The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #51

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    Quote Originally Posted by henryrobinett
    Yes, but I think vibrato also sounds good on straight ahead swing. You just don't hear guys doing it because most don't hear a context for it. Rhythm Changes, Like Someone In Love, Moments Notice. Anytime you hear a sax or trumpet solo using vibrato, it would also sound great on guitar. Coltrane, Cannonball, Brownie, Rollins. Even with a little light overdrive.
    Very true. Appreciated also...
    There is a thing on" Electric Ladyland where Hendrix is jamming with a horn player (I think it's "Rainy Day Dream Away" )named Freddy Smith and Hendrix gets a very Horn-like sound ...
    And though Hendrix was less advanced than Martino/ Benson- ironically his" Sound" was closer to Coltrane...

    Funny I heard Michael Brecker at University of Miami years ago and some of Breckers stuff reminded me of Hendrix - also Junior Walker ...and everyone else lol.

    I use a little bit of tube drive kind of like Hendrix tone on the intro to " Watchtower"
    but I always liked acoustic guitar and as a Kid I had a Harmony Archtop and played Rolling Stones tunes on it ( not that well- I was not a " natural" lol).
    And I was recently checking out a ES137 to see if it would get that thick, woody Archtop tone- I love guys like Norman Brown who throw a lot of R&B / Funk into their Jazz.

    I just hope guys like Norman Brown don't get too into Urban Music - or I will have nowhere to go...lol.
    But really appreciate the idea of not abandoning my Vibrato....
    My present chops make it easy and natural to play across the strings.( and it only took about 20 thousand hours ).and I have been hearing this for a long time and I don't like *just* scales too much where the Notes are all bunched up in small intervals ( lol) so I am getting more hornlike anyway coincidentally..
    Last edited by Robertkoa; 11-06-2015 at 01:37 PM.

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  3. #52

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    Seriously... does Jim Hall look like Sean Connery or what? Maybe Connery should star in a life of Jim Hall; or maybe Hall should be the next Bond?

  4. #53

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    Contrary to what some say about the horn players, I recall very distinctly when I first started listening to bebop noticing that the alto sax players seemed to go for a hard, almost vibrato-less tone. the tone was so… hard. They almost seemed to be avoiding the clichéd saxophone devices striving for that fast, 16th-note driven hard tone. I think many guitarists absorbed that and tried to avoid seeming "guitaristic" and so they avoid guitar-trick types of things. It's also possible that the tendency of guitar players to assimilate to piano stylings drove a more vibrato-free approach.

    let's face it: a lot of these kinds of things are more "effects" than actual music. IN a jazz solo, you might hear only one bent string, but you will remember it. The player didn't fall back on it, but used it intentionally.

  5. #54

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    I wonder if any guitarists in jazz use vibrato and bends when they are on a non-minor type of tune? Most of the "good" vibrato and bending we hear in this thread, like the amazing Jim Mullen, is on a minor key song with a strong blues feel. I don't recall ever hearing a guitarist playing "Confirmation" or "That's Earl, Brother" or "Giant Steps" with a lot of vibrato or string bends.

  6. #55

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    It's all context, right? Some guys who play rock and have a rock lick vocabulary, bends in rock blues context, just always sound wrong applied to jazz. This might be what you were referring to. It's all context. But feeling and hearing bop or swing it works. On fast bop there's not enough time for vibrato unless it's for obvious effect. Dexter and Phil Woods come to mind. Exaggerated.

  7. #56

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    Approach to vibrato is changing from style to style, from time to time...

    When I was learning classical as a kid I was taught to avoid vibrato my teacher told me: Please, don't play gypsies again.. meaning traditional gipsy guitar (not manouche) - that is too kitchy for classical style...
    Also there was a jusdgement on Segovia sounding too 'Spanish' (which can be also read as too gipsy in the context) in Bach music... (though it could be true - I do not see how it spoils his performance, he is still musically above all I heard after him... as my friend violinist said after lsitening Segovia play Chaconna: hm... actually for first time I hear it is really a chaconna )

    On the other hand today vibrato seems to be optional and left to the taste of the performer... as it was said it is often used to prolong sustain in poor instrument or cover a poor technique...

    I spent some time over baroque music: vibrato those days was considered a special effect, an ornament and there was mark in the score for it... most probably it more intensive than regular modern one... and had some quater-tone vibrato effect.. but it was clear that it was not proper to play vibrato every single note

    As per jazz... though also very kitchy in comparison to nuanced classical approach to sound production.. .jazz sounds refined in comparison to rock/bluse styles

    Most of the "good" vibrato and bending we hear in this thread, like the amazing Jim Mullen, is on a minor key song with a strong blues feel.
    I may be wrong but I often noticed that minor key in general is not typical for American popular music.. on the contrary - traditionally in Europe minor key was very common sentimental styles and mostly it is also associated with cabaret/romances/variete and other styles of urban folk music in Europe... and often also mixed with gipsies who were always a part of entertainment business in Europe.

    So being a relatively 'rare bird' in American music it seems that any minor song for American musicians often sounds as a mark for 'European style' and they immediately apply all they stylistic tools they fid appropriate..

    By the way - one of the reason why I am not a big fan of 'Beautiful Love' and 'All The Things You Are' is because I heard these changes all the time around since I was a kid - guys out in teh street sitting on the porches with broken guitars and singing corny love songs.. ex-convicts singing they 'pitiful' prison songs... pop-songs on the radio.. even more sofisticated French movie soundtracks or something like tat ... they all used these changes all the time

  8. #57

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    Just wanted to add a point about not simply listening to guitarists. Horn players vibrato is educational as well. Compare per bop, bop and post bop players. Lester youngs vibrato is a thing of beauty - it swings as much as everything else - great to listen to slowed down.

  9. #58

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonah
    Approach to vibrato is changing from style to style, from time to time...

    When I was learning classical as a kid I was taught to avoid vibrato my teacher told me: Please, don't play gypsies again.. meaning traditional gipsy guitar (not manouche) - that is too kitchy for classical style...
    Also there was a jusdgement on Segovia sounding too 'Spanish' (which can be also read as too gipsy in the context) in Bach music... (though it could be true - I do not see how it spoils his performance, he is still musically above all I heard after him... as my friend violinist said after lsitening Segovia play Chaconna: hm... actually for first time I hear it is really a chaconna )

    On the other hand today vibrato seems to be optional and left to the taste of the performer... as it was said it is often used to prolong sustain in poor instrument or cover a poor technique...

    I spent some time over baroque music: vibrato those days was considered a special effect, an ornament and there was mark in the score for it... most probably it more intensive than regular modern one... and had some quater-tone vibrato effect.. but it was clear that it was not proper to play vibrato every single note

    As per jazz... though also very kitchy in comparison to nuanced classical approach to sound production.. .jazz sounds refined in comparison to rock/bluse styles



    I may be wrong but I often noticed that minor key in general is not typical for American popular music.. on the contrary - traditionally in Europe minor key was very common sentimental styles and mostly it is also associated with cabaret/romances/variete and other styles of urban folk music in Europe... and often also mixed with gipsies who were always a part of entertainment business in Europe.

    So being a relatively 'rare bird' in American music it seems that any minor song for American musicians often sounds as a mark for 'European style' and they immediately apply all they stylistic tools they fid appropriate..

    By the way - one of the reason why I am not a big fan of 'Beautiful Love' and 'All The Things You Are' is because I heard these changes all the time around since I was a kid - guys out in teh street sitting on the porches with broken guitars and singing corny love songs.. ex-convicts singing they 'pitiful' prison songs... pop-songs on the radio.. even more sofisticated French movie soundtracks or something like tat ... they all used these changes all the time
    cf the modernist aesthetic, of which period performance is an aspect. We also see it in post- Parker jazz and even mainstream orchestral playing. We can divide MUSIC into post war and pre war. This is a modern cultural filter.

    Dont get this ex singer started on the use of vibrato in baroque music. Suffice to say that modern classical vocal technique, even that used by contemporary early music specialists cannot be the same technique as that used back in the day.current Early Music singing is an imposition of the modernist aesthetic on something poorly understood.

    however I still like it. Too much vibrato sounds wrong to me - but it is the aesthetic of my era.

    blues and rock seemed to have escaped the modernist thing - back in the pre war era jazz musicians were accustomed to using blues vocalisations. And jazz did align itself consciously with concert music in the 50s, although that was't the only factor in the straight post war sound I'm sure. And miles though a straight sound player loved the blues aspect of the guitar.

    its funny that Segovia is looked down on as a folky player now, given his disdain for gypsy guitar playing. Snobby world classical. Segovia is still a million times more musical than most guitarists though!

  10. #59

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    Quote Originally Posted by henryrobinett
    It's all context, right? Some guys who play rock and have a rock lick vocabulary, bends in rock blues context, just always sound wrong applied to jazz. This might be what you were referring to. It's all context. But feeling and hearing bop or swing it works. On fast bop there's not enough time for vibrato unless it's for obvious effect. Dexter and Phil Woods come to mind. Exaggerated.
    Good point. If you play blues licks with jazz rhythm and phrasing, you will sound like a jazz guitarist. if you play jazz phrases with a rock feel and phrasing, you will sound probably pretty bad, but most like a rock player haha...

  11. #60

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonah
    Approach to vibrato is changing from style to style, from time to time...

    I may be wrong but I often noticed that minor key in general is not typical for American popular music.. on the contrary - traditionally in Europe minor key was very common sentimental styles and mostly it is also associated with cabaret/romances/variete and other styles of urban folk music in Europe... and often also mixed with gipsies who were always a part of entertainment business in Europe.

    So being a relatively 'rare bird' in American music it seems that any minor song for American musicians often sounds as a mark for 'European style' and they immediately apply all they stylistic tools they fid appropriate..
    This post hit the nail on the head for me. I think there have been some European Jazz players who have maybe incorporated a more "Romantic" influence to Jazz than some of their American counterparts, not saying that American players don't use it, but I think it's something that was regarded as a sentimentality that was incompatible with some of the modernists aesthetic values.

    I'd also like to voice the opinion that this issue has been over emphasised by Jazz writers and critics. Bird played with vibrato, as did 50's era Miles. Their vibrato styles were admittedly less pronounced (shallower and less rapid) than the swing era guys, but it was there nonetheless.

  12. #61

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    50 era Miles? Almost zero vibrato. Rare.

  13. #62

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    Sure, it's very subtle, but it's there.


  14. #63

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    Guys, guys...

    why has jazz become old and moldy...

    I wanna start a new thread or volunteer henry to start that thread.

    Would y'all care to partake in it?

    This is a discussion that is just as important as vibrato, ear training, picking speed, etc

    to some, it is more important (me)

  15. #64

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    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Kaye
    In my young jazz career as I transcribe solos I can't help but notice the absence of vibrato, particularly in traditional jazz guitar.

    Coming from a rock, pop, and blues background, where you can't survive without several varieties of vibrato, I find myself still struggling to restrain my vibrato. I mean, I get it, a big wide vibrato seems really out of place in jazz, but come on, no vibrato at all? Where the note just dies flat? Is that really the tradition? It still tweaks my ear to hear a phrase end and there is absolutely no movement while the note drops off a cliff.

    I'm really trying to develop my taste for it but it's difficult to swallow.
    Jazz is closer to being harmonically unstable and can have more complicated harmonic movements than the other types of music where more severe vibrato works.

    It's like dancing around on the roof of a 2 story building (or extending upward if you like) compared to dancing around (or extending upward if you like) on the tip of the Ariel on a sky scraper. Both might be equally structurally sound for their needs underneath you, but the complexity of the skyscraper in order to suit its structural needs will dictate a relative restriction in terms of what you can do whilst continuing up ward (infact its structure is probably optimum for its height, hence you can't extend upward without redoing the whole thing form the ground up.)

    I would not dance on the tip of a skyscraper Ariel, and if I did it would be with both feet planted while moving my arms a little. Prolly just some Jazz hands or somthin' u know? a little pizzaz or summat but I don't wanna fall off. The audience would LOVE it, but that's only if, because like I said I would not dance on the tip of a skyscraper Ariel. On the top of a 2 story building however I could do the Freestyle Lindy Hop Break Dance Burlesque Can-Can fusion.

    It seems to me that contemporary guitarists that play fusion tend to use use glissando and slurs between distinct frets. Perhaps you could experiment with that where you might feel the need to do vibrato?

  16. #65

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    What does everyone think about not using one's thumb while doing vibrato? In the video below, BB King seems to not anchor at all with his thumb.


  17. #66

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    I think it’s something I’ve never been able to do

    maybe that’s why I ended up in jazz hehe

  18. #67

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    Quote Originally Posted by Fortune
    What does everyone think about not using one's thumb while doing vibrato? In the video below, BB King seems to not anchor at all with his thumb.

    If I press my thumb against the neck, it's much harder to get vibrato. I just have it very lightly resting on the neck, which looks like what BB is doing in that picture, although his thumb sticks out further than mine.

    As far as the use of vibrato in jazz ... there is a guitar style where the notes might as well be played on piano or vibes. Each note clearly but plainly articulated.

    In blues playing, to draw a contrast, the notes are spoken with much greater variation. More slides, hammers, bends, shakes, variable attack and release, tonal variations, pinch harmonics, processed sounds etc etc.

    My preference is to use whatever is available to create emotion, certainly including controlling how the note speaks.

  19. #68

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    If I press my thumb against the neck, it's much harder to get vibrato. I just have it very lightly resting on the neck, which looks like what BB is doing in that picture, although his thumb sticks out further than mine.

    As far as the use of vibrato in jazz ... there is a guitar style where the notes might as well be played on piano or vibes. Each note clearly but plainly articulated.
    well, not quite true...

    Many players use a bit of subtle vibrato esp on slower tunes to give a note life... also I think I heard Jim Hall bend a note once in the 50s lol

    In blues playing, to draw a contrast, the notes are spoken with much greater variation. More slides, hammers, bends, shakes, variable attack and release, tonal variations, pinch harmonics, processed sounds etc etc.

    My preference is to use whatever is available to create emotion, certainly including controlling how the note speaks.
    this is an interesting thing because it applies not just to guitar but all instruments in jazz. Before the war tone colour was an important part of many player’s vocabularies. Think of Cootie Williams wah-wah cup mute, for instance. In Django’s playing vibrato, strong bends and tremolo style effects were very common. (I reckon had he lived he would have loved pedals)

    Then someone had a meeting and decided all of this stuff be outlawed until free jazz and fusion. The aesthetic of jazz became very ‘pure’ - what we might call a modernist aesthetic. You can see elements of the rather austere modernist aesthetic in of course modern classical performance, but also in early music performance practice, ironically.

    So might we say fusion is postmodern? I don’t think so. Fusion and much contemporary jazz despite being quite eclectic is really interested in modernist shit like complexity and conceptualism and not so interested in cultural context or self referentialism. The same goes for free players, most of the time.

    I suppose Postmodern guitar players would include Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot and I think to a lesser extent Julian Lage. I cant think of many of them, interestingly.
    Last edited by christianm77; 03-22-2020 at 05:20 AM.

  20. #69

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    No vibrato? Them jazz guitarists are just using strings that are too heavy gauged, and playing the notes darn fast!

  21. #70

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    I love Bill Frisell, but I’ve noticed a lot of younger players of my acquaintance use that neck-bending vibrato Frisell is known for - to excess, in my opinion. Every time they come to a sustained chord, they push the neck forward and back, almost seems like a nervous tic. It makes me feel slightly seasick.

    I don’t mind if jazz guitarists use vibrato, but then again, if you have a great sound, just a nice decaying held note or chord sounds great. When Bill Evans lets a beautiful note or voicing sustain on piano, no one complains that the pitch isn’t wiggling around in some way.

    If you have a great tone and feel, sustained chords sound lovely, unshaken. I maybe detect a tiny bit of vibrato on some of Kenny’s single notes here, but not many. And the chords just hang there beautifully.


  22. #71

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    I want a bigsby

  23. #72

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    Quote Originally Posted by jalapeno
    Jim Hall used a Whammy pedal to create odd interval sounds.
    I LOVE Jim Hall, but whenever he clicks on that horrible chorus pedal or the whammy, I forward to the next track.

  24. #73

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    Old thread, but OK, worth it.

    Compared to many other instruments, the guitar has a bit more "abstract" character. Part of that comes from the tradition of limitations of vibrato.

    Notes and chords can enjoy a slight vibrato (classical style) with longitudinal movement of the fretted strings, a subtle and also almost subliminal pitch shift that just lends some additional character to the sound.

    Bending is quite different. A lot bend here and there very slightly, just microtonal shifts on the order of maybe 1/8 or 1/16 of a chromatic change. These bends don't follow through to their target pitches, they only point to them for a moment. This engages the listener because their ear kind of melodically fills in the gaps without actually hearing the target, the connection is internal, participatory, a little transcendent.

    The only other instrument that does this is the piano, but not as usually heard - only the finest of pianists can play in such a way that this filling in of the gap is almost unnoticeable (doing it with relative volume and microdivisions of rhythm).

    I think all musicians come to the realization that music is an illusion, and that their playing is part of the creation of an illusion. The guitar's possibilities with respect to producing this illusion are just a little different than most instruments, not less.

  25. #74

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    I've heard a lot of crazy talk about jazz guitar. Just do your thing. I saw a guy bashing out chords to jazz standards on an acoustic while playing the melodies on a harmonica.

  26. #75

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    The first time I learned about jazz, a guitar player told me, that jazz guitarists are not suppose to bend or use vibrato.

    As a stubborn don't-tell-me-what-to-do-teen, I immediately began using lots of vibrato, haha. And I still do it