Learning Melodic Cells

[Enlightened Rogue]

Hello. I have recently became aware of melodic cells through the guitarist Jimmy Bruno. I cannot read standard musical notation, but I do read tab well. Has anyone used this book for study and does T do a good job of breaking down the subject and how to use in one’s own playing? I thank you for your time and response.

[AllanAllen]

The thing Jimmy Bruno is talking about are 1 bar licks you take through his fingering positions. It's just another exercise after you do the positions, thirds, triads, chords. You take a little melody and run it through.

No need to get a book, just make something up, or open the realbook to any page and pick a random bar. Run that through the fingerings, changing to keep it diatonic, then around the 12 keys. Your head will be spinning in no time.

[PMB]

Oz Noy is a fine player and I imagine that his book is a quality product but it would be hard to top Randy Vincent's A Cellular Approach. One of the best IMO. No tab but fingerings and string indications are included.

https://www.shermusic.com/1883217814.php

[pamosmusic]

Oz Noy is a fine player and I imagine that his book is a quality product but it would be hard to top Randy Vincent's A Cellular Approach. One of the best IMO. No tab but fingerings and string indications are included.

https://www.shermusic.com/1883217814.php

This ones been on my list. And in this case he’s talking about more like small melodic patterns that are strung together into lines in more modern playing. Probably more like what Oz Noy is doing, if I were to guess.

More like what Dave Baker called “digital patterns.”

Thats something different than what Allen’s describing. So if that’s what Jimmy Bruno meant, then it’s a different (and really good) exercise and probably not the one in Oz Noy’s book.

[wolflen]

Hello. I have recently became aware of melodic cells through the guitarist Jimmy Bruno. I cannot read standard musical notation, but I do read tab well. Has anyone used this book for study and does T do a good job of breaking down the subject and how to use in one’s own playing? I thank you for your time and response.

Hey Rogue..

Best Tip: Learn to read standard notation.

Its not that hard

If you start now..by next year..you will be able to read any guitar study book.. and you will thank yourself for the rest of your musical life

my take: going to the library and you can only read picture books

[Bobby Timmons]

If you listen to jazz or analyze it transcribed, you see that all it is is short motifs developed or sequenced and longer ideas. So if you want to be fluent in jazz melody, that's what you have to understand and practice. What AA said is accurate. You can get the lil cells or motifs from anywhere. Make em up, hear em, read em. Then just sequence them or develop them. I like to think of them as either pattern sounding or more natural/musical sounding and work both types.

[AllanAllen]

Thank you for the reply. I would love to learn how to read standard notation. Do you have any books you recommend to learn? I am an old dog at 53 but I can learn.

I worked with the Mel Bay book. It was like $4 used. I only went through about half and then pivoted to reading lead sheets and transcriptions. My goal is to read well enough to play Holiday gigs without having to memorize all the Christmas songs.

https://www.amazon.com/Mel-Bays-Mode.../dp/0871663546

[pamosmusic]

Thank you for the reply. I would love to learn how to read standard notation. Do you have any books you recommend to learn? I am an old dog at 53 but I can learn.

There are lots of sight reading books but that’s not really necessary.

You just need to be able to translate the dot to a letter name and the letter name to a fret in the guitar. Lots of stuff online for that. For a comprehensive thing, the Berklee methods are still good

[pamosmusic]

I worked with the Mel Bay book. It was like $4 used. I only went through about half and then pivoted to reading lead sheets and transcriptions. My goal is to read well enough to play Holiday gigs without having to memorize all the Christmas songs.

https://www.amazon.com/Mel-Bays-Mode.../dp/0871663546

Another good one.

[pamosmusic]

Which is, what, about 20 pages long by now?

Shorter than you’d think.

[wolflen]

Thank you for the reply. I would love to learn how to read standard notation. Do you have any books you recommend to learn? I am an old dog at 53 but I can learn.

Old dog eh..well kid..AA gave a good start point with the Mel Bay book

and of course lots of info online..

[wolflen]

Copy that sir. I receive my books next Monday. Give me a few months and I hope to have positive progress.

[pamosmusic]

Copy that sir. I receive my books next Monday. Give me a few months and I hope to have positive progress.

Which books?

Mel Bay and Randy Vincent? Or?

[PMB]

This ones been on my list. And in this case he’s talking about more like small melodic patterns that are strung together into lines in more modern playing. Probably more like what Oz Noy is doing, if I were to guess.

More like what Dave Baker called “digital patterns.”

Thats something different than what Allen’s describing. So if that’s what Jimmy Bruno meant, then it’s a different (and really good) exercise and probably not the one in Oz Noy’s book.

Yes, mostly basic melodic patterns, each one classified by its initial note - root, 3rd, 5th etc - and recombined with others of the same type in a modular fashion both up a chosen string set and across the neck. They are in a sense 'digital patterns' but all the ones that Vincent employs are common units of jazz vocabulary, not just an abstract operation involving permutations of a note series.

Of course, these can (and should) be practised along with taking any phrase that catches your ear through different octaves, keys, string sets and positions.

[GuyBoden]

This Youtube Video about Melodic Cells by a good sax player might or might not be of interest.

Skip the self promotion and start watching the video at 1:50 seconds.