Chord soloing and Bebop Lines
aaw
I am interested in how to construct Chord Solos in the style of Joe Pass,
Herb Ellis etc
I am also interested in how to construct Bebop Lines in the style of
Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie.
What are the techniques involved?
Or where on the Internet can I access this information
I would be grateful for any help you can give me.
K. Attfield
Rich Ertelt
I don't know about tne net, but for parker stuff - The Charlie Parker
Omni Book. Heads and solos transcibed. Comes in versions for C, Eb, Bb
and bass.
GTROATES
K. Attfield,
About your bebop techniques question:
You might want to get a video and workbook package from the Barry Harris
Workshop. Barry is a piano player who has worked with many of the bebop
greats (he did some albums with saxophonist Sonny Stitt to name one). He
is known for his masterclasses and workshops on how to develop bebop solos
and the scales and phrasing involved. I think he still runs an ad in the
back of Jazz Times magazine. Believe me, you will get some good insights
from the videotapes.
I personally have found the Omnibook to have inconsistencies in many
places while listening to the recordings they are transcribed from. It
might be much better to learn the heads and solos by ear, it will take
longer, but you will get more lasting benefits from it. Charlie Parker
himself was a prolific transcriber (he learned solos off records or heard
them live) of Lester Young and other soloists like the pianist Art Tatum
whom he heard nightly at a restaurant he was a busboy for. His earliest
recordings have a lot of Lester Young influence in them.
About solo guitar playing:
Joe Pass made a videotape about his solo guitar style, he strays from his
subject a little bit but the information is still there if you concentrate
on his examples. Tuck Andress also has a videotape out if you like his
style of solo guitar playing.
They are both available from Hotlicks Videos I think, their number is in
most guitar magazines.
Brian Oates
wscott
In Article<01bbf52e$243b7e00$0885...@alison.acay.com.au>,
<aawa...@acay.com.au> writes:
> I am also interested in how to construct Bebop Lines in the style of
> Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie.
>
The following book is very helpful for lines (no chord help):
Jazz Riffs for Guitar/2 by Jesse Gress
published by
Amsco publications
Gives riffs characteristic of many famous players in
both standard notation and tab. This book is a very
nice source of musical ideas. Note that this is book 2.
Book one in the series was written by Richard Boukas
and I don't know it to recommend it.
Bill Scott
WSc...@acs.wooster.edu
landmant
I purchased book one of this series ("Jazz riffs for guitar") many
years ago and found it to be a complete waste of time and money.
If you want to learn Charlie Parker lines, the best thing to do is
transcribe his solos. Or, if you still want a book, check out the
Charlie Parker Omnibook.
-- tom landman
wreeve
aaw wrote:
>
> I am interested in how to construct Chord Solos in the style of Joe Pass,
> Herb Ellis etc
Howdy! If you are interested in chord solos for jazz guitar try
instruction books by;
- (Fred Sokolow) Jazz Standards for guitar, 2 books
- (Fred Sokolow) The Complete Jazz Guitar
- (Howard Roberts) Chord Melody Guitar Manual
- (Ernie Berele ) Chord Melody Guitar
- (Jody Fisher) Complete Jazz Guitar
Warning!! Howard Roberts book may be a little deep for the beginner.
I got the book last night and realized I need hands like Tal Farlow
to finger some of these chords on my fat neck wide frett classical
guitar.
Listening to other chord melody style players other than Joe may also
help.
Try: Barney Kessell, Ron Eschete, Mundell Lowe, Jimmy Bruno,
Howard Alden, Tal Farlow to name a few of my favorite.
CLAY MOORE
The Howard Roberts book is the best I've seen on the subject. Deal with
the stretches!
Clay
CLAY MOORE
landmant wrote:
> > The following book is very helpful for lines (no chord help):
> >
> > Jazz Riffs for Guitar/2 by Jesse Gress
> > published by
> > Amsco publications
> >
> > Gives riffs characteristic of many famous players in
> > both standard notation and tab. This book is a very
> > nice source of musical ideas. Note that this is book 2.
> > Book one in the series was written by Richard Boukas
> > and I don't know it to recommend it.
> >
> > Bill Scott
> > WSc...@acs.wooster.edu
>
> I purchased book one of this series ("Jazz riffs for guitar") many
> years ago and found it to be a complete waste of time and money.
> If you want to learn Charlie Parker lines, the best thing to do is
> transcribe his solos. Or, if you still want a book, check out the
> Charlie Parker Omnibook.
>
> -- tom landman
I second that, although the Omnibook has things written in actual treble
clef pitch, so there are some funny low ledger lines. However......
I'd like to put
in a plug for a book recently reissued by Sam Most. Originally called
"Metamorphosis-The Transformation of the Jazz Solo", it's now know as
"Jazz Improvisation-The Best Way To Develop Solos Over Classic Changes".
Sam Most is a woodwind player, primarily known for his flute playing,
and this book is excellent for developing sight-reading and improv tools.
He took well known progressions like blues and "All The Things You Are'
and wrote solos over them. The solos are one chorus each, and each one
uses some theme like chromatic embellishment of chord tones or pentatonic
scales. They start simple at the beginning of the series of studies on
each new chord progression, and get more complex. Most of the solos sound
great (the early ones are more for familiarity with chord/scale notes than
actual solos), and will give guitarists a workout, as many of the phrases
are not what you would normally play. BTW, I have no affiliation with this
product other than owning a copy. Published by Warner Bros.
Clay
wscott
> landmant wrote:
>
> > > The following book is very helpful for lines (no chord help):
> > >
> > > Jazz Riffs for Guitar/2 by Jesse Gress
> > > published by
> > > Amsco publications
> > >
> > > Gives riffs characteristic of many famous players in
> > > both standard notation and tab. This book is a very
> > > nice source of musical ideas. Note that this is book 2.
> > > Book one in the series was written by Richard Boukas
> > > and I don't know it to recommend it.
> > >
> > > Bill Scott
> > > WSc...@acs.wooster.edu
> >
> > I purchased book one of this series ("Jazz riffs for guitar") many
> > years ago and found it to be a complete waste of time and money.
> > If you want to learn Charlie Parker lines, the best thing to do is
> > transcribe his solos. Or, if you still want a book, check out the
> > Charlie Parker Omnibook.
> >
> > -- tom landman
>
Wait a minute. I specifically said that this is BOOK 2
by a completely different author. I agree that if I,
for example, hated book one of Mickey Baker's method,
I might expect his second book to be a waste of time,
but don't you think you ought to hold back on the criticism
of a book you only claim to dislike because of its title?
Bill Scott
WSc...@acs.wooster.edu
Richard Roberge
Richard Roberge wrote:
>
>
>
> Take simple progressions (I-VI-ii-V, ii-V-I, etc.), and right little
> melodies for them (5 or 6 notes at the most).
That should be write little melodies...sorry! I guess my wife was "write"
I'm not getting enough sleep -day job and gigs are not compatibe..!
Richard Roberge
aaw wrote:
>
> I am interested in how to construct Chord Solos in the style of Joe Pass,
> Herb Ellis etc
A good place to start constructing chord solos is learning to play all kinds
of double stops (3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 8ves), triads and their inversions,
chord voicings with all the possible chord tones, extensions, and alterations
as the top note. For example take Cmaj:
C on the top (root as melody)
E " " " (3rd " " ")
Gb " " " (b5th " " ")
G " " " (5th " " ")
A " " " (6th " " ")
B " " " (M7th " " ")
D " " " (9th " " ")
F# " " " (#11 " " ")
and do on...
Make your own catalog of these chords for your reference.
This process needs to be done for all types of chords Maj, min, Dom, dim,
etc.
Take simple progressions (I-VI-ii-V, ii-V-I, etc.), and right little
melodies for them (5 or 6 notes at the most). Harmonize the melody with
the corresponsing chord, triads, or double stops. When you're comfortable
with this, you can take lead sheets with simple changes and do the same
thing. Remember: "you need NOT to harmonize each-and-one of the melody notes
with a chord" -mix chords and fragments with double stops, single notes,
triads, and very importantly "SPACE". As this becomes easier for you, do the
same for nore challenging changes.
> I am also interested in how to construct Bebop Lines in the style of
> Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie.
>
Transcribing is the real way to understand the idiom, and a good place to
start is "Miles Davis", particularly his solo on "So What" (Kind of Blue).
The Omnibook (with whatever imperfections) is an excellent source of Bebop
vocabulary.
There's also a series of Books by David Baker (one of Jazz' most
distinguished scholars and a great musician in his own right) one of these is
called "How to Play bebop" or something like that...it guides you through the
use of what is he calls the "Bebop Scale".
This is a mixolydian scale with an added major seventh. By adding a maj 7th,
when you play the scale in desceding eigth notes, all of the chord tones fall
on the strong beats, this helps outline the harmony with a strong rhythmic
flow...
> What are the techniques involved?
>
Listening to the great players and learning their solos and phrases all over
your instrument, develop your harmonic knowledge by studying and analyzing
the solos or phrases you like -this will tell you what appeals to you
harmonically and will help you learn to play what you like, knowing your
instrument and being able to play what you hear is very important.
In a nutshell:
* Learn the notes on the fretboard (where they are, how they sound), to a
point where you can play a melody without thinking of the notes (like if
someone tells you to hum "happy Birthday" -you don't think of the notes,
you just hum in pitch!)
* Learn harmony: how chords are constructed how progressions move, how a
melody is harmonized.
* Train your ear: learn to mimic melodies, distinguish intervals, chords,
phrases, how a particular note sounds over a specific chord.
Good luck!
-Rich
landmant
Bill,
If you re-read my previous post, it should be clear that I'm
criticizing vol. 1 (not vol. 2). Vol. 1 claimed to contain jazz riffs in
the "style" of many famous jazz guitarists. The problem was that these
so-called riffs weren't even actual phrases played by those famous
people. Instead they were phrases that the author, Richard Boukas, made
up in the "style" of those players.
-- tom
Lawson G. Stone
In article <32CBA...@cayman.litc.lockheed.com>,
wre...@cayman.litc.lockheed.com wrote:
> Howdy! If you are interested in chord solos for jazz guitar try
> instruction books by;
>
> - (Fred Sokolow) Jazz Standards for guitar, 2 books
> - (Fred Sokolow) The Complete Jazz Guitar
> - (Howard Roberts) Chord Melody Guitar Manual
> - (Ernie Berele ) Chord Melody Guitar
> - (Jody Fisher) Complete Jazz Guitar
>
There is also a small book of Joe Pass chord solos out there, with
improvised choruses of chord-melody over common changes. They aren't
transcriptions, but if you listen to Joe's "Misty" on Virtuoso 2 and then
work with his composed solo in the book, there are lots of the same
phrases. It's a knuckle buster, but worth the work. The book is available
through Aebersold.
Also, I highly recommend the work of Steve Crowell, who has published 4
books containing 9 standards each, in an intermediate/advanced chord-solo
format. The books are created very intentionally for teaching, so some
figures and phrases get used a lot, and others are introduced specifically
to provide alternative approaches. These are had to find in the general
market, but the address of Steve's company is:
SDM Productions
1502 N. Carson
Carson City, NV 89701
He also has instructional books and sets of lessons, workshops, etc. The
books are in standard notation with chord diagrams on a facing page. A bit
harder to work with than tab, but it forces you to corelate the notation
with the chord shapes and actually increases your sight reading ability.
--
Lawson G. Stone
Wilmore, KY 40390
Harry Avant
lst...@uky.campus.mci.net (Lawson G. Stone) wrote:
>Also, I highly recommend the work of Steve Crowell, who has published 4
>books containing 9 standards each, in an intermediate/advanced chord-solo
>format. The books are created very intentionally for teaching, so some
>figures and phrases get used a lot, and others are introduced specifically
>to provide alternative approaches. These are had to find in the general
>market, but the address of Steve's company is:
>SDM Productions
>1502 N. Carson
>Carson City, NV 89701
>He also has instructional books and sets of lessons, workshops, etc. The
>books are in standard notation with chord diagrams on a facing page. A bit
>harder to work with than tab, but it forces you to corelate the notation
>with the chord shapes and actually increases your sight reading ability.
>--
>Lawson G. Stone
>Wilmore, KY 40390
I second Lawson's recommendation. I recently get some of his chord
solos and found them well done, playable and an interesting learning
experiance.
Harry
robby roiter
You could also try taking, say.a 4-note voicing, on a given group of
strings, & finding the 'harmonized scales' based on it by making new
chords by moving each note up one scale tone. For example, playing a
G maj7th @ 5th fret on top 4 strings,i.e., GDF#B, play AEGC (as a chord)
on the 7th, then BF#AD, CGBE etc. up the neck, staying w/notes in the G
maj. scale throughout. Then do the same idea going down towards the lower
frets. Doing this all over the neck, w/different scales, will help
develop understanding & facility w/ how chords relate, as well as useful
playing ideas.
peace, Robby
CLAY MOORE
Robby,
This is great advice- and sometimes we forget to mention things like
this when talking about what to study. I'd like to mention that
another means to extend this is to invert the chord(s) you are using
above, so that the Gmaj7 on the first 4 strings becomes B-F#-G-D, the
next chord (Am7) is C-G-A-E, and so on.
Clay
Lawson G. Stone
AMEN. I really began to get freer improvising in a chord melody mode
when I started learning how to walk scales and chords up and down the
neck-playing the harmonized scale in inversions. That is one excellent
skill because you can solo, comp, improvise, etc.
I'd also suggest knowing the harmonized scale with the scale tones in
the bass notes-it helps when you are trying to play walking bass lines
with comping chords along the way.
--
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Lawson G. Stone-Asbury Theological Seminary-Wilmore, KY
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Prediction is very difficult, especially of the future.
--Niels Bohr