Chord solos or block chords

[edward74]

Hi, I'm trying to find out a resource or lessons on chord soloing or block chords (YouTube lessons, DVDs, books). How does one start playing this? It sounds awesome on mid-to-high tempo swing like this John Pizzarelli version of After You've Gone (starting at 2:40). I'm at an intermediate level of playing (Freddie Green style) comps, so I hope that's a good framework in studying this.

This sounds cool, too, and seemingly similar technique infused with a few single melody lines.

Thanks.

--Ed

[JakeAcci]

Find a convenient voicing for the chord where the highest note is the melody note you'd like. For example, playing up an A minor (dorian) scale with an Am7 chord...the melody note (the scale) is on the high string:

x x 5 5 5 5

x x 5 5 5 7

x x 7 9 8 8

x x 7 9 8 10

x x 10 12 10 12

x x 14 14 13 14

x x 14 14 13 15

x x 17 17 17 17

When you do this...you have to think of it as arranging. You are arranging multiple voices, conventionally you are harmonizing a melody on the top voice. There are many, many ways to arrange a melody for multiple voices, and then there are the practical considerations fo making the arrangements playable on the guitar. Transcription is helpful...you can see how different guitarists make due with the limitations of the instrument. For example, in the first video John Pizzarelli was using very few different chord shapes, but is aware of how to use each structures over different harmony.

I would suggest learning some of what other people have come up with, via transcription, and there are many educational resources available...dvds, books, etc, sorry i can't recommend any specifically. I think Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, and Jim Hall are all really great guitarists to listen to and figure out in terms of their approach to arranging multiple voiced parts on the guitar. There are a lot of transcription books available. I often found that looking at a couple of measures of somebody else's ideas gave me a lot to work on.

I would just emphasize...be aware that the technique is arranging, and there are guitaristic ways to go about this, but keep in mind the balance between a smooth arrangement and something that can practical and playable on the guitar. Opinion alert: I think that many guitarists are too much in favor of the latter, the convenience and practicality on the guitar, rather than the sound and quality of the arrangement regardless of instrument.

[edward74]

Wow! Good response. I have much to learn to even get a handle on the basics of this technique. I'm floored by someone with Pizzarelli's dazzling abilities, but know that I can quickly over my head if I don't take time to get to the principles of a cool-sounding guitar method.

In my continuing research of this topic, I then saw a lot of videos dedicated to Wes Montgomery's technique in this styling. It's all under my nose but, again, thanks for your guidance, Jake.

[pierre richard]

Thanks for sharing the info on that site MackBolan...

Good stuff...

I have the wes montgomery from years ago...

The Guitar by Barney Kessell (hard cover too)...is a great book...

as been said above...look at some transcriptions and see how it's done by others...seeing a few tunes in this style will open the door for you to enter...

it takes some time but...

time on the instrument..

[MarkRhodes]

I enjoyed that version of "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea." Love that tune. This version really swings.

[edward74]

I just wanted to also comment on how awesome those octave lines are (around 2:11) before the chord solo, too! Are those just octaves or other fingers being used up and down other strings? I can't tell since he has a 7-string or if the other fingers are just placed there for more leverage. Yet, another topic I'd like to discuss (probably has been discussed dozens of times in the forum) but I better take one method at a time.

If anyone has other video samples or Youtube clips that deal with this topic, please link. I think most I've seen mostly Bucky and John versions of this method. Handy to have visuals to breakdown.

Thanks!

[edward74]

In my single-minded research on the block chord solos, I found this fan's breakdown of Pizzarelli's I Got Rhythm. Part 2 video transcribes those fast chord runs. Thought I'd share this for anyone else interested and/or obsessed with the technique.

Oh and if anyone else can point out a guitarist other than the Pizzarelli's who are experts in this, please post. Thanks!

[max_power]

Here's another video of John Pizzarelli with some great chord soloing:

Notice how he frequently take a voicing and plays around with it chromatically. For example, at the start of his chord solo (around 1:11) he uses this standard Bb9 voicing and quickly slides up to it from a semitone below a few times:

--13--
--13--
--13--
--12--
------
------

And then he does a similar thing with the same voicing but for an Eb9 chord immediately afterwards. Try it with a bunch of different kinds of voicings...it's an easy way to make your chord solos sound much more legitimate and interesting.

Here's a different video with Andreas Oberg playing Work Song:

He uses some voicings chromatically a bit at the beginning of his solo (around 0:54), and a lot in the second chorus.

I would just emphasize...be aware that the technique is arranging, and there are guitaristic ways to go about this, but keep in mind the balance between a smooth arrangement and something that can practical and playable on the guitar. Opinion alert: I think that many guitarists are too much in favor of the latter, the convenience and practicality on the guitar, rather than the sound and quality of the arrangement regardless of instrument.

I agree with you about the dichotomy between playing something in a guitaristic way and playing something that is valid from an arrangement standpoint. However, I would also argue that the guitar is in many ways a limited instrument, and that it's very difficult to play smooth arrangements at tempo while improvising. John Pizzarelli's chord solos are very guitaristic, but I think one of the reasons they sound so interesting is that they're played in a way that couldn't be done on other instruments (like piano for instance). Good chord solos on the guitar sound unique because the limitations of the instrument force the player to compensate in unique ways.

[edward74]

Yes! More great samples of what I seek. I guess it is certain that Pizzarelli's style of block chording is what I'm aiming for. Not that he's the end-all-be-all of the technique, but whenever a video clip comes up for example, his method is what I'd like to achieve over the entire progression of a song. Oberg's version of Work Song is a good reminder to try improv (single lines or block) in a very universal progression. He uses nice touches of it in combo with great single lines.

[AmundLauritzen]

Looks like John uses drop 2s on the 4321 string group a lot. These are very convenient for chord soloing and are mostly in a good register too.

A trick often used in chord soloing is diminished chords used as passing chords between two inversions of the same chord.
Wes did that a lot, particularly for minor chords which it works excellent for. You might want to give that a shot.

Of course, the first step is to take advantage of the minor third symmetry of diminished voicings. But then you can also harmonize the diminished scale and then you'll get an additional diminished chord a half step away from the ones you already have.

Knowing chord synonyms is useful. Dominant 9 chords have the same intervallic structure and fingering as a minor7b5 up a major third(Ieg: Dm7b5 = rootless Bb9 chord). Dom9ths are used a lot in chord soloing, particularly by the Pizzarellis. Frank Vignola seems to use it a lot too.

Quartal major6/9 voicings are very useful for chord soloing because they have consonant intervals both in the intervals themselves and the way they're voiced. Another great trick.

The timing of this thread is of great convenience for me since I'm currently devoting a lot of time to working on my chord soloing.
Chord soloing is an excellent skill to add dynamics to a solo. Like Wes did by often bulding his solos up by doing single lines, octaves and then some tasteful chord soloing.

[2bornot2bop]

Find a convenient voicing for the chord where the highest note is the melody note you'd like. For example, playing up an A minor (dorian) scale with an Am7 chord...the melody note (the scale) is on the high string:

x x 5 5 5 5

x x 5 5 5 7

x x 7 9 8 8

x x 7 9 8 10

x x 10 12 10 12

x x 14 14 13 14

x x 14 14 13 15

x x 17 17 17 17

When you do this...you have to think of it as arranging. You are arranging multiple voices, conventionally you are harmonizing a melody on the top voice. There are many, many ways to arrange a melody for multiple voices, and then there are the practical considerations fo making the arrangements playable on the guitar. Transcription is helpful...you can see how different guitarists make due with the limitations of the instrument. For example, in the first video John Pizzarelli was using very few different chord shapes, but is aware of how to use each structures over different harmony.

I would suggest learning some of what other people have come up with, via transcription, and there are many educational resources available...dvds, books, etc, sorry i can't recommend any specifically. I think Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, and Jim Hall are all really great guitarists to listen to and figure out in terms of their approach to arranging multiple voiced parts on the guitar. There are a lot of transcription books available. I often found that looking at a couple of measures of somebody else's ideas gave me a lot to work on.

I would just emphasize...be aware that the technique is arranging, and there are guitaristic ways to go about this, but keep in mind the balance between a smooth arrangement and something that can practical and playable on the guitar. Opinion alert: I think that many guitarists are too much in favor of the latter, the convenience and practicality on the guitar, rather than the sound and quality of the arrangement regardless of instrument.

Another excellent post Jake. So, what would your approach be if you're intentionally emphasizing strings 6 and 5 and not just the top 4 strings...i.e. rooted movement for solo guitar?

[JakeAcci]

Another excellent post Jake. So, what would your approach be if you're intentionally emphasizing strings 6 and 5 and not just the top 4 strings...i.e. rooted movement for solo guitar?

Hmm, I'm sorry but I'm not exactly sure what you mean.

[edward74]

After having a chance to dissect a bit from the fan video, it seems that this is very much a pre-arranged section--something that can't be easily improved I'm sure. Yet, for a pro like John Pizzarelli each time he does a chord solo of the same standard, I'm sure he's got an interesting variation to keep things fresh. Another I Got Rhythm vid...

[edward74]

Apologies for being such a nerd about this topic.

In the previous post I linked to a fan's block solo tab that I was excited to work on. Within a few moments of voicing some chords, I became leery of the interpretation. Credit goes to the Pizzarelli fan for trying to tab a particular Pizzarelli chord solo, but my ears didn't hear the same thing I heard from the fan video.

I think I'm better off breaking this down by ear on my own. The fan clip and metronome slow down sounds more acccurate. So, just a warning about tabs from people who think they can take on some advanced jazz chords solos and tab these ideas properly...sometimes they just put out some information that needs loads of refining. (Uhg)

[bondmorkret]

I do love this style of playing, it's definitely not something that happens overnight, but there's lots of resources out there for learning it

[JakeAcci]

it seems that this is very much a pre-arranged section--something that can't be easily improved I'm sure.

I think it's more an issue of 'memorizing' the style, the rules, the concepts, and then improvisation within those limitations is possible. Level of difficulty is very much relative to a lot of variables, but, relatively speaking, the style isn't all that complicated to improvise. Relative, that is, to many other styles!

Point is, I'm sure Pizzarelli is able to easily improvise these chordal sections...as was his dad.

Anywhere, here is something else:

[edward74]

Very nice version of Darn That Dream. Great chordal opening! Just love the sound of chords in jazz guitar.

I agree. It's a case of memorization of a style and the rules to eventually improv over those to make a block solo sound fresh. And when I say "pre-arranged" I guess I'm commenting on how Pizzarelli uses this I Got Rhythm chord solo as a signature...a lick of sorts.

Multiple videos of his version of the song show him skillfully ripping through a familiar sounding block chords, but with slight variations in each performance. I definitely would like to get to a place where I can do a chordal chorus and make it sound this good and varied each time especially at a hot jazz tempo! Wow! That looks so fun to hear and play.

Okay, okay! I've made this enough of a Pizzarelli thread.