Relaxin' at Camarillo

A Lesson

I took a lesson today, the first one I've had for around nine or ten months. Mostly, we talked about where I should be going next, which inevitably lead to the not-to-be-avoided issues of voice-leading and (of course) melodicism.

First, I was made to to feel sick by how well the guy plays, and then was given a couple of good exercises intended to teach harmonic fluidity by emphasising the golden rules of minimal movement and maximal common tones. For example: take any iii, vi dom, V, I progression such as Em7-A7b9-Dm7-Cmaj7. Using the same basic inversion (string set) for the E-7, D-7, and Cmaj7 chords, build a smooth, linear connection between all the chords by finding fingerings for the A7b9 and G7b9 that are on the same string set, and as close as possible to the others. This'll help explain what I mean:

You can see that the minor chords and the Cmaj7th chord are the same inversion, it's just that the minors have their 3rd and 7ths flatted, obviously. The 7b9 chords are derived from a different inversion, although one that is also on the top four strings, and which fits in there perfectly to build a nice line that smoothly descends. Naturally, as there are a gazillion inversions in different sets all over the fretboard, this exercise contains several years of work alone. Probably best to start with three different sets of inversions and see how it goes from there. Put some single-note fills in too.

Which leads me to the next exercise, an idea for melodically ornamenting chord progressions and coming up with rubato introductions, although I admit to not really understanding how to make anything of this quite yet. The idea is to think only of the two-note "core" of the chords (as in all the recent two-note comping I've been doing.) Taking the same progression (Em7-A7b9-Dm7-Cmaj7), think only of the 3rd and 7th at the heart of each chord. Now, given that the core gives the chord its identity, and therefore never changes, ornament the centre by making single-note lines from all the possible alterations and extensions that might be part of a fuller chord.

But there's more: because the dominant chords contain a tritone and are therefore candidates for tritone (or flat-five) substitution, the 3rd and the 7th of the dominant chords can be thought of as either the 7th and 3rd of the original chord, or as the 3rd and 7th of the new substitution. This means that there's not one, but two, basic chords to make melody lines from, including all their various alterations and extensions. For example, I could think of the notes G and C# as either the 7th and 3rd of A7, or as the 3rd and 7th of Eb7, and make lines from either chord so as to describe (for the sake of argument) A7b9, A7b9#5, A13, or A7#11, or Eb79, Eb7#9, Eb7#11, etc. As long as the core retains its identity, and the movement from one core to the next is cleary marked in the progression , then it's always going to sound ok. I should probably get a sound file to describe this better.

Finally, we discussed playing melodically, and, as usual, it was a case of "use the force." However, having diagnosed my playing and pronounced it less knackers that I find it to be myself, he suggested resisting the urge to run up and down the scales by using more string skipping, and most of all, generally playing much less (although now I think about it, the advice "you should play much less" might not be quite the encouragement I was looking for.) It's advice he's received himself, as he's currently taking lessons with Lorne Lofsky who's constantly advising him to use more space. I love Canadians -- their vast nation has gifted them a characterological predisposition to think always "emptiness."

On a side-note, he casually claimed that there are only three guitarists worth listening to in terms of innovation and technique: Howard Roberts, Joe Pass, and Wes Montgomery. All the others, so the argument went, were basically versions of these great men. Interesting, but a throw-away comment in the course of a friendly chat, so please, no death threats from hardcore Larry Coryell fanatics willing to spill blood to defend his honour. George Van Eps fans, however, can kiss my honky British a**...

(Ahem). Lots to think about, there, then, and no doubt I won't have hardly touched it by the time I see him again next week. Cheers.

Radio Days

A couple of radio shows have come to our attention. The first is particularly relevant: an episode of NPR's Open Source that features one Frenchman's perception of American jazz. It's thoroughly enjoyable even if I do suspect both men of faking their accents.

On the other hand, Resonance FM, a London arts radio station that probably features more fraudulent accents than any other broadcaster in human history, has a series of shows coming up hosted by Will Hodkinson, a music journalist whose recent book, Guitar Man, recounts how he decided to learn the guitar and perform a gig within twelve months. The follow-up is about him setting up a record label with his mates. It starts on April 9th, and while probably won't have much to do with jazz, it's all guitar talk, and he wrote me a friendly note, so there.

Gypsy Jazz Sundays

Tchavolo Schmitt, Dorado Schmitt, and Stochelo Rosenberg, "J'attendrai."

Change of Address

As of today, Relaxin' at Camarillo can be accessed via a new, easy-to-remember URL: www.relaxinatcamarillo.com.

(The old one still works too, but if you're using the new one, don't forget to drop that "g". Sloppy grammar continues to be universally recognized sign that us jazz cats are hep not square, as in "Breezin'," "Groovin' High," and "Struttin' with Some Barbeque.")

Rest assured that the name is all that's changing, and that Relaxin' at Camarillo remains your full-service, tip-top, one-stop jazz blog for info, tips, and crappy tapes of me playing guitar.

Now over to Holland's mighty Pim Jacobs Trio, kindly taking time out of their 1961 tour of Wallonia to help us celebrate our relaunch. Take it away, guys...

Melody Is Your Pilot

Just like every other brother, I'd like my improvisations to sound more mellow and melodic and less like a clockwork kangaroo hopping up a metal staircase before turning back to fetch something he's forgotten. Unfortunately, soliciting advice on how to play melodically is a bit like asking for a tape recording of one hand clapping. You always get the same response: to sound more melodic, you have to play more melodically. No shit.

It comes as no surprise that taste is much, much harder to acquire than facility -- consider all those shredders on YouTube -- but there is something you can do to give yourself a little melodic push. Dave Woods gave me this excellent tip the other day: pick a tune and look at which melody notes fall on beat one of every second bar. Familiarize yourself with them and play them against the chords while singing the rest of the melody in your head. When you come to improvise, keep these notes in their appropriate place while building a solo around them. The melody notes are your reference notes, or (using a possibly more familiar term) "target" notes, serving to remind the listener of the relationship of your solo to the original melody.

Using "Summertime" as an example, here's a clip of just the reference notes: Summertime Reference Tones. Now put a solo in the gaps: Summertime Reference Tones Solo. (If you have a chart in front of you, you'll see that I haven't strictly followed the rules regarding hitting the note on the "one" of every other bar, but have rather chosen those notes that most distinctively describe the overall shape of the melody. This is really the point of Dave's tip).

Once you've practiced with one note every two bars, try one note every four bars, with the aim always to know where the melody is at any place in the form so that your solo can dip in and out of it at any time, regardless of how many choruses you've doing.

I have a long, long, long way to go with this, but think it an excellent little method to induce thinking about building solos that bear some relevance to the initial tune. Now I have to start playing fewer notes but better ones. Oh, and you also have to learn every melody in the fake book.

Great Leap Forward

Pete the bass player and I got together last night to pick up the pieces. It's hard to play as a duo and very exposing if you don't have chops and arrangements, and all the listening in the world to Jim Hall and Ron Carter won't cover those eggy gaps and clams. Still, I think it went well enough and the recordings give some cause for optimism. Here's a "My Funny Valentine" that starts off tentatively and generally gets better, though the whole thing starts to sag in places and we only just manage to pull it together. The bass could do with being a bit louder too, but that's my fault as he kept asking to turn up while I fretted about sleeping babies.

I'm starting to feel self-conscious about the repetition in my repertoire. I know how fickle you public can be, and I'd hate to bore you all (all 38 of you - I have ways of finding out, you know, which reminds me, a very special "Camarillo hello" to the reader in Minsk). Got any tune suggestions?

GLF: My Funny Valentine

100th Post

It's been a little emotional 'round here of late -- not to mention French and scatological -- but it's no use crying indefinitely into one's Pernod, for the world moves on and there are plenty more drummers in the sea. As this is the hundredth post on my little "glog" (equals guitar-blog... d'you see what I did there?) and therefore a momentous occasion worthy of brass bands and salmon mousse, I refuse to be downcast, though admit to feeling musically directionless as all my practice had been geared towards the band of which we no longer speak. The last thing I want is to return to fruitless noodling only to discover that a year has gone by and all I've learnt is a couple of Martino licks and the head to "Billie's Bounce." I need a project, and while I'm looking for one, I thought I might as well go back and cover some of the things I always said I would do and never did.

The first is adding basslines to chord-melodies. I've been going on about it for ages, but never really got down to it, fearing that I might lack the necessary co-ordination. In fact, I got the hang of it after about 20 minutes, discovering that it's all in the counting. I also dug out this book and went back and reviewed Kevin van Sant's excellent little .wmv primer on the topic.

So this is what you need to do:

1. Watch the Kevin van Sant video, that pretty much says it all.

2. Work out the bassline. Once asked how to play basslines, Joe Pass famously said "first decide what you want the bassline to sound like, then play it." What a bastard! I say, use a combination of "bumps" (one fret sidesteps in and out of the root note), major and dominant chord walks that go root-3rd-4th-#4th-5th and back, and notes from the scale of the chord (root-2nd-b3rd works well for minor chords). For chords that have a root on the fifth string (and if your line is descending), it sounds good if you play the root of the chord followed by its fifth located on the sixth string immediately above. It's all in Kevin van Sant's video.

3. Use two- or three-note fingerings for the chord stabs. They only have to be very basic fingerings that give the overall flavour - major, minor, dominant - of the chord. Extensions need not apply. Use a barre if it's easier. It's all supposed to be easy.

4. Play the bass on the downbeat and the chords on the upbeat. Being kack-handed, I had some problems co-ordinating this, but it got better after I started counting like this: One - STAB - two - and - three - STAB- four. In case you didn't get it, play the bassnotes on the numbers and stab the chord on STAB (you psychotic mental case).

Here's an example of me having a go at it playing the ubiquitous "Autumn Leaves." Sorry it's not more exciting, but I wanted to start on something I know well: Autumn Bassline

And here's a chart:Autumn Bassline PDF (I forgot to put the key signature in. Again, sorry).

Artwork by John Lurie.

Gypsy Jazz Sundays

Django Reinhardt writes:

"Aussitôt que j'ai entendu parler de Massif Central je ne pourrais pas le croire... J'ai été si choqué, je suis allé directement hors sur une cinq frénésie de jour. Maintenant je me sens terrible.

Les excuses pour mon français. Je suis en fait belge. Et illettré."

Le Merde Central

Forgive me if I seem a little merde obsessed of late. Perhaps this post would've been better entitled Le Massif Central est Mort.

Last November, we were booked to play a gig on April 12th. We found a good sax player, got our set list together and started practicing. We weren't about to set the world alight, but it was going well. This morning, one of us casually announces that he's actually going to be in New Orleans on April 12th, so sorry, can't play. We can't play the gig without him, so we've had to pull out.

What a let-down. I'm really disappointed, but most of all, too furious to speak. Needless to say, it has been a day of terse exchanges, at the end of which, Le Massif Central are no more.

On the bright side, as today's death of Jean Baudrillard shows, the whole French Existential thing is getting a little tired. At least now we're free to pursue our Moaist bop duo, "Great Leap Forward."

Bollocks.

Nights in Tunisia

I've been spending forever trying to find something decent to play over "A Night in Tunisia." I want it to sound urgent and antsy... like a midnight attack of agoraphobia in a crowded Libyan market on the hottest night in August while trying to escape from angry Serbian skinheads who want to slice you up after you said something intrinsically camp to them after you'd gobbled some lysergic desert shrub that's coming on really friggin' strong now you've started running and to compound it all, you desperately need a piss but there's no where to go as the walls are breathing and people are rubbing themselves up against them in a manner that's both crippled but pleasantly suggestive, while darting their hands out at your armpits like a zillion shaved pecky emu faces and you've just noticed that underneath their headscarves all the women are in fact giant sea-horses who are horribly sick because they need water or they're going to die. Water, sir, please find us water. Oh no, and now the shrub's repeating on you and you really need a poo but you can't remember the way back to the cathedral. Good job you've still got your tuba... You get the picture. Not sure I really pulled it off: Tunisia bit

On a more mundane note, I lowered my neck pickup to try and take round out the highs and get a fatter tone. Whaddaya think: Fly Me to the Moon morsel