New masterclass video from Pasquale Grasso - single-note soloing

[David B]

The new video masterclass from Pasquale Grasso on soloing is now available from www.musicmasterclass.com I've been checking the MMC site daily in anticipation of these. Downloading my copies now!

https://www.mymusicmasterclass.com/p...itar-lesson-3/

Description: In part one (1 of 2) of this follow-up jazz guitar lesson series, virtuoso guitarist Pasquale Grasso shows you his approach to improvisation. Pasquale discusses and demonstrates exercises and concepts to help you create bebop lines through the changes. If you’re looking to get inside the exciting playing style of Pasquale Grasso, this guitar masterclass series is for you!* There is an an accompanying PDF for this series which includes the embedded notation from the videos. It is part of the bundle package above or it can be purchased separately here.

Topics Covered: Guitar, Jazz, Improvisation, Bebop Lines, Phrasing, Rhythm, Approach Notes, Arpeggios, Scale Tones, Chromaticism, Jazz Vocabulary, Exercises, Feel, Transcribing, Intervals, Patterns, Soloing, Etc.

https://www.mymusicmasterclass.com/premiumvideos/pasquale-grasso-jazz-guitar-lesson-4/

In part two (2 of 2) of this follow-up jazz guitar lesson series, virtuoso guitarist Pasquale Grasso shows you his approach to improvisation. Pasquale discusses and demonstrates exercises and concepts to help you solo creatively through the changes. If you’re looking to get inside the exciting playing style of Pasquale Grasso, this guitar masterclass series is for you!* There is an accompanying PDF for this series which includes the embedded notation from the videos. It is part of the bundle package above or it can be purchased separately here.

Topics Covered: Guitar, Jazz, Improvisation, Bebop Lines, Mixing Scales and Arpeggios, Chromaticism, Jazz Vocabulary, Phrases, Barris Harris Soloing Concepts, Approach Notes, Arpeggios, Inversions, Diminished, “Borrowing Notes”, Tension and Release, Voice Leading, Feel, Transcribing, Intervals, Soloing, Major and Minor Tonalities, 6th Diminished Scale, Etc.

[christianm77]

Splendid, take my money take all my money. Oh musicmasterclass.com you stole my gal, but I love you all the same.

[David B]

Just giving this one a bump up as MMC are now back online after being hacked last week.

[NSJ]

Well fuquety fuque fuque. This is a gold mine. An absolute gold mine. (Watching part 2 now )

[jasonc]

Well, there goes forty bucks....

[NSJ]

I Think that the exercise he designed where he alternates the four note arpeggios related to the sixth chord with four note arpeggios related to the associated diminished is really good --- not just starting from the root, but starting from each of the four notes that comprise each arpeggio and alternating with each iteration of the sixth and the diminished.

When he plays it at tempo, it makes an amazing line. Just to even get this under the fingers at tempo both ascending and descending really adds something nice.

[grekko]

What I find interesting is that he uses the major scale ( nat 7) over the C7 in the blues example.

[christianm77]

I usually play the I chord as having a major 7 as well. It's kind of more beboppy.... But if your default chord choice is a 6 not a major 7 as it is in the BH system, both are available...

[NSJ]

The borrowing from the other diminished and from the sixth chord and the sixth Chord borrowing from the diminished, that's already covered in Alan and Ronnie's books.

The borrowing from the other diminished simply means playing some sort of dominant seventh chord and then moving to a diminished note. Allen's book is pretty thorough on the subject of borrowing .

If you know the four shapes you need to make a drop 2 dominant seventh chord, it shouldn't be very difficult.

But damn, the guy sounds so damn good even playing exercises. I think he's blown passed Julian Lage as the baddest young jazz guitar mofo on the planet .

[christianm77]

The borrowing from the other diminished and from the sixth chord and the sixth Chord borrowing from the diminished, that's already covered in Alan and Ronnie's books.

The borrowing from the other diminished simply means playing some sort of dominant seventh chord and then moving to a diminished note. Allen's book is pretty thorough on the subject of borrowing .

If you know the four shapes you need to make a drop 2 dominant seventh chord, it shouldn't be very difficult.

But damn, the guy sounds so damn good even playing exercises. I think he's blown passed Julian Lage as the baddest young jazz guitar mofo on the planet .

I think it's silly to compare them. JL has relatively little bebop influence for instance...

But I would give it to JL - reason being while Grasso is essentially (ATM) a curator and exponent of old language and styles in a very classical way, Lage is doing his own thing IMO. He's much more adventurous to my ears.

In other words, Grasso sounds like Bud Powell/Barry Harris on guitar. Julian Lage sounds like Julian Lage.

Of course, who knows what Pasquale will be up to in 10 years time.

[NSJ]

I think it's silly to compare them. JL has relatively little bebop influence for instance...

But I would give it to JL - reason being while Grasso is essentially (ATM) a curator and exponent of old language and styles in a very classical way, Lage is doing his own thing IMO. He's much more adventurous to my ears.

In other words, Grasso sounds like Bud Powell/Barry Harris on guitar. Julian Lage sounds like Julian Lage.

Of course, who knows what Pasquale will be up to in 10 years time.

agreed. Absolutely Lage is far more adventurous . He's got that Jim Hall in him.

But the Bud Powell-Art Tatum of the guitar, wow, what a tall order that is . My main interest is to learn to play the guitar pianistically, and for that , Grasso is a breath of fresh air, notwithstanding his old school bebop way of doing things.

Jimmy Rainey once said he didn't want to do anything special except play Charlie Parker on the guitar. That "nothing special" guy is stillpretty damn special in my book.

[grekko]

I usually play the I chord as having a major 7 as well. It's kind of more beboppy.... But if your default chord choice is a 6 not a major 7 as it is in the BH system, both are available...

So harmonising a blues with chords derived from 6 diminished scale will let me employ both 7 and b7?

[christianm77]

So harmonising a blues with chords derived from 6 diminished scale will let me employ both 7 and b7?

No. This is nothing to do with that.

[christianm77]

agreed. Absolutely Lage is far more adventurous . He's got that Jim Hall in him.

But the Bud Powell-Art Tatum of the guitar, wow, what a tall order that is . My main interest is to learn to play the guitar pianistically, and for that , Grasso is a breath of fresh air, notwithstanding his old school bebop way of doing things.

Jimmy Rainey once said he didn't want to do anything special except play Charlie Parker on the guitar. That "nothing special" guy is stillpretty damn special in my book.

Well yes, it's super impressive. I need to play Grasso to some pianists, see what they think. As a guitar player, it's hard to get past the sheer fuckoffery of Grasso's playing :-)

But I am haunted by what Van Ep's wife said (according to legend): 'honey they've invented the piano.'

If someone hires a guitar player instead of a pianist they want guitar. They want the guitar to do guitar things like strum and play lovely arpeggiated chords and harmonics and bends and things. Moreno makes this point in his video and it reminds of how Julian Lage, Peter Bernstein and Jim Hall all play... They play the guitar!

But that's not to dismiss people who have learned from instruments. We all do. Finding a way to do that sounds fresh might involve other attempting to copy other instruments and changing it... I'm thinking specifically of Travis picking here, which was meant to imitate stride piano. What could be more guitaristic than Travis picking?

Charlie Christian kicked off the electric revolution by trying to imitate Lester. He doesn't sound like a sax player really though, to me.

Many advances in art have been made by trying to do something and getting it wide of the mark. I wonder if in the end these artists shrug their shoulders and just say 'ah well'? And others like Grasso, absolutely nail it. In fact I can't recall a musician playing another instrument's sound as well as Paquale when he's comping. It's extraordinary, he sounds like an upright piano.

(It used to be Tal Farlow for me, who sounds exactly like a snare drum when he plays rhythm - sometimes bongos....)

So it's not simple... Sometimes I want to play like a guitar, sometimes like sax, sometimes like piano, but mostly like drums and voice, which are the best instruments :-)

[NSJ]

Well yes, it's super impressive. I need to play Grasso to some pianists, see what they think. As a guitar player, it's hard to get past the sheer fuckoffery of Grasso's playing :-)

But I am haunted by what Van Ep's wife said (according to legend): 'honey they've invented the piano.'

If someone hires a guitar player instead of a pianist they want guitar. They want the guitar to do guitar things like strum and play lovely arpeggiated chords and harmonics and bends and things. Moreno makes this point in his video and it reminds of how Julian Lage, Peter Bernstein and Jim Hall all play... They play the guitar!

But that's not to dismiss people who have learned from instruments. We all do. Finding a way to do that sounds fresh might involve other attempting to copy other instruments and changing it... I'm thinking specifically of Travis picking here, which was meant to imitate stride piano. What could be more guitaristic than Travis picking?

Charlie Christian kicked off the electric revolution by trying to imitate Lester. He doesn't sound like a sax player really though, to me.

Many advances in art have been made by trying to do something and getting it wide of the mark. I wonder if in the end these artists shrug their shoulders and just say 'ah well'? And others like Grasso, absolutely nail it. In fact I can't recall a musician playing another instrument's sound as well as Paquale when he's comping. It's extraordinary, he sounds like an upright piano.

(It used to be Tal Farlow for me, who sounds exactly like a snare drum when he plays rhythm - sometimes bongos....)

So it's not simple... Sometimes I want to play like a guitar, sometimes like sax, sometimes like piano, but mostly like drums and voice, which are the best instruments :-)

Agree. I took a few lessons from this great trombone player who played with Chet Baker and is colleagues with Abercrombie, and his point time and time again was: the best soloists play like a drummer, with pitches added. And then my own guitar teacher who said, if you play like you sing, you can never go wrong. Lyricism, expression, feel and groove. That's about 90% right there. The voicings, cadences, scales, arpeggios, all these have to be made pro forma, second nature, internalized. That's a lot of work of course, and i'm certainly not there yet; the real magic happens after this work is done. With the rhythm and feel and lyricism and expression .

Ultimately, I already know most of the exercises in this video. The enclosure stuff, adding a halfstep, chromatic targeting of triads and seventh chords, etc.

What I really dig about it is his ability to really link the triplets with the eighth note lines even within the framework of an exercise and make it sound so musical. It's the rhythmic component that creates the magic.

[christianm77]

Agree. I took a few lessons from this great trombone player who played with Chet Baker and is colleagues with Abercrombie, and his point time and time again was: the best soloists play like a drummer, with pitches added. And then my own guitar teacher who said, if you play like you sing, you can never go wrong. Lyricism, expression, feel and groove. That's about 90% right there. The voicings, cadences, scales, arpeggios, all these have to be made pro forma, second nature, internalized. That's a lot of work of course, and i'm certainly not there yet; the real magic happens after this work is done. With the rhythm and feel and lyricism and expression .

Ultimately, I already know most of the exercises in this video. The enclosure stuff, adding a halfstep, chromatic targeting of triads and seventh chords, etc.

What I really dig about it is his ability to really link the triplets with the eighth note lines even within the framework of an exercise and make it sound so musical. It's the rhythmic component that creates the magic.

He is fantastic at making everything into music. I think that might in part be his classical background - you are really encouraged to make even the most basic technical exercise musical. It's definitely a thing to focus on in one's own playing I think...

The triplets thing is a huge area in itself. One of the most overlooked elements of the bebop language. And hard to do on guitar, don't you think?

[eh6794]

I got them too. Watching the intro, he reminds me of Joe Pass, if Joe had a better right hand. Grasso gets that cool tone.

[Groyniad]

the triplet thing is a big one for me - and i think of it as connected to triads

part of what they're good for is to cut down the range of possible fingerings - because if you put the notes of a triplet on adjacent strings you can sweep them and get them to feel good - and arranging them all that way provides an organizing principle for fingerings.

one of the deep patterns of the music - i think - is: ascending triplet figures / descending step-wise figures

you open up the sound with the triads (lots of triplets) - and fill it in with the steps

i get harmonic clostrophobia without the triads

[NSJ]

The triplet exercise involving triads were you invert them so the bottom voice becomes the top and where he mixes the major or minor triads with the diminish triads is fantastic and so simple but ridiculously effective . I feel like an idiot for not thinking about this before.

CEG-----DFAb---EGC---FAbD--GCE--AbDF. (Repeats octave above )

It's easier and faster for me to shift positions and play the triads on 2 strings instead of three separate strings.

[fasstrack]

Just left him. Listened to and sat in with his group. I know him since he and his brother Luigi got here (NYC) in '09. Nice person, great guitar player...

[christianm77]

Luigi is also a great musician....

[dortmundjazzguitar]

i have to admit that his playing leaves me absolutely cold. to me it's the total opposite of bud powell's playing, who poured his heart out on every gig.

[Jonah]

i have to admit that his playing leaves me absolutely cold. to me it's the total opposite of bud powell's playing, who poured his heart out on every gig.

same thing here... I keep coming back to him from time to time to check it over...
great technique and virtuosity...

but musically...

[christianm77]

i have to admit that his playing leaves me absolutely cold. to me it's the total opposite of bud powell's playing, who poured his heart out on every gig.

Well that's hardly fair.

Bebop was absolutely the most modern music in the 1950's played by people on the edges of society who lived every note. Now bebop is a form of classical music played by conservatoire graduates.

That said, I daresay you are going to post some videos of current players who have both :-)

[Jonah]

Bebop was absolutely the most modern music in the 1950's played by people on the edges of society who lived every note. Now bebop is a form of classical music played by conservatoire graduates.

two points from me:

1) I would not take this educational issue in consideration... as a result it is music what we have... I do not care who studied what and where... I just listen to music.. if it works it work.. if not... sorry.
The point you made makes sense of course but just as kind of cultural analyzis, it can explain but cannot justify lack of liveliness

2) To me one of the basic concept of jazz music that ... paradoxally maybe... it has no musical limitations. I believe it's part of its aesthetics. Part of its ideology.
When they played swing in 30s, or bop in 40s - they had no limitations... the language was live, just speak if you have something to say and know how to express it.

Today you have to study the system of stylistic limitations to sound authentic playing these old styles.

It reminds baroque historical practice... with only one difference. Classical traditions were originally complex systems of limitations, that were professionally taught and learnt. Liberty was there just a part of general vocabulary, it was not the basis.
So there's kind of aesthetical argument why you can study them academically to re-create them.

PS
I do not say one should not play manouche or swing in old style today... of course studying this can teach us a lot.
But my idea is still that it is strange to study be-bop in academic way... I can understand when you just here some old player play it and want just play this way and just pick it up and go after it... you communicate with him... you speak musically with him.. it leaves a good chance to go through it to your ow way..

But when you go to school and learn somestructured academic method to play stuff like Parker... it kills the whole idea of it to me.