Solo guitar that sounds good? Finger style?

Conman · #1 10-05-2011, 12:09 AM

Hey guys I have been playing jazz for a while now and I can play the songs such as All Of Me, A Little Walking Music. Michelle, Spinning Wheel, Whatd i say, Watermelon man and others. However i play them with my instructor and well they require 2 guitars. Rhythm and Melody. I can play both however i want to be able to play these solo and still have them sound good.

I look online and see people do this. It seems as though they are playing Both the melody and the chords at the same time. I was wondering how do they do this and where can i learn to do this online?

Is this finger picking or something else?

Thanks

Conman

Stevebol · #2 10-05-2011, 01:02 AM

I don't know about learning it online but here's a couple books you might like;

Amazon.com: Mel Bay Jazz Guitar Standards Chord Melody Solos (Book & CD) (0796279092579): various: Books

And most definitely this one;

Amazon.com: Mel Bay Masters of the Plectrum Guitar (9780786602674): William Bay: Books

guitarplayer007 · #3 10-05-2011, 07:17 AM

Check out Martin Taylor online School, he's amazing.
Ken

derek · #4 10-05-2011, 08:16 AM

Books by Jody Fisher and Howard Morgen are very good resources on the subject. If you just want to hack through some arrangements, Robert Yelin's books have some very accessible versions of standards. Good luck

mr. beaumont · #5 10-05-2011, 09:12 AM

Start simple...looking at some of these guys' arrangements might make your head spin (specifically the Taylor stuff)

The concept of solo jazz guitar is rather simple...a song has chords, a song has a melody, you play the chords of the song and place the melody as the highest note.

That's gross oversimplification, but it's the start. Then you can experiment...which chord voicing works the best to support that melody? What can I do to make the bottom end interesting? If I sub here, will I get a chromatic movement in the bass?

So yes, look at these books and arrangements, but the trick to being able to do this yourself is fretboard knowledge, and chord building knowledge. With enough study you can do these on the fly, pretty much by sitting down with a lead sheet...that takes time, but it can be done, because if I can do it it, you can--I'm nobody special!

Use the books as study material...look for the way players handle certain situations that pop up in tunes...you can learn a lot from that...but nothing will teach you more about playing solo jazz guitar than hacking away at some arrangements yourself...and yeah, your first few might be pretty horrible, and take forever to come up with...but what that process teaches you--that's gold.

Drumbler · #6 10-05-2011, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Start simple...looking at some of these guys' arrangements might make your head spin (specifically the Taylor stuff)

The concept of solo jazz guitar is rather simple...a song has chords, a song has a melody, you play the chords of the song and place the melody as the highest note.

That's gross oversimplification, but it's the start. Then you can experiment...which chord voicing works the best to support that melody? What can I do to make the bottom end interesting? If I sub here, will I get a chromatic movement in the bass?

So yes, look at these books and arrangements, but the trick to being able to do this yourself is fretboard knowledge, and chord building knowledge. With enough study you can do these on the fly, pretty much by sitting down with a lead sheet...that takes time, but it can be done, because if I can do it it, you can--I'm nobody special!

Use the books as study material...look for the way players handle certain situations that pop up in tunes...you can learn a lot from that...but nothing will teach you more about playing solo jazz guitar than hacking away at some arrangements yourself...and yeah, your first few might be pretty horrible, and take forever to come up with...but what that process teaches you--that's gold.

I agree.

Stevebol · #7 10-05-2011, 11:20 AM

Conman, the 2nd book I mentioned may be exactly what you are looking for. If offers great insight into the early masters and how they approached solo playing. There are some real gems in there that are short 2 page pieces. The last quarter of the book is duets without tabs. That could be useful to you.
Also, the book is HUGE.
The songs range from fairly easy to quite difficult.

ybjazz · #8 10-05-2011, 11:30 AM

I agree with Mr. Beaumont. Take the chords and place the melody as the highest note in the chord. A good way to get started is to take simple songs, like Autumn Leaves, and see if you can play a chord on every melody note while keeping that melody note on top. Sometimes it's not logical to do that and you'll figure that out, but most of the time you can. Just remember this concept- the most important thing about the chords is their quality (major, minor, dominant, diminished, augmented). You can subsititute Maj7 chords with Maj9, Maj6, Maj 6/9, etc... to help you find the right voicings to play. You'll find some cool chord structures on you own, which is a great way to expand your playing.

wkriski · #9 10-18-2011, 05:56 AM

I like Bob Conti's chord melody arrangements. You can leave out chords if there are too many for you. You just play the chord grids and you automatically have the chord melody. Some books have difficult arrangements. The Mel Bay book is great as well from a variety of guitarists.

Drumbler · #10 10-18-2011, 07:13 AM

You first need to acquire a chord vocabulary. Now you could sit down with a chord book and learn various inversions of each chord type. That's one way. Certainly a method but very dry and detached from function.

Another way is to get a lead sheet of a jazz tune, a chord book, and work out your chord melody, putting a harmonically appropriate chord under each melody note at first, keeping the melody on the top two strings. Do this with an ever increasing number of tunes.

You will develop a chord vocabulary of useful chord grips and learn a bunch of tunes. This is time consuming at first.

Once you have learned say 20-30 tunes this way, you might begin transcribing a chord melody by ear. Use a slow-downer program like Transcribe. Doing this you will learn intros, endings, solos, licks, etc.

This will now become your primary method of learning.

There is no magic pill.

This can be done with finger-picking or plectrum or hybrid.

After 5-10 years or so you will become proficient.

jmstritt · #11 10-18-2011, 01:11 PM

The best way to do it is simply to do it! There is no magic pill. Work out all of your block chord voicings to get started. Once you work on a tune by putting the melody note on top you will find that it deepens you chord vocabulary substantially. For instance, if you are playing a tune that has a G min7 chord and the melody note is A, then BAM now you know a G min9 chord. If it goes to a C7 and an F# is in the melody, BAM now you know a C7#11. Do you see where I'm going with this?

In theory, you could do this to a Charlie Parker tune and know about a million different chords! ;-) Just having a little fun with that comment, but just learning standards will definitely increase your vocabulary. The other thing is as you learn these rootless voicings it will teach you to not clash with a bass player when you play with a group. Also, it shows you the importance of using chord tones! You will be suprised how much of the melody of some of these tunes come directly from the chord changes.

Conman · #12 10-21-2011, 01:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmstritt

The best way to do it is simply to do it! There is no magic pill. Work out all of your block chord voicings to get started. Once you work on a tune by putting the melody note on top you will find that it deepens you chord vocabulary substantially. For instance, if you are playing a tune that has a G min7 chord and the melody note is A, then BAM now you know a G min9 chord. If it goes to a C7 and an F# is in the melody, BAM now you know a C7#11. Do you see where I'm going with this?

sounds good and i see where you are going with this however how do you know that a G min7 with an a note equals a G min9 chord?

Dookychase · #13 10-21-2011, 08:14 AM

You might also want to check Jake Reichbart's dvd. He teaches a few pop songs fingerstyle.

guitarguy1964 · #14 10-21-2011, 03:26 PM

I would also recommend the Mel Bay Book. There's a lot of good simple arrangements there and you can definatley add to them as you get more experience.

mr. beaumont · #15 10-21-2011, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Conman

sounds good and i see where you are going with this however how do you know that a G min7 with an a note equals a G min9 chord?

Well, it's certainly not the only option written in stone, but if you have a G minor sound with an A in it, a Gm9 (G, Bb, D, F, A) is a pretty safe bet.