Introduction to Jazz Guitar Soloing Chapter 13, 14 & 15

**Dana** · 01-02-2013, 08:43 PM

Video and pdf corrected. Thanks to Frank/fep for pointing that out. Keep cookin' everyone!

**fep** · 01-03-2013, 07:14 PM

I played each lick twice except the last one I played four times at different places on the neck. Backing track attached, pdf attached.

**fep** · 01-03-2013, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by Helgo

Hej Frank.

Thanks very much for the response.

I am sitting here practicing and wondering about where I want to go musically and what goals I want to aim for in 2013... your response helps me putting things in perspective!

Until then, thanks again and all the best for you in 2013, too!

Cheers,
Helgo

Hi Helgo,

I think it is a good goal to be able to play licks in various positions and like Frank I hope to get there at some point. Some will work and some won't. The ones that won't are the ones with a large range like my 6th lick in the above post, that one might be good in two positions. The last one with it's limited range is a good candidate for all over the neck.

I'm not going to worry too much about it at this point as I think progressing through the book is more important. Ideally I'd like to take a few passes through the book and take on additional items like this on the subsequent passes.

**Helgo** · 01-03-2013, 09:09 PM

Thanks, Frank, for your answer. I see your point.

I am a very impatient person when it comes to my guitar playing. I have been getting in my own way
with that time and time again in the past... Chances are, I´ll do so in the future

Your response helps me in trying to steady my pace.

All the best,
H.

**Dana** · 01-03-2013, 10:31 PM

Nice licks and video Frank, sounds great.

**onetruevibe** · 01-04-2013, 03:10 PM

Hello all,

Whoa - it's been a long time since I've posted on this thread. Glad to see you guys are still sticking with it and that others continue to jump on. We've said it all along, this study is a life-long fling.

Update from me:

I've been pretty busy with some fun projects. A couple local groups needed some help on guitars, so I've been having fun with that. Mostly blues and folk. As for the shed, I took the last three months to chase after the elusive Drop 2 Chords. I've been neglecting that important topic for way too long. So...working on standard tunes using Drop 2 Chords has been good fun. Signing up for Matt Warnock's newsletter has also been a great blessing. So many balloons to chase.

Maj Pattern I and Min Pattern 2 are still a part of my daily practice routine. I've been working mostly on application. Being only a year into the Jazz journey, these two patterns alone have given so much more depth to my playing.

Now, I'm going to review all of the posts I've missed and see about moving forward with the book.
Stay tuned!

**Liarspoker** · 01-05-2013, 06:34 PM

Originally Posted by onetruevibe

Hello all,

Whoa - it's been a long time since I've posted on this thread. Glad to see you guys are still sticking with it and that others continue to jump on. We've said it all along, this study is a life-long fling.

Update from me:

I've been pretty busy with some fun projects. A couple local groups needed some help on guitars, so I've been having fun with that. Mostly blues and folk. As for the shed, I took the last three months to chase after the elusive Drop 2 Chords. I've been neglecting that important topic for way too long. So...working on standard tunes using Drop 2 Chords has been good fun. Signing up for Matt Warnock's newsletter has also been a great blessing. So many balloons to chase.

Maj Pattern I and Min Pattern 2 are still a part of my daily practice routine. I've been working mostly on application. Being only a year into the Jazz journey, these two patterns alone have given so much more depth to my playing.

Now, I'm going to review all of the posts I've missed and see about moving forward with the book.
Stay tuned!

Great. I'll be starting Chapter 6 ( page 19: pattern 3 major & pattern 4 minor ) later on next week as I want to work with the minor situations a little more.

See you on the appropriate thread.

**Frank67** · 01-10-2013, 08:00 AM

Dear friends,

just before traveling starts again I had a little time to do a quick blue bossa take using the major and minor licks that were practiced before. Roughly speaking, there is one chorus for each of the five positions. Don't expect it to be nearly as smooth a groovy as Steve's version was. It nevertheless was good practice and inserting the licks came easier than before. It still feels a bit awkward and there were quite a few missed notes and places with inconsistent/awkward timing - I hope you don't mind. It was fun to do and I think I caught a glimpse of where it might eventually go.

Enjoy practicing everybody!
Cheers,
Frank

**stevebellinger** · 01-10-2013, 09:31 PM

Hi Frank,

great job, and we can all hear in places, that "Jazz sound" something I need to work on. The hard work

you are putting in to this is starting to pay off. Bet the wife likes it!

stay safe on your travels, and keep the posts coming.

Steve

**Frank67** · 01-13-2013, 12:48 AM

Many thanks AlsoRan! Greatly appreciated!

I hope that many others will post too in these threads. It really is a lot of fun.

Enjoy practice time!
cheers,
Frank

**fep** · 01-14-2013, 09:22 PM

Frank,

Good jobs, the licks sound good and your are putting it all together with your improvisation. Keep up the good work.

Now, I need to get to work.

Cheers

**Frank67** · 01-15-2013, 12:25 AM

Thanks Frank - Much appreciated!

My own perception is that there were places that worked - but it still wasn't quite smooth enough and timing was awkward in a couple of places. It was however, encouraging enough to keep trying :-).

It is on my agenda to do a few more tunes to gain more confidence before moving on with the book.

Enjoy practicing everbody and keep posting your videos!
This is fun!
cheers,
Frank

**fep** · 01-15-2013, 10:50 PM

For the last couple of weeks...

I'll sit down planning on trying to do the lick inserting exercise, I'll warm up a bit and... out comes new licks.

So I open up the notation software and write them down. I just counted, I have 71 of them

Not what the book calls for but I can't seem to help it. The author in that email he sent me did say:

Licks are a way to inject new, clear and precise harmonic ideas into your playing without allowing you to slip back into your normal habits which may be passable. I don't think I use the term "finger path" in the book but I always have in the classes. The licks teach you the finger paths and help you work out smooth segues from chord to chord.

I think these exercises have opened up these new finger paths and as a result these new licks just keep appearing. It's got me derailed a bit.

**Frank67** · 01-16-2013, 01:05 AM

Hi Frank,

Thanks for that interesting post!

I think I know what you are meaning. It happened to me too to some extent during those practice sessions where I focused on new licks - and it kept getting easier to come up with new ones or variations of old ones. I haven't focused on situation four yet and so far there are about fifty or sixty licks. Now, do you keep all of your licks "alive" by practicing them regularly? I certainly noticed that I keep forgetting them and have to remind myself.

That Elliot quote that you were giving in your post certainly resonated with me. During composing one might be really thinking "mmh, I could do this arpeggio and then that scale and connect them chromatically" or whatever and after some trials it kind of works. I guess that is what he means by "concise harmonic ideas" - it is something well defined that is not just the next note that hangs around in the region of the fretboard that one presently play at but is something that has a tangible harmonic content relative to the parent key and chord. It would perhaps be too much to do all this thinking on the fly (certainly for me), hence we put it in licks and our fingers get used to it and we don't do all that elaborate thinking while we play. Over time one gets very used to certain sounds over certain chords. Perhaps it will happen over time that the mind and fingers are so used to the sounds that passable licks appear without thinking and planning? At that point one would have gone from "vocabulary" to real improvisation. Well, if it turns out this way I'd be really happy and would consider it real progress. But before there is lOts and lots of work to be done ....

Enjoy practicing everybody!
cheers from sunny Israel,
Frank

**fep** · 01-18-2013, 02:04 AM

I used Blue Bossa also:

**Frank67** · 01-18-2013, 02:52 AM

Hi Frank,

Nice - thanks for posting! It has ak nice relaxed feel to it that I really dig. To my ears, your licks flow very nicely with the music. I also find it quite interesting to listen to the different takes side by side given that we all had the same song and same practice assignment. So hopefully we all continue to develop personal styles as we keep working through the book.

I also hope that a few more "blue bossa's" will come in!

Cheers from Israel,
Frank

**fep** · 01-18-2013, 09:15 PM

Hi Frank,

Thanks for listening.

This is a good exercise that I'll do over and over with other tunes. I think this is pretty much the way I (we?) should be improvising at this point.

I've got a lot more licks I need to get into play. And, there were a couple of lines that came out in that recording that I want to write down in my lick 'diary'.

Cheers,

Frank

**Dana** · 01-18-2013, 09:33 PM

Nice job guys, sounds great!

**stevebellinger** · 01-18-2013, 09:52 PM

Hi Frank,

Great job, smooth sound, putting all together really well. I'm Working on tune up at the moment, but boy, the tempo

is a bit fast! my next tune is definitely going to be a Ballad!

keep up the great work

Steve

**Frank67** · 01-19-2013, 12:29 AM

Originally Posted by stevebellinger

Great job, smooth sound, putting all together really well. I'm Working on tune up at the moment, but boy, the tempo
is a bit fast! my next tune is definitely going to be a Ballad!

Hi Steve,

I am not sure that the original is all that fast. It is probably just that people who played the song found that it sounds really boring at slower tempos :-) ... I found from your previous videos you're really good at playing fast tempos - I'm sure you'll sound great! (btw, how fast was your blue bossa?)

There is another thread here where Will Kriski was so nice to compile a number of recordings (Jazz Standards ? Blue Bossa | Will Kriski Guitar). I must confess that I had a hard time with the Pat Martino version of the tune.

Enjoy practicing everybody!
Cheers,
Frank

**stevebellinger** · 01-19-2013, 12:44 AM

Hi Frank,

My Blue Bossa was 180bpm, My Tune Up will be 200bpm, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. Oops, just had a look

at my Tune Up and its 220bpm not 200

Steve

**fep** · 01-19-2013, 10:26 AM

Hi Steve and Dana,

Thanks for listening to my vid and thanks for the encouragement.

Steve, your Blue Bossa at 180bpm, that was great. Your timing was right on and had a lot of energy.

Do you use BIAB? To get tune up to 220bpm (wow that's fast), you could practice by stepping the tempo up the ladder with BIAB. That's what I'd do (but, I know I'd crash and burn way before I got to 220bpm).

That's an ambitious goal, can't wait to hear it.

Cheers

**stevebellinger** · 01-19-2013, 10:01 PM

Hi Frank,

I'm crashing at about 1&2....... of the first bar!!!! 220 is far to fast for me too. I have been listening to Wes

Montgomery's Tune Up, which I like trying to transcribe his solo, about half way through, and Miles Davis which i think

may be a little faster than 220bpm. Will have a look at Franks recommendation,Will Kriski and find a couple of slower

tempos for tune up,to get a different feel for the song.

For me, note choice is far more important than speed, and i hit far to many wrong notes at the moment.

I do use blab for bass drums and piano, then move it to logic for practice.

Keep up the great work and enjoy our journeys

Steve

**Frank67** · 01-20-2013, 03:09 AM

Originally Posted by stevebellinger

Hi Frank,

I'm crashing at about 1&2....... of the first bar!!!! 220 is far to fast for me too. I have been listening to Wes

Montgomery's Tune Up, which I like trying to transcribe his solo, about half way through, and Miles Davis which i think

may be a little faster than 220bpm.

Dear Friends,

I am currently travelling through Israel and had a little time this morning. I couldn't resist trying "Tune Up" at 220 bpm (didn't even know that the metronome goes that far up :-)). Unfortunately I did not even have a pick with me so I tried fingerstyle. Sure enough I lost it more or less right away. So here are a few bars of my little pathetic attempt for you to laugh at and then enjoy Steve's certainly nice and groovy version. There is nothing coordinated about the improvisation (no licks, no nothing).

Keep up the good practice everybody,
Cheers,
Frank

**Frank67** · 02-09-2013, 10:40 AM

Dear friends,

one more practice piece - it is a ballad called "The nearness of you". It has a somewhat interesting chord sequence with plenty of short major and minor situation 2/4s. Interestingly, they are not really 2-5-1's as the tune is in the key of F-major but the common situations would be in Bb-major or G-minor. It also contains a number of diminished chords.

As always there are plenty of rough spots and timing issues in the recording but I thought I share it anyways. It is a fun piece to practice.