If you've ever seen Andreas Oberg playing guitar then you already know that he's pretty serious when it comes to playing jazz guitar. In this sample video from Andreas' online guitar lessons, he breaks down a technique known as Ghost Notes which he picked up from jazz saxophone players like John Coltrane and Michael Brecker. The effect is created by using alternate fingerings for notes, which then results in a phantom, or "ghost" note kind of sound. If you can master this concept it will really help in your phrasing and will make your playing sound more alive.

Ghost notes work well on guitar because there are more than one way to play each note, unlike a piano for example. So by using two alternate fingerings for the same note, you can create the ghost note effect by playing the same note on 2 different strings in succession. Andreas notes that you can also do this on the same string, but it will produce a slightly different effect.

Andreas demonstrates the ghost note concept by playing a two versions of the same G Note: one on the 3rd position of the 1st string, and one on the 8th position of the 2nd string. It doesn't matter which one you start with, so be sure to experiment with trying it with both ways. You can also experiment with other notes on different strings, there's a lot of combinations to work with. You'll hear that each fingering sounds slightly different, especially when played side by side. It's a cool thing to incorporate into a guitar solo or jazz phrase. Andreas prefers to use ghost notes in the higher register notes, but you can also play them on the lower register notes as well.

To see this in action, check out Andreas' example of playing ghost notes in a Mixolydian scale over a Mixolydian backing track in the video (note: Andreas' students also have access to all the backing tracks he uses in his online guitar lessons. They also can submit videos to Andreas for his review and he'll provide feedback to help them get better).

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• Jazz Guitar: Modes of the Major Scale
• Cool Jazz Guitar Licks from Andreas Oberg
• Jazz Guitar with Chuck Loeb: The 6 Positions
• Jazz Guitar: Approach Notes & Neighbor Tones
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Sign up for Andreas Oberg' free guitar lessons by filling out the form and find out more about his online guitar school at www.andreasobergguitar.com