How I Practiced Jazz Guitar / Efficient Practice Routines / Mentorship 

As a South African black musician where there were no music schools for blacks, I could see world-class black Jazz instrumental players and I wondered where did they learn, later I discovered that they taught themselves by listening and copying what they heard on records. Today I'm a saxophonist who can read music but I still cannot play like them. That's why I fully agree with you Denis. Thanks.

Thank you so much for taking the time to put yourself out there like this. Every video is loaded with great info and perspective.

Beautifully played intro!

Kudos to you, Denis, for what you said about making time for family. I love Gypsy Jazz, but I'd rather remain mediocre and keep them as my focus!

i appreciate your content , you sound more like a mentor more than an guitar instructor. words of wisdom through experience of music journey..i had a teacher that use to tell me , sometimes you have to go into that room and work that shit out meaning he can only show me so much i need to learn and explore for myself

Beautiful intro

Glad you kept that intro-So musical

Beautiful intro, loved it.

Our most appreciated Mentor as we enjourney ourselves in the persuit to be an accomplished Gypsy Jazz Musician we are grateful and thankful for your inspiration in instructions and where to go after the extremely highest needed In formation.

Wow Denis that guitar sounds beautiful. Warm bright tone. You of course bring it out with your playing.

We need all this on Spotify in podcast❤

Here i am binging Dennis Chang on my 1.5 hour train commute again

Muito bom,... Na metade do vídeo sobre pand e profissão me identifiquei

Intro 0:00 A clarification on last week's video (Effective practice and mental health)4:00 Goal setting - effective learning 8:50 The role of scales, arpeggios and phrases in the learning process 9:50 How vocabulary works (classic jazz approach) 11:00 Modern jazz approach 12:50 "Just have fun" approach 17:40 How to not practice and still develop in jazz😮 20:25 People make mistakes. So what? 25:00 I teach people who have a purpose... 33:40 About confidence 34:25 How I worked on tempo 40:20 You need a mentor 41:20 How to learn jazz (bottom line) 45:20 Thank you so much for your wonderful experience. Your videos have helped me a lot to move my progress forward. They are like a good conversation with a master for me, which I am deprived of in the offline space

That intro to your video was played beautifully.. amazing talent 👏👌🎸🎶🎶👍

Funny you mentioned the different instruments and ones attention. I had bought The Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow intrested in Tal's guitar. Years later I returned to the album which sat on the shelf for a few years only to be floored by Eddie Costa's piano. Today he is one of my favorite players. Amazingly there was no impact when I originally listened to the album. I wondered about how I didn't take notice to Costa's incredible swing and percussive attack on those keys. Today that is my goal. To transcribe and adapt Costa's line to guitar, which I will need to develop a great amount of technique to pull off. Watched some speed picking from metal players, and country chicken picking players etc, to try and get a handle on the insane amount of technique needed. Thank you for your lectures. They have pointed me in the right direction and gave me confidence when I've been down.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge Denis. I think you are a great player and appreciate all you have shared on this video and the others I've watched as well.

Phenomenal intro. Love your playing. Inspiring.

@12:14 I am a strong ear player, but also love deep diving theory and technique, so I am at a crossroads on this subject at the moment. When it really comes down to it, is there anything we should be "thinking" as we play, or is that like thinking about words as we speak them? (thinking twice). In other words, is a truly great player able to analyze themselves in real time, or is that only something to be done after the fact in order to learn how to do something that is done subconsciously by the player done consciously by the student, in order to bring that into the subconscious?

Love the intro

Thank you! You always give me something important to think about to advance my playing. Examining our ideas and assumptions is really important. We don’t easily explore the biases and especially the assumptions we bring to our playing. Lovely intro piece by the way.

Denis you rock! Thank you for all your videos man!

I’d like to see you solo more… many of the videos I see you in, you are accompanying other players. But I think you are a great musician. You have so much knowledge and are a true music enthusiast! Please feature yourself playing more! I’m a Denis Chang fan!

Superb playing on the intro!

All love! Such a wonderful composition.

The first tune is the intro tune from Django Legacy documentary? A Babik Reinhardt tune?

Always really interesting content Denis, thank you!

It’s wonderful hearing you speak off the cuff, just speaking your mind. I especially like the part where you speak about soloing over a high speed Giant Steps tempo which has always been a challenge for me (actually any tune at a high tempo). Working out some muscle memory solutions for the high tempo tunes is a great suggestion, I’m going to try that. Also the tempo talk was interesting too as I’ve run into similar situations where the tempo of the group tends to slow down from the original tempo count. The tempo problem seems to come up with some groups I play with… it’s great just listening to you have these long talks about the subject of music (you’re probably the only one who does this with music (that I know of) other than those political talk shows that can be found everywhere on RU-vid).

Love these and I wish the volume were higher.

I think you are virtuoso guitarist for sure.

I love your playing. I dont like the style of Mike Stern and those cut from the same cloth. I considered them modern players and modern players never made sense to me. I believed it was them searching to sound different from who came before, but you painting out their theoretical approach only crystallized that what you say about learning phrases, vocabulary is the right course for me. I love blues and players like Freddie King, Albert King, and Otis Rush went with what sounds good and no theroies or scales blah blah blah. Heartfelt true expression even if using a handful of notes that the theorists label blues scale, sounds better that Mike Stern who uses multiple scales,color palettes but to me sounds like shit. That's me. I think the fact you worked on the old guys from yesterday because they sound good is why I love your playing. Big thumbs up. Thanks for all your insight.

Haha the one size fits solution... Been looking for that for years.

I enjoy listening to Dennis, because I find his logic and his values affable. I can relate to it a lot; Playing with people who think they’re better than they are, is painful, and surrounding yourself with better musicians is a great way to learn, while we have to know the difference between them! (Q: btw, Honestly, what’s with the soft toys? I just don’t get it. 🤷‍♂️)

My recipe is ti go to as many jams as possible, and practice the so gs that they play, and in top of that find time for my favourite songs ..

Beautiful opening composition Drop D ?

Flaws yes but flow matters do our brains hear the flaws especially in a live situation?

"Yeah, that's all right"

Denis, resources are there for confusion, there are teachers who take forever to teach you from point A to point B .

But what do you mean by missing a chord? Noodlimg and not landing on a consonant interval? Or just right out playing crap and adjusting in time...?

its not Rocket science playing Jazz, the old guys were just making up nice Melodies.

what type of semi hollow godin is that?

Hey Denis. First of all, I love your channel, and I love your controversial takes on topics so please don't become politically correct. That being said, when you say controverisal statements, there will be some conversation in the comment section. Of course you're free to answer or not, and even if you don't answer my comment I'll still be a proud subscriber and I'll continue liking all your videos because they're awesome. At some point you talk about people (mostly men) with a day job and a family who spend 3 hours at night in their man cave but who still can't play. Well, I partially relate to this, and I'm not sure I agree. First of all, I highly doubt that these people really spend 3 hours a day in their man cave, and if they do and still suck, I don't think they're playing or practicing efficiently, at least most of them. A lot of people play the same blues licks over and over again, with different amps/guitars/pedals and noodle, take breaks, or watch videos while playing. Sure these people spend a lot of time in their man cave, but they don't really play for 3 hours. I'm quite sure that a passionate hobbyist with a day job who takes lessons (online or in person) and has a practice plan, sticks to it and has clear goals (as you say, wants to play jazz in the style of X or wants to learn that many standards in the style of XY era) improves. Is this person necessarily a good player? No, and it's hard to quantify. But someone who does that and just doesn't noodle around minor pentatonic for hours doesn't suck and will improve. If I'm misquoting you feel free to mention it and I'll edit my comment. Cheers

so...who is the guitarist that "hates you the most"?

What is that first song whit manouche? It is beatyfull

Have you played with patrick bartley before

Great video!! Alot of good info👍🎩👍 What kind of amp are you using? Guitar sounds good. Great tone.

First!

Damn bra, you need to focus on what your title.

Denis,now you ve to stop to say your are too old for becoming top,you re already really good,it s like you re 80 years old and your future is done,no way there s plenty time for you if you want ,so keep going practicing if you want to get to the next level,you ve the tools ,no more it s too late.go on......