The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary

View Poll Results: Backing Tracks for live gigs

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  • Agreed

    40 36.36%
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    70 63.64%
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  1. #26

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    Quote Originally Posted by cwat
    I'm not sure why everyone hates this so much...if the player has no pianist or band to play with, do you somehow expect him to play rhythm and lead at the same time?
    yup

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  3. #27

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    Sorry that was probably a little rude ... but really ... the answer is yes. There's a huge tradition in jazz guitar of solo guitar playing. It's an enormous part of the repertoire and is rite of passage for anyone coming from that tradition. With Real Books loaded up with lead-sheets of easy to read tunes like "Satin Doll" most jazz guitarists could read a 45 minute set. Take into account the fact that a jazz guitarist should have passing familiarity with many of the tunes and should know more than a few quite well then two sets should be cake. Further considering that it's reasonable to expect a jazz guitarist to have some arrangements under the fingers already and be able to improvise in this context at at least a rudimentary level - then I think 3 sets is a breeze. If you're really trying to do the jazz guitar thing then - Yes. Absolutely I expect a player to be able to play a couple solo sets. No question. If you're not trying to do the jazz guitar thing ... then ... do whatever.

    I'll concede the matter to a horn player ... sax doesn't have the luxury of being able to accompany themselves. We do.

    As far as actually what I'm okay with someone doing then it's a no brainer. Do what you want. Why would I care? As far as addressing a community of jazz guitarists about playing with backing tracks goes ... it's a matter of pushing yourself to be better at what you do instead of choosing something easier. You can't make a set solo? Practice more. The owner wants something "upbeat" (we've all heard that)? Adjust ... learn something... make it happen or don't. The audience wants to hear a band? Since when are jazz musicians about catering to the lowest common denominator ... make your music and performance engaging ... bring them in to you.

    It's a major part of the tradition. Be honest with yourself about why you want to play a solo set with a backing track. Can play plenty of solo jazz guitar but just prefer to play with a backing track? Fine. More power to you. Can't play a set by yourself without the track? Take a step back and assess.

    Done. That's my soapbox for this evening.
    Last edited by pamosmusic; 03-03-2015 at 09:26 PM.

  4. #28

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    yea but pan I paid my dues doing traditional .I play fusion/ smooth lots of afro/Cuban and funk groves that require three percussionists , horns, keys couple of guitar players and my understudy who plays bass and keys. I really have no interest in comping unless It is just to showcase my finger style and I will do more of a flamenco feel for that. even in traditional ie swing I prefer bass over guitar. guitar I like to solo and play the melodies .. now when I play bass I do love the interaction with a drummer but that takes a really hot drummer expert in all styles of music to fill that void and I have one for recording and festivals. just not full time. and yea I can solo I just prefer the right sonic landscape to paint over. besides music is foremost about paying the bills.
    Last edited by EOE; 03-04-2015 at 12:27 AM.

  5. #29

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    As an aside on this issue, I am reworking my repertoire from playing over a rhythm backing track with live vocal and "lead" guitar to simply live performance of standards as vocal and guitar period. There are a few reasons for this. One is the objection to using backing tracks and I don't find loopers that fascinating either.

    The other is that I believe that when playing jazz standards, if you can sing the melody and play your 'rhythm' guitar arrangement, the performance almost invariably pacts more impact and is received better by the audience, unless you are playing to a roomful of guitarists. Talking about audience appeal. In this situation the jazz guitar part is essentially easier live as your voice is taking the melody. Of course you can play solo instrumental guitar arrangements as well, but if as a solo performer you can sing well, the performance has more impact. I think audiences can grow weary of solo chord melody style instrumental jazz guitar over an evening.

    Having said that, there just isn't a great market for jazz performers these days anyway. So you have to adapt. What kind of gigs are you working musicians finding these days?

  6. #30

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    Quote Originally Posted by pamosmusic
    Sorry that was probably a little rude ... but really ... the answer is yes. There's a huge tradition in jazz guitar of solo guitar playing. It's an enormous part of the repertoire and is rite of passage for anyone coming from that tradition. With Real Books loaded up with lead-sheets of easy to read tunes like "Satin Doll" most jazz guitarists could read a 45 minute set. Take into account the fact that a jazz guitarist should have passing familiarity with many of the tunes and should know more than a few quite well then two sets should be cake. Further considering that it's reasonable to expect a jazz guitarist to have some arrangements under the fingers already and be able to improvise in this context at at least a rudimentary level - then I think 3 sets is a breeze. If you're really trying to do the jazz guitar thing then - Yes. Absolutely I expect a player to be able to play a couple solo sets. No question. If you're not trying to do the jazz guitar thing ... then ... do whatever.

    I'll concede the matter to a horn player ... sax doesn't have the luxury of being able to accompany themselves. We do.

    As far as actually what I'm okay with someone doing then it's a no brainer. Do what you want. Why would I care? As far as addressing a community of jazz guitarists about playing with backing tracks goes ... it's a matter of pushing yourself to be better at what you do instead of choosing something easier. You can't make a set solo? Practice more. The owner wants something "upbeat" (we've all heard that)? Adjust ... learn something... make it happen or don't. The audience wants to hear a band? Since when are jazz musicians about catering to the lowest common denominator ... make your music and performance engaging ... bring them in to you.

    It's a major part of the tradition. Be honest with yourself about why you want to play a solo set with a backing track. Can play plenty of solo jazz guitar but just prefer to play with a backing track? Fine. More power to you. Can't play a set by yourself without the track? Take a step back and assess.

    Done. That's my soapbox for this evening.
    Jonathan Kreisberg said guitarists should spend 20 years working with singers and dancers before taking the plunge into solo guitar performance.

  7. #31

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    Quote Originally Posted by targuit

    Having said that, there just isn't a great market for jazz performers these days anyway. So you have to adapt. What kind of gigs are you working musicians finding these days?
    I'd just love to find another steady, or "semi-steady." I played regularly at a few places a few years back (a wine bar, a cafe, and a hoity toity restaurant that served attractive, low-flavor food) and all three are now gone--shuttered.

    So I keep taking these country gigs and passing out business cards. I have three gigs coming up in the next two months--but they're all private events--a dinner party and two wedding cocktail hours. They pay, though. Can't argue with that.

    If anything I've learned to always have a business card on hand.

    These are gigs I get specifically because I'm a self contained small not too loud footprint. People find the idea of a guy and a guitar romantic or something...i dunno. But I do know tracks would not be welcome at these performances, nor would they do anything to "enhance" the performance, they'd ruin it with their canned cheesyness.

  8. #32

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    " quote Having said that, there just isn't a great market for jazz performers these days anyway. So you have to adapt. What kind of gigs are you working musicians finding these days? """"""""" smooth jazz with backing tracks pays well for a sax or a good guitar player you can get 500 to 1000.00 for a single performer more money I add more players.. better than most country gigs... most country and rock bands just want to be stars so they play for like 200 dollars each so that market is not profitable. your competition is much less doing solo smooth jazz. you have to be better than average. chord melodies with simple solo lines will not get you much money. and helping to shutter a few businesses does not look good on a resume.

  9. #33

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    Yeah, I didn't help them shutter, brother--but thanks for yet another passive aggressive post. You're probably going to have to put up or shut up pretty soon, because your know-it-all stances and underlying disdain for actual jazz, jazz singers, performers, etc. is getting a bit grating.

  10. #34

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    Vague question indeed. For a solo guitar gig I rarely do it. NEVER for solo Jazz guitar. I have done some other types of gigs where it turned out to be a necessary evil. (I worked an art show for a painter from Spain with a limited budget who wanted some Flamenco Nuevo for his show. I had appropriate tracks that sounded great. Got well paid and some repeat business.)

    Is it my first choice? Absolutely not!

    I would prefer to do a gig with a group or at least a duo. Here in Tallahassee, it is difficult to find anybody who wants to commit to a band with rehearsals and working out tunes. The tendency here is to be a "hired gun." Sort of, "When you have a gig, call me and I'll show up."

    Will I turn down a paying gig out of some sort of nod to "artistic integrity?" Heck no!

    Oh and I also play saxophone and have used it more extensively for that kind of gig.

  11. #35

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    Ahhh, let's not fan the flames of discord! What the world needs now is love, sweet love... sounds like a song lyric, doesn't it?

    Jeff, that is what I would like to do - offer myself to entertain at private parties or corporate style gigs as a solo or duet with a beautiful gifted young woman with whom I can sing and play together. Unfortunately, this woman is like Laura, "...she's only a dream." But jokes aside, how are you getting gigs - referrals, agent or agency, Taro cards?
    I don't see many places, restaurants, bars who take a guitarist over a piano player these days.

    And are you guys Union or not? Any action in lower level local recording studios? Video creators? Where is the money happening?

    Rsclosson - First, which of those guitars is the blue beauty in your photo? Nice! And where do you see the gigs happening? I do feel that the advantage of being solo is no need to rehearse with people (personalities, issues, time, etc.) and no split of the munificent wages, though I'd play for $250 a night all night at a party - I play a couple of hours every night anyway. And I'm nowhere near Tallahassee.

    Jay
    Last edited by targuit; 03-04-2015 at 11:54 AM.

  12. #36

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    Beauont your comments are passive aggressive calling people who use backing tracks cheesy. and no I do not have to let anyone hear my music for free. I am way past the need to impress people. all I need to impress are already there. you can take what I have too offer or disregard it. There just needs to be a voice of reason so the new guys can pay the bills.

  13. #37

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    There's little "passive" about my disdain for tracks.

  14. #38

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    Quote Originally Posted by targuit
    Rsclosson - First, which of those guitars is the blue beauty in your photo? Nice! And where do you see the gigs happening? I do feel that the advantage of being solo is no need to rehearse with people (personalities, issues, time, etc.) and no split of the munificent wages, though I'd play for $250 a night all night at a party - I play a couple of hours every night anyway. And I'm nowhere near Tallahassee.

    Jay
    The blue beauty is long gone. It was a Thomas Devoe 7 string which turned from a beautiful blueburst to a kind of grey/purple burst which was not as pretty. Exposure to daylight faded the blue. Great playing guitar and I wish I had kept it. Tom Devoe is no longer building guitars, which is a shame. He did beautiful work.

    As far as gigs here, there are not that many to be found in this town unless you are blues, country or a parrot-head. The jazz gigs are few and far between and we have lots of university students from both FSU and FAMU who are great players and will play for beer. Most of my gigs are private parties and occasionally a restaurant looking for some nice ambience.

  15. #39

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    targut....good portfolio...hit wedding planners .. do not work for 250. set 500 as minimum 1000 for a night but be willing to negotiate down to 700..offer a duo at 1500. trio at 2000 etc.. if you pay well and have all your charts then hired guns are easy to find. make a list of good ones to call on. check the crowd most people like distorted solos.. mix sounds and try and change the sound every tune..one with a Santana sound, one clean, one acoustic modeler, etc..if the crowd is diging the distortion ill do more of that. I really prefer doing melodies distorted then solo clean or the other way around. I use a company where I can adjust the track and pull out or add the instrument I want you can add a clck for the drummer. restaurants ask to audition for a hour if you want to cut the piano player .. up to you to cut him.
    Last edited by EOE; 03-04-2015 at 12:33 PM.

  16. #40

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    Thanks for the response! I was just playing along with Earl Klugh's solo CD - Solo Guitar. Specifically his versions of So Many Stars and Autumn Leaves. That is the style of solo guitar I play - classical guitar and jazz background.

    I can play blues and country and sing baritone-tenor pretty well, but I prefer jazz.

    Jay

  17. #41

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    well I am lucky ,if the tune has a great melody I love it...but if you want to make money you have to consider playing music people like. popular hits..your set list on your portfolio will make you .. tunes like moondance, whiter shade of pale etc.. when the bride is reading that list that is what makes you.. then at the gig sprinkle in what you love.

  18. #42

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    I do popular country rock like Desperado, the Eagles catalogue, Have I Told You Lately (That I Love You), James Taylor,.... Hell, I'd take work in an Eagles cover band any day if they gigged regularly. But these days it is not where my heart is, and in truth working with a band - rehearsals, time, personality quirks - is not my cup of tea. Unless it was real dough.

    Jay

  19. #43

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    I am always working on a band but I do not let band issues slow me down....and I do not settle for players that are not right for me. I can turn their part on the backing track....but I do hope to have a full time 10 piece band one day.

  20. #44

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    C&P of a post I made in another forum (with slight modifications):
    ___________________________________

    I've been doing the backing tracks thing for years.

    Part of my problem is that I sometimes do jazz gigs from a catalog of hundreds of songs. And then sometimes I do rock or other cover gigs from a catalog of maybe a thousand songs. And then sometimes I do original jazz or progressive rock gigs drawing from a catalog of my own songs that I've been building for decades. The deal is, I know ALL of these songs (maybe 1500?) in their entirety. Lyrics, guitar parts, everything.

    Most musicians I have worked with in original bands have trouble keeping a single set of 10 songs together. As for cover bands, you get maybe 50 or 60 songs "on call" at any one time. But if I call out a tune from three months ago and at least one person will have forgotten the song. And this is 3-chord dandy type stuff. What if you want to cover more challenging material? Good luck getting your average musician to remember those kinds of songs without constant drilling.

    The jazz and progressive stuff in particular is challenging, and I haven't found anyone in my area who can and WILL play all the music I want to do, let alone learn enough songs that I can play whatever I feel is hitting the audience and/or my tastes at that moment.

    I have certainly had to resort to "hired guns" for more structured higher profile "concert" gigs, but that's not a productive way to work for me in the long run. Too much micro-managing and rehearsing and x and y and z and ... plus, providing charts "day-of" is hit or miss. I've worked with players who can sight-read with feel anything you put in front of them, and then I've worked with players who train-wreck your tunes. Guess which ones are expensive in Los Angeles?

    But even managing to hold together a decent band, well lets face it: there is ALWAYS that one "problem child" that sets your teeth and nerves on edge. Is he going to show? When he does, is he going to be high? Is it worth firing him to find a replacement when you've invested so much time and energy getting him up to speed? What about his stripper girlfriend that showed up to a gig on meth, got even more drunk, and then attacked him on-stage in the middle of our set.

    Oh wait. The drummer got a DUI? Damn, he wasn't even the problem child!

    Some of you KNOW what I'm talking about.

    Sidebar: I said "he" in the above scenario because most women I've been in bands with tend to act like responsible adults with a clue.

    But I digress.

    You know what? Ever since I stopped being a leader or full-time member of any band (since 2005), I have been (musically) the happiest I've ever been. I don't have to deal with ANY band nonsense. Ever. I play what I want, when I want, and never have to have fights over musical direction or refusal to play a certain song, or have rehearsal time blown because of issues completely unrelated to the music, or just the general hassle of "herding musical cats".

    One positive thing I've found out is that no one has ever said jack about backing tracks. At least no one who actually SEES me play. I've been performing live with backing tracks in the uber-jaded Los Angeles/Hollywood area for years and everyone from sneering hipsters to grammy-winning stars have warmed to my shows and told me they love what I'm doing. On more than one occasion, people who's names you would recognize have approached me after a show or on break and asked me about my setup and how I put together my sets and the backing tracks.

    There was one guy who's been writing, arranging, performing, and producing hits since the 60s who cornered me after a show. After the introductions and compliments, he whipped out a notepad and started grilling me about my rig and production process. This was after I had noticed him in the audience spending the entire show clapping and singing along to almost everything I played.

    Not everyone using backing tracks is doing "Holiday Inn" cheesy-oke, phoning it in from behind a computer while wondering where that waitress is with the next jack and coke.

    Yeah, I've seen it too, but that's not me.

  21. #45

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    I feel you eightstring . people who have never been in a successful band or ran one just does not understand.. we miss a gig bills do not get paid they miss a gig o well they have their day job...just a huge misconnect between us and them.

  22. #46

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    I have no ethical objections to backing tracks, as long as the performer has rights to them.
    I'm usually bored to death listening to performers solo over generic backing tracks, and I won't stick around long.
    I'm more accepting of performers using backing tracks if they were created by the musician specifically to complement their own performance, and are tastefully and artfully done.
    This poll only has a subject but no statement to agree or disagree with, so I won't vote.
    Last edited by KirkP; 03-04-2015 at 03:39 PM.

  23. #47

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    Quote Originally Posted by EightString
    C&P of a post I made in another forum (with slight modifications):
    ___________________________________

    I've been doing the backing tracks thing for years.

    Part of my problem is that I sometimes do jazz gigs from a catalog of hundreds of songs. And then sometimes I do rock or other cover gigs from a catalog of maybe a thousand songs. And then sometimes I do original jazz or progressive rock gigs drawing from a catalog of my own songs that I've been building for decades. The deal is, I know ALL of these songs (maybe 1500?) in their entirety. Lyrics, guitar parts, everything.

    Most musicians I have worked with in original bands have trouble keeping a single set of 10 songs together. As for cover bands, you get maybe 50 or 60 songs "on call" at any one time. But if I call out a tune from three months ago and at least one person will have forgotten the song. And this is 3-chord dandy type stuff. What if you want to cover more challenging material? Good luck getting your average musician to remember those kinds of songs without constant drilling.. . . snip
    Great. Whatever works for you. But for me and what I've seen, the enjoyment I get from playing music comes in the INTERACTION between musicians. Music, for me, is communication - not just between me and an audience, but me and the other musicians on stage. And also, PERHAPS MORE IMPORTANTLY, it's about the friction of learning. When I do a gig, even when I'm the leader, I call tunes other people might know. AND I ALSO ask other guys what they want to play. Invariably someone calls a tune I don't know. Sometimes I play songs I don't know. And I learn.

    With the prevalence of more and more what I call "cubicle musicians", there's little friction and little learning. Do it your way and only your way and get boring results, for the most part.

    I live for everyone improvising. It's never stagnant. Everyone feels the creative flow. As a listener hearing a great player play with play alongs LIVE is just kind of lame. More power to anyone who can make good money. Seriously. But to sit and listen to that shit is just terrible for me. AND I think it weakens the whole jazz experience and undercuts musicians. So did DJing.

    Anyone who plays jazz (or most any music besides concert hall music) and expects the side men to play their parts without variation in note choices, dynamics or timing variations isn't going to have me as a listener or as a sideman. As a musician? Never. As a listener? I might last part of one song. If stuck in a restaurant or bar I tune them out.

    I have used drum machines and rarely more complex sequences to augment my band performances, but they never replaced anyone's part or place.

  24. #48

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    Quote Originally Posted by EOE
    I feel you eightstring . people who have never been in a successful band or ran one just does not understand.. we miss a gig bills do not get paid they miss a gig o well they have their day job...just a huge misconnect between us and them.
    I'd love to know what those successful bands were, but alas, all we get is anonymous internet blowharding from a nameless, faceless, mysterious--yet reportedly wildly successful--guitar player.

  25. #49

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    Agree w/ Henry... Using tracks because you can't find musicians to play the way you want is a reflection of your band leadership. Either look harder or adapt. Just seems like a cop out to me
    Last edited by pamosmusic; 03-04-2015 at 04:08 PM.

  26. #50

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    I've been in several very successful bands, many as a leader. Where's this disconnect again?