The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #251

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    It is a great book, but I'm still struggling to ingrain the shapes and ideas into my playing - hence I keep coming back to the early chapters, rather than progressing with the group.

    One thing I found is that the shapes did indeed provide an easy structure to finding the interesting colour notes for any given chord, but then the shapes themselves were (are) causing my playing to sound a certain way. And it's not a sound I particular like - I'm a fan of early swing and the lines I've been coming up with based on the early chapters are anything but this.

    However, I recently came across the video below, and Evan Christopher is talking about exactly what we're talking about here, but he's talking about how Louis Armstrong / Johnny Dodds used precisely this stuff (for instance playing Am lines over a D7 to get the interesting notes) so I know it can be done...

    My ears aren't good enough or quick enough to pick the precise moments out of what Evan Christopher plays, but at least with a bit of transcription work it might open a different door:

    Talking Jazz with Evan Christopher and Yaakov Hoter – Part 2. Melody, Chords and Colors - Gypsyandjazz

    Regards
    Derek

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #252

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    Hey Derek, my playing is all about swing and trad Jazz too, of course that some influence from Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Grant Green, Wes are inevitable because I hear them a lot, but I try to keep my lines more swing oriented.

    I think that something that could help you is transcribe some Charlie Christian solos or just get some solos that are already there transcribed and analyze them. He uses a lot of triads to give different colors to the solos and this is what I'm really expecting from this book, to be able to use triads in a way that Charlie, Wes and Grant used them. (without the genius part, of course.. )
    Rose Room is a great start.
    Last edited by clebergf; 06-04-2020 at 10:00 AM.

  4. #253

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    Hello there friends!!

    Well, after two hours (one yesterday and one today) studying the book I decided to record an attempt to improvise on Elle.
    I have no idea how to solo over Bossa, I'm from Brazil but I think this is the first time that I tried to improvise over a Bossa, sorry. hahahaha



    I'm really enjoying it, the concept to combine triads. I think this will increase a lot my playing.

    Fell free for any feedback.

  5. #254

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    Hello there!!
    I did this chart to help me visualize all the triads for all the keys and maybe it can be useful for someone.

    Fewell's Melodic Approach - Ch. 1-2-triads-jpg

  6. #255

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    As mentioned above, I've gone right back to the beginning on this book.

    I found I simply hadn't internalised these shapes and triads well enough that when I was away from this book - for example, practicing a tune - none of this stuff was appearing in my playing.

    This exercise, and the work I'm currently doing, precedes even Ex. 2.1. I've simply taking the initial set of shapes (page 12) with their root on the sixth string (so this is only half of the job!) and I'm really trying to ingrain them. I'm doing this by playing them over some Jamey Aebersold tracks, each in just one key. Some of the tracks swing, some are in three four, others are more Latin.

    I'm trying to find the relationships between the shapes, where chromatics fit nicely, where one shape joins another and so on. It's a long job, and I think I'll be here a while, but I'm the slowest learner I know, and, in general it takes me years to get through a book.

    My playing here isn't that good. There are few nice lines, the timing and touch is often off and I'm still trying to get my right hand sorted. But this is really just by way of saying I'm still here! :-)

    Derek


  7. #256

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    Nice, Derek!

    You're pretty well doing a funkier version of my daily warm up along to a backing track. I start each practice spending a few minutes just freely improvising up and down the fretboard and through the shapes, and I think it really pays off over time.

    Glad to see you still at it, and of course there's no hurry.

  8. #257

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    Looks and sounds like time well spent, Derek.

  9. #258

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    So today's key was A minor. That staple of thousands of hours of mindless and random playing up and down the blues scale. And it suddenly struck me, that these notes I'm playing from GF's triads are exactly the same notes as in the minor pentatonic with an added 9th, which I tend to add anyway.

    So I've sort of done a U-turn.

    I was thinking that what GF was having us do was learn certain groups of notes that would lead us to these nice extensions. But I didn't think he wanted to only stick to his given shapes. The reason being, in his very first exercise, in bar 9, he uses an F triad that isn't specifically show in the preceding, and very first, diagram. I simply took this as an indication that we should take the idea of the triads, and learn them not just where GF has shown us, but all over the neck.

    So this is what I've been doing.

    And yet, in doing this, I've led myself right back to the various minor pentatonic shapes that I already know from years of playing rock and blues.

    So now I'm thinking it is the shapes that are important, rather than the notes. That limiting ourselves to GF's shapes will get us playing these extensions more than we would if we stuck to our old minor pentatonic shapes with the added notes.

    All good, anyway.

    Derek

  10. #259

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    Shapes provide the link from the sound in your head to the sound on the guitar. They can also lead your playing but that can easily lead to predictable lines... then again shapes allow you to keep playing which perhaps is the most important of all -motivation
    Last edited by Eck; 07-29-2020 at 10:47 PM.

  11. #260

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    Hi everyone, glad to see this topic , it is very helpful for new beginners to the book. i have a confusion on ex. 2.1 how to connect fingering sets in the middle? So i can go up and down two sets along the fretboard. Thanks.

  12. #261

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    Hello, I just purchased Jazz Improvisation for Guitar: A Melodic Approach that was supposed to come with a CD but quess what, no CD no online access code was included. Seems to be a common problem with this book. Would anyone please provide links to the audio? Thank you, very much.