Himanshu Desai

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Those who know me, know very well that I’m an over enthusiastic guitar student, and a die hard Jazz fan. Unfortunately, there is much to be desired yet, from my guitar playing skills. Hush, hush!

Nevertheless, in my years of pursuing this passion I somehow manage to persist endlessly. Whatever little I know about guitar music, is as a scavenger of licks, tricks, and bootlegged techniques stolen from friends and fellow musicians, having had no decent musical education all my life.

A few years ago, I was living in Toronto, and working in a 9-5 public service job. In my other life, I was a regular run off the mill classic rock guitarist, with a deep interest in jazz, but not a damn clue about how to go about actually learning or playing it. I had little know how of the theory and analyses that an understanding of jazz requires. I had been playing some transcribed jazz numbers up till then, but surely no sustainable method or process was anywhere in my head.

I was well aware of this deficiency and was constantly looking for a way out of the funk! So one day, I decided to enrol with a jazz guitar faculty at the Toronto Conservatory. Upon some investigation I was sent to a classroom to be auditioned for what I already knew how to play on a guitar.

I really can’t say how it went – because the teacher appeared a little baffled, and said to me things like:

In all honesty, what I was playing was a whole lot of confused bollocks! Prior to then, I had only been playing by ear, and was stuck within scales, licks, runs etc.- that I had picked up in local jams here and there. I had no clue how to play any decent jazz arrangements, but somehow by virtue of repeatedly listening to jazz records, I was able to sound a little jazzy in shreds etc. I had built a decent enough jazz chord vocabulary, but was missing the glue that binds good melodies and harmonies together.

Anyway, I did work a couple of months with the jazz guitar faculty, and managed to clear out some endemic issues in my understanding, but soon, life happened and I was to move country.

On another hand, I had subscribed to and had been watching Jens Larsen’s YouTube lessons. At first, even though I was not really getting the theory, I began with copying arpeggios, triads, voicings, cadences etc. More importantly, it was Mr. Larsen’s calm and friendly manner, which hooked me onto the channel as a subscriber and follower.

Indeed, Mr. Larsen’s approach to jazz guitar has slowly and surely become somewhat clearer, and I must say that even though I don’t claim to be anything but an amateur, I can’t thank Mr. Larsen enough for disentangling a whole lot of confusions and misconception that I had, not only about jazz, but music in general.

Like me, not everyone in the world can afford a real music education. But with more and more channels like these, methinks, a lot of deprived talent will find real outlets. Off late, I have begun thinking that online education will indeed supersede academia one day, needless to say Mr. Jens Larsren is one hell of a pioneer in this regard.

I highly recommend Jens Larsen YouTube Lessons to all musicians, regardless of genre, instrument or orientation. Once you understand the language you can probably play any kind of music on earth with enough practice and diligence, therefore it is of little consequence that Mr. Larsen’s genre of choice is Jazz. Indeed, what’s most important is the ease with which he explains even the most unusual concepts and structures.