Archives for 2012

Some more footage from Cafe Tibo in Glasgow. Myself, Alan Geddes, and Olivia Ennemoser performing the classsic song Duke Ellington song I’m beginning to see the Light. Click here to go to my songbook page for the song where you’ll find some background, analysis and suggested listening

A great rendition of the classic song The Days of Wine and Roses is introduced in the clip below by Jazz Guitarist Herb Ellis where he talks about his early days in Jazz. Born in 1921, Ellis started out his musical life as a double bass player. As he refers to in the video clip, due to a lack of funds he dropped from college where he was studying the double bass, going onto to play guitar in a college band. Bit of a similarity to myself here in that I originally played the Bass in the Glasgow Youth Band, a Jazz Orchestra, before switching onto guitar. After a number of bands and a gaining reputation he played in Tommy Dorseys band 1946 through to 1947. Another highlight of his career would have to be replacing Barney Kessel in the Oscar Peterson Trio. While many of the guitarists who came up in the 1940’s where influenced by Charlie Christian it’s perhaps in Herb Ellis’s playing where we can always here echoes of the lineage. Go to my Days of Wine and Roses Guitar Song Lesson for some background of the song and recommended lsitening and also my Days of Wine and Roses and adding a bass line blog for further reading.

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When your writing your own melodies or playing your own improvisations you can get great ideas from looking at what the masters have done. If you start with the melodies you like, the songs that have stood the test of time, then you can’t go far wrong. In the example below I’ve started to have a look at what is going on in the first measures of the classic Vernn Duke and Ira Gershwin song I Can’t Get Started. On first listening it sounds as if it could be a bit of a vocal challenge with an octave leap in the melody in the pickup / measure 1 and also measures 2/3. In my Beyond Tabs guitar course I look at how we can analyse melodies in terms of leaps, stepwise motion and how the use of intervals can create tension and resolution in the music. In the example below there’s a certain tension created by these two octave leaps. However the tension is very cleverly tempered by the use steps which miss out every second note. To my ear this gives a symmetry to the melody which tempers the tension of the leap. This is the kind of idea that we can take and play around with when we are creating our own music. In my guitar course I also cover the area of ear training. A good way of remembering intervals, chord tones etc is to identify them in songs that you know. You’ll notice that the first 4 notes of I can’t get started form a Cmaj7 chord….try singing tyhem through. If your not familiar with the melody go to my I Can’t Get Started Guitar Song Lesson where you’ll find my recommended listening for the song.

When you are playing through a swing type chord progression the most common rhythm to play would be “four in the bar”.  This means that you would strum the chord or if you play in a fingerpicking style, pick the the notes of the chords simultaneausly, 4 times in each measure. This is demonstrated in example 1 below where I’m showing the first 4 measures of the classic song “The Days of Wine and Roses”. This type of rhythm will create a great feel if executed properly. If you’re looking to add a bit of variety to you’re playing then you should consider adding some bass notes to your chord arrangement. In example 2 below I’ve taken the same 4 measures as in example 1, varying the rhythm and adding some bass notes. Try playing both examples. Both are valid and both are interesting for different reasons. Variety, which is something I always promote in my video guitar lessons,  is the key here.

Further Reading:

Go to the Days of Wine and Roses guitar chord lesson for some song background and my recommended listening

Go to my Herb Ellis Jazz Guitar – The Days of Wine and Roses blog where you’ll find a great rendition along with a short biography for this great guitarist.

Example 1

Example 2

Recent footage from our Cafe Tibo gig in Glasgow…Geddes-Ennemoser Duo performing Corcovado

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How cool is this performance. I referred to angular melodic shapes in my previous blog on the Round Midnight guitar melody. Listen to how Monk Accents the angles in his introduction.

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Take a look at the angular shape of the melody of ‘Round Midnight. In my guitar course I cover the topic of intervals and melodic motion in more detail. As an introduction to the concepts,  angular shapes like the ones below create a sense of agitation, tension in the music while stepwise motion will tend to create a feeling of calm and resolution. If your interested in reading more about my thought on melody, come and join the my Beyond Tabs guitar course. For some more background on the song and further analysis go to my ‘Round Midnight Guitar Song lesson