Most Helpful Exercises For Jazz

[Chris Templeton]

What do you consider jazz? The C6 neck?
In Buddy's C6th course this picking excercise was my favorite:
Thumb- Middle finger (some people favor the first) T-T-M-M-T-T-M-M-T-T- etc.

[Dale Rottacker]

What do you consider jazz? The C6 neck?
In Buddy's C6th course this picking excercise was my favorite:
Thumb- Middle finger (some people favor the first) T-T-M-M-T-T-M-M-T-T- etc.

I play a LOT of Jazz, not because I understand it, but because I hit a lot of notes I didn't intend on hitting.

I prefer T M too, but when I watch video of me playing I used my index finger more than I realize.

Something else I never developed, is the TT as a successive fingering thing ... I have no trouble with hitting more than one string with my thumb if I'm playing 4 note chords, but successive notes with my thumb as part of a lick I apparently have not worked on enough as I find it really difficult, especially if there's any speed involved and anything over 60bpm is what I consider speed picking

[Fred Treece]

I could be mistaken, Dale, but I think that TTMM exercise is just that - meant to get you used to using those two digits and building up the muscle control. Watching videos of Buddy play, I don’t see him doing consecutive hits with thumb or middle when doing fast single 8th or 16th notes - it’s always TM alternating, unless it’s a rake. When playing slower melodies, I often see him use thumb-only single note strikes.