notice the choppy way the chords are being played: So What This is a famous piece by Miles Davis. So What is a piece of modal jazz, which is built on modes rather than major and minor scales. If you’re not sure what a mode is, ask your guitar teacher for a lesson on them! Check out the tabs for this song. This video is a great example of the main theme on guitar: I also recommend you watch this video of Miles Davis and John Coltrane ripping the piece apart in 1959: Nuages Nuages is a piece of gypsy jazz by Django Reinhardt. Django played at incredible speeds with only two fingers! He lost his other two in a fire. Django’s solos and improvisation move at intimidating speeds, but the main melody of Nuages is easy to understand. Here is a version of the piece for solo guitar. Nuages is based on a classical piece by the same name, composed by Claude Debussy. Look up that piece and see if you can hear the similarities. Here is a recording of Django: If its too difficult to play the chords and melody at the same time, just play the melody. You can do this by only playing the highest note in each chord cluster. Here is a close up version with a simplified melody: As you begin to learn beginner jazz guitar, don’t worry about the improvisations and embellishments (the fast, fancy stuff). Start by making sure you understand every chord in the song, then move on to the melody. Try learning one of these songs with a friend so you can both practice trading lead and rhythm. Bonus! Want to hear some advanced jazz? Check out this video by Snarky Puppy! There’s a cool guitar riff at about a minute in: Once you learn some of these easy jazz guitar songs, youll be ready for more advanced playing. Even better, youll be better equipped to write your own jazz song.  Have fun with your playing and make sure to  practice every single day! Post Author:  Dylan P. Dylan P. teaches guitar, music theory, and music performance lessons in Independence, MO. He has trained in many genres of music and has experience teaching students with learning disabilities. Learn more about Dylan P.  here! Need Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher Photo by Oliver