In this episode of the FretDojo.com Podcast I want to talk about three reasons why playing guitar is good for you – especially at the moment given the impact current world events have had on our lives.

I’m recording this at the start of April, 2020 and there’s some pretty stressful stuff going on as well as facing living in never-seen-before circumstances.

It’s important at times like these that we set aside time for a calm, creative pursuit. 

And there’s some pretty compelling reasons why playing an instrument right now is a strong contender…

Join FretDojo’s online jazz guitar academy here

Transcript:

Greg O’Rourke: Hi guys, Greg O’Rourke here from the FretDojo.com Podcast. In this episode I want to talk about three reasons why playing guitar is really, REALLY good for you.

Okay, so playing guitar is obviously a cool thing to do. It’s fun, it’s creative, it sounds great, you can play with other people, you can jam. There’s a lot of reasons why playing guitar is fantastic. But specifically in this episode I want to talk about specifically the reasons in how playing guitar can help you in all sorts of ways and can actually protect you from some of the issues that come along with ageing as we all get older. So let’s talk about some specific proven things that playing music (and especially, I guess, guitar goes along with that) can help you in your life’s journey and why it is a very important thing to maintain.

Obviously, I’m recording this at the start of April, 2020 and there’s some pretty interesting stuff going on in the world right now. I don’t really want to reference it too much because that’s all we’re hearing in the news and so forth. But obviously with the pandemic as it is, people are getting very stressed and I think it’s important at times like these that we set aside time for a calm, creative pursuit.

Reason 1: Playing Music Can Make You Smarter

So reason number one, music can make you smarter. I think music is the ultimate brain game basically. I think the reason it is so powerful is because it works out a lot of different sensory functions at once, like the auditory function, the visual, the kinetic function. And I think because all these processes are involved at once, it involves a very powerful brain stimulation. I was looking at an article on inc.com about this and neuro physicist, Catherine Loveday is quoted saying here:

“Music probably does something unique. It stimulates the brain in a very powerful way because of our emotional connection with it.”

So you know when you try to play these brain games, they’ve been quite popular in recent years, like puzzles and things like that online. But there’s nothing quite like playing an instrument because it’s a very rich and complex experience. And because of the intertwining of all the sensory application when you’re playing an instrument like sight and touch and the oral sense as well, this really can change the brain in long lasting ways and it’s been proven to do so.

So it says here, “Brain scans have helped to identify the difference in brain structure between musicians and non-musicians.” And the corpus callosum, which is a big bundle of nerve fibres connecting the two sides of the brain, is larger in musicians and also in the areas involving movement, hearing and the visual abilities, they appear to be larger in the brain in professional keyboard players for example.

So the brain is significantly altered and developed by playing music and it can help protect your brain as well. So brain scanning studies have found that anatomical change in musician’s brains is related to the age when training began. But even brief periods of musical training can have long lasting benefits. So you can increase resilience to any age related decline in hearing. Learning to play an instrument can protect the brain against dementia. So Loveday says:

“Music reaches parts of the brain that other things can’t. It’s a strong cognitive stimulus that grows the brain in a way that nothing else does and the evidence that musical training enhances things like working memory and language is very robust.”

 Okay, so that’s the first point I want to make here is that music is incredibly good for your brain, okay? It can not only enhance your intellectual abilities and your sensory abilities, but it can also protect the decline of those abilities. So I thought that was a very important first point to make about why playing guitar is so good for you.

Reason 2: Improves Your Discipline and Time Management Skills

Okay the second reason I want to talk about why playing guitar is so good for you is that it improves your discipline and time management skills. Now, I’m speaking from personal experience here. When you start playing an instrument, and especially if you have limited time at your disposal, you start to realise how inefficient you can be with your time.

Something that I do when I practise now is that I really stringently plan all the different activities that I’m going to do in my practise for that day and I allocate 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, five minutes, whatever, and then I’ll make sure that I have a timer. And no matter what my goal is to cover the work as best as I can in that time and to stop when I’m finished.

Now this is a simple thing, but when I first started doing this, I realised how difficult it was to stick to the time limits and it kind of revealed to me that, in general, my time management was in need of a lot of improvement.

And so I think having a discipline like an instrument and having the discipline to get to it daily despite what’s going on in the world or despite how busy you are with other things, if you can put that stake in the ground and dedicate yourself to something like an artistic pursuit like guitar playing, it can really help structure your life. You start to see how you can be more efficient in other areas as well.

Reason 3: Music Can Reduce Stress – And Boost The Immune System

And here’s an interesting, quite topical one for my third reason is that playing music can reduce stress. Okay? Now I think all of us need to really work on developing a strategy for managing stress at the moment, the whole world basically is in a somewhat stressful situation to say the least.

But it’s not about the world out there. What can we do in ourselves to maintain a sense of calm and to take out minds off things?

The endless news coverage of what’s going on at the moment can bring you a lot of stress. And by having something like a dedicated hobby, maybe some sort of program that you’re working through or a course or whatever, it can really help centre your mind away from the negativities and then you start to kind of value the time that you have at home and it’s not such a big deal. So playing music, especially playing guitar, is a very good way to reduce stress.

Now here’s a little bonus one. Why is reducing stress particularly important right now? I’ve found this interesting article on a website called The Sync Project, talking about how the immune system is directly influenced by the exposure to music.

And so if you listen or play music, it can have a significant effect in reducing your cortisol levels basically. And this is a stress hormone, when there’s too much cortisol and related chemicals chronically in your body, it can lead to a reduced immune system which can make you more susceptible to things like viruses, and that’s very relevant at the moment, of course, given the pandemic. And so it can actually be… There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that it can be a very protective thing right now to play music or to have relaxing hobbies because it can boost your immune system. So we should be prioritising healthy things like this right now, things that can help our brain health, things that can help our emotional wellbeing, things that can take our minds off all this stressful stuff and things that can then lead to boosting our immune system.

Wrap Up

So there’s a few reasons today why playing guitar is really good for you. If you’re interested in some free lessons and resources, then check out my website fretdojo.com there’s a lot on there. And also make sure that you get on my email list because I often have special programmes running like short challenges that you can be involved in. It’s a lot of fun. We have students from all around the world. And especially given a lot of people are stuck inside right now with all the isolation rules and things like that, might be a good opportunity to fill your schedule is something that’s very positive and yeah, you could get a lot of benefit from that.

Well my name is Greg O’Rourke, I really hope you enjoyed this podcast today. I quite enjoyed recording this episode. Something a little different. And let me know what you think. If you got benefit from this and you enjoyed this podcast, please leave me a five star rating on iTunes and leave a short review. I would really, really appreciate that as it helps this podcast get out to a wider audience and so that other people can benefit as well.

Okay, well, without further ado, my name’s Greg O’Rourke and hope you have a good, calm, peaceful day today and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Bye for now.

Reference links:

Inc.com – The Benefits of Playing Music Help Your Brain More Than Any Other Activity

The Sync Project: Body in Tune: Music and the Immune System

In this episode of the FretDojo.com Podcast, we dive into the topic of the true meaning behind the famous thing musicians say: “Listen to as much jazz as you possibly can.”

Let’s talk about this and see how to approach it so that it can have a lasting effect on your skills on the guitar.

Check out the podcast here:

​I’m sure you’ve heard this said by many great jazz players:

“Listen to as much jazz as you possibly can.”

But there’s a difference between having an album on in the background and listening for pleasure…

And REALLY listening to it.

Here’s the thing:

For a long time, I spent every waking available moment listening to jazz recordings by the greats of guitar – Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Barney Kessell.

And then ventured into Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Chet Baker and many others.

Although I got a great deal of inspiration from these great players…

It didn’t directly move my playing forward.

This kind of ‘osmosis’ method is emphasized often in language learning. The idea is to expose yourself in daily life to as much of the language as possible, and then by absorption you begin to pick up the language naturally .

But:

In reality, it doesn’t quite work that way for jazz.

Think about the human voice for a minute:

From the day we were born we have used our voice in some way, experimenting with it in a myriad of ways.

Therefore:

It’s very familiar for us to emulate sounds and speech with our voice.

But few people (unless they are a genius level), could memorize, deconstruct and draw concepts from simply listening to a recording passively.

Don’t get me wrong, listening is very important:

It’s a great way to get inspired by new players

It’s a a way to attune yourself in general to phrasing and shaping solos

It’s a particularly good way to get attuned to a good rhythm feel.

But:

In and of itself, passive listening is not going to make you a better jazz player.

There is however, a better way to directly use listing to improve your jazz improvisation skills:

Working with transcriptions.

By intently listening, transcribing, learning and analyzing a solo, you develop your ear skills greater heights, and come away with a whole heap of vocabulary as well.

It’s the time-tested way of quickly building your jazz skills.

By way of example:

Wes Montgomery transcribed every solo note for note by his idol Charlie Christian – and even performed those solos note-for-note on stage in the early part of his career instead of improvising his own.

Joe Pass built up his jazz vocabulary by being directly inspired by the ‘Bird’, Charlie Parker.

In fact, I would go so far to say any notable jazz player has spent considerable time on building their skills with the help of transcriptions.

Is Transcribing By Ear The Only Option?

Not necessarily – as long as you have a process where you can eventually play along with a recording from memory.

Although transcribing by ear is said to be the best way to learn a solo (and it’s probably good to try this at least once in your jazz study) this option can often be a tedious, exacting process and hence frustrate many students.

An alternative:

Stand on the shoulders of others and learn a prewritten transcription.

This is where someone else has transcribed and notated a solo, and you get to cut straight to chase and go straight learning the solo and extracting useful vocabulary and concepts.

Some purists may consider this cheating instead of doing it all yourself. But I think it’s fine – I’ve had great benefit for my own jazz skills going down the ‘prewritten’ transcription route from time to time.

The only caveat:

You must ensure you memorize the transcription if at all possible – don’t just read it off the paper!

This is the big trap here is you may not take the extra step of memorizing it, which tends to happen naturally when transcribing by ear.

Steps To Take After Transcribing:

Ok so you’ve learned the transcription, one way or another. Now what?

Dive deep into the nuts and bolts of the solo. Look at phrases that interest you or you like the sound of. Draw out key concepts and use them as starting points for your own soloing.

If it sounds like it’s a lot of work, you’re right.

But:

Keep in mind though that working with a teacher can help you through this process and point out to you the most essential points of each transcription to work with.

For example, in my FretDojo Jazz Guitar Academy, this is exactly what we do month to month – deep dives into classic transcriptions and video tutorials on the key concepts and approaches.

For example, I recently released a lesson diving deep into Charlie Christian’s soloing approaches on his classic recording, ‘Rose Room’, which the Academy members have gotten a lot of mileage from.

Hint: Want to sign up to the FretDojo Jazz Guitar Academy? Go here>>

 Results Of Working With a Transcription

You’ll have a wealth of new licks and ideas.

Your ears will be further developed.

Your technique will be pushed to greater heights through learning a solo

You’ll start to see the common ‘threads’ of effective soloing approaches after working with a few transcriptions, and it becomes clearer as to the approaches to focus on in the woodshed.

In Conclusion…

Passive listening, although enjoyable and a good way to expose yourself to the sounds of jazz, won’t make you a better jazz player necessarily.

But – by deep listening and transcribing, and then following through with a robust analysis of key concepts in a solo, very quickly you can build your skills as a jazz player. Anyone that has mastered an aspect of jazz has walked this very path.

Let me know your thoughts on this topic by leaving a comment below, I would love to hear from you!

In this episode of the FretDojo.com Podcast, lets dive deep into a topic that’s critical in your development as a jazz guitarist:

The importance of jazz vocabulary – and how to go about learning it!

Check out the podcast here:

What made Joe Pass such an incredible jazz guitarist?

Sure, he had great swing, a tasteful sense of how to shape a solo, and could play any hundreds of jazz standards at the drop of a hat.

But for me, there’s one thing that stands out in particular when it comes to Joe Pass.

It was his complete command – and sheer amount of –  jazz vocabulary that he had at his disposal.

Which is the topic of today’s post, and why mastering vocabulary should be priority #1 when it comes to practicing jazz guitar.

Why Learning Vocabulary is So Important

Learning jazz without learning enough vocabulary is like learning a foreign language without learning many words.

The result:

You won’t be able to ‘speak’ jazz. Your musical conversation will be the equivalent of ‘Tarzan speak’.

Taking this analogy further – improvising is like having a conversation with the harmony of a jazz standard.

And if you don’t know to ‘say’ the right thing at the right time, you won’t leave a good impression!

To ‘converse’ with the harmony effectively, you need to not only know enough jazz ‘words’ and ‘sentences’ (more on this in a moment), but you also know how to use them in ways which clearly communicate your ideas.

Different Types of Jazz Vocabulary

The word ‘vocabulary’ is a pretty broad term when it comes to jazz. There are several types of vocabulary, such as:

Pitch Vocabulary – such as melodic patterns and phrases

Rhythm Vocabulary – different subdivisions of rhythms, rhythmic motives, familiarity with starting phrases on different points of the bar

Articulation Vocabulary – I.e. the way you play the notes on the guitar, such as slides, accents, staccato, and vibrato

Chordal Vocabulary – knowledge of different chord qualities and voicings.

I would also class substitutions as vocabulary as well, I.e. knowing how to apply melodic phrases in harmonic contexts different to the phrases original chord progression. But that’s another huge topic…

Anyway, a competent jazz improviser will have a large ‘stock’ of knowledge to draw from in all of these areas, that they then combine spontaneously in a solo.

If you feel like a ‘deer in the headlights’ when it’s time to take a solo, it’s likely you don’t have a large enough ‘stock’ of vocabulary – OR perhaps you do have enough vocabulary but are not familiar with it enough for it to be useful for spontaneous improvisation, as I’ll detail below…

Common Mistakes When Learning Jazz Vocabulary

Mistake #1 – Skimming rather than Diving Deep

Here’s the thing:

You don’t need to learn a lot of jazz vocabulary to be a competent jazz guitarist.

It’s far better to dive deep on just a few elements that really appeal to you.

One teacher told me once that ‘Just keep learning loads of transcriptions and vocabulary, and then see what sticks to your playing’.

But, I now don’t agree with this – it’s not an efficient learning approach, to ‘throw a heap of stuff at the wall and see what sticks’.

You are much better of selecting a piece of vocabulary that you like, and then really working on incorporating it deeply in your playing, so it firmly becomes part of your language.

Mistake #2 – Attempting to increase vocabulary just by learning full transcriptions of solos

Although learning to play a full transcription of another jazz musicians solo is an excellent way to teach you about many aspects of jazz such as overall feel, appreciation of how to structure a solo etc, it won’t directly teach you vocabulary that you can spontaneously incorporate into your own solos, in and of itself.

You need to go further than this with a transcription if the aim is to increase your vocabulary, by taking the time to deliberately extract the most appealing vocabulary the soloist uses, and then work it into your own solos deeply.

See below for some practice methods which I use to get the most out of the ideas I come across in transcriptions.

Practice Ideas For Learning Vocabulary

Let’s take an idea such as a ii – V – I line I’ve studied from a Joe Pass recording. How would I go about studying this line so that it would stick into my playing?

Here’s some of the key ways I go about this:

Learn the line in at least a few fretboard areas (e.g. if you know the CAGED system, see if the line fits in at least 2 other positions of that system)

Ensure you can play the line from memory as soon as possible, rather than rely on the sheet music – otherwise you might have the illusion that you know the line better then you actually do.

Move the line up the fretboard one fret at a time: Play the line in the original position and key. Then, simply move it up one fret and try to play it again, and work your way up and down the fretboard at least a few frets. Yes, it sounds simple – but can be quite challenging initially!

Play the line around the circle of 4ths (I.e. the ‘reverse’ direction of the circle of 5ths) – make a backing track that has ii – V – I progressions in the circle of 4ths and attempt to nail the line in every key change. Why the circle of 4ths? It resolves more naturally to each key in the circle.

Play the line with a different rhythmic pattern: E.g. if it is in eighth notes, attempt to play it in triplets, or sixteenth notes.

Play along with a backing track of a jazz standard you are familiar with, e.g. ‘All The Things You Are’, and attempt to play the line (or parts of the line) as many places as possible throughout the progression.

Investigate the nuts and bolts of what elements comprise the line. Extract concepts you find and make them a soloing focus on a jazz standard of your choice. As an exercise, I like to extract key concepts from lines I like the sound of then compose my own original lines based on those ideas.

These ideas are particularly appropriate when studying licks. Have a think about ways you could practice rhythmic vocabulary, articulation vocabulary, etc – so the ideas firmly ‘stick’ in your solos.

Summary

Overall, the approach that I’ve found works well to broadening my jazz vocabulary is to isolate a particular idea (whether it’s pitch ideas, rhythm ideas, articulations or whatever), and make it the sole focus of my practice over a few days, using the varied practice approaches listed above. Focus is the key.

To sum up:

Learning to improvise in a jazz style is primarily concerned with acquiring a large stock of vocabulary, and then deliberately practicing that vocabulary to attain ‘agility’ and spontaneity so that you could potentially apply the vocabulary in any solo.

Select ideas from recordings, courses or transcriptions that you enjoy the sound of – aim for a select amount of ideas that appeal to you rather than thinking you need to learn every Charlie Parker line to be able to play jazz!

Deliberately practice these ideas with laser-like focus using ideas along the lines of what was covered in this article, until the vocabulary becomes a natural part of your playing

Go further and extract key concepts from vocabulary you learn, and use that as the building blocks for developing your own vocabulary and hence your own unique sound as a jazz musician.

Tip: My FretDojo Jazz Guitar Academy teaches vocabulary according to this process, where every month you get to study new hand-picked vocabulary from master players and then apply them over classic jazz standards. For more info about working with me in the Academy, click here>>

I hope you enjoyed reading my musings about learning jazz vocabulary today. How about you? Do YOU have ideas or comments on this topic? Leave a comment below and let’s get the conversation started…

In this episode of the FretDojo.com Podcast, I had the great pleasure of speaking with one of the world’s top guitarists Carl Orr, who shares the deep insights gained over his long career in music and important practice tips for any aspiring jazz guitarist.

Check out the podcast here:

Thanks guys, let me know what you thought about this interview by leaving a comment at the bottom of this page.

Cheers,

Greg from FretDojo

Carl Orr

Carl Orr has performed and recorded with some of the finest musicians on the planet including Billy Cobham, George Duke, Ernie Watts, Randy Brecker, Gary Husband and Bennie Maupin.

He is a regular at London’s legendary Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in his own band and as a member of drummer Mark Fletcher’s supergroup “Fletch’s Brew”.

Carl has taught guitar at The Australian Institute of Music, Brunel University, Middlesex University, London Centre Of Contemporary Music and The Academy of Contemporary Music.

A prolific composer,Carl has recorded eight albums as a leader and is featured on albums by Billy Cobham, Fletch’s Brew, Geoff Eales and Nathan Haines.

His latest album, Forbearance is a dramatic departure from his jazz and fusion recordings of the past and with the aid of producer Tim van der Kuil and arranger Grant Windsor, Carl has crafted a truly unique acoustic guitar-based album exploring pop, rock, folk, Americana, and classical styles.

He regards his music as his public contribution to creating a peaceful, harmonious world.

“It is not enough for me for my music to merely be a manifestation of the chaos and disharmony of the world, but instead it must be a potent influence on creating peaceful relationships between people. My aim is to make the listener feel calm, optimistic and invigorated.” ~ Carl Orr

Today I want to share with you a fabulous conversation I had with Greg Stott, Associate Lecturer and Resident Jazz Guitarist at the Australian National University.

In this podcast, Greg delves into:

The biggest mistakes jazz guitarists make when it comes to practicing

Greg’s thoughts on jazz online education and how it compares to more traditional university based teaching

A sneak peek of Greg’s brand new albums coming out soon

and much more…

We also talk about the latest FretDojo Academy jazz guitar comping course that Greg Stott and I collaborated on, and the reasons for why mastering comping is an essential requirement for anyone wanting to call themselves a pro jazz player.

Thanks guys, let me know what you thought about this interview by leaving a comment at the bottom of this page.

Cheers,

Greg from FretDojo

Greg Stott

Greg is an Australian guitarist and teacher. He teaches jazz and contemporary guitar at the Australian National University and has been a featured performer at numerous events including the New Zealand International Jazz & Blues Festival, the Sydney Olympics Festival, the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, the National Folk festival and a number of international sporting events. He has also played for Australian Prime Ministers and foreign dignitaries and performed original compositions for national broadcast on ABC FM. Greg has returned to study and is currently completing his PhD at the Australian National University but still maintains a busy performing and recording schedule.

​In addition to performing with The Greg Stott Band and the Utopia Collective, Greg has performed or recorded with a range of jazz, classical and pop artists including:

Hetty Kate, Grace Knight, James Morrison, Andrew Gander, Tim Kain (Guitar Trek), Tim Strong (USA), Don Johnson, Miroslav Bukovsky, Brendan Clarke, Wayne Kelly, Craig Scott, Gery Scott, Craig Schneider, Ra Khahn, The Idea of North, John Mackey, Mike Price, Eric Ajaye, Col Hoorweg, James Greening, Dave Panichi, Ben Hauptman, Peta Gammie, Jackie Love, Rhonda Birchmore, Hayley Jensen (Australian Idol), Steve and Rae Amosa, Kirrah Amosa Gabby Birmingham, Elana Stone, Meg Corsen, Adam Sofo (The Voice, Silverchair, Guy Sebastian), Robbie Zootster, Steve Allen, The RMC Duntroon Big Band, and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra.

This time on FretDojo, I’m excited to share with you an interview I recently had with world-wide touring latin jazz guitarist from Norway, Per Olav Kobberstad.

Per Olav is one of those young, modern Latin jazz guitarists that are a breeze of fresh air and who are bringing all-welcome innovations to the genre. Just check out his credits:

Per Olav is one of the few in the world playing 8-string acoustic guitar

Released his debut album “Os Rios, As Ligações” with some of Brazil’s top musicians in 2014

Album “Colonial Colors” was released together with Alf Wilhelm Lundberg in 2016

Per Olav recorded his latest album “Cachorro À Vista” with one of the most legendary percussionists in Brazil, Robertinho Silva (known to play with Tom Jobim, Wayne Shorter, Weather Report, Milton Nascimento, Herbie Hancock and many more).

In the interview below, I go on a deep dive with Per Olav where he reveals how he started with Latin jazz, what led him to tour the world, his time gigging in Brazil, as well as how he approaches jazz guitar and composing music. It’s time to get up close with Per Olav – I suggest you bring a notepad as there are golden tips inside this interview.

Resources mentioned in the interview:

Per Olav Kobberstad official website where you can learn more about him

Per Olav plays 8-string guitars made by the luthier Esteban Gonzalez, Argentina

Order Per Olav Kobberstad CDs and check out his discography here.

Per Olav Kobberstad Official Facebook Page

This week on FretDojo, I’m happy to share with you an interview I recently held with internationally acclaimed jazz guitarist Howard Alden.

Howard is one of the leaders of jazz guitar in the modern era. His accolades include:

Student the Guitar Institute of Technology in 1977-78 with Herb Ellis, Joe Pass, and Howard Roberts

Collaborations with Dick Hyman, Dan Barrett, Bucky Pizzarelli and many others

Alden recorded the guitar performances for Sean Penn‘s character Emmet Ray in Woody Allen‘s 1999 film Sweet and Lowdown – and taught Penn how to mime the performances for the film(!)

Recorded many albums with Concord Records as well as other labels, including four with the famed 7 string jazz guitar innovator George Van Eps

Has been the recipient of many awards, including:

Best Emerging Guitar Talent, JazzTimes (1990)

Guitar Player of the Year, American Guitar Museum (2003)

Top 75 Guitarists, Down Beat (2008)

Jazz critics have said of Howard Alden that “He may be the best of his generation” and “the most impressive and creative member of a new generation of jazz guitarists.”

In the interview below, I go on a deep dive with Howard about his journey with jazz guitar from a youngster to where he is today. I also ask Howard to reveal his secrets for how to maximise the results you get in the practice room – there were some fantastic tips Howard gives in this interview that you should definitely pay attention to.

Resources mentioned by Howard Alden:

3 Part Guitar Compendium by the late Howard Roberts and Garry Hasberg (3 book set)

George Van Eps Guitar Solos (book)

Solos From “Sweet and Lowdown” – Howard Alden (book)

Featured during the interview are tracks from Howard Alden’s recently released solo jazz guitar album ‘Guitar’ – get your copy here.

Find out more about Howard at howardalden.com

https://www.youtube.com/embed/iTms74tbBH8

It’s finally here:

As the final post in the FretDojo.com series on jazz blues guitar I’ve featured this month, I’m honored to welcome critically acclaimed jazz guitarist Mark Whitfield, in this exclusive interview.

Audio Version:

Simply put, this was one of the best conversations about jazz guitar I’ve ever had, and I was thrilled that Mark had time in his busy schedule for our conversation.

This interview also includes the title track off Mark’s brand new album, Grace – his 15th album as a bandleader and first release for 7 years.

A truly family affair, the new album features his two sons, Davis Whitfield on keys and Mark Whitfield Jr. on drums, as part of the Whitfield Family Band. I highly recommend checking it out! Get the album here>>

 About Mark Whitfield

Mark Whitfield is one of the most highly regarded jazz guitarists alive today.

Throughout his career, he’s collaborated with legendary artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, Herbie Hancock, George Benson, and many others.

In 1990 the New York Times dubbed Whitfield “The Best Young Guitarist in the Business”. Later that year, Warner Bros. released his debut album The Marksman.

I reached out to Mark after working on a transcription from one of the tracks from this album: The Blues From Way Back, a jazz guitar blues I’ve been featuring lately on this website.

(Check out the full transcription I did of Mark’s solo from the Blues From Way Back here and a breakdown of essential licks from the solo here.)

In the interview, you’ll learn about…

Mark’s special relationship with the blues, and how he’s naturally been drawn to incorporating it into his jazz style.

Mark’s journey with jazz guitar, studying at Berklee College of Music, sessions at the Blue Note in New York, and beyond

Mark’s thoughts on how to learn jazz guitar to make solid progress, regardless of the time you have for practice.

The essential ingredients of an effective and rewarding jazz guitar practice session

How Mark met Joe Pass as a young man, leading to one of the most important (and unusual!) jazz guitar masterclasses he ever had.

Album’s and Resources Mentioned By Mark:

Album: Portraits of Duke Ellington – Joe Pass, feat. Ray Brown & Bobby Durham (1974)

Album: Breezin’ – George Benson (1976)

Mark’s brand new album Grace – to find out more and to get your copy, visit the album page on CD Baby here or on iTunes.

Thanks for Checking This Out!

To share your thoughts:

Leave a note in the comment section below.

Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, or anywhere else you hang out online.

Special thanks to Mark Whitfield for joining me this week. Find out more about Mark Whitfield via these links:

Website: markwhitfield.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialmarkwhitfieldguitaristpage/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markwhitfieldtheguitarist/

Until next time!

I’ve got something special to share with you today.

To kick off this month’s series on jazz guitar blues, you’re going to learn a complete transcription of highly acclaimed jazz guitarist Mark Whitfield’s solo from The Blues, from Way Back: a track from his classic debut album, The Marksman (1990).

In today’s post, you’re going to learn:

The reasons why studying transcriptions is so important for any jazz guitarist

How to play the complete transcription of Mark Whitfield’s first solo from the recording of The Blues, from Way Back

A general overview of the types of approaches and concepts Whitfield uses in this solo.

Cool Bonus: Get access to a FREE print friendly PDF version of The Blues, from Way Back transcription by Mark Whitfield, complete with notation, TAB and analysis.

First, let’s have a brief discussion on why to learn a transcription in the first place…

Why Learn a Jazz Guitar Blues Transcription?

Learning transcriptions of master players is one of the most important things you can do as a jazz guitarist.

The reason?

It gives you a complete all-around jazz guitar workout.

Here’s how it works:

Usually transcriptions are tough technically, so learning a transcription is a great way to build up your technique.

You’ll learn a wealth of jazz vocabulary that fits well together, giving you plenty of new ideas to bring into your own playing.

Learning a transcription is the best way by far to train your ears – especially if you transcribe a recording from scratch.

By playing a transcription along with the original recording it was transcribed from, you’ll get a sense of how to add shape to your own solos – i.e., how to structure the rise and fall of a solo in order to tell a captivating musical story.

The last point is particularly important.

If you just learn jazz guitar licks in isolation, without listening to the lick in the context of the full solo it came from, you won’t get a well-rounded picture on how to the lick effectively as you improvise.

Here’s the thing:

Even if you end up only delving into a few licks from a transcription after you learn the full solo, these licks act as a kind of ‘trigger’ in your mind for the general vocabulary and approaches contained in the complete transcription.

So, learning a transcription is a very effective way to learn a huge amount of jazz vocabulary in a short space of time.

Convinced? Good. So let’s now dig into the transcription itself…

The Blues, From Way Back

The Blues, from Way Back is a track from Mark Whitfield’s debut album The Marksman, which catapulted him to international recognition in the 90s after he graduated from Berklee College of Music.

Why did I want to transcribe this recording?

This solo is probably the best example of jazz guitar blues I’ve come across, so I was keen to study this one intensely in order to get a more authentic jazz blues sound into my improvised lines.

Here’s the original recording of The Blues, from Way Back on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/HtG9zqlnACk

What I particularly like about this solo is how seamlessly Mark Whitfield weaves traditional blues ideas between sophisticated bebop vocabulary.

Learning this solo has also been a great technique builder for my own playing.

Both the bluesy licks and the bebop lines are classic pieces of vocabulary that are really worthwhile to work into your own playing.

Presenting The Complete Jazz Guitar Blues Transcription!

So here it is:

The complete transcription of Mark Whitfield’s first solo from The Blues, from Way Back.

Watch the video to get a demonstration of the fingerings I used to play the solo, then read through the notation and TAB of the transcription below.

(Hint: If you want a print-friendly PDF of the transcription,click here to access it now).

Note: Fast-forward the video to 5:00 in for a close-up slow-motion view of my hands as I play the solo (if you need a closer look at the fingerings in action).

https://www.youtube.com/embed/YWOLlssunFM

Backing Track:

https://fretdojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/blues-backing-track-C-110bpm.mp3

Having trouble printing out the above transcription? Get a print-friendly PDF version by clicking here…

You may be scratching your head as to what some of the annotations are in the analysis below the notation, so here’s what they all mean:

Key:

4123 = Bebop finger pattern using 4123 fingers in that sequence

Aalt = A Altered Scale

AN = Approach Note

ANT = Harmonic Anticipation

APhrDom = A Phrygian Dominant Scale

BN = Blues Note

C7arp = C7 arpeggio

Chr = Chromatic Approach Chord

Chrom = Chromatic notes

CMajBl = C Major Blues Scale

CMinPent = C Minor Pentatonic

CMixo = C Mixolydian

App = Double Approach Notes

Ch.Enc = Diatonic Chromatic Enclosure

Enc = Diatonic Enclosure

DStop = Double Stops

Enc = Chromatic Enclosure

LN = Lower Neighbour Note

PN = Passing Note

Q = Quartal Voicing

UN = Upper Neighbour Note

Also, you may have noticed that I play entirely fingerstyle on the video, but Mark Whitfield uses a pick on the original recording.

A confession…

My plectrum style simply wasn’t up for the job of playing a solo as difficult as this, so I resorted to using my more secure fingerstyle technique for this one.

Feel free to use either a pick or fingerstyle to play this solo depending on what you’re most comfortable with.

Tips for Learning a Transcription to Get Great Results

There’s no doubt about it:

When you study a transcription like this, it’s crucially important to practice it in an effective way.

Here are some tips to ensure you end up getting the sounds of the transcription into your own playing when you improvise:

Memorize the transcription – don’t just read it off the page! Learn the transcription just one small phrase or even one bar at a time, and memorize it as you go. You’ll learn it faster, and assimilate the sounds into your ears much more than if you read a whole page at a time and then try to memorize a whole chunk at once. You’ll find that if you memorize as you go, you’ll memorize it much faster and more securely that way.

Listen to the video (especially Mark Whitfield’s original recording of The Blues, from Way Back). Don’t just try to emulate the notes and rhythms, but also the sound, feel and phrasing that he uses in his playing. This is all the stuff you can’t notate on a page but is one of the most important benefits of learning a transcription: learning how to shape and ‘speak’ your phrases in an authentic way.

Once you can play the transcription through, circle licks and patterns that appeal to you in the solo, and practice incorporating them into your own improvisations.

Practice improvising on a blues backing track in the style of the transcription you’ve just learned – this is a great way to bring your own original voice to the material.

One more thing:

Pay close attention is to the fingerings that I’ve given in the TAB – it matches the fingerings that I play on my video. Getting a workable fingering is one of the most crucial aspects of being able to sound fluent on your instrument.

Vocabulary Ideas Used in The Blues, from Way Back

Let’s look at some general points on the ideas Whitfield uses in his solo to create interest. Start experimenting with these in the woodshed, as they are classic jazz blues vocabulary ideas:

Sliding from b3 to 3 – this is a well-known blues cliche but Whitfield does it so much throughout the solo it helps give that classic blues sound throughout.

Harmonic Anticipation: Whitfield often anticipates a chord in his solo before it appears in the rhythm section. This is a simple way to create interest and forward motion in your playing and is a technique that’s been used since Charlie Christian. In particular, Whitfield often anticipates the I7 (C7) chord when the harmony is still on V7 (G7).

Harmonic Generalization – This means using the same lick or idea without transposing it over various key centers. This is an easy way to create tension and interest.

Alternating C Major Pentatonic/Blues and C Minor Pentatonic/Blues – using these two distinct harmonic colors is another classic blues idea that helps to keep the interest going in this solo.

Motive Repetition – Whitfield reuses a lot of phrases over and over throughout the solo in various ways – can you spot them?

Alternating between fast tension and slow relaxation – Most of the double time lines you can see in this solo are classic bebop vocabulary. The solo creates tension by using these elaborate double time lines. This tension is then released by following the double time lines with more simple pentatonic and blues lines. This helps to maintain interest, excitement, and variety.

Conclusion

As you can see, there’s a wealth of jazz vocabulary to be unearthed in The Blues, from Way Back solo by Mark Whitfield.

But we’ve only just scratched the surface…

Once you’ve learnt the whole transcription, it’s time to take some key lines and concepts out of the solo and incorporate them into your own playing in a deeper way.

That’s what part 2 of this series will be all about.

In my next upcoming post, I’m going to dig deeper into a few of the licks out of The Blues, from Way Back solo, look at how they function and give you tips on how you can incorporate them into your own playing.

I look forward to working on these with you then – stay tuned… :-)

Cheers,

Greg O’Rourke

BMus (Hons), ANU

Special thanks to Mark Whitfield for giving me the permission to publish this transcription on FretDojo.com. Find out more about Mark at his website, www.markwhitfield.com.