Can you read chords? Melody can usually be worked out by ear

Step 1: learn to swing. 😁 The only real way to do this is to listen to a whole lot of jazz you like, and especially the great players of the instrument you play.

Many of the early greats didn’t read music and had to learn by ear. Transcribe transcribe transcribe. There’s no substitute for listening to everything all the time and emulating what you hear. Reading notation is a bonus.

I would say finding the jazz groove or rhythm in every song. Like…there’s a swing within jazz and if you catch it, you may never lose it. It will enable you to skat and practice within every pocket…

honestly, look up 'shell chords' on YT.. with those few chord shapes you can play along to a lot of lead sheets.. watch one of those instruction videos and you will see what i mean.. it's still not all that simple but it helps a lot

“Can’t read music” - yeah you can. You just haven’t learned yet. If you’re planning to put some serious time and effort into the whole jazz thing it will be well worth including some work on the notation & theory side. It more than pays for itself in the long run.

learn a bunch of jazz tunes

close your eyes