https://fretdojo.com/blog/ Welcome to the Fret Dojo podcast with Greg O’Rourke – where we interview master jazz guitar players from all around the world. Get the insider secrets for the mindsets, practice approaches and tools that have taken master jazz guitarists to the top of their field. Make sure you check out our website FretDojo.com for more awesome resources, free jazz guitar lessons, and practical tips on how to take your jazz guitar playing to the next level! Mon, 02 Mar 2026 05:20:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Blubrry PowerPress/11.15.17 FretDojo false FretDojo gregorourke@gmail.com podcast https://feeds.podcastmirror.com/~images/2340441769680270.jpeg https://fretdojo.com/blog/ 63a41eb0-5ffd-57b8-858b-6bc1a3b43847 https://fretdojo.com/best-jazz-guitar-songs-to-learn/ Sat, 20 Apr 2024 06:44:48 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=239222 In this live session excerpt, Ryan and Greg discuss just which jazz songs and song forms to learn first for those who are early in their jazz guitar journey. Utilizing the '80/20 rule', these tunes will teach you the common chord progressions, turnarounds and song forms to enable you to play thousands of other songs! FretDojo Best Jazz Guitar Songs To Learn full 13:07 https://fretdojo.com/podcast031-rodney-jones/ Tue, 12 Mar 2024 19:22:13 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=239073 Join hosts Ryan and Vin as they interview legendary guitarist and educator Rodney Jones of the Julliard School of Music on this episode of the Fret Dojo podcast FretDojo Interview with Legendary Jazz Guitarist and Educator Rodney Jones full 56:55 https://fretdojo.com/podcast031-dan-mckay/ Thu, 07 Mar 2024 21:44:47 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=239085 Joins Greg as he chats with one of Australia's leading classical guitarists, and an old friend, Daniel McKay. FretDojo Interview with Classical Guitarist and Educator Dan McKay full 44:59 https://fretdojo.com/wes-montgomery-yesterdays-harmonic-analysis/ Mon, 04 Mar 2024 13:20:18 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=239163 Praised by many as the greatest jazz guitar player of all time, Wes Montgomery was as unique as he was good. https://fretdojo.com/wes-montgomery-sound-unique/ Mon, 26 Feb 2024 13:11:33 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=239155 Praised by many as the greatest jazz guitar player of all time, Wes Montgomery was as unique as he was good. https://fretdojo.com/podcast030-davy-mooney/ Fri, 02 Feb 2024 14:00:44 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=239019 Join hosts Ryan and Vin as they interview jazz guitarist and educator Dr. Davy Mooney of the University of North Texas on this episode of the Fret Dojo podcast. FretDojo Interview with Jazz Guitarist and Educator Davy Mooney full 55:55 https://fretdojo.com/podcast029-rotem-sivan/ Wed, 20 Dec 2023 15:07:33 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=238971 Fret Dojo instructors Greg O’Rourke and Ryan Dillahay sat down with Rotem Sivan, just a few weeks before his new release in Jan 2024! FretDojo Interview with Jazz Guitarist and Educator Rotem Sivan full 52:06 https://fretdojo.com/podcast028-beth-marlis/ Tue, 14 Nov 2023 14:47:34 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=238885 In this exclusive interview, Greg and Vin chat with Beth Marlis, long time professor and current Vice President of Musicians Institute FretDojo Interview with Jazz Guitarist and Educator Beth Marlis full 1:14:38 https://fretdojo.com/podcast024-jimmy-bruno/ Tue, 07 Nov 2023 20:05:44 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=238854 In this exclusive interview, Vin and Ryan chat with legendary jazz guitarist Jimmy Bruno FretDojo Interview with Jazz Guitar legend Jimmy Bruno full 52:53 https://fretdojo.com/podcast024-introducing-ryan-dillahay/ Wed, 18 Oct 2023 20:42:22 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=238798 In this exclusive interview, Ryan pulls back the curtain on his evolution from blues to jazz. You'll hear how this recent college grad, and student of one of the most highly regarded jazz guitarists and educators in the country, made the leap into full-time musicianship, hustling gigs across town. FretDojo full 14:09 https://fretdojo.com/podcast024-using-guitar-picks-for-jazz/ Wed, 11 Oct 2023 14:46:16 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=238784 Choosing the right picking style is one of the mostly hotly debated topics in jazz guitar. Tune in today where we'll have an in-depth discussion on the different picking approaches for jazz guitar. FretDojo full 20:05 https://fretdojo.com/podcast024-barry-greene/ Mon, 25 Sep 2023 19:56:43 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=238752 On today’s podcast, Greg and Vin interview one of jazz guitar’s leading player and educators, Barry Greene. FretDojo full 48:58 https://fretdojo.com/podcast023-sheryl-bailey/ Tue, 29 Aug 2023 13:38:17 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=238557 On today’s podcast, Greg and Vin interview one of jazz guitar’s leading player and educator, Sheryl Bailey. FretDojo full 54:36 https://fretdojo.com/jazz-guitar-chords/ Tue, 14 Sep 2021 13:15:36 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=60309 https://www.youtube.com/embed/Usg8gdts4WU How many different jazz guitar chords do you think you need to know to play jazz? I know what you’re thinking…a LOT. But: There’s a clever trick I want to share with you today. By knowing how to play just a few basic chord shapes on the guitar, you can quickly learn to play a massive amount of different jazz chords – without even needing to memorize them all. Get your FREE Handy PDF Download: Click this link to get your free printable PDF which has the tabs, jazz chords chart, and diagrams for this lesson. Make sure you stay till the end of this video lesson, as I’ll show you how to learn to switch between these chord shapes efficiently with some tasty jazz chord exercises. Let’s dig in! Video Sections: 00:00 Introduction00:45 The Three Harmonic Families02:08 ii V I Progressions02:28 Jazz Chord Shapes for the ii V I Progression02:52 The V Chord03:34 Shell Voicings04:24 Colouring Shell Voicings05:24 Barre Technique with the Second or Third Finger07:55 The ii Chord08:44 Muting Strings with the Left Hand09:50 Omitting Bass Notes10:39 The I Chord12:17 6 Voicings13:32 Backing Track14:47 Extra Chord Qualities (Subtypes)16:02 Minor ii V i16:37 Altering Chords Quality17:15 Adding Altered Tension19:35 Colouring the i Chord21:07 Minor ii V i Backing Track First things first: To understand how this clever system works, we need to investigate a concept known as the Three Harmonic Families. Let’s take the lead from one of the greatest jazz guitarists that ever graced the earth: the fabulous Joe Pass. Jazz harmony can seem very complicated if you read it from theory books. But: Joe Pass was very clever in keeping things as simple as possible, using the “Three Bucket Method:” Whether or not you’re playing Giant Steps or Happy Birthday guitar chords, the following framework is relevant. According to Joe Pass, every chord in existence, can belong to one of the following ‘buckets’: Major chord Minor chord Dominant Seventh chord Interestingly: These are the only three types of chords in western music when you boil things down. Whether it’s a complicated-looking jazz chord symbol like G7b13#9, C9sus, Ebdim7, or any other crazy-looking chord, its fundamental essence can only be a major, minor, or dominant. So (and here’s the best part): If you know the basic shapes of these three chord types – you must be able to play any jazz song you like! Let’s explore how you can quickly get these three types of chords under your fingers. Learn Jazz Guitar Chords With The Amazing ii – V – I Progression The quickest way to master the three ‘buckets’ of chords is by learning how to play ii – V – I progressions, as these chord progressions have the three types of chords included: – the ii chord is minor,– the V chord is dominant, and– the I chord is major. Now, let’s look on the fretboard to learn how to play an ii – V – I progression with some groovy jazz chord shapes.  The ii – V – I Major Jazz Guitar Chord Progression Here’s the first jazz guitar chord you’re going to learn that comprises a ii – V – I progression. Let’s look at each chord one by one. Hint: Click here to get a printable PDF copy of all the chord diagrams covered in this lesson.  D7 Chord (The V chord) Let’s start with one of the easiest chord shapes to play and remember. Notice how this D7 chord forms a ‘triangle’ shape with your fingers. This shape has the bare bones of the chord outlined to define the chord quality – the root, the 3rd, and the 7th. Chord shapes that only have these essential tones are called shell voicings. Important note: For shell voicings chord shapes like this one, pay close attention to the chord diagram. Don’t strum all the guitar strings – only strum or pluck the ones you’re holding your fingers down on. If you strum all the strings, you’ll introduce many clashing notes and sound strange. (You should avoid playing open strings on most moveable jazz chords on the guitar.) Shell voicings are wonderfully helpful in many jazz guitar situations as they are easy to play but sound great when comping or playing chord melody. Adding extra notes to a shell voicing Shell voicings will sound great for comping in the band as they fill out the rhythm section without overpowering other players – or clashing with other harmony instruments like the piano. But you can add extra chord tones to shell voicings to make them more colorful. By using your free fingers, you can get new chord voicings from just one basic shape, such as this D9 chord: Using 2nd or 3rd finger barres: In the previous example, I used my 4th finger to add the extra note to make a D9 chord. But: I can use a 3rd finger barre instead, like this: The reason: It gives you another free finger to add additional notes on jazz chords for even more variety. Using a 2nd or 3rd finger barre in this way is a trick used often by jazz guitarists. Now I’ve got my trusty pinky finger available at my disposal, let’s see what extra tasty notes I could add: Pretty cool, huh? Technique tips for 2nd and 3rd finger jazz barre chords Although they can be initially awkward, it’s worth learning this barre technique for jazz. If you play other guitar styles (like rock or classical), you’re probably already familiar with a 1st finger bar, but you may find 2nd or 3rd finger barres a bit unusual. To play these types of barres effectively, ensure your fretting hand thumb is high above the fretboard, and then roll your hand to clamp the barre down over the strings: You don’t want your thumb in the middle of the guitar neck for these chords – this will strain your hand and make these chords very difficult to play. Tip: Check out the video at the top of this page (fast forward to around 6 minutes in) for detailed instructions on playing these chords with good technique to avoid any potential injury.  Am7 Jazz Guitar Chord (The ii chord) Let’s now have a look at the first chord in the progression – the Am7 chord: Depending on what you’re playing style is (and what would make the most sense to get to the next shape in a song), you could play this chord in a variety of ways: However, just like the D9 chord I demonstrated earlier, I (usually) prefer to use a 3rd finger barre to play this jazz guitar chord shape: Reasons for the barre: I can use the barre to mute unwanted strings, producing a cleaner sound. In this example, the 2nd finger mutes the 5th string, and the 3rd finger barre mutes the 2nd and 1st strings. This ability to mute the strings makes it much easier to strum the chord, which results in a cool percussive sound that is useful for jazz. Fingering the Am7 in this way is similar to the D9 chord, so it’s straightforward to switch between Am7 and D9, which is particularly useful for this ii – V – I progression. Just like with the D7 shell voicing, there are many classy voicings I can get from this shape by adding additional notes to the chord (check out the following jazz chord chart): Hint: See this PDF Download for all the variations of the chords I use in the video. You can think of shell voicings as a ‘coathanger’ for your memory. The bare shell voicing shape is easy to remember, but add additional notes to add many new voicings to your comping and chord melody guitar arsenal. Ditching the bass note for even MORE chord voicings Another way to free up your hand for more interesting voicings is to remove the bass root note from the shape: This handy approach was used a great deal by the jazz guitar master Lenny Breau. Why omit the bass note? The reason: The bass player in your band will be playing that root note anyway. By cutting out the bass note from a shell voicing, your fingers will be freed up to easily play extra color notes on the upper strings, like so: Super helpful – by omitting the bass note, you open your fingers up to exotic new voicings. Gmaj7 Jazz Chord (The I chord) Now let’s look at the Gmaj7, chord I in this ii – V – I progression. This is one of the most common jazz chord shapes: Heads up: If you’re strumming this chord (as opposed to plucking), avoid playing the open fifth string, as it will clash. Instead, only aim to play the strings held down by your fingers – no open strings! By either utilizing a barre or adding extra notes to this basic shape, I can create a variety of wonderfully colorful voicings: Adding extra color notes to basic chords like this is one of the secrets to expanding your chord vocabulary. Side note: 6 chords In jazz, it’s common practice to often use a 6 chord (e.g., G6) instead of a Maj7 chord (e.g., Gmaj7): The reason: In more traditional jazz standards, the Maj7 chord can sound a bit too harsh at times. 6 chords (like the voicing pictured above) can give a gentler sound that works particularly well for the endings of jazz songs. Jazz Guitar Chords Exercise – Major ii – V – I Comping This is where the rubber hits the road – time to practice jazz guitar chords the smart way! Now that we’ve learned some cool jazz guitar chord voicings, let’s put them to work over a backing track. Let’s use a basic Charleston comping rhythm for the following exercises to get a cool swing feel into your playing. Hint: Want to get a download of the backing tracks and PDF sheet music I’m using for this lesson so you can practice them at home? Click here to access the freebies now >> Exercise 1  (see video at 13:32) Listen & Play: https://fretdojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/20-jazz-guitar-chords-backing-track-1.mp3 Exercise 2  (see video at 14:00) Listen & Play: https://fretdojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/21-easy-jazz-guitar-chords-backing-track-2. https://fretdojo.com/tip-6-making-mistakes/ Fri, 23 Jul 2021 05:38:22 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=60049 It happens to all of us at some point: Getting too wrapped up with not sounding that great sometimes when we practice. The reason: It’s the curse of… Being an adult. The Curse of Being An Adult Compare this to the following: Notice what a child does when they first learn to do things. Kids make so many mistakes. When speaking, at first they can barely put a word together. And even after they can eventually say a few basic words, they often make mistakes on the order of the words. But here’s the reason they improve so quickly: They don’t care. Mistakes are an excellent learning opportunity. Don’t be afraid of them as they are a great opportunity for growth. Kids just keep experimenting, making mistakes, falling over, and trying again. Ironically though, this is the reason kids learn so fast. The faster you make many mistakes, the more quickly you can learn from them. Here’s the thing: Adults are too often afraid of making mistakes when it comes to playing music. Why is that? The reason: Adults are painfully aware of what good music sounds like, having listened to perfectly produced recordings their whole life (with all the mistakes conveniently edited out!) But: Young kids don’t have a high awareness of what ‘correct’ sounds like. This allows children the freedom and lack of inhibition to make a lot of mistakes, to be corrected by their parents and teachers, and thus learn at a rapid pace. So: Adopt the child’s mindset in your guitar practice.   The Child’s Mindset Don’t worry too much if something isn’t sounding good (yet). Often daily practice will iron things out if you don’t tie yourself up in knots about it. If you work on something over the course of a week or two and despite daily practice you’re seeing no improvement, adopt a curious mind – and treat it as‘a puzzle to be solved’. When you notice something isn’t improving, make a hypothesis as to what could be the causing the problem. Then: Devise an experiment, consisting of exercises or practice approaches that you think could solve the issue. Run the experiment for a couple of weeks and record your observations. Remember: Mistakes are an excellent learning opportunity. Don’t be afraid of them as they are a great opportunity for growth. In fact: Learning from your mistakes is the key to success on the guitar – or anything else you apply yourself to. Over to you – What did YOU think of this practice tip? Leave a comment below with your thoughts or tips of your own… Greg O’Rourke Founder, FretDojoWorld Leader in Online Guitar Education https://fretdojo.com/holy-whole-tones-batman-try-this-scale-on-minor-chords/ Tue, 20 Jul 2021 23:31:28 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=60041 https://www.youtube.com/embed/SiCb8kzUe3w Don’t have time to read this post now? Get your Handy PDF Download: Click this link to get a print friendly version of all the exercises in this post for your practice. ► Start Your FretDojo Jazz Guitar Academy Membership here: https://fretdojo.com/signup-offer   In this video I’ll show you how to use the whole tone scale to create some exotic outside effects on minor chords. This is a continuation on a previous lesson video where we applied the whole tone scale to dominant chords. You can find that video here: https://youtu.be/tOKXuN83B0c   Thanks for watching and let me know what you think of this jazz guitar lesson via leaving a comment below.  Greg O’Rourke  Founder, FretDojoWorld Leader in Online Guitar Education https://fretdojo.com/warm-guitar-tone-a-how-to-guide-for-jazz-guitar/ Wed, 14 Jul 2021 01:01:09 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=59930 It’s crazy really – You can have… the best ear in the world the most sophisticated ideas in your solo great rhythm and; have a wonderful expressive phrasing The list goes on. But: If you don’t have a good tone (i.e. the quality of the sound your guitar makes), then none of these elements will truly make an impact. Here’s the good news though: It’s not that difficult really to get a good sound on your instrument and create a warm jazz guitar tone. Especially these days with so many good quality instruments and amps. I should let you know though: You’ll find a whole spectrum of views on the subject of tone. Some guitarists are ‘gear extremists’, and will proclaim that the quality of your guitar leads has a serious impact on your sound. Others (and jazz guitarists especially have often been criticized for this) hardly pay attention to tone at all. Let’s take the ‘middle way’ though – here’s a few tips from a self-proclaimed guitar gear luddite: Tip #1 – Check with what and how (and where) you are striking the string I play fingerstyle and use fingernails – so I make sure my nails are polished as smooth as glass and they have a nice even curve – this has the biggest impact on your sound especially on acoustic instruments. This is one sure way to get a warm jazz guitar tone. If you are using a plectrum, it should be smooth and of good quality. If your playing sounds too ‘slappy’, try a slightly thicker pick. Resin picks can have a great tone. Also check where you are plucking the strings – I avoid plucking them too close to the bridge which can sound a bit tinny. Side note: I use 0.12 gauge D’Addario XL Flatwounds for a nice thick sound. Tip #2 – Quality of your guitar More expensive does not necessarily equal better tone. Your guitar needs to be decent – however the make and model isn’t as important as you might think. Make sure the action is set appropriately so the strings don’t buzz on the frets. Also check the strings aren’t old. (Reason: old strings will sound out of tune as you go up the neck). Whichever instrument you play, choose a guitar of which you enjoy the sound and feel. More expensive does not necessarily equal better tone – when I picked up my first archtop I tried every one in the store, and the Ibanez you see me playing on my videos was a MUCH better tone than guitars at four times the price. Tip #3 – Tone Knob (especially for jazz!) Regardless of instrument, if you are playing jazz and want the typical jazz tone, roll your tone knob down quite a bit (I do this even on my archtop) and as I mentioned before, play more towards the neck pickup rather than the bridge – you’ll get that warm, ‘sweet as chocolate sound’. Ooooh yeah. Tip #4 – Your amp (if using an electric guitar) Here’s the thing: A good quality amp is actually more important than the guitar when it comes to tone. For jazz, a valve amp can definitely give a great sound, however these days I’m using a Boss Katana solid state amp and get a fantastic result. Tip #5 – Experiment! There is no universal ‘good tone’. Experiment with the above and come up with a sound YOU are happy with. There is no universal ‘good tone’. Experiment with the above and come up with a sound YOU are happy with. Tone is a very subjective thing, and there is no one right way. My approach: Experiment with all the above factors until you settle on a sound which best serves to deliver your musical message, and go with your gut. Then, record yourself and listen back and evaluate your tone. Rinse and repeat a few times until you pin down a suitable tone. Be careful though: Embarking on a quest for the ‘perfect tone’ can be quite a rabbit hole to go down. Near enough is usually good enough – spend a bit of time finding your sound but then turn your attention to the most important bit – actually playing music! Over to you – what did YOU think of this article on getting a good jazz guitar tone? Leave a comment below with your thoughts. Greg O’Rourke Founder, FretDojoWorld Leader in Online Guitar Education https://fretdojo.com/improvisation-with-the-whole-tone-scale/ Thu, 27 May 2021 02:30:34 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=59621 https://www.youtube.com/embed/tOKXuN83B0c Don’t have time to read this post now? Get your Handy PDF Download: Click this link to get a print friendly version of all the exercises in this post for your practice. ► Start Your FretDojo Jazz Guitar Academy Membership here: https://fretdojo.com/signup-offer   In this video I’ll show you how to use the whole tone scale to create some quirky and unique effects in your jazz guitar improvisations. This cool symmetrical scale pattern is easy to learn on the fretboard if you know a few tricks to the pattern.   Video Sections: 00:00  Introduction00:44  Ex.1 – Basic Whole Tone Scale On Single String02:55  Ex.2 – Playing Pattern Across Strings, Single Position04:08  Ex.3 – Three Note Per String Pattern07:58  Ex.4 – Extending The Range Of The Whole Tone Scale09:58  Improvising With Whole Tone Scale Over D7 Loop11:46  Song Example: Using Whole Tone Scale Over Take The “A” Train13:24  Wrap Up and Next Steps  Thanks for watching and let me know what you think of this jazz guitar lesson via leaving a comment below.  Greg O’Rourke  Founder, FretDojoWorld Leader in Online Guitar Education https://fretdojo.com/podcast019/ Tue, 22 Sep 2020 00:52:33 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=56926 https://www.youtube.com/embed/Jy48Sn3ZTm8 In this fantastic session, Ant shares some tips and inspiration for jazz guitar players of all levels and lets us in on his unique way of playing with his guitar tuned in 4ths! Ant’s been described as “An innovator” and “A gamechanger” by The Guardian. Based in the UK, Ant lives in London where he leads the Ant Law Quintet.  In 2013 their debut album ’Entanglement’ was released to great acclaim, followed by ‘Zero Sum World’ (with Whirlwind Recordings) in 2015 and ‘Life I Know’ (with Edition Records) in 2018, receiving 5 star reviews and airplay across the UK, Europe, and Australia.  Ant plays in Tim Garland’s band with Jason Rebello & Asaf Sirkis, featuring on various albums including ‘ONE’ which was shortlisted for a Grammy and won the Jazzwise Best Album award. He has worked with other notables Cory Henry, Thomas Gould and is featured from time to time in “Total Guitar”, “Guitar Techniques” & “Guitarist” magazines. In the latter he recently made a list of “10 Astounding Virtuosos”. Ant’s fourth album was just released this year on July 24th, “The Sleeper Wakes“.  Check out this interview either watching the video at the top of this page or in the audio version below: Audio Only Version: Stay up to date with all things Ant Law! FB live streams on FB artist page: https://www.facebook.com/AntLawGuitar/liveNEW ALBUM: https://orcd.co/sleeperwakesOther albums, sheet music, backing tracks: https://antlaw.bandcamp.com/YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAy_Wjp5adEDQMsNVDyX8fQInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/antlawguitar/ FretDojo full https://fretdojo.com/podcast013/ Wed, 10 Jun 2020 13:46:42 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=53500 On today’s Podcast, Carl Orr,  FretDojo’s current Artist In Residence, shares his insights into the magic of chord melody and the power that comes from tapping into the strength of guitar as a solo instrument. Check out the podcast here and listen to Carl’s story, as well as some very moving chord melodies he plays throughout the show: Join FretDojo’s online jazz guitar academy here Carl Orr Carl has performed and recorded with some of the finest musicians on the planet including Billy Cobham, George Duke, Ernie Watts, Randy Brecker, Gary Husband and Bennie Maupin. He is a regular at London’s legendary Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in his own band and as a member of drummer Mark Fletcher’s supergroup “Fletch’s Brew”. Carl has taught guitar at The Australian Institute of Music, Brunel University, Middlesex University, London Centre Of Contemporary Music and The Academy of Contemporary Music. A prolific composer, Carl has recorded eight albums as a leader and is featured on albums by Billy Cobham, Fletch’s Brew, Geoff Eales and Nathan Haines. His latest album, Forbearance is a dramatic departure from his jazz and fusion recordings of the past and with the aid of producer Tim van der Kuil and arranger Grant Windsor, Carl has crafted a truly unique acoustic guitar-based album exploring pop, rock, folk, Americana, and classical styles. He regards his music as his public contribution to creating a peaceful, harmonious world. “It is not enough for me for my music to merely be a manifestation of the chaos and disharmony of the world, but instead it must be a potent influence on creating peaceful relationships between people. My aim is to make the listener feel calm, optimistic and invigorated.” ~ Carl Orr FretDojo full https://fretdojo.com/podcast011/ Fri, 08 May 2020 05:51:25 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=53310 Here’s a simple but incredibly effective strategy that I’ve used over the years when I have been busy, but I still need to make time for my music. Check out the podcast below where I share it with you: Join FretDojo’s online jazz guitar academy here Transcript: Greg O’Rourke: Hi guys. Welcome to fretdojo.com. My name’s Greg O’Rourke and it’s great to have you listening along today. This website’s all about the rapid path to mastering guitar and to build your skills to get you to the next level in your playing. So visit my website for a whole bunch of free lessons and courses and everything you need for a step-by-step instruction on building your skills with guitar and especially jazz guitar. So here’s a simple but incredibly effective strategy that I’ve used over the years when I have been busy, but I still need to make time for my music. I don’t think you need to assume that to still make progress in guitar, you need to practise for hours and hours every day. Obviously, if you can that’s fantastic, but sometimes you can make excellent progress, simply by using what I call the Five-Minute Miracle. There’s nothing groundbreaking about this really. All I do is grab my mobile phone, which has a countdown timer on it, and I set the timer for five minutes. And then I just grab my guitar, I don’t even bother to tune it. If it’s reasonably in tune, that’s great. And I just get straight into the next thing on my list that I need to develop. So for example, if I’m trying to learn a new jazz standard, I might spend a bit of time learning one or two phrases from the melody. If I’m interested in learning how to solo over a particular tune, this is something I often do, I’ll just put on one chord from the progression and jam over it for a while. Building things up like this step-by-step, can be very effective because what it does is it presents your mind with a problem in a very constrained way. So for example, soloing over a G13 chord in the progression. And then, you can just focus on that single chord. And then maybe the next day, you might revisit that for say, 30 seconds, and then go to the next chord in the progression. And then on the third day, you might practise those two chords together. And I find a looper pedal is incredibly useful for this kind of technique. So what am I talking about here? Let’s give a real world example. I’ve just set the timer for five minutes. I’ve grabbed my guitar. I don’t really care if it’s perfectly in tune or not, and I’ll just lay down quick pattern like this on my looper. Here we go, it’s a nice G13 chord. And so, this is one of the chords out of Take the A Train or something like that. If I’m looking at that standard and I see this chord, I’m just going to practise messing around over G13. Okay, here we go. Okay, so can you hear how… what’s great about this practise is, it’s instantly satisfying, and also it’s a great step-by-step building block for say, focusing on a jazz standard, because rather than getting overwhelmed with all the different chords in one practise session, you just focus on one chord. And even if you only have time for one chord in one of those five minute miracle sessions, then gradually over the course of the week, you can actually cover quite a lot of different chords and combinations of them. So for example, in the next practise that I’ll do the next day for five minutes, I might combine that with another chord and loop that around. And so, in this kind of very embryonic step-by-step way, you’ll actually be very surprised on how fast you can develop your skills over a standard. And what’s interesting is that it’s actually very highly leveraged because what you’re doing is, you’re presenting your mind the problem, and then you’re going away from it and you’re going to sleep and then you coming back, consolidating it quickly, and then adding another chunk. And then, if that’s all the time you have, then you go to sleep the next night. And then by the power of leveraging your subconscious, which is something I’ve talked about a lot in my courses and programmes over the years, it kind of seemingly without effort, you can really develop your playing. And it’s crazy how you think, man, I only spent five minutes on that, but I’ll come back the next day and it’s a lot easier and everything’s making sense. That’s your subconscious working for you when you’re not on the guitar. This is the thing sometimes I find… I’m sure you’ve all had this feeling, when you’re trying to solve a difficult problem, in anything. For example, on my website I had a bit of a coding issue, and I was scratching my head, trying to peel my brain, how am I going to solve this problem? And I would have sat there for like an hour, just not really getting anywhere. Then I go to sleep on it and I come back, and all of a sudden the solution presents itself within a few minutes. A lot of creative types and scientists have commented on this, the power of the subconscious in solving problems when you’re away from the problem. And so being very consistent but diligent, even with a very small five minute practise, even that can really help you develop your playing. And you start to realise, maybe I don’t need to spend as much time as I was thinking, when you do have more time to practise. So of course, if you have a couple of hours a day to practise and that’s fantastic. Of course, you’ll likely make more progress, but you have to be careful that you are using the leverage of your subconscious. So you need to be very planned with your practise. You need to make sure that you present your mind with a new problem and that the next day, even if you are practising a lot, you need to consolidate it and review that and then add another bit on step-by-step. And so, this is why I find just moving through maybe a standard, one phrase at a time, trying to memorise one phrase the first day and then consolidating that the next day. Then adding another phrase on the second day and so forth. And moving slowly but steadily, sequentially through material is an excellent way to build progress. And not feeling like you need to get all this right all at once. And this is why a lot of people feel like they’re a “deer in the headlights” when they’re soloing. Because they’re trying to work out how to solo over every chord in a single session, and they get completely overwhelmed because it’s just too much information for the brain to handle. The brain works best when it’s focused on just small pieces of information and then develops those and then links them together. And so, anything is easy if you can break it down into its constituent parts rather than feeling like this whole massive difficulty in front of you. Just pick things apart and focus on one little element at a time. And this is why this five minute miracle technique is something that I’ve always fallen back on in busy times. But you can use the principles of this technique, even if you have a longer practise sessions, to present the problem, review the second day and consolidate, add one more element on that next session, rinse and repeat through the week. And then make sure that you get a really good night’s sleep and take care of yourself. It said that there’s three ways in which the mind most effectively consolidates information. The first is sleep, the second is exercise, and the third is socialisation. Now obviously, that third one might be a little bit difficult at the moment, but we can definitely do the first two. We can do get a good sleep and that’s really important for your wellbeing right now anyway, outside of music. You just need to make sure that you get a good night’s sleep. It’s really good for everything. And then the second one is exercise. Again, that’s really important, but the brain actually makes all the connections in those kinds of categories of activity, ironically, when you’re not even on the instrument or when you’re not studying. It’s those times when you’re doing something like sleep or exercise, when the brain starts to knit everything together. Actually, there’s a really good course that I want you guys to check out if you haven’t already. I think it’s a free course. It’s on Coursera, at least it used to be free. So check it out. It’s called Learning How to Learn, and they talk about the efficient processes for learning. And it’s really, really interesting, and I’ve based a lot of my recent study and practise on the principles that I learned about in that course. So make sure that you check it out. Okay, so in the spirit of the topic today, this is a very short and sweet podcast, but we did a focus on something really important, how to highly leverage even small practise sessions on your guitar to get some strong results in your playing, even if you’re busy with other things. So my name’s Greg O’Rourke. Really hope you enjoyed this today. Please get in touch with me and let me know what you think about this. You can leave a comment on my website. Make sure that you give this podcast a five star rating and a nice comment, if you enjoyed today’s show and you’re interested in me doing some more of these shows. Yeah, I’m happy to keep doing these, but I need your support. So make sure you give me a good rating on iTunes please. That would be wonderful. And yeah, in terms of what’s going on at the moment in FretDojo, there’s some great courses that you can get into. And also, I’m offering the 30 Day Jazz Guitar Challenge, which is one of my most popular programmes, and you can now enrol on it any time. So make sure that you visit my website. It’s on the front page at the moment, at the time of this recording for info, if you’re interested in having a nice structured programme for developing jazz guitar skills, if you’re looking for something to do at the moment that’s a wholesome, healthy activity. FretDojo full https://fretdojo.com/podcast010/ Thu, 30 Apr 2020 20:38:49 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=53246 In today’s topic, I want to talk about something important. How hard is it, really, to learn jazz? Check out the podcast below where I answer this question: Join FretDojo’s online jazz guitar academy here Transcript: Hi guys. Greg O’Rourke here from the Fret Dojo Podcast. Visit my website, www.fretdojo.com to get your guitar playing to the next level. In today’s topic, I want to talk about something important. How hard is it, really, to learn jazz? Because there’s a lot of differing opinions on this, but a lot of them seem to gravitate to the point of view that jazz guitar is incredibly hard to learn, will take a large chunk of your life, definitely you can’t focus on any other aspect of your life to get good at this. Kind of like the Whiplash kind of approach. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that movie. I actually don’t really recommend that for the fainthearted, that movie, which is basically about a jazz student that goes to more extreme and extreme levels of dedication in the face of quite an intense and violent teacher that kind of puts him through hell basically to learn jazz. Now in particular, I want to talk about an article that one of my readers sent into me with this question. How hard is it and how long does it take to learn jazz guitar? It’s on guitarprinciples.com and the web post name is How Long to Learn Your Style of Guitar. It goes through a few different styles, but then it comes to jazz guitar. Now I won’t read this whole thing obviously on the podcast now, but I just want to pick out a few tasty morsels here. So here’s a few things that this article says. “The jazz player needs a vast and extensive range of tools, because the music they play is based on sophisticated scales, and those scales are used to generate extremely complex chord structures. There are hundreds of code forms to learn and a great number of scale forms all over the neck in every key.” So already, you can kind of hear that there’s a lot of complexity going on with jazz guitar and most people would be put off by that first paragraph here. They talk about here, in terms of the amount of study required for a jazz guitarist. Five years of study, averaging two or more hours a day, hopefully more, are required to get up and running as a player in the jazz genre. Then it takes about 10 years of three or more hours a day to fully acquire the use of those tools and a lifetime of continuing study and refinement if you want to be among the greats. A high degree of refined technique must be developed as well. So you have to decide, do you want to be a brain surgeon or a jazz guitarist? Probably becoming a brain surgeon will be a bit less of a commitment. Well, if that isn’t the most off-putting thing I’ve ever read about wanting to study jazz guitar. I’m going to let you into a little secret. I haven’t spent that much time studying jazz guitar and I can still gig and improvise, and I have a whole website about it. So I think this is really, really misleading, this point of view. But it’s a pervasive point of view that you hear about when it comes to studying jazz in general, that it’s really for people that want to do nothing else in their lives and they need to spend their whole day on it, it’s the most completely overwhelming form of music to study, but this simply is not the case. I think we need to talk about what your goals are as a jazz guitarist. Sure, do you want to be like the next West Montgomery? Then probably, yes, you do need to spend a large part of your life refining your style. But you don’t need to get to that level to still enjoy playing jazz to competently solo and play in the band and do gigs and all that sort of thing, you don’t need that much time. I think it’s a kind of a psychological thing. If you think something takes a certain amount of time, you’ll find it will. So, the way we think about something kind of creates our reality. I think when you read something like this, you got to take it with a grain of salt and put it in context. So don’t get me wrong, jazz is a vast topic and that’s kind of what I like about it. There’s so many different players with each of their individual kind of slant and approaches on improvisation and composing. I think that’s what makes it so wonderful to study, is this kind of vastness. There’s pretty much something for everyone, because it’s very different to other styles. Every great player really does have their unique kind of feel and approach and improvisation concepts that they tend to focus on. But I think that’s where the first thing about learning jazz is a bit misleading, is to qualify as someone that can play jazz, you need to know how to solo in the style of Pat Martino, in the style of Joe Pass, in the style of Emily Remler, in the style of Barney Kessel and 150 other great jazz guitarists before you’ve kind of got this qualification that you’re allowed to then gig or make music. That’s really not the case. You don’t need to have such a wide expansive influences to simply make great music. Think differently, I think. That’s what Steve Jobs said, think different. What about just trying to make great music with what you have right now? Sound like you. This is the thing. A few years ago, I was teaching a lot of kind of one-on-one individual lessons online and I was meeting a lot of amateur players from all around the world and helping them with their jazz. I always got them to start on this little exercise. I actually did a video on this on my YouTube channel a few weeks ago, and it was about basically how to solo with five notes only, okay? So it was just five notes from a blues scale, that was it. But I got them to just start improvising with those five notes with that single scale over a simple chord progression. Now what’s interesting about doing that exercise with hundreds of players is that I’ve never heard someone play that exercise the same way twice. Everyone, even at the very start of their jazz journey, has something unique that they can say with the material. So you have to trust yourself that, as a human being, you are an artist, you have that artistic drive inside you and that you can make a powerful musical statement very quickly. You don’t have to wait till you’re qualified and you kind of learn every single theory trick in the book and every single substitution, and you have transcribed all the things that you should transcribe. That’s a load of rubbish, basically. You can start making good music right now. I also think that just having a limited set of inspiration can actually be a springboard of creativity anyway. Wes Montgomery spent a lot of time transcribing Charlie Christian. He was just obsessed with Charlie Christian. He would learn every single solo by Charlie Christian. I don’t know if he extensively did other transcriptions from other players, but once he’d kind of got that main influence, then he used that as a springboard to enhance his own playing as Wes Montgomery, okay? So, you don’t need to study every single player out there to still have a solid understanding of jazz and a solid feel for the core approaches. So I think that’s where you have to be a bit selective. It’s kind of ironic that if you feel like you have to be a walking dictionary of jazz, you’ll find that it’s actually harder to be creative ironically, because you’re sort of locked in superficially studying too much stuff, rather than going deep and narrow on a couple of players that you really like. I think you need to start thinking as an artist. Even from the outset as a beginner player, rather than thinking of yourself as a student that has to fill your brain up with so much knowledge, you definitely need a bit of that, but then how do I then turn that into a musical statement that’s uniquely my own? That kind of changes the whole nature of the study of jazz guitar. You can start to feel like you’re more making a creative statement, rather than just parroting something that’s been done by other people. So when it says here five years of study, averaging around two or more hours a day are required to get up and running as a player. I know that that’s patently wrong, because I have, for example, I have a course called The Fundamentals of Jazz Guitar Improvisation in my Fret Dojo Academy membership programme. The course is structured for about a block of 10 weeks, for about 45 minutes of practise, five days a week. By the end of that programme, and I’ve run this for a few years now, I’ve seen people do videos where they’ll be good enough to go and get a gig with the music that they’ve learned, okay? So I know that that’s not true. Once again, your mindset is everything. If you think something will take 10 years to get good, or if you think you need at least three hours a day to be able to even just play a simple song, then it will take that long. But question everything, that’s what I’ve learned. Because early on in my kind of journey with jazz, I definitely thought like that, because that’s what everyone was saying. But then when you realise that maybe that there’s another way to do it, then a whole lot of other possibilities can open up for you. So there’s other things in here, like there are a large number of standards, songs and pieces that every jazz player knows that they can play and improvise on, all of these must be learned. Now, that’s not true. I don’t know every jazz standard, but the set lists that I do have, I know really well. If I’m collaborating on a project with someone and they want to do a few standard tunes, and some of them I would know, some of them I don’t. It doesn’t really matter. If you know the core concepts of how to improvise over the main progressions that are featured over and over again in jazz, it means that you can solo over hundreds of tunes and do reasonably well. Once again, you don’t need to be a walking dictionary of jazz standards. FretDojo full https://fretdojo.com/podcast009/ Thu, 09 Apr 2020 05:47:50 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=53050 One of the biggest questions my readers write in about is: “Should I be using modes when improvising on jazz guitar?” The answer is: It depends. But, most likely there is a more effective approach for jazz guitar improvisation, using arpeggios and chord tones as a basis. Check out the podcast above which will reveal the reasons why. Join FretDojo’s online jazz guitar academy here FretDojo full https://fretdojo.com/podcast008/ Fri, 03 Apr 2020 09:17:23 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=52910 In this episode of the FretDojo.com Podcast I want to talk about three reasons why playing guitar is good for you – especially at the moment given the impact current world events have had on our lives. I’m recording this at the start of April, 2020 and there’s some pretty stressful stuff going on as well as facing living in never-seen-before circumstances. It’s important at times like these that we set aside time for a calm, creative pursuit.  And there’s some pretty compelling reasons why playing an instrument right now is a strong contender… Join FretDojo’s online jazz guitar academy here Transcript: Greg O’Rourke: Hi guys, Greg O’Rourke here from the FretDojo.com Podcast. In this episode I want to talk about three reasons why playing guitar is really, REALLY good for you. Okay, so playing guitar is obviously a cool thing to do. It’s fun, it’s creative, it sounds great, you can play with other people, you can jam. There’s a lot of reasons why playing guitar is fantastic. But specifically in this episode I want to talk about specifically the reasons in how playing guitar can help you in all sorts of ways and can actually protect you from some of the issues that come along with ageing as we all get older. So let’s talk about some specific proven things that playing music (and especially, I guess, guitar goes along with that) can help you in your life’s journey and why it is a very important thing to maintain. Obviously, I’m recording this at the start of April, 2020 and there’s some pretty interesting stuff going on in the world right now. I don’t really want to reference it too much because that’s all we’re hearing in the news and so forth. But obviously with the pandemic as it is, people are getting very stressed and I think it’s important at times like these that we set aside time for a calm, creative pursuit. Reason 1: Playing Music Can Make You Smarter So reason number one, music can make you smarter. I think music is the ultimate brain game basically. I think the reason it is so powerful is because it works out a lot of different sensory functions at once, like the auditory function, the visual, the kinetic function. And I think because all these processes are involved at once, it involves a very powerful brain stimulation. I was looking at an article on inc.com about this and neuro physicist, Catherine Loveday is quoted saying here: “Music probably does something unique. It stimulates the brain in a very powerful way because of our emotional connection with it.” So you know when you try to play these brain games, they’ve been quite popular in recent years, like puzzles and things like that online. But there’s nothing quite like playing an instrument because it’s a very rich and complex experience. And because of the intertwining of all the sensory application when you’re playing an instrument like sight and touch and the oral sense as well, this really can change the brain in long lasting ways and it’s been proven to do so. So it says here, “Brain scans have helped to identify the difference in brain structure between musicians and non-musicians.” And the corpus callosum, which is a big bundle of nerve fibres connecting the two sides of the brain, is larger in musicians and also in the areas involving movement, hearing and the visual abilities, they appear to be larger in the brain in professional keyboard players for example. So the brain is significantly altered and developed by playing music and it can help protect your brain as well. So brain scanning studies have found that anatomical change in musician’s brains is related to the age when training began. But even brief periods of musical training can have long lasting benefits. So you can increase resilience to any age related decline in hearing. Learning to play an instrument can protect the brain against dementia. So Loveday says: “Music reaches parts of the brain that other things can’t. It’s a strong cognitive stimulus that grows the brain in a way that nothing else does and the evidence that musical training enhances things like working memory and language is very robust.”  Okay, so that’s the first point I want to make here is that music is incredibly good for your brain, okay? It can not only enhance your intellectual abilities and your sensory abilities, but it can also protect the decline of those abilities. So I thought that was a very important first point to make about why playing guitar is so good for you. Reason 2: Improves Your Discipline and Time Management Skills Okay the second reason I want to talk about why playing guitar is so good for you is that it improves your discipline and time management skills. Now, I’m speaking from personal experience here. When you start playing an instrument, and especially if you have limited time at your disposal, you start to realise how inefficient you can be with your time. Something that I do when I practise now is that I really stringently plan all the different activities that I’m going to do in my practise for that day and I allocate 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, five minutes, whatever, and then I’ll make sure that I have a timer. And no matter what my goal is to cover the work as best as I can in that time and to stop when I’m finished. Now this is a simple thing, but when I first started doing this, I realised how difficult it was to stick to the time limits and it kind of revealed to me that, in general, my time management was in need of a lot of improvement. And so I think having a discipline like an instrument and having the discipline to get to it daily despite what’s going on in the world or despite how busy you are with other things, if you can put that stake in the ground and dedicate yourself to something like an artistic pursuit like guitar playing, it can really help structure your life. You start to see how you can be more efficient in other areas as well. Reason 3: Music Can Reduce Stress – And Boost The Immune System And here’s an interesting, quite topical one for my third reason is that playing music can reduce stress. Okay? Now I think all of us need to really work on developing a strategy for managing stress at the moment, the whole world basically is in a somewhat stressful situation to say the least. But it’s not about the world out there. What can we do in ourselves to maintain a sense of calm and to take out minds off things? The endless news coverage of what’s going on at the moment can bring you a lot of stress. And by having something like a dedicated hobby, maybe some sort of program that you’re working through or a course or whatever, it can really help centre your mind away from the negativities and then you start to kind of value the time that you have at home and it’s not such a big deal. So playing music, especially playing guitar, is a very good way to reduce stress. Now here’s a little bonus one. Why is reducing stress particularly important right now? I’ve found this interesting article on a website called The Sync Project, talking about how the immune system is directly influenced by the exposure to music. And so if you listen or play music, it can have a significant effect in reducing your cortisol levels basically. And this is a stress hormone, when there’s too much cortisol and related chemicals chronically in your body, it can lead to a reduced immune system which can make you more susceptible to things like viruses, and that’s very relevant at the moment, of course, given the pandemic. And so it can actually be… There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that it can be a very protective thing right now to play music or to have relaxing hobbies because it can boost your immune system. So we should be prioritising healthy things like this right now, things that can help our brain health, things that can help our emotional wellbeing, things that can take our minds off all this stressful stuff and things that can then lead to boosting our immune system. Wrap Up So there’s a few reasons today why playing guitar is really good for you. If you’re interested in some free lessons and resources, then check out my website fretdojo.com there’s a lot on there. And also make sure that you get on my email list because I often have special programmes running like short challenges that you can be involved in. It’s a lot of fun. We have students from all around the world. And especially given a lot of people are stuck inside right now with all the isolation rules and things like that, might be a good opportunity to fill your schedule is something that’s very positive and yeah, you could get a lot of benefit from that. Well my name is Greg O’Rourke, I really hope you enjoyed this podcast today. I quite enjoyed recording this episode. Something a little different. And let me know what you think. If you got benefit from this and you enjoyed this podcast, please leave me a five star rating on iTunes and leave a short review. I would really, really appreciate that as it helps this podcast get out to a wider audience and so that other people can benefit as well. Okay, well, without further ado, my name’s Greg O’Rourke and hope you have a good, calm, peaceful day today and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Bye for now. Reference links: Inc.com – The Benefits of Playing Music Help Your Brain More Than Any Other Activity The Sync Project: Body in Tune: Music and the Immune System FretDojo full https://fretdojo.com/podcast007/ Sat, 14 Mar 2020 17:31:01 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=52734 In this episode of the FretDojo.com Podcast, we dive into the topic of the true meaning behind the famous thing musicians say: “Listen to as much jazz as you possibly can.” Let’s talk about this and see how to approach it so that it can have a lasting effect on your skills on the guitar. Check out the podcast here: ​I’m sure you’ve heard this said by many great jazz players: “Listen to as much jazz as you possibly can.” But there’s a difference between having an album on in the background and listening for pleasure… And REALLY listening to it. Here’s the thing: For a long time, I spent every waking available moment listening to jazz recordings by the greats of guitar – Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Barney Kessell. And then ventured into Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Chet Baker and many others. Although I got a great deal of inspiration from these great players… It didn’t directly move my playing forward. This kind of ‘osmosis’ method is emphasized often in language learning. The idea is to expose yourself in daily life to as much of the language as possible, and then by absorption you begin to pick up the language naturally . But: In reality, it doesn’t quite work that way for jazz. Think about the human voice for a minute: From the day we were born we have used our voice in some way, experimenting with it in a myriad of ways. Therefore: It’s very familiar for us to emulate sounds and speech with our voice. But few people (unless they are a genius level), could memorize, deconstruct and draw concepts from simply listening to a recording passively. Don’t get me wrong, listening is very important: It’s a great way to get inspired by new players It’s a a way to attune yourself in general to phrasing and shaping solos It’s a particularly good way to get attuned to a good rhythm feel. But: In and of itself, passive listening is not going to make you a better jazz player. There is however, a better way to directly use listing to improve your jazz improvisation skills: Working with transcriptions. By intently listening, transcribing, learning and analyzing a solo, you develop your ear skills greater heights, and come away with a whole heap of vocabulary as well. It’s the time-tested way of quickly building your jazz skills. By way of example: Wes Montgomery transcribed every solo note for note by his idol Charlie Christian – and even performed those solos note-for-note on stage in the early part of his career instead of improvising his own. Joe Pass built up his jazz vocabulary by being directly inspired by the ‘Bird’, Charlie Parker. In fact, I would go so far to say any notable jazz player has spent considerable time on building their skills with the help of transcriptions. Is Transcribing By Ear The Only Option? Not necessarily – as long as you have a process where you can eventually play along with a recording from memory. Although transcribing by ear is said to be the best way to learn a solo (and it’s probably good to try this at least once in your jazz study) this option can often be a tedious, exacting process and hence frustrate many students. An alternative: Stand on the shoulders of others and learn a prewritten transcription. This is where someone else has transcribed and notated a solo, and you get to cut straight to chase and go straight learning the solo and extracting useful vocabulary and concepts. Some purists may consider this cheating instead of doing it all yourself. But I think it’s fine – I’ve had great benefit for my own jazz skills going down the ‘prewritten’ transcription route from time to time. The only caveat: You must ensure you memorize the transcription if at all possible – don’t just read it off the paper! This is the big trap here is you may not take the extra step of memorizing it, which tends to happen naturally when transcribing by ear. Steps To Take After Transcribing: Ok so you’ve learned the transcription, one way or another. Now what? Dive deep into the nuts and bolts of the solo. Look at phrases that interest you or you like the sound of. Draw out key concepts and use them as starting points for your own soloing. If it sounds like it’s a lot of work, you’re right. But: Keep in mind though that working with a teacher can help you through this process and point out to you the most essential points of each transcription to work with. For example, in my FretDojo Jazz Guitar Academy, this is exactly what we do month to month – deep dives into classic transcriptions and video tutorials on the key concepts and approaches. For example, I recently released a lesson diving deep into Charlie Christian’s soloing approaches on his classic recording, ‘Rose Room’, which the Academy members have gotten a lot of mileage from. Hint: Want to sign up to the FretDojo Jazz Guitar Academy? Go here>>  Results Of Working With a Transcription You’ll have a wealth of new licks and ideas. Your ears will be further developed. Your technique will be pushed to greater heights through learning a solo You’ll start to see the common ‘threads’ of effective soloing approaches after working with a few transcriptions, and it becomes clearer as to the approaches to focus on in the woodshed. In Conclusion… Passive listening, although enjoyable and a good way to expose yourself to the sounds of jazz, won’t make you a better jazz player necessarily. But – by deep listening and transcribing, and then following through with a robust analysis of key concepts in a solo, very quickly you can build your skills as a jazz player. Anyone that has mastered an aspect of jazz has walked this very path. Let me know your thoughts on this topic by leaving a comment below, I would love to hear from you! FretDojo full https://fretdojo.com/podcast006/ Fri, 07 Feb 2020 03:14:03 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=52453 In this episode of the FretDojo.com Podcast, lets dive deep into a topic that’s critical in your development as a jazz guitarist: The importance of jazz vocabulary – and how to go about learning it! Check out the podcast here: What made Joe Pass such an incredible jazz guitarist? Sure, he had great swing, a tasteful sense of how to shape a solo, and could play any hundreds of jazz standards at the drop of a hat. But for me, there’s one thing that stands out in particular when it comes to Joe Pass. It was his complete command – and sheer amount of –  jazz vocabulary that he had at his disposal. Which is the topic of today’s post, and why mastering vocabulary should be priority #1 when it comes to practicing jazz guitar. Why Learning Vocabulary is So Important Learning jazz without learning enough vocabulary is like learning a foreign language without learning many words. The result: You won’t be able to ‘speak’ jazz. Your musical conversation will be the equivalent of ‘Tarzan speak’. Taking this analogy further – improvising is like having a conversation with the harmony of a jazz standard. And if you don’t know to ‘say’ the right thing at the right time, you won’t leave a good impression! To ‘converse’ with the harmony effectively, you need to not only know enough jazz ‘words’ and ‘sentences’ (more on this in a moment), but you also know how to use them in ways which clearly communicate your ideas. Different Types of Jazz Vocabulary The word ‘vocabulary’ is a pretty broad term when it comes to jazz. There are several types of vocabulary, such as: Pitch Vocabulary – such as melodic patterns and phrases Rhythm Vocabulary – different subdivisions of rhythms, rhythmic motives, familiarity with starting phrases on different points of the bar Articulation Vocabulary – I.e. the way you play the notes on the guitar, such as slides, accents, staccato, and vibrato Chordal Vocabulary – knowledge of different chord qualities and voicings. I would also class substitutions as vocabulary as well, I.e. knowing how to apply melodic phrases in harmonic contexts different to the phrases original chord progression. But that’s another huge topic… Anyway, a competent jazz improviser will have a large ‘stock’ of knowledge to draw from in all of these areas, that they then combine spontaneously in a solo. If you feel like a ‘deer in the headlights’ when it’s time to take a solo, it’s likely you don’t have a large enough ‘stock’ of vocabulary – OR perhaps you do have enough vocabulary but are not familiar with it enough for it to be useful for spontaneous improvisation, as I’ll detail below… Common Mistakes When Learning Jazz Vocabulary Mistake #1 – Skimming rather than Diving Deep Here’s the thing: You don’t need to learn a lot of jazz vocabulary to be a competent jazz guitarist. It’s far better to dive deep on just a few elements that really appeal to you. One teacher told me once that ‘Just keep learning loads of transcriptions and vocabulary, and then see what sticks to your playing’. But, I now don’t agree with this – it’s not an efficient learning approach, to ‘throw a heap of stuff at the wall and see what sticks’. You are much better of selecting a piece of vocabulary that you like, and then really working on incorporating it deeply in your playing, so it firmly becomes part of your language. Mistake #2 – Attempting to increase vocabulary just by learning full transcriptions of solos Although learning to play a full transcription of another jazz musicians solo is an excellent way to teach you about many aspects of jazz such as overall feel, appreciation of how to structure a solo etc, it won’t directly teach you vocabulary that you can spontaneously incorporate into your own solos, in and of itself. You need to go further than this with a transcription if the aim is to increase your vocabulary, by taking the time to deliberately extract the most appealing vocabulary the soloist uses, and then work it into your own solos deeply. See below for some practice methods which I use to get the most out of the ideas I come across in transcriptions. Practice Ideas For Learning Vocabulary Let’s take an idea such as a ii – V – I line I’ve studied from a Joe Pass recording. How would I go about studying this line so that it would stick into my playing? Here’s some of the key ways I go about this: Learn the line in at least a few fretboard areas (e.g. if you know the CAGED system, see if the line fits in at least 2 other positions of that system) Ensure you can play the line from memory as soon as possible, rather than rely on the sheet music – otherwise you might have the illusion that you know the line better then you actually do. Move the line up the fretboard one fret at a time: Play the line in the original position and key. Then, simply move it up one fret and try to play it again, and work your way up and down the fretboard at least a few frets. Yes, it sounds simple – but can be quite challenging initially! Play the line around the circle of 4ths (I.e. the ‘reverse’ direction of the circle of 5ths) – make a backing track that has ii – V – I progressions in the circle of 4ths and attempt to nail the line in every key change. Why the circle of 4ths? It resolves more naturally to each key in the circle. Play the line with a different rhythmic pattern: E.g. if it is in eighth notes, attempt to play it in triplets, or sixteenth notes. Play along with a backing track of a jazz standard you are familiar with, e.g. ‘All The Things You Are’, and attempt to play the line (or parts of the line) as many places as possible throughout the progression. Investigate the nuts and bolts of what elements comprise the line. Extract concepts you find and make them a soloing focus on a jazz standard of your choice. As an exercise, I like to extract key concepts from lines I like the sound of then compose my own original lines based on those ideas. These ideas are particularly appropriate when studying licks. Have a think about ways you could practice rhythmic vocabulary, articulation vocabulary, etc – so the ideas firmly ‘stick’ in your solos. Summary Overall, the approach that I’ve found works well to broadening my jazz vocabulary is to isolate a particular idea (whether it’s pitch ideas, rhythm ideas, articulations or whatever), and make it the sole focus of my practice over a few days, using the varied practice approaches listed above. Focus is the key. To sum up: Learning to improvise in a jazz style is primarily concerned with acquiring a large stock of vocabulary, and then deliberately practicing that vocabulary to attain ‘agility’ and spontaneity so that you could potentially apply the vocabulary in any solo. Select ideas from recordings, courses or transcriptions that you enjoy the sound of – aim for a select amount of ideas that appeal to you rather than thinking you need to learn every Charlie Parker line to be able to play jazz! Deliberately practice these ideas with laser-like focus using ideas along the lines of what was covered in this article, until the vocabulary becomes a natural part of your playing Go further and extract key concepts from vocabulary you learn, and use that as the building blocks for developing your own vocabulary and hence your own unique sound as a jazz musician. Tip: My FretDojo Jazz Guitar Academy teaches vocabulary according to this process, where every month you get to study new hand-picked vocabulary from master players and then apply them over classic jazz standards. For more info about working with me in the Academy, click here>> I hope you enjoyed reading my musings about learning jazz vocabulary today. How about you? Do YOU have ideas or comments on this topic? Leave a comment below and let’s get the conversation started… FretDojo full https://fretdojo.com/podcast005/ Tue, 05 Nov 2019 14:14:56 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=51830 In this episode of the FretDojo.com Podcast, I had the great pleasure of speaking with one of the world’s top guitarists Carl Orr, who shares the deep insights gained over his long career in music and important practice tips for any aspiring jazz guitarist. Check out the podcast here: Thanks guys, let me know what you thought about this interview by leaving a comment at the bottom of this page. Cheers, Greg from FretDojo Carl Orr Carl Orr has performed and recorded with some of the finest musicians on the planet including Billy Cobham, George Duke, Ernie Watts, Randy Brecker, Gary Husband and Bennie Maupin. He is a regular at London’s legendary Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in his own band and as a member of drummer Mark Fletcher’s supergroup “Fletch’s Brew”. Carl has taught guitar at The Australian Institute of Music, Brunel University, Middlesex University, London Centre Of Contemporary Music and The Academy of Contemporary Music. A prolific composer,Carl has recorded eight albums as a leader and is featured on albums by Billy Cobham, Fletch’s Brew, Geoff Eales and Nathan Haines. His latest album, Forbearance is a dramatic departure from his jazz and fusion recordings of the past and with the aid of producer Tim van der Kuil and arranger Grant Windsor, Carl has crafted a truly unique acoustic guitar-based album exploring pop, rock, folk, Americana, and classical styles. He regards his music as his public contribution to creating a peaceful, harmonious world. “It is not enough for me for my music to merely be a manifestation of the chaos and disharmony of the world, but instead it must be a potent influence on creating peaceful relationships between people. My aim is to make the listener feel calm, optimistic and invigorated.” ~ Carl Orr FretDojo full https://fretdojo.com/podcast004/ Mon, 13 May 2019 10:43:01 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=49791 Today I want to share with you a fabulous conversation I had with Greg Stott, Associate Lecturer and Resident Jazz Guitarist at the Australian National University. In this podcast, Greg delves into: The biggest mistakes jazz guitarists make when it comes to practicing Greg’s thoughts on jazz online education and how it compares to more traditional university based teaching A sneak peek of Greg’s brand new albums coming out soon and much more… We also talk about the latest FretDojo Academy jazz guitar comping course that Greg Stott and I collaborated on, and the reasons for why mastering comping is an essential requirement for anyone wanting to call themselves a pro jazz player. Thanks guys, let me know what you thought about this interview by leaving a comment at the bottom of this page. Cheers, Greg from FretDojo Greg Stott Greg is an Australian guitarist and teacher. He teaches jazz and contemporary guitar at the Australian National University and has been a featured performer at numerous events including the New Zealand International Jazz & Blues Festival, the Sydney Olympics Festival, the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, the National Folk festival and a number of international sporting events. He has also played for Australian Prime Ministers and foreign dignitaries and performed original compositions for national broadcast on ABC FM. Greg has returned to study and is currently completing his PhD at the Australian National University but still maintains a busy performing and recording schedule. ​In addition to performing with The Greg Stott Band and the Utopia Collective, Greg has performed or recorded with a range of jazz, classical and pop artists including: Hetty Kate, Grace Knight, James Morrison, Andrew Gander, Tim Kain (Guitar Trek), Tim Strong (USA), Don Johnson, Miroslav Bukovsky, Brendan Clarke, Wayne Kelly, Craig Scott, Gery Scott, Craig Schneider, Ra Khahn, The Idea of North, John Mackey, Mike Price, Eric Ajaye, Col Hoorweg, James Greening, Dave Panichi, Ben Hauptman, Peta Gammie, Jackie Love, Rhonda Birchmore, Hayley Jensen (Australian Idol), Steve and Rae Amosa, Kirrah Amosa Gabby Birmingham, Elana Stone, Meg Corsen, Adam Sofo (The Voice, Silverchair, Guy Sebastian), Robbie Zootster, Steve Allen, The RMC Duntroon Big Band, and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. FretDojo full https://fretdojo.com/per-olav/ Thu, 18 Jan 2018 00:12:59 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=5449 This time on FretDojo, I’m excited to share with you an interview I recently had with world-wide touring latin jazz guitarist from Norway, Per Olav Kobberstad. Per Olav is one of those young, modern Latin jazz guitarists that are a breeze of fresh air and who are bringing all-welcome innovations to the genre. Just check out his credits: Per Olav is one of the few in the world playing 8-string acoustic guitar Released his debut album “Os Rios, As Ligações” with some of Brazil’s top musicians in 2014 Album “Colonial Colors” was released together with Alf Wilhelm Lundberg in 2016 Per Olav recorded his latest album “Cachorro À Vista” with one of the most legendary percussionists in Brazil, Robertinho Silva (known to play with Tom Jobim, Wayne Shorter, Weather Report, Milton Nascimento, Herbie Hancock and many more). In the interview below, I go on a deep dive with Per Olav where he reveals how he started with Latin jazz, what led him to tour the world, his time gigging in Brazil, as well as how he approaches jazz guitar and composing music. It’s time to get up close with Per Olav – I suggest you bring a notepad as there are golden tips inside this interview. Resources mentioned in the interview: Per Olav Kobberstad official website where you can learn more about him Per Olav plays 8-string guitars made by the luthier Esteban Gonzalez, Argentina Order Per Olav Kobberstad CDs and check out his discography here. Per Olav Kobberstad Official Facebook Page FretDojo full https://fretdojo.com/alden/ Mon, 04 Sep 2017 20:55:37 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=2824 This week on FretDojo, I’m happy to share with you an interview I recently held with internationally acclaimed jazz guitarist Howard Alden. Howard is one of the leaders of jazz guitar in the modern era. His accolades include: Student the Guitar Institute of Technology in 1977-78 with Herb Ellis, Joe Pass, and Howard Roberts Collaborations with Dick Hyman, Dan Barrett, Bucky Pizzarelli and many others Alden recorded the guitar performances for Sean Penn‘s character Emmet Ray in Woody Allen‘s 1999 film Sweet and Lowdown – and taught Penn how to mime the performances for the film(!) Recorded many albums with Concord Records as well as other labels, including four with the famed 7 string jazz guitar innovator George Van Eps Has been the recipient of many awards, including: Best Emerging Guitar Talent, JazzTimes (1990) Guitar Player of the Year, American Guitar Museum (2003) Top 75 Guitarists, Down Beat (2008) Jazz critics have said of Howard Alden that “He may be the best of his generation” and “the most impressive and creative member of a new generation of jazz guitarists.” In the interview below, I go on a deep dive with Howard about his journey with jazz guitar from a youngster to where he is today. I also ask Howard to reveal his secrets for how to maximise the results you get in the practice room – there were some fantastic tips Howard gives in this interview that you should definitely pay attention to. Resources mentioned by Howard Alden: 3 Part Guitar Compendium by the late Howard Roberts and Garry Hasberg (3 book set) George Van Eps Guitar Solos (book) Solos From “Sweet and Lowdown” – Howard Alden (book) Featured during the interview are tracks from Howard Alden’s recently released solo jazz guitar album ‘Guitar’ – get your copy here. Find out more about Howard at howardalden.com FretDojo full https://fretdojo.com/mark-whitfield/ Thu, 30 Mar 2017 04:17:56 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=2018 https://www.youtube.com/embed/iTms74tbBH8 It’s finally here: As the final post in the FretDojo.com series on jazz blues guitar I’ve featured this month, I’m honored to welcome critically acclaimed jazz guitarist Mark Whitfield, in this exclusive interview. Audio Version: Simply put, this was one of the best conversations about jazz guitar I’ve ever had, and I was thrilled that Mark had time in his busy schedule for our conversation. This interview also includes the title track off Mark’s brand new album, Grace – his 15th album as a bandleader and first release for 7 years. A truly family affair, the new album features his two sons, Davis Whitfield on keys and Mark Whitfield Jr. on drums, as part of the Whitfield Family Band. I highly recommend checking it out! Get the album here>>  About Mark Whitfield Mark Whitfield is one of the most highly regarded jazz guitarists alive today. Throughout his career, he’s collaborated with legendary artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, Herbie Hancock, George Benson, and many others. In 1990 the New York Times dubbed Whitfield “The Best Young Guitarist in the Business”. Later that year, Warner Bros. released his debut album The Marksman. I reached out to Mark after working on a transcription from one of the tracks from this album: The Blues From Way Back, a jazz guitar blues I’ve been featuring lately on this website. (Check out the full transcription I did of Mark’s solo from the Blues From Way Back here and a breakdown of essential licks from the solo here.) In the interview, you’ll learn about… Mark’s special relationship with the blues, and how he’s naturally been drawn to incorporating it into his jazz style. Mark’s journey with jazz guitar, studying at Berklee College of Music, sessions at the Blue Note in New York, and beyond Mark’s thoughts on how to learn jazz guitar to make solid progress, regardless of the time you have for practice. The essential ingredients of an effective and rewarding jazz guitar practice session How Mark met Joe Pass as a young man, leading to one of the most important (and unusual!) jazz guitar masterclasses he ever had. Album’s and Resources Mentioned By Mark: Album: Portraits of Duke Ellington – Joe Pass, feat. Ray Brown & Bobby Durham (1974) Album: Breezin’ – George Benson (1976) Mark’s brand new album Grace – to find out more and to get your copy, visit the album page on CD Baby here or on iTunes. Thanks for Checking This Out! To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below. Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, or anywhere else you hang out online. Special thanks to Mark Whitfield for joining me this week. Find out more about Mark Whitfield via these links: Website: markwhitfield.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialmarkwhitfieldguitaristpage/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markwhitfieldtheguitarist/ Until next time! FretDojo full https://fretdojo.com/mark-whitfield-jazz-guitar-blues/ Wed, 01 Mar 2017 02:51:58 +0000 https://www.fretdojo.com/?p=1957 I’ve got something special to share with you today. To kick off this month’s series on jazz guitar blues, you’re going to learn a complete transcription of highly acclaimed jazz guitarist Mark Whitfield’s solo from The Blues, from Way Back: a track from his classic debut album, The Marksman (1990). In today’s post, you’re going to learn: The reasons why studying transcriptions is so important for any jazz guitarist How to play the complete transcription of Mark Whitfield’s first solo from the recording of The Blues, from Way Back A general overview of the types of approaches and concepts Whitfield uses in this solo. Cool Bonus: Get access to a FREE print friendly PDF version of The Blues, from Way Back transcription by Mark Whitfield, complete with notation, TAB and analysis. First, let’s have a brief discussion on why to learn a transcription in the first place… Why Learn a Jazz Guitar Blues Transcription? Learning transcriptions of master players is one of the most important things you can do as a jazz guitarist. The reason? It gives you a complete all-around jazz guitar workout. Here’s how it works: Usually transcriptions are tough technically, so learning a transcription is a great way to build up your technique. You’ll learn a wealth of jazz vocabulary that fits well together, giving you plenty of new ideas to bring into your own playing. Learning a transcription is the best way by far to train your ears – especially if you transcribe a recording from scratch. By playing a transcription along with the original recording it was transcribed from, you’ll get a sense of how to add shape to your own solos – i.e., how to structure the rise and fall of a solo in order to tell a captivating musical story. The last point is particularly important. If you just learn jazz guitar licks in isolation, without listening to the lick in the context of the full solo it came from, you won’t get a well-rounded picture on how to the lick effectively as you improvise. Here’s the thing: Even if you end up only delving into a few licks from a transcription after you learn the full solo, these licks act as a kind of ‘trigger’ in your mind for the general vocabulary and approaches contained in the complete transcription. So, learning a transcription is a very effective way to learn a huge amount of jazz vocabulary in a short space of time. Convinced? Good. So let’s now dig into the transcription itself… The Blues, From Way Back The Blues, from Way Back is a track from Mark Whitfield’s debut album The Marksman, which catapulted him to international recognition in the 90s after he graduated from Berklee College of Music. Why did I want to transcribe this recording? This solo is probably the best example of jazz guitar blues I’ve come across, so I was keen to study this one intensely in order to get a more authentic jazz blues sound into my improvised lines. Here’s the original recording of The Blues, from Way Back on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/HtG9zqlnACk What I particularly like about this solo is how seamlessly Mark Whitfield weaves traditional blues ideas between sophisticated bebop vocabulary. Learning this solo has also been a great technique builder for my own playing. Both the bluesy licks and the bebop lines are classic pieces of vocabulary that are really worthwhile to work into your own playing. Presenting The Complete Jazz Guitar Blues Transcription! So here it is: The complete transcription of Mark Whitfield’s first solo from The Blues, from Way Back. Watch the video to get a demonstration of the fingerings I used to play the solo, then read through the notation and TAB of the transcription below. (Hint: If you want a print-friendly PDF of the transcription,click here to access it now). Note: Fast-forward the video to 5:00 in for a close-up slow-motion view of my hands as I play the solo (if you need a closer look at the fingerings in action). https://www.youtube.com/embed/YWOLlssunFM Backing Track: https://fretdojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/blues-backing-track-C-110bpm.mp3 Having trouble printing out the above transcription? Get a print-friendly PDF version by clicking here… You may be scratching your head as to what some of the annotations are in the analysis below the notation, so here’s what they all mean: Key: 4123 = Bebop finger pattern using 4123 fingers in that sequence Aalt = A Altered Scale AN = Approach Note ANT = Harmonic Anticipation APhrDom = A Phrygian Dominant Scale BN = Blues Note C7arp = C7 arpeggio Chr = Chromatic Approach Chord Chrom = Chromatic notes CMajBl = C Major Blues Scale CMinPent = C Minor Pentatonic CMixo = C Mixolydian App = Double Approach Notes Ch.Enc = Diatonic Chromatic Enclosure Enc = Diatonic Enclosure DStop = Double Stops Enc = Chromatic Enclosure LN = Lower Neighbour Note PN = Passing Note Q = Quartal Voicing UN = Upper Neighbour Note Also, you may have noticed that I play entirely fingerstyle on the video, but Mark Whitfield uses a pick on the original recording. A confession… My plectrum style simply wasn’t up for the job of playing a solo as difficult as this, so I resorted to using my more secure fingerstyle technique for this one. Feel free to use either a pick or fingerstyle to play this solo depending on what you’re most comfortable with. Tips for Learning a Transcription to Get Great Results There’s no doubt about it: When you study a transcription like this, it’s crucially important to practice it in an effective way. Here are some tips to ensure you end up getting the sounds of the transcription into your own playing when you improvise: Memorize the transcription – don’t just read it off the page! Learn the transcription just one small phrase or even one bar at a time, and memorize it as you go. You’ll learn it faster, and assimilate the sounds into your ears much more than if you read a whole page at a time and then try to memorize a whole chunk at once. You’ll find that if you memorize as you go, you’ll memorize it much faster and more securely that way. Listen to the video (especially Mark Whitfield’s original recording of The Blues, from Way Back). Don’t just try to emulate the notes and rhythms, but also the sound, feel and phrasing that he uses in his playing. This is all the stuff you can’t notate on a page but is one of the most important benefits of learning a transcription: learning how to shape and ‘speak’ your phrases in an authentic way. Once you can play the transcription through, circle licks and patterns that appeal to you in the solo, and practice incorporating them into your own improvisations. Practice improvising on a blues backing track in the style of the transcription you’ve just learned – this is a great way to bring your own original voice to the material. One more thing: Pay close attention is to the fingerings that I’ve given in the TAB – it matches the fingerings that I play on my video. Getting a workable fingering is one of the most crucial aspects of being able to sound fluent on your instrument. Vocabulary Ideas Used in The Blues, from Way Back Let’s look at some general points on the ideas Whitfield uses in his solo to create interest. Start experimenting with these in the woodshed, as they are classic jazz blues vocabulary ideas: Sliding from b3 to 3 – this is a well-known blues cliche but Whitfield does it so much throughout the solo it helps give that classic blues sound throughout. Harmonic Anticipation: Whitfield often anticipates a chord in his solo before it appears in the rhythm section. This is a simple way to create interest and forward motion in your playing and is a technique that’s been used since Charlie Christian. In particular, Whitfield often anticipates the I7 (C7) chord when the harmony is still on V7 (G7). Harmonic Generalization – This means using the same lick or idea without transposing it over various key centers. This is an easy way to create tension and interest. Alternating C Major Pentatonic/Blues and C Minor Pentatonic/Blues – using these two distinct harmonic colors is another classic blues idea that helps to keep the interest going in this solo. Motive Repetition – Whitfield reuses a lot of phrases over and over throughout the solo in various ways – can you spot them? Alternating between fast tension and slow relaxation – Most of the double time lines you can see in this solo are classic bebop vocabulary. The solo creates tension by using these elaborate double time lines. This tension is then released by following the double time lines with more simple pentatonic and blues lines. This helps to maintain interest, excitement, and variety. Conclusion As you can see, there’s a wealth of jazz vocabulary to be unearthed in The Blues, from Way Back solo by Mark Whitfield. But we’ve only just scratched the surface… Once you’ve learnt the whole transcription, it’s time to take some key lines and concepts out of the solo and incorporate them into your own playing in a deeper way. That’s what part 2 of this series will be all about. In my next upcoming post, I’m going to dig deeper into a few of the licks out of The Blues, from Way Back solo, look at how they function and give you tips on how you can incorporate them into your own playing. I look forward to working on these with you then – stay tuned… :-) Cheers, Greg O’Rourke BMus (Hons), ANU Special thanks to Mark Whitfield for giving me the permission to publish this transcription on FretDojo.com. Find out more about Mark at his website, www.markwhitfield.com. FretDojo full 2:26