Clint Strong Instructional Video

[starjasmine]

Thanks for posting all the video. I actually CLAPPED after Clint's solo in the Marchel Ivery video, sitting here alone in front of the computer :-)

I've loved Clint's playing ever since I heard him on "Marchel Ivery Meets Joey DeFrancseco". Stupendous. I'm gonna have to get that out again after checking out all these vids you guys have posted.

[sgcim]

Here's Clint with Rory Hoffman:

[starjasmine]

Wow... I happened to stumble across a youtube posting of part of the same instructional video (at higher resolution btw) and one of the replies is a free download of a transcription of a couple of minutes of Clint's playing on I'll Remember April in tab and standard notation. Insane! Thanks Wayne!

Video:

Update: The song is at 2:45 into the video; unfortunately, I can't get the jazzguitar.be site to use the video url that starts at the solo, so you'll just have to scrub to it.

Transcription at Guitar Landscape-Workbook 1 and Downloads. Update: I read the standard notation while listening to the video and it passed that test. I'll update this post again after I try playing through it. The transcription does not cover the entire tune, but very useful nonetheless. The transcription begine with Clint's intro and the head. His solo starts at about 3:42, which is two bars before letter B in the transcription. The transcription stops at about 4:26 (about four bars into the next chorus that begins at letter C) and the remaining pages are excerpted licks rather than the rest of the solo and the chorus out. Given the amount of work it must have taken to transcribe this two minutes of blazing-fast guitar work, I can't complain!

I hear both lick playing (including at least some of the licks Clint demonstrates in the instructional portion) and motific development in this solo, not to mention a heapin' helpin' of all the well-loved clichés that are often part of this tune. And I do not mean anything negative by "cliché" - these ideas become cliché because so many people like them, use them, and imitate them.

Enjoy!

[sgcim]

Wow... I happened to stumble across a youtube posting of part of the same instructional video (at higher resolution btw) and one of the replies is a free download of a 13-page transcription of Clint's solo on I'll Remember April in tab and standard notation. Insane! Thanks Wayne!

Video:

The solo is at 2:45 into the video; unfortunately, I can't get the jazzguitar.be site to use the video url that starts at the solo, so you'll just have to scrub to it.

Transcription at Guitar Landscape-Workbook 1 and Downloads. I haven't yet read through it for accuracy.

I hear both lick playing (including at least some of the licks Clint demonstrates in the instructional portion) and motific development in this solo, not to mention a heapin' helpin' of all the well-loved clichés that are often part of this tune. And I do not mean anything negative by "cliché" - these ideas become cliché because so many people like them, use them, and imitate th

Enjoy!

Thanks for the link, but the transcription is only him playing the melody, and then only one full chorus, not the full solo.
After that, he isolates major, minor and ii V licks from the one chorus that he transcribed, so I just copied pages 4-6 rather than the full 13 pages.

[starjasmine]

Thanks for the link, but the transcription is only him playing the melody, and then only one full chorus, not the full solo.
After that, he isolates major, minor and ii V licks from the one chorus that he transcribed, so I just copied pages 4-6 rather than the full 13 pages.

Yeah, I just looked at this myself and can confirm your observation. I updated my post accordingly. As my update states, transcribing even this much had to be a tremendous amount of work. I sent mail to Wayne at Guitar-GPS to ask whether more of the transcription is available.

[starjasmine]

I hear a lot of Django Reinhardt in the "After You've Gone" with F Powers solo.

[MarkRhodes]

That's a Parker Fly Deluxe - it is a SWEET guitar but not your Dad's jazz box! IMO the first TRULY innovative design in electric guitars since the 50s.

Didn't Pat Martino used to play a Parker Fly? I seem to recall seeing pictures of him with one in guitar mags.

[starjasmine]

Didn't Pat Martino used to play a Parker Fly? I seem to recall seeing pictures of him with one in guitar mags.

I wasn't aware of that, but you are right. Thanks for educating me!

My friend Google turned me on to these links:

• Parker Guitars forum in which Pat himself confirms that he played a Fly for a while.
• A post right here on jazzguitar.be that includes a vid of Pat playing his Fly

[kris]

Picking of Clint Strong is similar to gypsy picking...I think.
He do not touch fingerrest of the guitar any finger of right hand.Very relaxing.

[sgcim]

Picking of Clint Strong is similar to gypsy picking...I think.
He do not touch fingerrest of the guitar any finger of right hand.Very relaxing.

I don't think he uses the gypsy picking technique, which is what I like so much about his playing.
He uses strict alternate picking in everything except slurs and probably arps.

[starjasmine]

An organ combo in New Orleans used to play this tune a lot.

Clint's right hand technique stellar but it sure looks odd to me. It's as if he rests the wrist itself (not the edge of the palm) on the guitar above the strings.
(It may not be touching at all, but at times it looks like it is. Or am I seeing things? Wouldn't be the first time.)

I think you are right, @MarkRhodes. Although quality is a little grainy, the Rory Hoffman vid shows a pretty good view of Clint's picking technique, and it looks like what you describe. (I base this observation on the soloing in Rainy Day, starting about 32 mins in.) Also, in the REH video, towards the end, he talks about having replaced one of his pickup covers because he had worn a hole through (the corner of?) it. Seems to bolster your observation.

I have been spending a lot of time with the REH video over the past couple weeks :-) and I noticed a few things:

• in that video, he does seem to play a lot of the same licks or vocabulary in different contexts. If you actually start learning the licks, you'll start to notice certain ideas that pop up repeatedly.
• his playing in any video is a snapshot of what he was doing at that time, maybe even only on that particular day. This is true of any player, I'm sure. For example, I didn't hear a lot of the licks from the REH video showing up in other videos.
• If you look carefully at the angle of his hand, it sure seems unusual, compared to what you would need to do if you were resting your palm on the bridge or doing some of what I've picked up from Troy Grady's cool videos. I am gonna have to try out the Clint wrist-rest position to see how well that works.

Question: does Clint play flats? Seems like I never hear a pick scrape on the low strings, and the tone in the Ode To Billy Joe (at least I think that's the title) seems really, um, UN-bright, to say the least. Like not just flats but OLD ones :-)'

Somewhat off topic: his fingerings in the REH video sure make no sense at times. He himself admits that his tendency to play a chromatic line on a single string as a way to change position is "weird." And I agree! I'm learning to play these licks using those fingerings, just so that when I don't do that it's by choice rather than because I didn't learn it his way.

[MarkRhodes]

I have been spending a lot of time with the REH video over the past couple weeks :-) and I noticed a few things:

• in that video, he does seem to play a lot of the same licks or vocabulary in different contexts. If you actually start learning the licks, you'll start to notice certain ideas that pop up repeatedly

I think you're right. I think that's true of a lot of players. Part of style is taking a characteristic approach to things. I think some beginners fail because they always want to "reinvent the wheel", while pros, the greats, do a lot of the same things over and over. (Charlie Parker also used a lot of the same ideas / phrases over and over and over.)

[cgptony]

I’m from Fort Worth Texas
same as Clint
I’m a couple of years older than Clint
I use to see Clint often when he was a teenager
(he was phenom even then)
Later I would go to some of his gigs when possible
I even took a few lessons from him
Believe me Clint is a phenomenal all around player
He has perfect pitch and plays the piano as well
I asked him to teach me some Wes Montgomery and some insight into dissonant chord melody
Clint can pull it all out of thin air
The Wes he could playback verbatim flawlessly
All other bad ass guitar players I asked about Dissonant chord melody didn’t know what I was talking about
Clint knew exactly what I was talking about and promptly gave me some amazing examples
Funny thing is
I’ve heard several players criticize Clint
But I bet you they can’t do what he does

[sgcim]

I’m from Fort Worth Texas
same as Clint
I’m a couple of years older than Clint
I use to see Clint often when he was a teenager
(he was phenom even then)
Later I would go to some of his gigs when possible
I even took a few lessons from him
Believe me Clint is a phenomenal all around player
He has perfect pitch and plays the piano as well
I asked him to teach me some Wes Montgomery and some insight into dissonant chord melody
Clint can pull it all out of thin air
The Wes he could playback verbatim flawlessly
All other bad ass guitar players I asked about Dissonant chord melody didn’t know what I was talking about
Clint knew exactly what I was talking about and promptly gave me some amazing examples
Funny thing is
I’ve heard several players criticize Clint
But I bet you they can’t do what he does

I love Clint's playing!
Since you studied with him, could you tell us about his right hand picking approach?
Does he use strict alternate picking (Down-Up-Down-Up), or does he use "Economy Picking", where he uses consecutive down-strokes if he goes to the next higher (in pitch) string, and consecutive Down-Strokes if he goes to the next lower (in pitch) string?

Does he control the picking motion with his fingers, wrist or forearm?

What types of picking exercises did he give you?

Thanks!

[sgcim]

Picking of Clint Strong is similar to gypsy picking...I think.
He do not touch fingerrest of the guitar any finger of right hand.Very relaxing.

In the instruction video he said that he uses alternate picking.