source for Count Basie type riffs for guitar?

[CarolM]

I wasn't sure where to post this...I have an opportunity to jam with other musicians for an elderly dance group, and I think these people would enjoy some swing thrown into the mix. Chord leads and repeated riffing would work great, and give me a break on trying to do single string leads for now.

Does anyone know where I can find horn riffs written out for guitar? I'm having trouble figuring them out, esp in A-shape scales off the 5th string.

Like the last chorus of One O'Clock Jump, Jumpin at the Woodside etc. If I could just pick up 3-4 of these thing I can make it go a long way.

[fep]

I just worked up a couple from this video. Can't say if they're perfect but they should get the job done. Also, there are a couple of pdf files attached at the bottom of this post, one of them has tab.

YouTube Video

[CarolM]

Originally Posted by fep

I just worked up a couple from this video. Can't say if they're perfect but they should get the job done. Also, there are a couple of pdf files attached at the bottom of this post, one of them has tab.

Neat - thanks! I can't wait to check it out tonight.

Seems to me Wes did a lot of riffing in the Smokin at the Half Note album.. is that stuff transcribed somewhere?

[fep]

Cool

I was playing with that first lick and tweaked it a bit more:



It's a nasty key signature, here's a video that might help:

YouTube Video

[CarolM]

Neat! thanks..that'll fit perfectly in Choo Choo Ch'Boogie..

[oldane]

Not exactly horn riffs, but if you get smitten by the Basie style, you may want to give rhythm guitar in the 4-to-the-bar Freddie Green style a try. If so, the following book may be useful:

Amazon.com: Swing and Big Band Guitar: Four-To-The Bar Comping in the Style of Freddie Green (0073999951479): Charlton Johnson: Books

Freddie Green himself used to play even more sparse than the "shell" 3-note voicings Johnson teaches in his book, but Johnsons chord viocings are more or less the same as those Green used, Green just left out more notes. So it should be an exellent starting point. And even if one uses the chord shapes as shown in the book, people will smile and say "Ah, Freddie Green!" when hearing them.

[CarolM]

Originally Posted by oldane

Not exactly horn riffs, but if you get smitten by the Basie style, you may want to give rhythm guitar in the 4-to-the-bar Freddie Green style a try. If so, the following book may be useful:

Amazon.com: Swing and Big Band Guitar: Four-To-The Bar Comping in the Style of Freddie Green (0073999951479): Charlton Johnson: Books

Freddie Green himself used to play even more sparse than the "shell" 3-note voicings Johnson teaches in his book, but Johnsons chord viocings are more or less the same as those Green used, Green just left out more notes. So it should be an exellent starting point. And even if one uses the chord shapes as shown in the book, people will smile and say "Ah, Freddie Green!" when hearing them.

I have that book and just pulled it out again yesterday..the chord reduction info is invaluable. But it seems I had a lot of trouble making the most basic chords in it. There is always some note that's too far away and this is with a skinny-necked guitar meant for this kind of thing, an Artcore version of the Es 175. The players back in the day must have had small hands with long fingers!

But that's definitely what I'm looking at now, because I need shell chords not the old barre version I've been using. The dancers love the chord-chunking, especially when there is no drummer.

[CarolM]

this is pathetic, I'm looking right at his hands but can't figure out what he's doing, even with the music. I never could read hands.

[oldane]

Originally Posted by CarolM

IThere is always some note that's too far away and this is with a skinny-necked guitar meant for this kind of thing.

To be frank, I have also skipped the most stretchy voicings in Johnsons book - or have skipped the stretchy note (two note chords work fine for rhythm). My old hands don't take them very well without evoking arthritis like symptoms. That is a warning I will respect as I want to keep on playing into real old age. It works well enough without them, though. I'm able to get a nice voice leading and I can play with a fairly high action to boost the volume and cleanness of tone. Sometimes people have commented that I seem to just move the hand up and down the fretboard with the fingers more or less in the same position. That is true as Johnsons chords often fall under the fingers so it's a matter of either fretting the string, dampen it or lift the finger a little from the string. From some distance it may look as no-movement of the fingers, but it's actually just an ergonomic and efficient way of playing the instrument.

If you check out video clips with Freddie Green, you'll notice that his left hand and fingers moved a lot in the earlier years, while in the later years the fingers seemed more and more locked in the same position. I guess that he must have developed osteoarthrosis from the cruelsome setup he used for decades, so he may have been forced to find solutions to lessen the burden on his left hand without lowering the action of the strings. That may also have been one reason (not necessarily the only one) for his thinning out the chords through the years, so he ended up with his frequent use of "one-note-chords" in later years.