what makes a great chord/melody arrangement?
Annie
outstanding while others are quite dull....of course Joe Pass stands
out as well as Gene Bertoncini with his unique harmonic sense......
--how do you keep a set of solo guitar standards interesting as well as
creating your own style? Perhaps it is also choosing tunes that aren't
usually played on guitar? Is the guitar more limited, than say piano, in
this respect?
--most published "arrangements" tend to be ho-hum...nice, but.....I
guess what you do improvisationally with an arrangement is the key...
and of course is as good or bad as your ability in this area---kind of
somes up jazz.....I guess I answered my own question......!
Annie
Tom Lippincott
yes I think you did in a lot of ways.
I think of solo guitar the same way I think of any other music, the only
difference being when you're playing solo you have the responsibility for
EVERYTHING. So I think of using all the same musical/arranging elements I
would for playing a tune with a trio, a big band, or whatever. It's all the
same, at least to me, just on a bigger or smaller scale. I look for anything I
can to break things up, keep them from becoming predictable, keep the "sound of
suprise" as someone once said. You can vary tempos, rhythmic feels, keys,
reharmonize tunes, change the melody (though this one you have to be careful
with), add intros, endings, interludes, vary the texture (melody by itself,
melody with bass line, homophonic chords under melody, rhythmic chordal stabs
under melody, melody over countermelody, and so forth), ect., all the things
you might think about when doing, say, a large ensemble arrangement.
But I think you hit on something important; solo guitar is only one texture,
which can get monotonous very easily, so you have to work a little harder I
think with solo guitar to keep things from getting boring. Also, maybe look to
the classical guitar tradition; these guys have hundreds of years of experience
playing solo guitar and have some cool ideas like changing the timbre based on
right hand position and attack style, techniques like tremelo, rasqueado,
harmonics, ect.
I agree with you about most published arrangements. Some of the Joe Pass ones
are nice, and there are some really nice George Van Eps ones, but they are his
original compositions, and so would not be recognizable at gigs.
I hope this gives you some ideas.
Tom Lippincott
Guitarist, Composer, Teacher
audio samples, articles, CD's at:
http://www.tomlippincott.com
8 string guitar audio samples at:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/3/tomlippincottmusic.htm
james seaberry
I look at how the melody lays first. If it is one that is fairly
static, like "You Stepped Out Of a Dream", or has open spaces, like
"In Your Own Sweet Way", I look to use counterlines or partial chords
underneath. If the melody is fairly busy or has a more arpeggiated
melody, I look to do basslines, block chords, or maybe slow it down to
a tempo that lets me have more options. I am now going thru a book by
Howard Morgen, called "Solo Guitar Insights" that deals with just
these topics in solo arranging. I try to keep the melody involved in
improvising, so once I try to make and develop a motif from the
melody, it seems that the options for self-accompanyment open up as
opposed to when I do the heads....I dunno, babble from the idiot
strata...
thomas
My understanding is that Gene's solo things are all pre-arranged,
while JP is mostly making up his arrangements on the spot, with
the exception of an intro here and there.
My thinking is that you need to avoid playing too much in open
string keys, structuring the set so that the keys seem to vary
as the set progresses, and you need to keep a groove going and
vary the time feels, and not do too much rubato balladry. Also
you need to vary the arrangment textures. But then there are guys
who do just the opposite of all that and sound great.
Joe Finn
To me what makes a chord melody arrangement great is being able to play
something spontaneously that falls easily under my fingers so that I can
think about the music directly rather than the instrument. I play a lot of
worked out solo arrangements too but this locks me into specific patterns.
This is ok though because I can use the opportunity to focus on the subtlety
of the interpretation and nuance; but actually I like to do something I can
be really free with even better. .........joe
--
Visit me on the web www.joefinn.net
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Jim Kangas
and arrangements. And always that element of surprise that he mentions
- just when the listener says to himself, "ah.. I see what they're
doing", the pattern is broken. I've heard a lot of guitarists play
really complicated things that don't come off as pleasing as some
simpler but more effective things.
If you were a classroom teacher and talked all day in a monotone
voice, I doubt that anyone would be surprised if some of your students
dozed off, regardless of how brilliant your information might be. If
you got excited, talked loudly and whispered, deliberately did things
to demonstrate your point, made references back to things that you
said earlier and got people's attention, you'd be an effective
speaker. Trying to use all similar elements of music: dynamics,
chords/partial chords, interludes, motives, staccato/legato, etc. is a
real challenge (at least for me). I sometimes think that we get too
caught up in note choices, and get a little lazy about all that other
stuff, and I think maybe it comes out in solo guitar stuff more where
there's no other distraction. Piano players are a little more
conscious of this issue I think, but I've heard plenty of talented,
but boring solo piano also.
I was in a brief master class with Gene B., and he's very conscious of
how to "hook" the audience. Joe - well, Joe is just Joe!
-Jim
Annie <pars...@att.net> wrote in message news:<3EE5F89F...@att.net>...
Annie
very fine players!
Annie
thom_j.
that really reaches me with dymaics and a bit of true texture
is Martin Taylor' and then Pat Metheny with Charlie Haden
to but they are a duo obviously.
I have many more but I'll usually take one to consume and
try to retain each for a weeks, but color me obsessive. :8^)
cheers thom_j.
"Annie" <pars...@att.net> wrote in message news:3EE803C3...@att.net...
Kevin Van Sant
message <3EE5F89F...@att.net> :
>I collect a lot of solo guitarists playing standards and some are
>outstanding while others are quite dull....of course Joe Pass stands
>out as well as Gene Bertoncini with his unique harmonic sense......
>--how do you keep a set of solo guitar standards interesting as well as
>creating your own style? Perhaps it is also choosing tunes that aren't
>usually played on guitar? Is the guitar more limited, than say piano, in
>this respect?
I don't think it's more limited. Each instrument and each song will
present different challenges. I don't feel there are any "avoid"
tunes. It's all about what you do with it, and what you do with it
all starts out with some kind of groove. If you are wishy-washy about
the feel then it's going to get boring quick. I like to just try out
any tunes I can think of when I do solo gigs just to see what I can do
with them. Once I launch in to a tune the first thing I do is get
committed to a groove, then the ideas just spring from that. I think
you could probably get away with playing a full set of one tune, say
"Here's that Rainy Day" if you treated it as six songs with six
distinctly different feels.
_________________________________________
Kevin Van Sant
jazz guitar
http://www.kevinvansant.com
to buy my CDs, listen to sound clips, and get more info.
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