Hello steemians ... welcome to "Guitar Players Academy" where you will learn 52 jazz standards in one year. This is a one year challenge to all guitar players on steemit.com including myself to learn one new jazz standard each week and be able to improvise a solo over the chord changes.

"Song Of The Week" - Learn One New Jazz Standard A Week

https://steemit.com/songoftheweek/@guitarlots/song-of-the-week-1-st-thomas-by-sonny-rollins
The Guitar Players Academy will announce a new song each week for "Song Of The Week" and it will be a jazz standard from the Real Book. I will post a "Song Of The Week" in my blog and show the chart, the chord progression, the chords, the melody, and play a solo.

If the song has some tricky parts then I will try and make a video of the progression played slowly so you can see how to play the chords and changes in the song selected. Of course the idea is for you to make the song your own and to play the song the way you feel it naturally and in whatever musical style you want.

After you feel comfortable playing the song, make a video of yourself playing the song and a solo over the chord changes, post the "Song Of The Week" on your blog, and then post the link in the comments section on the "Song Of The Week" page at GuitarLots. By posting yourself playing "Song Of The Week" you will be encouraging others to learn the 52 songs in 2018 and the more people who post their solos over changes the more improvisational ideas will be discovered.

You can use your own backing track or the backing track provided in the "Song Of The Week" page, but it is important to try and solo using the scales suggested. It doesn't matter if you make mistakes because the purpose is to learn 52 songs in one year and to be able to solo over each one using the correct scales, arpeggios, and guitar licks.

I am an advanced player, but I have my own limitations so by creating "Song Of The Week" it will keep me learning new material so I can teach you, but that doesn't mean that you won't be able to teach me.

Chords Of The Week - Understanding Chords And How They Relate In A Progression

This is another section which will be covered each week to help build chord knowledge and start playing and understanding common jazz progressions using a variety of different chord shapes.

Scales Of The Week - Guitar Scales For "Song Of The Week"

This is part of developing improvisational technique so each week I will break down which scales I use for the solo section for the "Song Of The Week". The first week we will be playing the C major scale for most of the solo parts.

Learn How To Solo Over Changes

It's easy to be able to solo over chord changes once you have the right tools in your bag of tricks, but for now lets just start with "Song Of The Week #1" - "St. Thomas" - by Sonny Rollins. Check my blog tomorrow for "Song Of The Week #1" and then post your solo link on the page.

See you all at the "Song Of The Week" page ... all the best and good luck ... we are about to learn 52 jazz standards in one year. That's over two hours of live music!!!