This sprightly channel delves into the intricacies of jazz and fusion Improvisation along with 20c classical music theory and compositional techniques. Although, it all might sound a bit serious, it's really just about looking at how music works, taking it apart and then applying it, and..hopefully, having a bit of fun along the way!
My 1st study is classical piano, although, through some strange encounter I ended up moving over to guitar....
I also run a website at www.jazzimproviser.com
Thanks for visiting and if you like this channel then please remember to subscribe!
Thanks Phil, very kind words, appreciated! To be honest, I don't like uploading shorts very much, but it seems to be the only way to get subscribers nowadays. Long form videos just don't seem to be so popular as they used to be, so I just cut up my main videos and try a shorts response. Seem to get less views but more subscribers. It's the problem with youtube the algorithm seems to be always changing. Having said that it might just be me lol!👍
Another great overview/explanation and set of exercises. It seems like a lot of Fripp''s music springs from these kinds of exercises, the kind of practice that is essential to pursue if you want to be capable of playing rapid-fire arpeggios for more than a couple of seconds.
Thanks Marshall, Yeah, it's not just the exercises but the intervals in the exercises. The intervals are less common in plectrum guitar due to being more whole tone or diminished scale orientated as opposed to basic major scale leanings. But, the alternate picking or cross picking or sometimes a mixture of the two work well with this type of music/playing.👍👍👍👍
@@CliffordMartinOnline I see. Good points, and great playing. As a hobby, I play bass guitar, and dabble on the Chapman Stick, and for me, it's all fingers. I'm going to try some of these intervals and exercises on bass and stick and see how it goes. Quick runs on the bass is easy, but Fripp's relentless arpeggio approach might not be. Hmm..maybe I'll grab a pick if my fingers can't keep up. The stick is all tapping, which could actually be easier in many cases.
Fantastic job man! Just subscribed. Wish I could subscribe twice! BTW are you using normal tension nylon strings? Also do you have any experience using low tension nylon strings for jazz? Any information on this front would be most appreciated!
Hi Frozenpilot, thanks!!! I am not sure what strings I am using in the video. But I generally use either Ernesto Palla [Ernie Ball] nylon ball end black/gold strings Normal tension or D'Addario Pro Arte Normal tension [Re packet] strings. I don't think I have ever used low tension strings. 👍
@@CliffordMartinOnline thankyou for the reply! I'll have to give those a go! They sound great. Again, many thanks for the content you produce. Just what I needed exactly when I needed it! Peace
I’m curious about Sandole. I don’t know much about him but he’s kind of an important figure in the history of jazz. Btw the late great Duncan Lamont had some similar scales in his book … I never asked where he got them. Maybe Dennis!
Hi, Dennis Sandole taught lots of legends like John Coltrane, Pat Martino and Michael Brecker. He wrote a book called "Guitar Lore" and is quite well known for his advanced approach to music theory/harmony and concepts like polytonal scales and chromaticism. I would imagine that Coltrane took a lot of ideas and harmonic shifts like "Naima" and "Giant Steps" from the harmonic palette that Sandole laid out. Having said that there isn't lots of info out there just bits and pieces that I have seen. But, it's always really inspirational stuff.👍
@@CliffordMartinOnline he had a long career of course a bit like Barry Harris… But I don’t get the impression he was teaching students to play jazz exactly. But this was a guy who was into Indian Raga’s in the 40s. Interested in learning more, I’ll take a look at the Guitar Lore book at some point when I’m not being pelted with Cheerios
@@JazzGuitarScrapbook Yeah, Banacos is another great guy, also Lennie Tristano used to do some interesting superimpositions too. It must have been great back then because all of this stuff would have been so new and revolutionary.
Hi Joe, yeah, sometimes. I had a back flare up this week so I had to keep my posture as straight as I could and the Ergoplay is really good for that. For me It's a simple but really great invention, and comes in very useful 👍
Thank you for the nice review. The book comes with an audio CD which is where you'll find all the demos and playalong tracks. And a lot more info on the subject.
@@ThunderboatsVideo Hi Don, thanks, yeah, sorry I forgot to mention the C.D....The problem is that this is the best book out there on target tones [especially for guitar], BUT...It seems to be out of print? I recommend this book to so many people but they can't always find a copy.....Will it be back in print at some point? Thanks Cliff
ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL VIDEO.. THE CAMERA ANGLE'S ARE FANTASTIC... I LOVE YOUR VIDEO'S..VERY INFORMATIVE AND ACCURATE.. UNCLE~MR.AL DI MEOLA WAS/IS MY VERY FIRST GUITAR HERO..RIGHT ALONG WITH UNCLE~MR.MICHAEL SCHENKER.... KEEP CRANKING OUT THESE TYPES OF VIDEO'S....AND REMEMBER I AM YOUR BIGGEST NON-ELECTRICAL FAN... HAAAAA
Thanks Phil, appreciated, just making shorts out of the longer videos as shorts seem to be the only way to get subscribers with the algorithm lately for some reason.
This is a very valuable technique. Al Di Meola mentions it a lot, and I think it can both facilitate execution and make the phrasing of a given passage more impactful. So thanks for this lesson. And now I'm going to start grating cheese, but for a good cause. Your tuition content, including the shorter videos is outstanding. Is there anyway you could make the transcriptions available in pdf format? Some simple to implement solutions would be Patreon, Buy Me A Coffee, or just Gumroad. The content could be per video or be grouped in packs, with links to the respective videos, whatever is the less time and work intensive for you. I appreciate your putting transcriptions on screen, but for learning complex runs/licks/etudes I really prefer having the score without having to rewind or pause a video. I am sure I am not the only one who would be willing to pay a couple of quids/euros/dollars etc... to both support you and have access to the score for learning. Think about it?
Thanks Patrick, appreciated. I do have a website at www.jazzimproviser.com with lots of free downloads/webpages. If you look in the menu bar and click Blog Archives/PdfDownloads there is a list of free PDF and blog posts......I aim to start a RU-vid memberships [or Patreon] very soon as I feel it's the best way to upload content and get paid for it as I don't get many views for a lot of my videos.....Yeah, Al di Meola uses the "Down Down Up" a lot in his chordal picking and does go into this in his REH video from the 80's.👍
Thank you so so very much. I feel that a lot of guitarists either dislike Fripp or ignore him which is a shame Do you have a version of the video where it is not on it's side ?? It'a rather hard to follow the way it is currently displayed . Thank you for all you do !! :) rock on
Thanks Nick! Here is the full video not on its side ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2-dkdcuId_w.html Yeah, I agree, a lot of guitarists seem to be either slightly obsessive about Fripp or just completely disregard him. I think that might not be a bad thing though as there are lots of little concepts that can be taken from him that can be exploited into some really original ideas 👍
Circling back to your work after a while of doing my own thing. LOVE these exercises. The videos and transcriptions on your site have really open the flood gates for me, thank you!
@@CliffordMartinOnline I'm Australian, I think there's a BBC comedy take on it with well known comedians but the original I'm not too sure on. Our version was called "Letters and Numbers"
As of late, I came to a conclusion that particular approaches in music yield particular sounds: if you always think in the Berklee chord-scale approach, you will sound like everybody else coming from that field. I feel that people should study different compositional/improvisational techniques and there's many of them: the Barry Harris method, Pat Martino's approach, Berklee is also fine. Once you know them all, you can pick and choose different aspects of each one, according to taste and build an idiosyncratic sound. I might be kind of biased since I am less interested in imporvising and more interested in composition which is, arguably, easier to learn quickly but I do think that Barry was right in having his students build unique lines and approaching licks from an analytical perspective: you look at licks to see HOW they work, the theory behind them, and then you apply said theory to create something unique.
Hi, Yeah I agree.All of the methods are brilliant especially those by Barry Harris and Pat Martino....I consider myself a composer 1st and have found that improvisation and composition are really just different ends of the same stick because a really amazing improviser for instance someone like Chick Corea actually "Re-Composed" the music or re-composed the tune.....But, yeah, in music you do need a broad outlook and it really does help to develop an original musical vocabulary/style.👍
Thanks for your thoughts Cliff. The only thing I’d put differently would be “live” instead of “off line”. Off line gives too much credence to the very thing that is the problem, social media.
I’m wondering if you’re still using the 2mm pick you have used in earlier videos? Maybe it’s the steel strings that make it sound like it’s a lighter gauge pick 🤷
It's the same pick. I very lightly file the sides and it "Seems" to give a brighter sound. Also, the iPhone [a 6 and a 13] seems to pick this guitar up okay. 👍
@@CliffordMartinOnline It’s the pick I’m specially interested in. I’m still trying different picks and whenever I find a player with a great RH such as yours I can’t help myself 🤓
I love Mancuso and as I said I followed him and did a video on his style before any one had really heard of him. I was saying that the really great jazz playing and creative improvising seems to have given way to basic tapping and pentatonic's with distortion.I do say on the video that he's seriously talented and one of the great new guitarists....Also, I do say that my opinion is completely unimportant and so is everyones and a musician should always follow their own path and their own opinion as it's the only way to get ahead and survive in music.👍
Hi Steeyuv, thanks. This is just a "Celebrity" model from the early 2000's. I don't think it even has a sold top, but for some reason it does resonate quite well and is good for youtube videos. They're funny instruments the Ovation's, I love them.👍
quick, non-guitar-related question: why all the reverb on the vocal when you say "down, up, down, up, up...?" just giving things that extra musical aesthetic?
Hi, it's because I record everything clean on one track and add the reverb afterwards. Which means that I have to cut the track into different tracks. So, compressor=speak and guitar=reverb. It's quite a lot of work to do so when it comes to notes and speaking I can't separate I just leave it on the reverb track. Finally I bounce it and add the audio track to the video.👍
@@CliffordMartinOnline I see. it's the same verb you're putting on the guitar track. & you make these vids with a classical guitar... so there's a mic, but a direct input. I get it!! ;-) I just discovered your channel this morning (probably yesterday morning by the time you read this) because I've been on a real adrian belew kick lately. I love what you're doing here!!
Hi, Yeah it's amazing how much power music has to get us through difficult and dark times. I've had music get me through some very difficult times in my life, sometimes just picking up the instrument has a healing quality, glad crimson got you through.👍
