The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Thought I'd gather them together here:

    Trying to do a (short 1-2m) solo performance a week. Here are the ones so far (in order). Will update the thread as I go.

    I’ve been increasing the challenge a little bit by introducing more up tempo material and more improvisation. Very much a work in progress!

    NEW standard


    previous weeks










    e











    I hadn't really done a huge amount of work on solo guitar recently, and there's certainly an opportunity right now. I think I'm learning a lot by doing it.

    Hope you enjoy them!
    Last edited by christianm77; 07-28-2020 at 02:31 PM.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    I like this. You've inspired me to work more on it. Not like I'm seeing any other players anytime soon

  4. #3

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    Nice work, Christian.

  5. #4
    Very cool. One of the best solo versions of sentimental mood I've heard. (I can't help but slightly groan when I see someone has a solo version of it. It's been disproportionately butchered compared to others IMO.) Anyway, thanks for a great version.

    Always loved I Thought About You. One of of my favorite tunes. (Really great setting of wonderful lyric IMO. The last line is perfect.)

    Thanks for posting.

  6. #5

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    Good stuff. I recently started Skype lessons focusing on solo jazz guitar because I grew up basically wanking on two minor pentatonic shapes, and after 10 years of winging it trying to play jazz, still have a hard time just sitting down and playing a tune by myself.

    Solo jazz guitar is so interesting because the choice of whether / when / how to use a pick really changes what you can play.

  7. #6

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    TBH I wonder if it does as much as you'd think.

    Everyone is like, ooh these things are hard to play like you have a melody a couple of octaves away from the bass, this type of thing, but moving.

    5 x x x x 5

    And I say - it sounds better if I break that up anyway. I'd probably want to do that if I was fingerpicking... More contrapuntal independence. The ear can't latch onto too much information happening at the same time.

    If you play a walking bass at the same time as the melody, you won't notice the bass. So it's wasted. Play walking bass when it can be heard.

    Well I can do that with a pick.

    So in practice, what I need to be able to do technically is what you would call cross picking if you were a country player.

    The trick as I see it is actually to fill up the spaces between phrases, but do so in a way that is differentiated and not lal the same level. So - you have maybe the lead voice, for instance, and accompaniment. The latter should be a little softer, but can punctuate the melody line... as you would have in a group.

    Working on that.

    And people say things like this is hard for a pick player:

    4 x 4 x 6 x

    It's really not.

  8. #7

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    Very nice playing and sound as well, I will use your videos to learn some new stuff if you don't mind ?

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by DjangoBG
    Very nice playing and sound as well, I will use your videos to learn some new stuff if you don't mind ?
    Please be my guest, and feel free to post here anything that you get from it.

  10. #9

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    This weeks’s


  11. #10

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    Here’s a new one


  12. #11

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  13. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    Really enjoyed this one this morning

  14. #13

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    Very nice! How about A Love Supreme next?

  15. #14

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    Thanks for these videos Christian. They are perfect for me. My kind of stuff. I like your Loar also.

  16. #15

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    I like these videos, they encourage me to have a go at this kind of thing more often. I do it sometimes, but somehow I manage to convince myself that maybe it doesn’t really ‘fly’ as it were. I think it’s something to do with not being able to listen objectively while I’m playing, and thinking that you must have loads of chords/harmony or the listener won’t ‘get it’.

    But hearing someone else doing it (as well as this of course) convinces me it does work. Very inspiring!

    As it happens I was watching some Joe Pass solo concerts recently and I noticed how much he plays single-note passages, it’s a lot more than you realise. Maybe even as much as 50% of the time. But he drops enough chordal passages in so that you get the impression he’s playing loads more chords and harmony than he really is.

  17. #16

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    Thanks. The Loar is a great sounding guitar but there’s always been problems with the low E buzzing. TBH all the Chinese axes I have sound great but have little issues I haven’t found on Korean or Japanese guitars.

  18. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    I like these videos, they encourage me to have a go at this kind of thing more often. I do it sometimes, but somehow I manage to convince myself that maybe it doesn’t really ‘fly’ as it were. I think it’s something to do with not being able to listen objectively while I’m playing, and thinking that you must have loads of chords/harmony or the listener won’t ‘get it’.

    But hearing someone else doing it (as well as this of course) convinces me it does work. Very inspiring!

    As it happens I was watching some Joe Pass solo concerts recently and I noticed how much he plays single-note passages, it’s a lot more than you realise. Maybe even as much as 50% of the time. But he drops enough chordal passages in so that you get the impression he’s playing loads more chords and harmony than he really is.
    Thanks. Yes that’s something I noticed with Joe and TBH it’s moved me towards the plectrum approach. I don’t want to have a solo style that is separate from my ‘normal playing’ - I want everything to blur into everything else.

    but here’s the thing - even Pasquale Grasso becomes much more linear and single notey when he’s not playing the head. So.... he’s obviously worked all that super impressive stuff out in advance.

    any solo jazz guitar is the art of suggestion. Even Oscar Peterson said he often left things out, cheated things. The ear can only pay attention to one thing at a time. A skilled guitarist can take advantage of this I think. One thing is developing fingerings that allow you to keep a bass or melody note ringing while activity happens in the other voice.

  19. #18

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    Might be of interest


  20. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    any solo jazz guitar is the art of suggestion. Even Oscar Peterson said he often left things out, cheated things. The ear can only pay attention to one thing at a time. A skilled guitarist can take advantage of this I think. One thing is developing fingerings that allow you to keep a bass or melody note ringing while activity happens in the other voice.
    Yes, I suspect our hearing has a sort of memory effect, like the way the retina retains images for a while. So you can play a chord and the listener still hears that harmony when you go into single notes. I think I have to learn to trust this, because it’s not so apparent to me when I’m doing the playing. (Probably just my knackered old brain going into CPU overload with the strain of attempting solo guitar!)

  21. #20

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    Studying classical pieces can help as well.

    The Martin Taylor book is pretty good btw. Simple advice.

  22. #21

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  23. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lobomov
    Not a critique, just a curious question a bit tongue in cheek .. I loved the fact that you in one your old videos said that for you it was about groove/swing ... and that while rubato solo guitar definately had it's place, but you personally found it hard to listen to for longer periods of time. Then you proceded to play some swinging solo stuff.


    Why this now?
    too damn hot to swing

  24. #23

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    Christian, your videos remain the best adverts I've seen for The Loar. Keep up the good work!

  25. #24

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    Hi, C,
    Of all the above pieces, "When Sunny Gets Blue" is my favorite. It feels more relaxed and natural and is less tempo driven than the other pieces with more room to breathe. The sound also seems richer and more rounded than the others but that might just be me. I also like your ending beginning at 1:53 as it provides a reflective release from the melody and a nice morendo. Congrats! Good playing . . . Marinero

  26. #25

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    Hey, thanks!

    I think that one has a naturalness to it. People also seemed to have liked Iris a lot.

    Not sure what I'll do this week! Have a few things bubbling away.