[jazz_guitar] Warren Nunes
rguitarjj
If you have never heard Warren, this is worth the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25RGIv4I9yM
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sgcim2001
--- In jazz_...@yahoogroups.com, "rguitarjj" <rpjazzguitar@...> wrote:
>
> If you have never heard Warren, this is worth the time.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25RGIv4I9yM
>
Fantastic!!! I know you've said he alternate picks and slurs, but doesn't he use economy picking on the arps?
Do you think the fact that he held the pick betwixt his thumb and middle finger had anything to do with his speed and great technique?
If not, what was his "secret"?
Some kids I used to teach had his books, so I used them, but they were beginners books if I remember correctly.
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rguitarjj
He did not use economy picking. He used alternate picking, with a couple of exceptions. He used pull-offs on descending lines. He refingered things with his left hand to accommodate troublesome picking. I think he used slurs (sliding into a note) occasionally. I don't know if he might have used consective downstrokes when moving from one string to the next higher one, but I doubt it.
He was very clever with the fingerings, sometimes using large shifts of fret position to avoid things like picking 3 strings (thin to thick) in a row. I recall one lick he played where he hit the G at the third fret E string (that might have been a pull-off from the note before) and then the E on the 9th fret G String. Then the C on the 5th fret third string. Why? To avoid playing G E C on three consecutive strings. He could do this at any speed and it sounded totally smooth.
Another one of his techniques involved some odd fingerings. Forgive me, this is going to be a little thick.
He had a lick starting E string 10th fret. D C B A G# F E D. (A harmonic minor, starting on D and descending). He'd start with the second finger. Then, in order, fingers: 1, 4 (on the second string for the B), 2, 1 (he'd pull off to the G#). He'd play the F on the third string, fourth finger and then continue the line.
Why? The pull-off allowed him to reposition the pick. Try it. Once you get past the use of fingers 1 and 4 on consecutive frets, the lick is easy to play at any speed. The more obvious way would require a downstroke on the B string followed by an upstroke on the G string -- I think that's what Warren was avoiding.
He did not hold the pick with his middle finger as far as I can recall. I think I would have remembered that. What he did do, was he shaped his own picks from tortoise shell blanks. I don't know where he got the blanks. They were big rounded triangles. He'd heat them with a lighter, bend them to fit the pad of his thumb and burned one of the edges. The burned edge helped him hold the pick I think. He didn't pick with that edge. He rubbed them in the carpet to polish them. Apparently carpet backing worked.
The part he picked with was a very shallow curve, maybe the side of the original triangle (I'm not sure about which edge it was). The shallow curve went between the strings. He never mentioned it, but I have wondered if this reduced the distance he needed to move the pick to go to the next lower pitched string.
His secret, if he had one, was that he adjusted left hand fingering to accommodate the needs of the pick. I think it would be correct to say that he saw the difficulty with speed as in the picking. His "speed technique" (his term for it) involved very careful choices of left hand fingering. When the fingering is right for the picking, suddenly it becomes possible to play at any speed with his approach.
He would say "I can pop any note", which I think may have been his way of pointing out the advantage to his approach to picking, compared with economy. There is certainly more than one viewpoint to this, but my thought is that Warren sounds like a jackhammer -- can that be done with economy picking?
Another secret, is that he played out of patterns that he had worked out with speed technique. His genius, perhaps, is that, in his hands, those patterns made music.
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rguitarjj
He wrote a number of books. Most were quite thin, but contained good ideas. Probably for the intermediate player, but an advanced player could get his picking and fingering approach from the books. The Chord Bible was his most advanced, as I recall. I think anybody would get something out of that one.
I found the very-thin Jazz Guitar Portfolio very helpful at the time. It introduced me to the concept of tonal centers and using chord tones to outline changes.
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sgcim2001
--- In jazz_...@yahoogroups.com, "rguitarjj" <rpjazzguitar@...> wrote:
>
> He wrote a number of books. Most were quite thin, but contained good
> ideas. Probably for the intermediate player, but an advanced player
> could get his picking and fingering approach from the books. The
> Chord Bible was his most advanced, as I recall. I think anybody would
> get something out of that one.
>
> I found the very-thin Jazz Guitar Portfolio very helpful at the time.
> It introduced me to the concept of tonal centers and using chord
> tones to outline changes.
>
Thanks for the interesting ideas. I also alt. pick a great deal, and the tempo of that cut (336bpm) is about my limit for clean playing.
His picking and sound remind me a little bit of Linc Chamberland, but his lines make more musical sense to me than LC's. YMMV.
Did he ever mention being influenced by Tal and/or Johnny Smith?
Robert Conti and Pat Martino also have similar chops.
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rguitarjj
I was at Warren's house once. He had a few George Shearing albums. I didn't see much else. He liked Shearing and, I think, was influenced by him.
I can't recall him discussing Johnny Smith. He did like Tal. I recall him commenting on a Tal recording as follows, "this guy is saying something!".
About the only other musician I recall him mentioning was Bach, who he called the "first jazz musician".
Oh, I remember him talking about a salsa gig, he called it "the hardest music I ever played, the bass player kept kicking me, saying 'you're off the beat, man'".
Warren had a lot of students over the years. Maybe somebody else will chime in with some memories.
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JVeg...@aol.com
Great player, a good friend of mine studied w/ him, I'll ask him about
insights, etc. My understanding is he found out he had cancer and ended his
life. Sad.
Cheers,
JV
Juan Vega
In a message dated 6/25/2012 8:05:45 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
rpjazz...@gmail.com writes:
I was at Warren's house once. He had a few George Shearing albums. I
didn't see much else. He liked Shearing and, I think, was influenced by him.
I can't recall him discussing Johnny Smith. He did like Tal. I recall him
commenting on a Tal recording as follows, "this guy is saying something!".
About the only other musician I recall him mentioning was Bach, who he
called the "first jazz musician".
Oh, I remember him talking about a salsa gig, he called it "the hardest
music I ever played, the bass player kept kicking me, saying 'you're off the
beat, man'".
Warren had a lot of students over the years. Maybe somebody else will
chime in with some memories.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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