The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #26

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    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    No, it’s a chromatic hammer-on triplet ascending, then pull-off chromatic triplet descending. I do them quite often, it’s a standard bebop lick.

    So pluck a note fretted with first finger LH, then hammer-on successively with fingers 2, 3, 4 going up the fretboard chromatically. Then pull off with the 4th finger and come back down the same way, i.e. pull off with fingers 3, 2, 1 successively.

    I’ve probably done it in one of my own videos somewhere.
    I agree. Common lick, often played slower.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #27

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    Great vid of the old days... thanks for posting. The wildman meets the madman. yea I really dug that group.... was a fun couple of years. Great exposure for Bruce.... not that he needed or wanted. But jazz was being performed on bigger stages and venues for a few short years and the playing sort of became entertainment, fun to watch and almost a hang thing. his exwife Yolanda the queen of madness... at least for a while back in 80's was pretty cool.

    yea... play it how ever you can.

  4. #28

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    Quote Originally Posted by Reg
    Great vid of the old days... thanks for posting. The wildman meets the madman. yea I really dug that group.... was a fun couple of years. Great exposure for Bruce.... not that he needed or wanted. But jazz was being performed on bigger stages and venues for a few short years and the playing sort of became entertainment, fun to watch and almost a hang thing. his exwife Yolanda the queen of madness... at least for a while back in 80's was pretty cool.

    yea... play it how ever you can.
    Reg, I wanted to ask you, since alt. picking is your default technique, do you think practicing scales, exercises, arps, etc... using up-down picking instead of down-up picking is a beneficial thing to practice. I seem to hit a wall at 16ths at about 128-132 bpm on simpler exercises, even slower on scales. This is strictly for stronger technique, not some improvisation or articulation exercise
    I'm talking about playing with the metronome and playing up on the downbeat and down on the upbeat, to be clear.
    Pat Martino mentioned practicing that way to some of his students, and a few others have also mentioned it. What's your opinion?
    TIA

  5. #29

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    I don’t think Reg is a strict alternate picker, analysing his right hand. (Sorry to talk about you in the third person Reg lol)

    He’s mostly a benson/gypsy style downward pick slant guy, lot of downsweeps. His right hand stance is more similar to mine though than George’s. Sometimes he rotates his hand a little to get an upstroke, which is not a motion I personally use, but it’s useful for flexibility. What Grady calls upward pickslanting.

    He may have practiced alternate picking but that’s not how he plays. Me too actually.

    I reckon the alternate picking stuff I think he does will mostly be even notes a string, but I’d need to dig deeper.

    It makes sense, at speed you go with what feels physically good and easy, you might not have ever broken it down like this, in some ways it’s easier if you don’t.

    Bruce is more of a two way pick slanter. You can see his hand doing the movement all the time.

    One guy who is a stone alternate picker who uses a dwps type stroke is Mike Stern. Not quite sure how he does it.
    Last edited by christianm77; 09-27-2019 at 03:39 PM.

  6. #30

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    Quote Originally Posted by sgcim
    Reg, I wanted to ask you, since alt. picking is your default technique, do you think practicing scales, exercises, arps, etc... using up-down picking instead of down-up picking is a beneficial thing to practice. I seem to hit a wall at 16ths at about 128-132 bpm on simpler exercises, even slower on scales. This is strictly for stronger technique, not some improvisation or articulation exercise
    I'm talking about playing with the metronome and playing up on the downbeat and down on the upbeat, to be clear.
    Pat Martino mentioned practicing that way to some of his students, and a few others have also mentioned it. What's your opinion?
    TIA
    You are probably string hopping. Post a vid of your right hand and I can say for sure.

  7. #31

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    You are probably string hopping. Post a vid of your right hand and I can say for sure.
    Don't have a video camera.

  8. #32

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    Hey Sgcim.... any picking practice has to help. The time spent should be organized... work on where you need work and keep it balanced. I'm pretty old school... I don't like the modern dull up stroke soft sound with little articulation sound. It's cool and I respect it... just not my thing. Of course if the gig pays well... I'll cover.

    hey Christian.... yes... My basic reference is alternating... it's just I'm pretty relaxed and use stroke direction to help with articulations.

    I mean I can easily use strict alt for anything and not need to even think about it... I'm way past having to actually think how I want to pick anything.... I just play it how I want to hear it. And because I'm such a rhythmic player... the pick direction is just part of the articulation. I suck... but I've sucked for so long I can't help it.

    I organized all my playing skills so that I would need very little practice. I'm lazy... I love to play... but hate rehearsals, practicing.

  9. #33

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    Quote Originally Posted by sgcim
    Don't have a video camera.
    Smart phone? iPad?

  10. #34

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    Quote Originally Posted by Reg
    Hey Sgcim.... any picking practice has to help. The time spent should be organized... work on where you need work and keep it balanced. I'm pretty old school... I don't like the modern dull up stroke soft sound with little articulation sound. It's cool and I respect it... just not my thing. Of course if the gig pays well... I'll cover.

    hey Christian.... yes... My basic reference is alternating... it's just I'm pretty relaxed and use stroke direction to help with articulations.

    I mean I can easily use strict alt for anything and not need to even think about it... I'm way past having to actually think how I want to pick anything.... I just play it how I want to hear it. And because I'm such a rhythmic player... the pick direction is just part of the articulation. I suck... but I've sucked for so long I can't help it.

    I organized all my playing skills so that I would need very little practice. I'm lazy... I love to play... but hate rehearsals, practicing.
    I think that’s the big thing. Obviously guys do it differently but I always feel it’s good to practice strict styles of picking and then apply them musically to the line. I mean Jimmy Raneys one of my favourite guys so I can’t say it’s wrong haha. Or Wes.

    In terms of getting shred fast, you are going to hit plateaus mechanically. Great alt pickers have worked out ways around them sometimes by chance - that’s what Tory Grady is obsessed with working out.

    But great alternate pickers in my experience are unusual and live in Nashville by and large. Most pickers lean into it, either dwps like Benson, Django, Tal, Reg etc or uwps like Peter Bernstein. Jazz ultimately is about the music not the chops, and the music helps I think....

  11. #35

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    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    By the way here is some classic Bruce Forman stuff when he was with Richie Cole.

    I think Bruce does one of those slidey licks at 2:26 here, it’s a bit blurry in the video though.

  12. #36

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    Great eyes Graham... Maybe... that style of lick , or technique in position is pretty typical... I just remembering back in the early 70's bumping into to Bruce at gigs, along with all the other local SF, and north bay scene players, anyway I liked his slide licks. As I said before Jazz was almost like entertainment back then... people enjoyed the music as well as the show. We were all still kids...with chops tryin to hang with the older players that already knew the language.

    Hey Christian... yea, chops are part of the tools. Back in the 70's I had some chops... The music is always first.... but the audiences change. And we do perform for the audience. The late 60's and 70's maybe 1st part of 80's were kind of cool, jazz performance being live etc... became kind of a thing, musicianship, technical skills became part of the entertainment... shows were fun. Now maybe it was the drugs or whatever, but audiences became part of the show... if you could bring them in. Unlike real jazz fan, younger audiences didn't know the tunes... sorry this is all BS. But I still gig as much as i can handle... and the skill thing still connects with audiences as long as the musicians do. ( obviously musically). Personally to many musicians are into the music and themselves to much... they don't connect with audiences while playing. (guitarist starring at fretboard while playing). It's all good.

  13. #37

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    If the musicians look like they are enjoying themselves, it tends to communicate itself to the audience, who are then more likely to be engaged. At least that’s what has struck me over the years, going to countless jazz gigs. Also helps if they bother to talk to the audience a bit.

    Some behave as if they’re at a funeral or something, it kills the atmosphere and makes the audience feel excluded.

  14. #38

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    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    If the musicians look like they are enjoying themselves, it tends to communicate itself to the audience, who are then more likely to be engaged. At least that’s what has struck me over the years, going to countless jazz gigs. Also helps if they bother to talk to the audience a bit.

    Some behave as if they’re at a funeral or something, it kills the atmosphere and makes the audience feel excluded.
    My dream is to quote Ronnie Scott on some gig, and get on the mic and tell the audience, "Let's all join hands and try to contact the living".