The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I have purchased the Leavitt Method books 1 and 2, however I would like to have 2 of the solo pieces, Solo in D and Solo in G, in tablature just so that I can start to learn them.

    To preempt the (quite correct) suggestion that I should just learn how to read standard notation, note that I work on chord melody pieces at 1:30am as a head-clearing exercise after returning home from a 16 hour day working 2 jobs. I am working on learning standard notation, but I expect it will take me a few years before I am able to play the notes as quickly as I can from tablature. In the meantime I just want to play a couple of nice tunes, you know?

    If anyone is interested in transcribing the Leavitt solo in D and solo in G pieces to tablature I would eternally grateful, and I would be happy to email scans of the standard notation for this educational purpose from my legally-purchased books. Obviously if anyone already has these pieces in tablature that would work too.

    Thanks!

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    If I may offer a suggestion and observation. I don't think you need tablature per se, I'll explain.

    Firstly, Leavitt indicates position markings with Roman numerals, so that will help you.

    Beyond that -

    Melodic lines:
    Since all lines will be played on top of, under, or entering or leaving a chord - the choices for where you play the lines are constrained to a single choice in most, if not all cases. You should be able to work those out easily.

    Chords:
    Lots of interesting chord voicings in a piece can indeed be difficult to read.

    What helps me learn chord melody tunes that I didn't arrange is to draw chord diagrams. If you can draw straight or semi-straight lines you can do that with a pencil and blank sheet of paper, but I like to draw little grids in MS Excel as they are much easier to read and reuse tune after tune with a little modification. Draw the chord diagrams one line at a time. In other words, if the first line of Leavitt's solo has 6 chords in it, draw six chord diagrams on one line on your cheat sheet, then skip to the next line.

    Using these chord charts speeds the learning process immeasurably. Chord diagrams are are superior to tablature from a visual perspective, at least in my opinion. This really clicked for me after reading Steve Khan's book on Wes Montgomery solos years ago. Khan shows the music, and shows chord diagrams to go with them. Helps a ton!

    Give it a try...

  4. #3

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    Why not learn it from a video?


  5. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jazzstdnt
    Leavitt indicates position markings with Roman numerals, so that will help you.
    But I don't think he can read the notes... I think that's the point but I may have missed something.

  6. #5

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    And in G...




    When people - after a good few years of playing guitar - get serious about learning jazz, they come to the conclusion that they need to learn to read. It's true, you do. So we start with Leavitt's book, but soon get despondent as the level is way below what we can already play. It's natural that you want to get to the "good stuff" in that book. I see no problem with asking for tab for those two pieces, especially if you are serious about working through the book a page at a time anyway. We've all been there, and some of us have just got there.

    It's hard working two jobs, and feeling knackered when you do get to sit down with your guitar, so good luck with it all. I can't imagine anyone has the tab, so I hope my videos are of use to you.

  7. #6

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    Conchmusic, notice Rob's right hand technique, in particular the rest strokes when playing the chords. The rest strokes are key when playing the Leavitt chord melodies.

    Beautiful playing Rob.

    I also really like the video lighting/image. Your face, hands, and guitar with the rest in black looks so great. How is that done, black background?

  8. #7

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    Cheers, Frank.

    I sit at a south-facing window, trying to get as much light as possible as my room is fairly dark otherwise. So, some days it's lighter than others. When the light is strong I darken the video in the video editing software (Vegas Studio Lite) which brings the light on my face and hands to almost natural levels, while making everything else dark. It just takes a second to do. I don't have any fancy video lighting hardware.

  9. #8

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    Thanks Rob, I'm going to give it a try on the next video. I'll have to record in the early morning light as my window faces east.

  10. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
    And in G...




    When people - after a good few years of playing guitar - get serious about learning jazz, they come to the conclusion that they need to learn to read. It's true, you do. So we start with Leavitt's book, but soon get despondent as the level is way below what we can already play. It's natural that you want to get to the "good stuff" in that book. I see no problem with asking for tab for those two pieces, especially if you are serious about working through the book a page at a time anyway. We've all been there, and some of us have just got there.

    It's hard working two jobs, and feeling knackered when you do get to sit down with your guitar, so good luck with it all. I can't imagine anyone has the tab, so I hope my videos are of use to you.
    Thanks very much for replying Rob - your videos of these pieces are what got me interested in the tunes and subsequently in the books. In fact, your entire Youtube channel is in constant rotation around here, thus the two Tarrega tabs on my music stand. Alas, the world has had more time to write tabs for Tarrega than for Leavitt.

    I absolutely want to learn to read properly, it is on the must-do list, and I'm certain it will happen. I appreciate everyone's advice, as when I do finally put aside the time to learn how to read I will absolutely turn back to it. For now I'd like to know where to put my fingers so I can just get on with it. Of course, in the end I may find that it takes less time to learn standard notation (or to stop-start my way through Rob's videos) than to wait for tabs of the Leavitt pieces to emerge somewhere on the internet.

  11. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1
    But I don't think he can read the notes... I think that's the point but I may have missed something.
    Right, I read that too fast. I read "can't read" but thought "can't read well". My mistake.

    Two thoughts:

    1. So I would say, if you (the OP) are at the point that you could learn to play these effectively in a few weeks with tab, then pay a teacher to tab it out for you. But if not, then spend 3-4 weeks learning to read. You don't need to be a great sight reader, just learn notation on the staff and basic rhythms. It's very easy. Just add a Hal Leonard or Mel Bay "book 1" to the two books that you've already purchased and you should be able to work out the rest.

    2. One caveat - if you don't know any theory/harmony and aren't familiar with so-called "jazz chords" then there will be another hurdle. One doesn't have to go all the way through books 1 and 2 to play those solos, but one should be able to read music on a staff and know what notes form a G7 or a G13b9 or a CMa6/9 or a Bm7b5 etc. If not, then work your way through "book 1" a little bit, buy a jazz chord book and get familiar with some grips. Then go back and tackle the solos. It won't take long.

  12. #11
    There are countless charts on the interwebs for finding all pitches notated on the fretboard. This is one of the first ones that popped up in search: Learning the Fretboard | Guitar Lesson World I'm not necessarily endorsing that page or method, but the chart alone has a lot of information.

    At the very least, you'd be learning a little something from the process. Something like musescore can help a lot, but you may have to understand a little bit about fretboard layout or know how to change stringsets to get all of it correctly. Honestly, if you entered the whole thing into notation and then copy/pasted into a seperate tab staff, it would probably be about 80% correct to start. That's really pretty good.

    Anyway, it's a lot of work to ask someone to do for free for you on the internet.
    Attached Images Attached Images Tablature for Leavitt Solos in D and G-learning-fretboard-guitar-notes-gif 

  13. #12

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    Yes, is Matt said, lots of work. Hours of work.

  14. #13

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    Also one shouldn't assume that a program that can convert notation to tab will necessarily get it right because of all the various ways one can play the same notes on a guitar.

    I used Power Tab for a long time and that could import a score and produce tab... but rarely in the best way to play it.

  15. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by matt.guitarteacher
    There are countless charts on the interwebs for finding all pitches notated on the fretboard. This is one of the first ones that popped up in search: Learning the Fretboard | Guitar Lesson World I'm not necessarily endorsing that page or method, but the chart alone has a lot of information.

    At the very least, you'd be learning a little something from the process. Something like musescore can help a lot, but you may have to understand a little bit about fretboard layout or know how to change stringsets to get all of it correctly. Honestly, if you entered the whole thing into notation and then copy/pasted into a seperate tab staff, it would probably be about 80% correct to start. That's really pretty good.

    Anyway, it's a lot of work to ask someone to do for free for you on the internet.
    Both the content within the linked webpage and the image inserted in your post may lead those who don't know otherwise to believe that the guitar is not a transposing instrument and may think concert pitch families of notes in the staff should correspond to the concert pitch families of notes played on the guitar. Neither the webpage nor the image agrees with nor even suggests the convention of writing guitar music an octave higher than its sounded pitch. Both, for example, show the low open E below three ledger lines under the G clef.

    Perhaps one could enjoy learning the solos by ear from the videos?

  16. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by pauln
    Both the content within the linked webpage and the image inserted in your post may lead those who don't know otherwise to believe that the guitar is not a transposing instrument and may think concert pitch families of notes in the staff should correspond to the concert pitch families of notes played on the guitar. Neither the webpage nor the image agrees with nor even suggests the convention of writing guitar music an octave higher than its sounded pitch. Both, for example, show the low open E below three ledger lines under the G clef.

    Perhaps one could enjoy learning the solos by ear from the videos?
    Again, it's not an endorsement, but it represents EVERYTHING needed for understanding guitar notation. This is about a solo which is notated in original form. That's the topic of the thread, and that's what is addressed on the page.

    The extra layer of understanding is ONLY needed ... if you've NEVER done anything with notation AND you don't know what a notated open E on first string sounds like. If that's someone's deal, then this is pointless anyway.

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by matt.guitarteacher
    Again, it's not an endorsement, but it represents EVERYTHING needed for understanding guitar notation. This is about a solo which is notated in original form. That's the topic of the thread, and that's what is addressed on the page.

    The extra layer of understanding is ONLY needed ... if you've NEVER done anything with notation AND you don't know what a notated open E on first string sounds like. If that's someone's deal, then this is pointless anyway.
    I'm not understanding any of the sentences you wrote.

    I'm not seeing how something can represent everything needed for understanding guitar notation if the scored notes and corresponding fingerings are incorrect (if they are incorrect). Are you saying they are correct?

    I don't know what you mean by "notated in original form". Are you saying the Leavitt book solos are written on two clefs?

    I'm not seeing how the topic (a request for tablature) is addressed by an incorrect (if incorrect) cross reference between scored notes and fingerings.

    How is the fundamental knowledge that the guitar's notes are scored an octave up (unless that is incorrect) an unneeded "extra layer"?

    Don't you gather that the op sounds like he is pretty brand new to standard notation and may very well not know how a notated open E on the first string should sound (as in, sounding an octave lower than might be answered by a non-guitarist musician or non-music reading guitarist)?

  18. #17
    The book begins with open E. If the OP doesn't understand that basic level, there's no point in the rest of the conversation.

    You don't have to understand how instruments transpose in order to read on said instruments. Beginning band students in fifth and sixth grade are mostly oblivious to such things. They play the notes on the page. The notes represented on that website, as far as I can see, are represented correctly for standard notation on guitar.

    The concert pitch/octaveissues don't really have anything to do with READING NOTATION for a beginner. They are more for arrangers or jazz/pit players who want to play in a specific octave off of a non-guitar-specific chart etc.

    TLDNR: You don't have to understand the transposing aspects to read the Leavitt pieces from the OP out of that original book.

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by djg
    musescore is drag and drop. moving notes from one string to another is trivial.
    Assuming you know where to move them to.

  20. #19
    I think the chances of this thread actually being helpful to ANYONE is about 0%. Pointless "work for free " request thread.