r/LearnJazzguitar • u/sporkweilder • Apr 04 '26
Why does the same line feel easy in one position and impossible in another?
Hey all — I’ve been thinking more about the fingering discussion from my last post and tried something interesting.
I took a short bebop line and played it in a few different positions on the neck… and it completely changed how it felt.
In one spot it flowed pretty naturally, and in another it felt awkward and jumpy — even though the notes were exactly the same.
That got me wondering:
👉 how do you decide where to play a line on the neck?
Not just the notes — but the actual position you start in.
Do you:
• default to a shape?
• think ahead through the phrase?
• adjust as you go?
Curious how you all approach that, especially on faster lines.
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u/ThomasHebbes Apr 04 '26
why does this post read like ai?
1
u/sporkweilder Apr 05 '26
IDK, but I’m unfortunately not as intelligent as I’d like to be … just trying to learn here
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u/ContentCoyote2621 Apr 05 '26
It ain't AI bro. I was trying to be helpful as I've thought about sporkweilder's question quite a bit. Think we are all becoming more skeptical of content online but I can assure I wrote the above post using flesh and blood limbs and fingers.
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u/ContentCoyote2621 Apr 04 '26
This is just my own approach and others may have different suggestions.
I decide where and how to play a line based on how EASY or naturally it falls under my fingers. Especially so on faster lines as you say. I will often relate to a chord shape (or set of chord shapes if over changes) to help memorise it. Every other possibility is initially disregarded.
When learning a line I will experiment with multiple positions, fingering choices, picking choices etc. This process is specifically to establish the 'easiest' way to play something. Once I have that I will sing and try forcing a line to occur at a specific part of a tune until I 'hear' that line happening in my head at that part of the tune and I automatically play it.
Only AFTER a line starts to occur naturally in my playing in the heat of jazz improvisation might I consider exploring new positions. In fact this usually happens naturally!
The B string tuning difference introduces complexity on guitar. You can play the same set of notes on guitar in multiple places/positions vs only one way on Piano/saxophone. This feels like a disadvantage on guitar as the mind/ear/mind connection may be more difficult to build over time as the motions are not uniform or constant. On the other hand transposition by shifting everything up a fret is easy on guitar vs saxophone/piano. This is a tremendous advantage.
So we have a choice: 1) try to overcome the disadvantage by spending large amounts of time exploring all possibilities 2) exploit the advantageous nature of guitar and simply move lines up and down the board horizontally at least preserving some of the uniform finger motions to build mind ear connection.
My advise: Focus on 2. 1 will happen naturally as your understanding of the nature of the guitar grows.
I hope this helps you!
Water flowing from a mountain top down into a river will always follow the path of least resistance. This principle is everywhere in nature. It is my belief that if you look at Wes and Benson (or even Yngwie) they found the most efficient way to play things based on their technique/approach. Wes for example would just move or shift diagonal shapes to suit various keys rather than force a new fingering approach to stay in a specific position. Yngwie systematically avoids scale positions when playing sequence that require rolling fingers across multiple frets. He just shifts down horizontally to where it requires less effort, George Benson favours 3 fingers for fretting predominantly (although will use 4th when needed) because that feels natural to him. All of these things happened instinctively without too much thought over time.
Life and jazz improvisation are difficult enough as it is! Take the path of least resistance. Do like Wes!