JAZZ MUSIC

The Art of Playing Jazz Guitar – A True Preparation Primer Part 2

In part 1; we discussed various metronome techniques to advance our awareness, concentration, feeling, and broaden our minds while practicing. This article will go into what we should be practicing and, more importantly, thinking when using those techniques.

Music is made up of three basic elements, Melody, Harmony and Rhythm. All are interrelated and we should not try to isolate them because this will not take us where we want to be. We instead want to understand each of them in a unique way so when eventually combined they make a more poignant whole. Melody was first on my list so let’s start there.

Our melodies will make or break our playing – Period!

When we practice melodies we must remember that for each tune we work on there are probably lyrics for it. If you do not know the lyrics, stop and get a copy. Read them, speak them out loud, sing them and learn them until they become part of you.

Next, listen to the greatest vocalists sing these tunes. Listen to their phrasing, their articulation, how they use their mouths, tongues, teeth, lips, lungs, body posture or whatever they do to produce the sounds. Think about the ways we can incorporate all of those things into our guitar playing.

Unfortunately, the guitar is an instrument that has no air blowing through it so we have to improvise. Also the patterns of scales and chord fingerings we were taught when we started don’t help our creativity. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t learn them but many times practicing only these will leave us stale and stiff.

Case in point, did you ever transcribe a great jazz guitar solo only to realize that the fingerings needed to play it are no were near what we were taught about standard fingerings for guitar scales?

So what do we do?

Start off basic and I mean so basic that we’re probably way ahead of ourselves already. Be aware of the endless possibilities of making each note and then break it down to the point where we are left with only the rudimentary elements of producing a single tone on the guitar. The atomic tone so to speak.

For instance, if we play with only the thumb of our picking hand as opposed to a plectrum we get one type of sound. If we play only down strokes with our thumb we get a different sound again.

Let’s delve into this further as it is important.

If we play with our index finger, middle finger, a plectrum on the pointy end, on the fat corner, on the fat end, upstrokes, down strokes, whatever, we can make all kinds of sounds. In fact, there are so many possibilities we may never get to them all in our lifetime.

Hopefully you see where I am getting at and we haven’t even discussed the fingering hand yet nor have we discussed any particular notes, pitches, dynamics etc…

Don’t let that stop you. Start learning this now and you will be happy you did.

Ok what’s next?

Select 3 notes and work with only them while thinking about the spoken voice and how you would convey three words in a sentence. Think about how by changing the phrasing and articulation of our three words, or notes, we can change the meaning of them entirely. In fact pick an actual 3 word sentence and speak it with your guitar rather than using your voice. This is where we truly start learning melody.

If we were to find someone we don’t know and say to them; “What is your name?” We would get a response. Don’t forget that a non response is also a response. We must realize the actual response we get is dependent on how we phrase and/or articulate our words and realize that we can control this response only if we understand its relationship to our actual question.

I’ll explain. If we were to say those exact words in a teasing, tormenting and antagonistic manner we would get one response. If on the other hand we were to use an openly friendly demeanor we get an entirely different response all together.

By doing this simple thought exercise we realize that using the exact same words spoken in different ways produces vastly different responses.

By observing, understanding, and practicing this behavior we can learn to exploit and utilize this technique to our advantage to allow the full potential in our guitar playing that invokes the response were seeking, whatever that may happen to be.

The human voice is of particular concern to us because our ultimate goal is to emulate what it does with our instrument. We want to be able to communicate with our guitars the way people communicate when they speak to each other – which is not unlike melodies.

As babies, we were only able to make rudimentary noises to communicate. Years later, hopefully, we are able to form intelligent rational thoughts and convey them with our words using articulation and phrasing and word combinations to mean many things. We want to apply this to our guitar playing.

Remember, it took us years to be able speak in this manner and we should approach practicing melody with the same realization and not try to run before we can walk.

We should also remember that even babies can communicate in a very compelling manner without using words at all! So don’t be afraid if this practice routine seems too simple. It’s not the notes you use, it’s what they are actually communicating that is important.

What can we deduce from all of this?

When you start finding yourself practicing or playing those blazing fast cool scalar riffs, stop and think about how many times you hear actual people speak like that.

Now – ask yourself how long you would stay and listen to them if they did.

That’s it for now but look for new articles in the future and remember; have fun, practice hard and always play your heart out!

About the Author

John Belthoff is an avid web developer who plays and teaches Jazz Guitar in his spare time. He owns an Asp.Net Web Hosting Company where you can contact him about hosting your guitar website/blog or just to learn more.

Internet resources for musicians: Part 3 – A Jazz Impro Primer

New York Guitar Method Primer Ensemble, Book 2 $23.99 At its heart this book is about learning to read on the guitar but really it is so much more.  If your an intermediate level player and feel your rhythm isn’t up to par, your understanding of how to apply the Major, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian, Major Pentatonic, Minor Pentatonic and the Blues scales to chord progressions needs improvement, your fretboar…

Practical Piano Pedagogy $31.14 Practical Piano Pedagogy by Dr. Martha Baker-Jordan is a comprehensive 468-page pedagogy text for ALL piano teachers including those future teachers who are currently enrolled in pedagogy courses in colleges and universities. This definitive pedagogy text will teach readers how to use any teaching materials in a better, more organized, and pedagogically sound way. Included with the textbook is a C…

Creative Evolutionary Systems (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Artificial Intelligence) $19.98 The use of evolution for creative problem solving is one of the most exciting and potentially significant areas in computer science today. Evolutionary computation is a way of solving problems, or generating designs, using mechanisms derived from natural evolution. This book concentrates on applying important ideas in evolutionary computation to creative areas, such as art, music, architecture, an…

Jazz Piano: A Primer for Classical Pianists $33.88 This unique book is especially designed for traditionally trained classical pianists who are interested in learning the rudiments of jazz piano. It uses a systematic, a stepbystep approach to learning to read jazz lead sheets, and provides simple techniques for beginning jazz and blues improvisation. The book is based on many years of successfully teaching classical pianists and piano teachers to overcome their notation dependency and conquer their fear of improvisation. A special feature is the inclusion of complete lead sheets for several popular jazz tunes (Satin Doll, Lover Man, Summertime, Autumn Leaves, Birth of the Blues). Author: Larsen, Janeen J. Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 60 Publication Date: 2007/06/13 Language: English Dimensions: 8.50 x 11.02 x 0.16 inches

Materials and Concepts in Jazz Improvisation $32.46 Materials and Concepts in Jazz Improvisation is a comprehensive and concise compilation of the various harmonic and melodic devices used by jazz musicians. It attempts to deal with these materials, (and later, the concepts), in a manner that allows for the greatest possible freedom and flexibility without resorting to mere licks. The text presents the student and teacher with a conceptual framework that explains why as well as how. It can be used by musicians at any stage of development, but it does assume a rudimentary grounding in music theory. For students and teachers of jazz at any level, it provides a linear perspective on improvisation and harmony from the simplest to the most advanced concepts; it can also function as a reference text for anyone involved in jazz at any level from hobbyist to professional, providing quick and easy descriptions and definitions of the musical materials found in jazz. It can be used for individual study, in classroom settings (jazz theory, jazz improvisation, or jazz pedagogy), in private lessons, or simply as a resource volume. Author: Ellenberger, Kurt Johann Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 124 Publication Date: 2005/01/01 Language: English Dimensions: 9.25 x 7.50 x 0.26 inches

Researching Improvisation $135.42 The present research of improvisation is built on three research questions: How do experts experience improvisation? What essential aspects can be distinguished from lived experiences of the phenomenon? What learning opportunities can be found when encountering the unknown? Questions were raised as a means to come closer to understanding how one reacts in moments of decisionmaking, where timeconstraints do not allow a thorough planning and reflection. Descriptions of lived experiences of improvisation were collected from experts who work within six different professional fields; rock music, military, jazz music, visual arts, clairvoyance and handball playing. The result is vivid insights into essential aspects of improvisation and it turned out that the improvisers state of mind determines chances for successful performance. Selected theoretical concepts were applied as a means to frame a discussion. This includes Kari Martinsens concept of an attuned state of mind as well as an analysis of and eventually expansion of Donald A. Sch ns concept of reflectioninaction as well as C. Otto Scharmerss epistemologies of explicit, tacit and selftranscending knowledge. Author: Bak, Kathrine Frank Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 132 Publication Date: 2011/06/23 Language: English Dimensions: 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.31 inches

Pentatonic Scales for Jazz Improvisation By Ricker, Ramon $22.1 Author: Ricker, Ramon Series Title: The Ramon Ricker Jazz Improvisation Publication Date: 1983/06/01 Number of Pages: 80 Binding Type: Paperback Language: English Depth: 0.50 Width: 9.00 Height: 11.75

Alfred Publishing 002749 Jazz Improvisation Book Revised Music Book $39.85 Jazz Improvisation focuses on the communicative and technical aspects of improvisation and makes an excellent resource for both pros and aspiring improvisers. Assimilate and execute chord progressions substitutions turn arounds and construct a melody and jazz chorus.Contributors: By David BakerGenre: JazzFormat: BookCategory: Textbook Jazz

Free Improvisation $79.66 High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the taste or inclination of the musician(s) involved; in many cases the musicians make an active effort to avoid overt references to recognizable musical genres. The term is somewhat paradoxical, since it can be considered both as a technique (employed by any musician who wishes to disregard rigid genres and forms) and as a recognizable genre in its own right. Free improvisation, as a style of music, developed in the U.S. and Europe in the mid and late 1960s, largely as an outgrowth of free jazz and modern classical musics. None of its exponents can be said to be famous amongst the general public; however, in experimental circles, a number of free musicians are well known, including saxophonists Evan Parker and Peter Brtzmann, guitarist Derek Bailey, and the improvising group AMM. Author: Miller, Frederic P./ Vandome, Agnes F./ McBrewster, John Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 88 Publication Date: 2009/12/15 Language: English Dimensions: 5.98 x 9.01 x 0.21 inches

Alfred Publishing 00SB125 Jazz Improvisation for Keyboard Players Complete $37.25 Jazz Improvisation for Keyboard Players is a straightforward nononsense improvisation series. It deals with creating melodies using the left hand pianistic approaches to soloing scale choices for improvisation and much more.Contributors: By Dan HaerleGenre: JazzInstrument: PianoFormat: BookCategory: Piano Musicianship

Linear Jazz Improvisation Method Book I $71.2 This textonly volume provides a comprehensive introduction to the core concepts and techniques of the Linear Jazz Improvisation Method. Using a wealth of examples from the jazz repertory, the book avoids theoretical terminology and focuses on the four essential elements present in every composition: melody, guidetone lines, root progression, and rhythm. Understanding these building blocks of improvisation, you will be ready to put them into practice throughout your course of study. Author: Byrne, Ed Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 108 Publication Date: 2011/06/16 Language: English Dimensions: 8.26 x 11.02 x 0.22 inches

Creative Jazz Improvisation $84.08 No Synopsis Available

Jazz Improvisation By Baker, David $29.77 Author: Baker, David Publication Date: 1988/08/01 Binding Type: Paperback Language: English Depth: 0.50 Width: 9.25 Height: 12.25

Alfred Publishing 00SB17 Technique Development in Fourths for Jazz Improvisation Music Book $29.4 For the advanced player. Sixty pages of reading and exercises that will give a good understanding of the interval s uses and expand the musician s harmonic and melodic vocabulary. In the Ramon Ricker Jazz Improvisation Series.Contributors: By Ramon RickerGenre: JazzFormat: BookCategory: Textbook Jazz