Speaking of Harmony

In this episode I dive into what's known as the Brazilian "Swing" of the 16th notes, a very particular way of how the rhythms are felt and interpreted, how one needs to be thinking on a 16th note grid instead of the very common 8th note base grid. I give examples on the difference it makes when you play Brazilian grooves this way and how it is a very important foundation for this kind of music. Enjoy!

In this episode, another highly requested one, I go into exploring a bit of the Quartal Chord Voicings - something heavily used but jazz artists such as McCoy Tyner and a very common piece of vocabulary used in jazz harmony nowadays. I talk a bit about the differences between Quartal Harmony vs Quartal Voicing and give examples of how one can manipulate and expand the harmonic palette by using these types of voicings. Enjoy!

In this episode, duo to so many requests, I dive in some of the harmonies used by the great Swedish trio Dirty Loops, a super group that has been making waves worldwide for quite some time now. Apart from the astonishing rhythm output and the group's performance interaction, their harmonies are super colorful, complex and - as we will investigate throughout this episode - full of great voice leading. I'm covering a few aspects (because one episode is definitely not enough) of their use of harmony and voice leading by taking a closer look at their cover arrangement of the super hit "Forever Young", Alphaville's famous big hit. Enjoy!

What's a Melodic Axis? In this episode I talk about something that is also commonly called "Guide Tones", a look into how all the diatonic-jazz harmony can mostly be traced by its intervals of 3rds and 7ths, allowing us to use such intervals as a framework for voice leading the chords. You can experiment with that and realize you can pretty much only play those intervals in the progression and it will still hear how the harmony is moving. Enjoy!

In this episode I talk about odd meters and a few strategies on how to comp over these bars, how to bring in arpeggios into the mix and getting away from the default way most people accent these bars. Enjoy!

In this episode I address a question from a subscriber, who complements the relaxed way he sees me playing and asks me to talk about my technique. I go in detail about playing relaxed, how technique plays a part in it and how it always has to serve and adapt to whatever ideas I'm hearing and wanna project out of the instrument. Enjoy!

In this episode, very familiar sounds: Diatonic Riffs. Showing how one can explore these as a melodic gesture as well as incorporating it into the harmony and helping with maintaining motion even if you're stuck in one chord. Enjoy!

In this episode I present to you the Classical Baritone Guitar - what a beautiful instrument. Per request, I show a little bit of the instrument, how I tune it, what kind of colors you can get and all kind of possibilities of Voice Leading on Baritone Guitar. Enjoy!

In this episode I address a commonly asked one: How do you create non-diatonic progressions. I show one of the strategies I personally use to deal with that - utilizing color as the leading factor, most of the time using a single note to lead the harmony into uncharted territories. Enjoy!

In this episode I show this cool trick you can do on guitar, taking advantage of the way the open strings are tuned - where you can achieve chromatic half steps using open strings. That allow us to play more open string chords on unusual keys and also help with harmonic progressions where voices can be maintained as the chord moves to the next. Enjoy!