Jazz/Fussion tips, ideas, tabs

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RhoadsFan
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Jazz/Fussion tips, ideas, tabs

Post by RhoadsFan »

I was just wondering if there are any fusion or jazz guitar players on the forum who might be willing to give me some tips, ideas or guitar licks that would help me get more educated in jazz guitar playing. I have always wanted to be a fusion guitar player, but lacked the skills/knowledge > any help would be very much appreciated.
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Cpt Matt Sparrow
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Post by Cpt Matt Sparrow »

Along with Rice Pudding and me (that I know we are in the same boat)

I am studying the style of Django Reinhardt at the moment and am in a Gyspy jazz band. I am hungry to learn more.

I know in the next three Guitar techniques magazines they are running a feature each month on him Django jazz guitar style.

Django's playing is very melodic, playful and he uses arpeggios loads...so very relevant to your question.

anyone else?

Matt
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Post by rice_pudding »

Jazz/fusion eh... i get the feeling this could evolve into a long thread :P

firstly, what exactly do you want to learn, fusion incorprates a lot of things? (eg. Al Di Meola is more latin, Jeff Beck funky, Satch and Vai more heavy) only then can i give you a btter answer. Unless you're willing to spend years practicing i'd steer clear of a "playing the changes" approach. Just build on top of what you already know. That is not to say dont use arpeggios, just remember you're going for fusion not strait jazz.

Some easy jazz elements would be using line cliche or CESH as i prefer to call it. It means Chromatic Embelishment of Static Harmony. It is primarily supposed to be used in the bass line of songs with a slow or static harmonic pace. However it can just as easily be used in guitar solos.

Side slipping is also easy to get your head around. In Its easiest form it would simply entail suspending all the tones of a chord a semi-tone above/below the target chord. I.e just slide the chord shape up or down the neck.

Theory is also very important IMO.

I will post more detailed examples of all the above with tab plus more usefull stuff and i'll also go through some theory about harmony and resolutions if you need this info. But please be patient this is a deep subject and its difficult enought to learn let alone try to teach this will take me some time... also im not a fast typer :lol:

Just for the record i've learnt a lot about jazz the last couple of years, but im deffineatly not an expert
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Post by rice_pudding »

Matthew wrote:I know in the next three Guitar techniques magazines they are running a feature each month on him Django jazz guitar style.
i'll deffineatly look out for that. 8)
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Post by rice_pudding »

Harmony, The II-V-I Cadence, Progressions

Ok, I figure it would be best to lay down some theory on this subject first, particularly as there are some things I think all jazz/fusion players should know. I’m sure many people on UR will already know all this but I hope that someone finds it useful.
***

Basics
Just to refresh, in each key there are 8 diatonic chords that are made up of the notes in that key.
So in the key of Cmajor;
1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8
C...D...E...F...G...A...B...C
The scale yields the following chords (specifically triads) which are marked with the following roman numerals:
I..........ii........iii.....IV........V........vi......vii*....VIII
Cmaj...Dm....Em....Fmaj...Gmaj...Am...Bdim...Cmaj
If anyone needs more info on how/why these chords are the way they are just ask.
Note: I wont refer to the VIIIth chord anymore as it is just an octave of I.

Chord Family’s
Those 8 chords can be divided into three groups.
Tonic: I, iii and vi
Sub-Dominant: ii and IV
Dominant: V and vii
The exception to this rule being that in minor keys vi is often considered a sub-dominant chord (depending on the context) as it’s notes could facilitate it being part of either group

The interaction of these different groups could be seen as the foundation of all western music
Typically a chord progression will start in a place of rest move to a place that is clearly different then to a place of tension before returning to the tonic.
EG. Tonic – Subdominant – Dominant – Tonic

Cadences
A cadence is the movement of chords from one chord family to another. Cadences essentially help establish key centres and song structure. Their role in contemporary popular music I would argue is less defined though (certainly as a conscious effort by the composer). There are many different ways to look at cadences or rather types of cadences. Theorists often disagree about how many types there are.
A cadence normaly consists of an anti-penult a penult and a target chord.

The most important cadence (and chord movement in western music) is an authentic cadence.
It is the movement of dominant to tonic And uses V as its penult resulting in V – I

The plagal cadence is also very powerful sub-dominant to tonic e.g. IV – I

A deceptive cadence occurs when a V chord resolves to a chord other than a tonic for instance V – vi

I would include a half cadence on the list as well which would be a cadence that simply fails to resolve often simply repeating itself.

The ii – V – I
This is regarded as the most important progression in Jazz. I would like to quote RAWLINS and EDDINE BAHHA on this:
“the ii – V – I Cadence has a certain level of sophistication, in that it starts on a subdominant instead of the tonic, making the key less immediately clear.The root motion is still upward by perfect 4th and downword by perfect 5th, the stronmgest possible in both jazz and classical music. The ii – V – I provides the cornerstone of jazz harmony. In addition, the voice leading suggested by the cadence furnishes highly recognisable contoursâ€Â
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Post by Cpt Matt Sparrow »

Excellent post!!! 8)

Jazz/fusion is unknown territory for me.

Thanks

Matt
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Post by rice_pudding »

Matthew wrote:Excellent post!!! 8)

Jazz/fusion is unknown territory for me.

Thanks

Matt
glad you like it :)
after looking over my post i think i need to go over hamonic tendency a little bit to explain why things happen not just how they happen. so i think ill do that next.
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Post by rice_pudding »

This is an expansion on my post regarding harmony

Harmonic tendency
Just as we have melodic tendency, that being that certain notes like to resolve to more stable notes (consonants/dissonants etc.), we have what i would term harmonic tendency.

The notes in each chord will lead it to want to resolve in certain ways. It is this tendancy that leads us to group chords in different families. For example if we look at dominants we find that both V and vii* pull towards I
(pull meaning that our inner ear anticipates I as the next chord and expects this move to a place of rest, that is also why deceptive cadences are deceptive)

The V - I move is widely considered the most powerful in western music. After all, remember the penultimate chord change in 12 bar blues is V - I
The V is even more effective when harmonised as a domoinant ie. V7 as the extra note helps it lean even more towards V - I resolution.

You will probably find that when playing blues solos and phrases the last note you play is the Root note or the fith note of the scale. As we can see from this even the root notes of those chords/hamonys we are soloing over have importance in a tunes direction. In this case the root would leave us in a place of rest while the fith scale degree would be leaning us towards the root chord which is the first thing we will hear if the 12 bar blues is played again. Also Note a standard blues turnaround will still end on the V chord.

the other most powerfull moves in trms of harmony are generaly regarded as a move via. perfect fourth or minor second interval.
Note:these movements refer to the root note of the chord
Note: V - I is downwords movement by perfect 5th.

A lot of this will seem like bull at first but listen hard enough and it is there. Theory is a tool to help us understand what we hear and why some things sound good and others bad. As Debussy said " follow the rule of hearing" Learning all this about harmony is a way of understanding what we are hearing and playing. The aim is that it will allow us to quickly and effectively create good logical music. Granted you can play with different random chords untill you find something you like but theory helps you formulate ideas quickly and work out what key you're playing in etc.

Questions welcome as always, Im not a great teacher so hopefully im explaining all this clearly enough. If you need more info of intervals or melodic/harmonic tendancy i can provide it.
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Post by rice_pudding »

right enough theory time for some actual tabs :D
these tabs are all done in power tab editor v1.7 it can be downloaded for free if you dont have it, and is a small file, even if your on dialup it shouldnt be a problem. by the way i dont fully know how to use the program and also i did these quickly so there are no bar lines and time signatures are not stricktly obeyed but playback the track and you'll get an idea of the rythm.

Sequential ideas
A heckuva lot of jazz basicaly entails outlining a melody, playing an arpeggio or taking a chord and moving it in an ascending or decending pattern. for example by a minor or major 2nd.

The first example demonstrates a sustained chord (root position) decending in sequence by a major 2nd. Notice the persistent use of the high open E string. This serves as a device for creating disonance as well as anchoring the tonal centre of the piece. (It is in the key of E) Also notice the final two chords move by minor 2nd breaking the pattern, this ends the sequence and results in the chord shape arriving in the key of E.
You may also notice the chords leave out the 5th, this is comon practice in jazz, if the 5th is included it is usualy moved an octave above its expected position resulting in an open voicing.

The second example outlines an arppegio run decending by minor 3rd. The chord here is 7add9. The last run adds a note a semi tone bellow finnishing the sequence much like the above example. I would reccomend adding a ninth (or second since they're the same thing) to standard arpeggios for an instant jazzy sound

The third example simply shows how Randy Rhoads uses a similar idea in one of his solos. just to remmind you about it :wink:

I hope these examples are useful.
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Post by rice_pudding »

bugger it

it wont let me attach power tab files...

anyone got a solution or will i have to tab these out ye olde way :cry: this is a pain cos i already prepared some other examples in power tab.

actualy i could just email them to whoever want them i guess, PM me if you want them.
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Post by Cpt Matt Sparrow »

I am so excited!!! This section is getting better and better
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Post by rice_pudding »

ok im gonna try posting the exercises of my previous post as "sheet music" per say hope this works out ok.

p.s. how come this is now a "sticky" thread or whatever you call it.
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Post by rice_pudding »

posting images works, since you can enlarge them by clicking on them so i'll use this method from now on.

Jazz sequences 2
this is just one more example i wanted to post. The example is based heavily on one of the lead lines from blue wind ( n fact its a borderline copy :lol: ) Notice here how you can outline a melody and then move it, in this case by a perfect fourth, with very interesting results. This is a very simple tip that can put extra life into a simple phrase or melody. Also notices that the movement is by perfect 4th, a very blues concious decision.

This isnt really a sequence in the stricktest sense since it only makes one, temporary, move but i just wanted to show that you can do these things in a simplified way with equal success. Jazz/blues fusion doesnt have to move through a dozen different keys to be interesting.
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Post by Cpt Matt Sparrow »

Thanks

It is action day at teh schoo, I teach so I have a day of playing Scarface and playing my Robot guitar and this fantastic!!
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Post by rice_pudding »

glad you like them, they're all pretty basic really, but hopefully they will help people come up with their own ideas.
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