Jazz guitar solos

Hi, Light!
You´re a Stagehand and a Luthier, as I´m seeing on your view profile.
Man, you know a lot about jazz , for what I´m reading on your posts, Killer !!!

(Sorry, just curious, I´m brazilian and don´t know how to translate "stage hand" .Maybe what some kind "roaddie" , or I´m tottaly wrong?

Cheers

Ciro
 
CIRO said:
(Sorry, just curious, I´m brazilian and don´t know how to translate "stage hand" .Maybe what some kind "roaddie" , or I´m tottaly wrong?
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Yeah, stagehands are the technical guys/grunt labor in any theater or concert event. "Rodies" are the sub-set of stagehands that go out on the road with shows.

And I know about Jazz because I used to harbor delusions about being able to make a living playing it. Life (and going to Berklee) has taught me to know better.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Hey Light. I know the feeling, delusions of jazz. Berklee to. As to your reccomendations, right on. I was jammin to some J. Aebersol stuff the other day. I can't believe how rusty I am. Forget Giant Steps for now. ii V i's at light speed, once ya got that then modulate by minor thirds. LOL. OT. My first day a B I watched a bass player play the solo. It scared the crap out of me. Not a good beginning.
 
Light's advice is right on the money.

But I suspect you may want a less advanced way to go to begin with.

One particular difference between the blues solos you are playing and the jazz you seek is the use of arpeggios. That is using the notes of the chords you are playing as part of the solo line.

The II - V - I that they refer to is part of the harmonized diatonic chord scale (hdcs). That's a $2 way of saying the chords in the key you're playing in.

If you take a major scale, lets say C, and stack it in thirds, you get a series of chords, which is your hdcs.
Thus:

c d e f g a b c is the major scale of c

with the first set of thirds added above it looks like:

e f g a b c d e
c d e f g a b c

with the next set of thirds:

g a b c d e f g
e f g a b c d e
c d e f g a b c

and the last set:

b c d e f g a b
g a b c d e f g
e f g a b c d e
c d e f g a b c

I II III IV V VI VII

If you read them bottom to top, you will note that they spell out chords.

Left to right, they are referred to by the roman numberals under them - so the II - V - I in the key of C is

Dmin7 G7 CMaj7

You can play any of the arpeggios listed above over those changes and it will sound good, altho very 'inside'. To get that tasty jazz sound, you can use substitutions. That means playing chords that add 'outside' notes to the solo.

For example, play a Db7 arpeggio over the G7, and resolve to the CMaj7 - the two outside notes in Db7 are the Db and the Ab - which happen to be the b5 and b9 of G7. This is referred to as a Flat V (flat five) substitution.

A great player who used subs really well was Joe Pass - his album 'Appassionato' would be a good place for you to start. There are a couple of good standards on there that are slow enough to really hear the changes going by, and with Joe's exceptional taste you will get real good exposure to the style.

Good luck.
 
Well, here's a quick one. Your pretty much standard pentatonic scale is notes 1,2,3,5 and 6 of your standard major scale. To that, just add a 3flat, 5flat, and 7flat. Let's call this blues scale II. Why? Well, that's what the guy who taught it to me called it. Good thing is, you can play the "root" scale over most other chords in the progression. Fer instance, if you're playing in G, you can play the G scale over a C chord and a D chord. Works in any key. Well, at least any major key. Honestly, I've never figured it out in a minor key.
 
c7sus said:
Learn the melodies inside-out, and have an understanding of the scale it's based on.

Once you KNOW the melody it's just a matter of adding passing notes or inverting the melody or whatever you want to do. A really fun thing to do is figure out what other melodies you can play over a given progression.

I once knew a guy that liked to throw Third Stone From The Sun in anyplace it would fit. :D
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Lots of good posts here, but this one should be repeated. This advice could also help someone play a better solo on a tune in just a day or two. It's good advice because it's simple and really effective. You can't play a meaningful solo on a tune you don't really know.

I'll add one thing that I wish was taught to me at a younger age:

Time is just as important (if not more so) than what notes you play. Jazz is about the groove just like any other style. You can solo with just a couple of notes and still swing your arse off. Too many young jazzers focus on the flury of notes. Good solos, good communication, good interplay between the musicians, etc., cannot happen unless everyone is got a grip on the time and feel. (It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing...).

Regarding the "Third Stone From The Sun" thing. Players who quote the same tunes over and over again annoy the crap out of me. :)
 
Nick98338 said:
Well, here's a quick one. Your pretty much standard pentatonic scale is notes 1,2,3,5 and 6 of your standard major scale. To that, just add a 3flat, 5flat, and 7flat. Let's call this blues scale II. Why? Well, that's what the guy who taught it to me called it. Good thing is, you can play the "root" scale over most other chords in the progression. Fer instance, if you're playing in G, you can play the G scale over a C chord and a D chord. Works in any key. Well, at least any major key. Honestly, I've never figured it out in a minor key.
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Along similar lines, play DIFFERENT pentatonic scales. For example, if you are playing over a D minor chord, play an E minor pentatonic. For all practical purposes, you will be playing a D Dorian scale. You can do others two - for instance, (on that same D minor chord) you could play a C minor pentatonic, and get a Phrygian sound. The licks you are so used to playing will sound very different if you move them around like that, which can add a quick boost of interest to your solos. You'll have to sit down and figure this stuff out yourself, but you can get all sorts of interesting ideas this way.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
apl said:
May I please get a couple of Metheny and Carlton album recommendations?
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Hi, APL, just now I read you post...

I strongly recommend "ALL" Carlton´s albuns , but my favorites:

Larry Carlton (1978) . His first intrumental album, includes fantastic pop themes and killer solos, like "room 335", "point it up" and "don´t give it up".
Strikes Twice (1980). Another great album, take a look on "mulberry street" solo.
Sleepwalk (1982). It´s "blues oriented" on good part of songs (including sleepwalk). A great ballad here ("song for Katie").He uses 4 or 5 guitars on this album, and a Valley Arts for the first time.
Friends (1983). Terrific! Special guests (All Jarreau, Joe Sample, BB King), rich
instrumental, maybe my favorite album.
Alone but never alone (1986). A ballad album, here Larry only plays acoustic guitar.


I recommend my songs too :D

http://www.soundclick.com/openstation
 
Put Metheny in the CD player in the car and it didn't make any sense. Put it on in the music room with the treatment and Rotel player and it made perfect sense.

Thanks!
 
apl said:
Put Metheny in the CD player in the car and it didn't make any sense. Put it on in the music room with the treatment and Rotel player and it made perfect sense.

Thanks!
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Yeah, it's not really driving music. It's more, pay really close attention music.

Of course, once you get into Pat, you'll start spending all your time trying to figure out how to play melodies by sliding into or out of every single note. It's just inevitable. But you will find, he puts a lot of thought not just into WHICH notes he plays, but into how he articulates them.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
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