New to playing Jazz- No jazz course?

I am learning guitar seriously through the course and have been learning through the acoustic journey, enjoying myself. But once I am done, my dream is to really learn how to play jazz. 

What is the best way to start learning jazz? I do not really see an official step by step course like the other 4 topics (rock, country, blues, and acoustic) and there are many tutorials from different teachers when I search through the jazz topic in this website. 

Should I learn blues too to help learn jazz quicker? Where did many jazz players start after having enough experience with guitar?

Thanks

Jazz is my love and a direction I am now (almost 5 years in) just working toward, but it is the hardest discipline TMK? It's tough. 

You've no doubt hear the standing in joke, "A blues guitarist plays 3 chords in front of thousands of people, and a jazz guitarist plays thousands of chords in front of 3 people".

Without a dedicated Jazz course here TMK (?), I've a different sub source which I use heading in that direction. As it's a competitor to Guitar Tricks, I shalln't mention which here. A solid understanding of music theory is prerequisite.  

This guy on You Tube will point you in the right direction. 

Hi Moonlight -

Not so much a "learning" but here's a resource to jam.

Check out the "Quartet 1" app in the App Store or their website https://www.quartetapp.com/ .  It's an app with a truckload of not so subtly disguised "clones" of famous jazz tune.  You can change the key and tempo on the fly, and pull up piano, guitar, and uke (of all things...) chords.  You can also change the backing combo on most tunes (piano, anyone?). It's a little clunky but is a great collection of background tunes for jazz jamming.  I think I bought it for $3 US when they first released it.  Not sure of the current price but I'm betting it'll be worth it for you.

This is a good bet if you're looking to jam to a hundred or so jazz standards.  You can find your favorites here and jam to your hearts content.

If you're looking for a custom/composer style thing, this group of developers also makes a number of other "studio style" back up apps called "Session Band".  I have the blues app and plan to get their other offerings which includes "Session Band Jazz1".  Price is currently less than $10 US for each of the "Session Band" apps. Definitely not perfect, but I believe their apps allow you to export to Garage band.  All of the music is royalty free, so you can use it as a base for your own recordings if you you wish.  https://www.sessionbandapp.com/  Looks like they have a half dozen or so jazz apps.

I'm not affiliated with these guys, but I was looking for back-up loops to jam against and ran across these apps.

Hope it helps,

Rumble

thank you so much!! I like that joke haha

what great resources! Thank so much!

This thread in my forum has a path for learning jazz.

https://www.guitartricks.com/forum/t/36491

If you just in the beginning learning stages, then I encourage you to keep working through the blues course.  It will help you build basic skills you will need to just start learning jazz.  If you have the time to spare you can start working your way through the dominant 7th chord tutorials in my list at the same time.

manXcat mentioned Jens Larsen.  Larsen is an excellent player & teacher for breaking into jazz style guitar.  But no matter who you work with (me, Jensen, someone else) you are going to have a considerable level of technique at your disposal.

Also, keep in mind that learning jazz guitar can easily become a very time consuming goal. :) A good, knowledgable teacher is invaluable. But in my personal estimation, the first and foremost thing to do if you are serious about jazz is to learn tunes. As in "standards" from the "great American song book". Real Books of tunes are a good resource in this respect. Listen to a lot of jazz. Learn to play the melody and chords (separately at first, then together later as a "chord melody") to tunes by George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Richard Rogers, Fats Waller, W.C. Handy, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, etc. The classic performers are Gershwin, Ellington, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, etc. Gershwin & Ellington's tunes, in particular, are the foundation & backbone of the jazz standard repertoire.

I have some of those standards on my page.  And I have about 4 or 5 more public domain standards on the way starting next year.

Hope that helps!

thank you so much for replying! I looked into your tutorials so hearing from you had me hyped!

Thank you for the link to that forum thread, and advice Christopher. 👍

Addendum: Possibly useful links to assist obtaining recordings for listening per Christopher's recommendation. Regardless the country you're clicking from, those links should redirect to or offer to take you to the relevant source in your own country. 

My thanks for those artist recommendations Christopher.

1. Art Tatum and of course, not to forget Art Tatum material obtainable through Hal Leonard 

2. Joe Pass,  and additionally, available through Hal Leonard

thank you again!

You are all welcome for the reply.  Joe Pass & Art Tatum are two of my jazz heroes!

👍