Introduction to Jazz with Rob Luft

Hi there! My name's Rob Luft. I'm a guitar player from London, and I specialize in playing jazz music and its related genres, such as:

• World music
• High life from Africa
• Samba from Brazil
• Eastern European folk

I am working on playing all different styles from across the globe.

My Background

The reason I'm here is that I am the jazz tutor on this course. I'll be showing you a little bit about:

• Scar
• Samba
• Bossa nova

I've been working professionally as a jazz musician on the London scene for nearly 10 years now and have had the pleasure of playing with musicians like:

• Django Bates
• Gregory Porter
• Kerys Matthews

I grew up playing in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Great Britain. After that, I studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Baker Street.

Having graduated from the Royal Academy with several awards under my belt, I went on to win the second prize in the Montreux Jazz Festival's Jazz Guitar Competition in 2016. Since then, I've enjoyed performances all over the world, playing on six continents. I have toured South America, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Europe, performing my original music to fantastic sellout audiences across the continent.

I'm lucky enough to be signed to Edition Records, Britain's flagship independent jazz label, where I have one album under my own name and am about to release my second.

Course Objectives

Now, while my background is interesting, the reason that I'm here is not to talk solely about that. My role on this course is to guide you through various jazz pieces that will aid your approach and development as a professional guitarist.

Course Highlights

There are several highlights in this course:

• Jazz Styles: We will explore the different styles included under the jazz umbrella, such as:
  • Jazz fusion: We'll look at advanced picking techniques, alternate picking, right-hand techniques, and interesting exotic scales.
  • Samba and Bossa Nova: We'll focus on enhancing our fingerstyle technique.

I want you to enjoy yourself while working on these skills. I hope this material will inform you, and you'll learn a ton!

Conclusion

On that note, let's get going!

Let's have some fun, let's get practicing, and before you know it, you'll be playing some jazz!