Hammering on/pulling off onto the down beat

[dortmundjazzguitar]

Moreno's definitely playing the Bb and A on the third string. I daresay he has his reasons....

I don't personally think the string skips that big a deal given you have plenty of time to deal with it.

it's an eight-note line, so there is not too much time for the skip. so you play the A with the index and jump to the C, also with your index?

[christianm77]

Yeah but you are only picking every other note. Don't be such a picking wuss ;-)

In seriousness the A is not picked... Don't know if that's clear from the tab.

[dortmundjazzguitar]

Yeah but you are only picking every other note. Don't be such a picking wuss ;-)

In seriousness the A is not picked... Don't know if that's clear from the tab.

i'm not interested in the picking but in the fingering. whether you pick the a or not, the next eight note c is two strings lower and a fret higher. using the index for both notes seems highly impracticable and something i tell my students to avoid. alternatively you could use the middle finger for the c but the jump to the eb is the problem then.

[PMB]

i'm playing it very similarly. but i play the Bb to A (fourth and fifth note in bar 1, not counting the pickup) not on the g-string but on the d-string. it's more in the spirit of this phrasing concept, can be played with three (or even two) fingers, and avoids the awkward jump from A on the g-string to C on the a-string.

That's part of the reason I play from the 6th position initially - it makes that jump much easier. Also, the opening phrase (notes 1-6) is echoed at bar 3 and it's easy to employ a similar fingering.

[christianm77]

i'm not interested in the picking but in the fingering. whether you pick the a or not, the next eight note c is two strings lower and a fret higher. using the index for both notes seems highly impracticable and something i tell my students to avoid. alternatively you could use the middle finger for the c but the jump to the eb is the problem then.

Oh yeah that's a point, I tend to advise my students not to do that...

Funny thing is I didn't notice it when playing through the fingering.

I'll have another watch of Moreno's video and see what he does....

[christianm77]

I had a rewatch of the Mike Moreno video, and it looks very much as if he is catching that Bb-A with the side of the first finger, almost like a barre.

[EDS]

This is something I've long done, but I think it is possible to be "Boxed in" by this technique - in other words, I used this technique (unknowingly) for such a long time that I couldn't NOT play like this. While it can be an effective way to play, I think there are certain things to keep in mind with this technique.

1- You don't want your accents to become automatic
2- This doesn't sound as good (to me) ascending or at slow tempos
3- It can sound not good in certain styles/feels
4- Double timing can go both ways - in other words, accenting the strong beats doubling timing often sounds better (or mixing them together)


I got to a point where my playing felt really one dimensional so I've been trying to rectify this. So what I'm saying is that I think its good to practice slurs in both ways.

Obviously, this is just my experience. I could post a video demonstrating if theres any interest.

[princeplanet]

....

Obviously, this is just my experience. I could post a video demonstrating if theres any interest.

I'd watch it

[christianm77]

I'd watch it

Seconded.

[EDS]

I'd watch it

Ok, the last post was from like months ago but here's a kind of shitty wanking example of what I was talking about - you'll hear slurring into beats on 8th notes and the faster stuff is picked/slurred without regards to beat placement. Its a bit over the top but this a practice video.

Its still a work in progress but I think there's some potential here for changing up your lines and making your double time float a little more.

[Hep To The Jive]

Ok, the last post was from like months ago but here's a kind of shitty wanking example of what I was talking about - you'll hear slurring into beats on 8th notes and the faster stuff is picked/slurred without regards to beat placement. Its a bit over the top but this a practice video.

Its still a work in progress but I think there's some potential here for changing up your lines and making your double time float a little more.

Cool, thanks, sounds good! I think that's how Scofield gets his sound, it reminded me a little bit of him. Slurs make lines breath better imo, picking every note can become too monotonous, i like this approach better.

[christianm77]

Nice demo EDS! Sounding good man...

I've been working on this stuff now continuously (2 months?) so I feel I am sort of up to the point where I could work up some short demos...

BTW, I'm getting on great with another Moreno suggestion - that you pick everything with down strokes as much as possible. I find this is terrific for my medium tempo eighth swing feel. Don't be lazy and use upstrokes lol!

[mhch]

This took quite a bit of careful watching. Does anyone know of a video player that will allow you to add a marker to and/or loop the video? Would make progress a bit quicker... :-)

Transcribe! (Mac and PC) lets you set markers on a video and loop over a selection (adjustable in real time for fine tuning and using the slowdown factor you choose). This is great for fine analysis of player's techniques.

Video is played through Quicktime on PC (XP, Win7) and MAC. Win10 version dropped it in favor of Gstreamer, lighter and better supported. Transcribe! installer does all the necessary video install, no need to install something on your own.