Here you will find lessons, tips and articles on playing jazz guitar.

Feel free to download the instructional material for your own private use. Please ask me for permission before using any of my material on any other web site!

I recorded this version of "How Insensitive" a few years ago. A lot of folks seem to like it, so I left it up on the site. To hear it, click here.

Here are some live recordings from a March 2007 duo gig with bassist Bob Bowen: I'll Remember April, Stella by Starlight

Live recordings from a 2004 Bob Russell Trio gig:

Relaxin' at Camarillo, Black Orpheus, Rhythm-a-Ning

(mp3, 4-8 MB files) Kevin Kolb, keys; Arlin Strader, drums.

Lessons:

Four views of a turnaround

Two-note per string arpeggios

Shell Voicings (when less is more)

Mining the Melody (As published in Just Jazz Guitar, August 2006)

Relaxin' at Circa

Putting Things Together

Thoughts on Bop Comping

Shape Strategies for Rhythm Changes

Tetrachordal Trickery

Playing With Time

How I Did It

Weird Blues

The hard stuff

Pentatonic scale harmony

A lesson from Lester

Fun with patterns

Rhythm changes (part 1 + 2)

Chord-on-chord thinking

Chord-on-chord thinking, part deux

Playing Over Static Harmony

Bop-style Comping

"Inside" Voicings: Life between the E's

Finding New Voicings Through Inversion

Diminished Capacities (and Stupid Guitar Tricks)

Using Pentatonic Scales to Play on Turnarounds

Guitar vs. Horn

Working on Time

"Street-Smart" Altered Dominant Lines

ii-V7 Lines Using Altered Dominant Sounds

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All content © Bob Russell, 2008.