Just a quick comment. I really appreciate all the words of encouragement but I sense that many of you are concerned for my mental health in taking these kinds of comments seriously and reacting to it. Just to be clear: I'm not bothered by critical comments AT ALL. It's basically a great excuse to make a new video and talk about it more. I enjoy making those kinds of videos and lots of people enjoy watching it so it's all good!

Honestly, I don't think you should justify yourself to anyone. You're providing free guitar learning material to jazz enthusiasts and we thank you for that so imitation or not, I personally don't give a monkeys cos this is one of the best jazz learning channels on KZread.

@turbodownwarddog

8 ай бұрын

EXACTLY!!!

@thejazzman4260

8 ай бұрын

I totally agree!!!. What a bunch of nonsese. All jazzguys 'steal' from each other. And to be honest.....i wish i could exactly imitate Stochelo or Angelo or Pat Martino. I learned a great deal from Chris his lessons considering (gypsy)jazz. Also many things has become much more clear. Besides, I don't think anyone in my band gives a damn if the line I play is a line 'stolen' from a great jazz player. As long as the line or the solo sound great who cares??

@7thson678

8 ай бұрын

If jazz guitar was a martial art, Maestro Hemert would be Bruce Lee. The old "formal" teachers always have a disliking in newer practical methods .

People are always jealous.Makes me sick.Youre are a true humble magic musician Cristiaan.❤🙏

The previous masters have always established the foundations for the personal pathways to discovering an individual's potential.

Hi Christiaan! I'd like to add some comments which will I hope be helpful and of interest. I'll start with something not related to jazz, but relevant. Anyone having classical guitar lessons goes through a planned course consisting of graded pieces according to difficulty. All are in general pleasing and melodic, encouraging the student to continue.The theory is also graded. Not so it seems with jazz. The guitarist is immediately thrown into solos exactly as played for example by Django. These are technically difficult, taking a long time to memorise. There is alo the problem of finding others with whom to practice to get the timing of solos right. In my opinion, what is sorely lacking is a graded system of learning for jazz guitar using complete pieces to play. As an example, the basic chord sequence for Minor Swing is easily learnt. What's needed are simple solos which capture the Django sound, but can be memorised and used in a jam session. This would give a learner encouragement, and a sound foundation to build on for the next step. Why do I say all this? I've found it all too much, too complicated, and that's why I've given up - despite having experience of other styles, and having played for many years.

Love your videos and musical explorations Christiaan. Always sounding great! Play on!

I didn't start improvising well and competently until I spent many hours learning other people's solos by ear. Then I figured out how the lines work over chords, and I could then move all these lines and shapes over different chords and in different contexts. You must learn jazz vocabulary from the tradition to be able to improvise in an idiomatic way. But I was never told this. Everyone told me to play scales and arpeggios. But that does not magically become jazz vocabulary!

Hi Christiaan, I got into a bit of discussion with Janek Gwizdala, the fantastic bass player, on a recent video of his about transcription. I thought you might enjoy it, covers some issues you address.

Christian, you are brilliant!

Christian you are doing great stuff. Keep going. By trying and understanding what other musicians have done, we are able to learn, grow and find our own voice. Gary

It’s like saying that because we teach children already existing words and phrases, they will never be able to write an original book or a poem. Music is a language. Imitation doesn’t prevent you from being original, it actually helps you.

@ChristiaanvanHemert

8 ай бұрын

This!

Christiaan, i love listing to you, i love watching the way you play and the way you teach. I love to listen to you because you give gypsy jazz the letters of nobility. Don't be afraid, you will always find angry people on your way. I think you have nothing to prouve or to justify. Sharing music is not only a unique path to the top.

IMHO a good teacher inspires students to do the work that's required to get good. The same content or pieces of language can be arrived at by a multitude of angles. If your angle resonates with students and they become better musicians then it's all good.

I would be very curious how you react to Jens Larsen's approach to learning Jazz. He made a youtube video called "How To Practice In All 12 Keys - This Is What You Learn". I think that would be very interesting and helpful! Thank you for your amazing content!

yes, why aren't we talking of "ever INcreasing circles" where each "imitator" is not losing something of the original, degrading it like a photocopy, but actually adding something new to it?

I'm guessing that "Jazz Expert" is not so much.

I've seen your stuff and you have a great approach. It always bugs me when critics of teachers say things like, "learning shapes on the guitar won't ultimately get you anywhere." That is like saying being proficient with your major and minor scales all over the neck won't get you anywhere. This is ridiculous, you have to know your scales and chord shapes to play any kind of music on a high level. You could make the argument that advanced level guitarists are "beyond" guitar shapes due to a contrapuntal style of playing reminiscent of Bach, but I'm sure these guitarists started with chord grips just like anybody else when getting into jazz.

Dude, you are one of the best guitar teachers on the planet. I love you and your playing. Ridiculous. An amazing channel.

There jealousy is falling out of there mouth not only do you play guitar but you also play other instruments don’t stop teaching because of there comments keep doing what makes you happy brotha

We can hear many phrases rooting all the way back to Django in many guitarist generations after!. Everyone has an inspiration. That guy doesn't know what he's talking about Maestro Hemert. He sounds like he just plays rock music.

You are doing great things, ignore the haters

I have learned a lot from your system, do not justify it with anyone, greetings, respect Christian

The comment obviously was made without ANY thought behind it. The person who made the comment obviously, admittedly, has no idea how to improvise or whats necessary to be able to do it. Its NO DIFFERENT than improvising the blues language, or improvising over Heavy Metal Neo Classical chord progressions. I have found it actually PAINFUL trying to copy lines, which I personally HAD to do when I started learning GYPSY JAZZ 3 yrs ago, and I had been playing guitar and Jazz for a VERY long time. Gypsy jazz lines are VERY different from electric jazz guitar, like Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, etc, there are NOT those common blues pentatonic lines found in electric jazz, there is a Jazz blues, but Djangos jazz blues is NOTHING like the aforementioned.

I’m not sure that anyone can learn any form of music without some degree of imitation - the criticism of your method is absurd. Imagine saying to the parent of a newborn child - “stop encouraging your child to imitate the sounds you make… he/she will never be able to speak the language if they learn to imitate you”. In fact, it applies to all forms of learning - first we imitate and then we create, it has always been that way.

All is derived from early jazz musicians, it's about trying to find your own sound, even if you were using imitation solos to teach, which you aren't unless explicitly stated, you sort of need that to start out, it's sad that there's so much ego everywhere in the world, just have fun and disregard this kind of negativity.

Is there anyone who has ever accomplished anything at all, in any field throughout all of history without some level of imitation? I guess cavemen, but only because there was nobody before them.

I'll be honest! Your method is actually not only the best, but also the fastest!!!

Just make music thats all, where ever you can learn anything do it. these kinds of comments come from people who got nothing beter to do and never understood why music exsist. I m sure he's just frustrated because he can't play.