The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    A new, inexpensive (10 bucks) course in which Frank teaches you to play ten songs. Ten old songs: Dinah, Sweet Georgia Brown, I Never Knew, Stardust, Strike Up the Band...

    There are three videos for each song. First, the chords. (With variations.) Second, the melody. Third, a play-along, where Frank plays a while and comps a while and you do the one he's not currently doing.

    Take a peek and see if you think it might prove useful to you.

    Frank Vignola's Jazz Studio - Channels - TrueFire

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    I'm really excited about this! Right now all of my studying time is dedicated to earring my next stripe in the Air Force, but after that I plan on pursuing goals outside of the military and one of them is to get decent at jazz. Frank seems like a good instructor as well - I've got a bunch of his videos waiting for the day when I can relax and focus on the stuff I really want to. ;-)

    I also like how this course is the songs in their entirety. One of the more frustrating things to me is how a lot of lessons use examples "close" to songs or use real songs, but only parts of them to illustrate a point and I'd really like to learn just the songs and then dive into them deeper to get the understanding down. I'm sure it's a legal issue with copyright and all that, but it's a bit frustrating.
    Last edited by Just Russ; 07-19-2018 at 11:38 AM.

  4. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
    A new, inexpensive (10 bucks) course in which Frank teaches you to play ten songs. Ten old songs: Dinah, Sweet Georgia Brown, I Never Knew, Stardust, Strike Up the Band...

    There are three videos for each song. First, the chords. (With variations.) Second, the melody. Third, a play-along, where Frank plays a while and comps a while and you do the one he's not currently doing.

    Take a peek and see if you think it might prove useful to you.

    Frank Vignola's Jazz Studio - Channels - TrueFire
    Looks good. I have a couple of Frank Vignola books that take a similar approach. I believe they are titled Jazz Solos.

    They are great books, someday I will start up a study group based on those books.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  5. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Doublea A
    Looks good. I have a couple of Frank Vignola books that take a similar approach. I believe they are titled Jazz Solos.

    They are great books, someday I will start up a study group based on those books.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Yes, I have the "Jazz Solos" books (1 and 2; if there's a 3, I ain't got it). Those are etudes over standard changes, and a play-along chorus. Those are nice.

    But this is whole tunes, starting with the chords, then the melody, then a play-along for purposes of comping, playing the melody in time with good phrasing, and improvising.

    And simpler tunes, for the most part. Good, strong melodies. (Frank's a big believer in playing melodies well. It's why he uses so many downstrokes---he thinks they make melodies sound better.) I find that learning simple melodies well, playing them often, sharpens my ear. (Helps my singing too...)

  6. #5

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    I haven't checked out that particular lesson, but I've had good luck with some of his other lessons. A few months ago I subscribed to his channel. For $5 a month you get an awful lot of information.
    I really like Truefire in general. They've got a good thing going.

  7. #6

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    Frank's doing a live Q&A tonight at 8 PM (EST).

    TrueFire Live: Frank Vignola - Chord Melody

  8. #7

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    I've always thought that Frank Vignola is that rare combination of an excellent guitarist and an excellent teacher.

    I remember going through his DVD called Vamps, Jams, and Improvisation when that first came out and learning some cool things from it.

  9. #8

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    Frank mentioned something Joe Pass showed him: "play the scale up to the (melody) note." I got interrupted during this portion of the broadcast and when I got back, Frank was playing a series of chords up to the note A but I wasn't sure what the series was. Can anyone clarify this for me, please?

  10. #9

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    I didn't catch it but you can watch it again if you like. I'm going to try to watch it this weekend.


  11. #10

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    Wow. I lost that broadcast I was playing yesterday but I'm glad to know that I can watch it now.

    Frank is incredible I have his modern method, subscribed to his channel and do a private lesson from time to time. A great teacher that really knows how to teach.

    True fire is a very nice source of material, the Jazz Channel is a real bargain.

  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by clebergf
    Frank is incredible I have his modern method, subscribed to his channel and do a private lesson from time to time. A great teacher that really knows how to teach.

    True fire is a very nice source of material, the Jazz Channel is a real bargain.
    Couldn't agree more. An embarrassment of riches. Some times I work on too many things at once, though. I have to watch that.

  13. #12

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    Mark, I believe he harmonized the C Scale.

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by edh
    Mark, I believe he harmonized the C Scale.
    Yes, he does that. Major, minor, and dominant 7. The Joe Pass thing comes near the end of the video, around minute 54:00. It's an exercise Joe showed him. Good one too--I'll be working on it for awhile now!

  15. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by morroben
    I didn't catch it but you can watch it again if you like. I'm going to try to watch it this weekend.

    Vignola looks a bit like Steve Vai in this photo, no?

    I had to a double take. No handle on that guitar though...

  16. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
    There are three videos for each song. First, the chords. (With variations.) Second, the melody. Third, a play-along, where Frank plays a while and comps a while and you do the one he's not currently doing.
    I have a few of Frank's Truefire courses but didn't know about his Jazz Channel. The course you mentioned is great for beginners like me. I really like the way he does the play-along. The first and last sections are exactly like the video lesson but in the middle section, he "jazzes" it up (chords and melody) and shows how you can really embellish the tune.

    I also appreciate your comment explaining why he uses downstrokes so much. I often wondered about this.

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
    Yes, he does that. Major, minor, and dominant 7. The Joe Pass thing comes near the end of the video, around minute 54:00. It's an exercise Joe showed him. Good one too--I'll be working on it for awhile now!

    I don't know that I understood that exercise. What did you understand it to be? Is he playing an "A" note against maj/min/dom chords in all twelve keys followed by playing a scale of the chord up to the "A" and down again? How do you play a Bb dominant scale to an "A", for example? Or Fmin to an "A"? I'm not sure I understand.

  18. #17

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    I haven't seen the Frank Vignola video, but this sounds a bit like an exercise Joe Pass did in one of his own videos (the 'hot licks' series possibly?)

    From memory, I think Joe picks a 'melody' note then puts a randomly-selected chord under it (which 'fits' that note). So for example you could pick F on the 2nd string 6th fret and hang a D7#9 chord under it. He then plays the scale up and down which fits that chord, i.e. from the bottom note of the chord to the top note and back again. I think Joe said he found this a more useful way of practicing scales because you are applying them to a chord context and a melody note.

    Of course doing it this way, you would not encounter anything odd like an A on an F minor chord, so maybe the Vignola exercise is a bit different.

    Actually I think Joe then chose another chord but kept the same top note, and repeated the exercise. So for example you could pick Ebmaj9 with the same F top note. But in his video I don't think he said "keep on doing it keeping that F note for all chords in all 12 keys". I think he implied you should try as many chords as you can fit to that top note, then choose another 'melody' note and start again.
    Last edited by grahambop; 07-31-2018 at 07:59 AM.

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by rlrhett
    I don't know that I understood that exercise. What did you understand it to be? Is he playing an "A" note against maj/min/dom chords in all twelve keys followed by playing a scale of the chord up to the "A" and down again? How do you play a Bb dominant scale to an "A", for example? Or Fmin to an "A"? I'm not sure I understand.
    It's major OR dominant and minor. With an A on top, you get A major and A minor, BbM7, BbmM7, B7 Bm7, C6 Cm6, and so on. (There's more than one way to do this, but that's the general idea.)

  20. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    I haven't seen the Frank Vignola video, but this sounds a bit like an exercise Joe Pass did in one of his own videos (the 'hot licks' series possibly?)

    From memory, I think Joe picks a 'melody' note then puts a randomly-selected chord under it (which 'fits' that note). So for example you could pick F on the 2nd string 6th fret and hang a D7#9 chord under it. He then plays the scale up and down which fits that chord, i.e. from the bottom note of the chord to the top note and back again. I think Joe said he found this a more useful way of practicing scales because you are applying them to a chord context and a melody note.
    Frank definitely got the exercise from Joe Pass.
    Frank is something of a stickler. It's very much like him to want to do things every possible way. (He has a lesson on 101 ways to play a C major scale. He would!) Joe might not have wanted to go through all 12 keys on one note.

    And yes, playing the scale up to the melody note is something Joe did a lot. (I wonder if Joe developed this from his father's instruction to "fill it up!" when he was playing tunes at home.)