Anyone not care for chord melody?

[Chuck]

I think that Jimmy wound up studying in LA with that famous Brazilian guy who played with modern Jazz Quartet and other groups

Laurindo Almeida - was my first influence to study classical

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-9OrHd6QdM

[NSJ]

I Think that the big take-home point is -- regardless of what style you want to play, right hand technique really matters ( regardless if it is: pick only, pick and fingers, fingers only, all of the above ).

And that requires meticulous and precise attention in the practice room, copious and endless hours and hours on end, to make something that seems to be, at first glance, unnatural or difficult so ingrained and second nature that it becomes part of your person .

And technique never serves its own end-- technique only serves the music.

And as Jimmy Weible learned, he needed to seriously reassess his right hand technique for playing the music envisioned in his head.

And as I picked up one of Jimmy Wyble books, I am mediately saw that he alternates his M and A while simultaneously alternating his P and I.

Man, that shit ( duel alternating fingers ) is really hard, it's not instantly intuitive, I found that I had to just practice with open strings only just to even begin thinking about it .

You got a practice that shit 1 million times to make it intuitive and second nature, so thoroughly ingrained .

[voxss]

brilliant stuff Destiny...ill send you the transcription as soon as i get it....head only...piano part...i wish i had your skills...

[voxss]

its a private transcribe..not taken from any publication...

[destinytot]

brilliant stuff Destiny...ill send you the transcription as soon as i get it....head only...piano part...i wish i had your skills...

I'm flattered - but if I can do it, you can too!

[voxss]

your video was great .. you showed the process...transcribe program is another ball game..Ears first..LOL

[KirkP]

Am I alone here: I have always found chord melody guitar to sound "clunky" and awkward. The time is often off as just grabbing a big chord tends to take precedence over the flow of the melody and also a chord under every note can just sound stiff. No disrespect to practitioners, it just leaves me cold.

I think term "chord melody" can lead one down a path that results in "clunky" music -- which to me means a poor sense of time and lyrical flow. So like several other folks here, I prefer the term "solo guitar".

John Pisano does it right:

[voxss]

i remember seeing Johns name on some early Joe PAss recordings...he was backing Joe...never took a solo..i might be wrong.........Pisano has accompanied in concert or recording some of music's biggest names, including Burt Bacharach, Tony Bennett, Herb Alpert, Natalie Cole, Michael Franks, Diana Krall, Peggy Lee, Julie London, Joe Pass, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Billy Bean, Chico Hamilton and many more

[destinytot]

your video was great .. you showed the process...transcribe program is another ball game..Ears first..LOL

I recommend this for ears (there's an app, too):
Functional Ear Trainer v2

[voxss]

[voxss]

thanks Destiny the PAthway back to Doh......lol i need it

[Dave70]

Damn Rory sounded great in that clip.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Wha?!

[voxss]

[whiskey02]

I think term "chord melody" can lead one down a path that results in "clunky" music -- which to me means a poor sense of time and lyrical flow. So like several other folks here, I prefer the term "solo guitar".

John Pisano does it right:

I make a huge distinctions between "chord melody" and Solo guitar. I think I perhaps did a poor job of expressing myself in the OP. I'm sorry I started this thread.

[Nate Miller]

While you are correct that Joe Pass made a career out of solo guitar and influenced countless others I don't believe he started until around 1960 or 1961. In 1955 Barney Kessel set the bar very high with his solo accompaniment of Julie London on Julie is her name. To my knowledge that was the first time a guitaist did it all. Kenny Burrell may disagree, but he can take that up with Barney when they meet again.

George Van Epps and Johnny Smith might have something to say about that, too

[Nate Miller]

I make a huge distinctions between "chord melody" and Solo guitar. I think I perhaps did a poor job of expressing myself in the OP. I'm sorry I started this thread.

if you were talking about half assed chord melodies, I can see where you are coming from, though

but I promise that I will be using my whole ass if I post any clips of me playing solo, so there'll be nothing half assed about it.

[wintermoon]

Laurindo Almeida - was my first influence to study classical

[mr. beaumont]

George Van Epps and Johnny Smith might have something to say about that, too

And Eddie Lang.

[christianm77]

And Eddie Lang.

Dick McDonough and Karl Cress might also want a word.

[lawson-stone]

Dick McDonough and Karl Cress might also want a word.

I'm sorry but none of these very fine chordal players did anything even remotely like what Joe Pass did. They did not improve bebop lines at bebop tempos over standards with walking bass lines and comping chord fragments night after night, club after club, over hundreds of songs, changing keys on the fly, shifting the genre in mid-stream, without dropping the beat or losing the momentum.

Joe did this stuff, did it improvisationally, consistently, and was doing it long before 1960. By the time he emerged this solo playing was already highly developed.

It's no insult to other players to say this, either. But Joe Pass brought together so many different things in his solo playing, he was and is rightly acknowledged to have revolutionized solo jazz guitar playing.

Why is that so hard to accept? Who in their right mind thinks Kress or McDonough even played remotely like Joe Pass? That's not a diss on them, either. I just think we all have a tendency, in the face of genius, to say "Oh, it's not really that great, others did that stuff..."

Some did some of it, some of the time. Joe Pass did all of it, all of the time.

[Flyin' Brian]

Anyone who thinks chord melody is clunky and dull probably hasn't heard this

Or this

[cosmic gumbo]

[Vladan]

[Frank67]

That was pretty cool and with a lot of groove! But how sad that he had to play that in such a noisy bar. the guitar sounds great even if the recording quality is low. And he has a real nice right hand technique.