8 Pro Guitarists SHRED at 300BPM! 

What was your #1 takeaway? Who else would you want to see on these guitar collabs? Let me know in the comments! 👇

Larry Koonse gives a masterclass in orchestration, variation, pacing, big picture, right there that should be required study for every jazz guitarist! 🙌🙌

Cecil Alexander & Dan Wilson on Fire!!!! #1

Larry Koonse’s solo told a complete story and his comping was a masterclass in voicing. Love all the chops these players demonstrated, Txs for doing this Chase!

BARRY!!!!!!!!

Great to contrast these different approaches to solving rhythm changes.

This is such a great video, i love that some of the talking sections are super in-depth, this is basically a full blown masterclass shared by different players where together they make a really comprehensive picture and so much to explore. I'm 100% going back to this video for reference on my next practice sessions.

Dan and Cecil are insane and genius. Thank you for this.

I enjoy these series of hearing the various guitarists approaching different tunes, it goes with the subject of learning jazz, which is what you yourself teach us in detail with your great lessons. I enjoy this channel very much.

Wow, this was inspiring, I love hearing everybody - they're all my heroes - thanks for making this happen!

all my guitar heros in one video, just Bobby Broom missing then its complete :D thanks, awesome work Chase.

it's great to see such a variety of ideas and styles, thanks a bunch👍

Barry simply owns this - heads and shoulders !!!! Wow!

Sheryl with the lyricism even at this tempo.

That was full on! Big thanks to all of you for doing this . A master class bombardment of awesomeness : ) Loved it

Burning. Thanks for having me Chase!

This is such a fantastic video. I will be watching this for years to come.

Wonderful! Thank you for putting all this together Chase! Rodney! 🔥

Barry never disappoints!!! Been listening to him (and purchasing GREAT lessons from him) for years. Cecil was a new revelation to me. Loved his phrasing and how relaxed his articulation was. Definitely off to check out his work now! Thanx for another terrific vid, Chase.

There is SO much here from Everyone. Excellent resource to keep us busy for years. Thank you Chase.

Guitarist no. 3 "4 notes over each chord" at the slow tempo, and the closely located inversions, leading to the next, starting on different chord tones works for all instruments, and is a nice way to start mastering rhythm changes. Gives you a handle on the A which of course, is a turnaround, and which therefore, of course will apply and be used on ALL tunes with a I vi ii V turnaround too. So mastering rhythm changes is absolutely essential.. ? Duh? Gee I'm slow. GREAT STUFF!!!! thanks.

Simple awesome lessons! Thank you all!

Unbelievably solid content! Mind blowing. Stellar.

Thanks for inviting me to play alongside these heavies! I really enjoyed everyone's creativity, sharing their own voices. To me, this is the essence of improvisation: developing your own voice!

loved it - living vicariously through these players as I'll likely never get to this level. cecil alexander's "yeah, I can play this fast, what are you gonna do about it?" stare is still the greatest. two others I love to see do turbo stuff like this are pasquale grasso and ben eunson

What such a great idea, Chase! Multiple lessons in just one video. It is so interesting to see the many different approaches on the Rhythm Changes! Great video!

Great idea chase ❤️❤️🎶🎵loved all players! So many nice ideas and personalities 🌞🌞

Chase, this was wonderful.. Thank you! For me the biggest take-away was how each player backed out of the storm of chords to simplify (one to five etc.) and stretch their melodic approach resulting in smoother lines.. Great lesson! As a hard bob student, that is what I am working on.

❤Great vid Chase Maddox!✨️ can't get any better... top level guitar players, great advices, you always bring the best to the table🔥💯 keep it up !👍🏼💥

Good idea that came to reality, well done thx !

This is the best, most fun, and most educative challenge ever. Well done, everybody! ❤

I play jazz fusion, dabbled in bebop. I may have to up my game after seeing these masters. All incredible. Thank you for introducing me to these amazing artists.

Waht a treat! Great to see or hear the different personalities or concepts that come out each individua. Cecil Alexander is extremely comfortable at such blazing tempo. I also love Dan Wilson s feel and phrasing; amazing technique with such cleanliness. I would love to hear what Matteo Mancuso or Joshua Meader would sound like in such context.

I see what'cha did there! Very well played, sir! Very well played! #strengthinnumbers

Always loved Barry Greene's playing. So clean

A killer group of guitarists! Amazing to see how they each approach playing at a fast tempo like this 🔥

Great players and very interesting to hear about their very useful insights for anyone venturing into the shark-infested waters of fast rhythm changes, or just rhythm changes in general.

Cecil. Man....his playing was amazing and then he started talking. Really great soloing concepts and easy to understand and implement without a deep dive into music theory.

Nice work gentlepeople! 🤙🏼 Thanks Chase. I’ll definitely be checking out folks showcased. Cheers, Daniel

It's not just good to see all those great players, but also rewarding: like a bunch of mini-lessons. For me personally was very good to see Rodney Jones (playng "cold" as he said, I always remember him very young playing in the Jazz Festival of São Paulo with Dizzy Gillespie), the Larry Koonse section was a great diversion with that intervals and chords, and the Cecil very ellucidating substitutions ideas. Thank you all!

Hristo's exercise is great!

This is gold Chase! Gold!

Guitarist number 3 strikes me as much more in control, playing more lyrical lines, a more individual sound, way cleaner . a) much cleaner b) much more "modern" c) (for me) much more interesting. d) tone is fat and more nuanced takeaways.. play on a) solid or semi solid body b) lighter strings c) modern effected tone c) play post hard bop stuff like Ford, Metheney, Abercrombie, Scofield, Lage et al on rhythm changes

Please continue doing these series. There is no better way to learn than watching or listening to some of the from best players play. Maybe a future idea would be have these players do a couple of comping choruses as well.

everyone certainly had their own way of doing it, and things to steal (umm, i mean learn..) from everyone.. great video! :)

Great playing from everyone and interesting insights as well. Though every solo was stellar, Cecil Alexander’s solo remains in my head because of its melodic drive despite using a lot of chromaticism. His rhythmic choices were super hip too. Great job everyone, Love this stuff

I love rhythm changes and I am very talented making the worst possible choices of notes to play on this tune! If sounds good someone else played that! Who could ask for anything more? 😂 ❤

Rodney Jones playing that outside stuff man killer

What is the Don Bias/ Slam Stewart recording that Sheryl Bailey referred to?

🙏🙏🙏🙏.....the humility and communicative skill of all these cats...!! Then I think how Dizzy, Parker blazed these trails like frontiersmen back in the 40s.....and the traditions roll on

Larry Koonse in the house.

Dan and Cecile had some bad ass lines!

Cecil 🙌🏻 and Barry

What a fantastic idea.

Some of the best in the business

Awesome playing. BTW if you ever get to hear Rodney Jones warmed up, he is absolutely terrifying. I met him at a trade show, we played a little and he said Benson told him he needed to get a life which I thought was hysterical. Anyway, beautiful humble guy and monster player. Great post. Thks

I have problem with rhythm, I am an amateur only, but here, I can hear some shredders with weird rhythm too.

My main takeaway is just how much more interesting and inventive were the players who played shorter lines and left some space. Another takeaway is just how great Cannonball Adderley’s live at the Plaza solo over Oleo with Miles band was - he manages to get some unique and inventive lines in even while staying within the confines of establish bebop harmony.

Dan plays so melodic and tons of chops! To me, his analysis had so many great points. A section, staying on the V (Oscar) or just building melodic sequences or call answer over the I chord. I can play over single chords but not at that tempo. I’ll try Ab Lydian over A section as Bb13, things like that.

I was thinking the king of that would be George Benson but you know you could get his solo on rhythm changes on any of those tunes in the club Caribe recording

Wow, all masters. Dan Wilson really awesome !

wow

Hristo!! What a monster of a player.

as someone who can’t play fast: wow. everyone crushed it. cecil and will blew me away especially. but really everyone was amazing-dan wilson: hf! such a killin variety of takes on RC. reminds me its ok to be yourself. larry koonse absolutely owned it by seeming to slow the time down.

This is a wonderful video with fantastic insights! However, up until Will Brahm (who was kind enough to start with a few measures of rests), the only thing on my (admittedly feeble) mind was "where's one?". It's hard for me to listen at that tempo, let alone play, without the melody as a reference point. Great stuff, though.

Cecil is awesome! and Will B.. godness!!!

Looks like Dan Wilson is using the Benson picking style, and Cecil Alexander has the Benson pick angle but without the underarm position here. Rodney Jones and Sheryl Bailey are both using similar to Benson but may have developed it independently.

will is a real human i can relate!!

Cecil has the best timefeel done cleanly and sense of trafitional historical references. Rodney has dumped cliches the best and inserted moderisms using Trane , Woidy Shaw and McCoy inspirations but has some of his own approaches. I can hear their oen sounds and not think of guitar as much.

Everybody was fantastic. But im sorry. Barry, cecil and dan grabbed me. And Barry slayed. I vibed the hardest to Cecils lines tho

Nice shirt

The Larry Koonse thing is big band. He created a big band arrangement on the guitar

#1 Takeaway: Practice

Riveting, Chase! Screw Peter Farrell. Since the pandemic started, I have watched a huge number of jazz guitar-related videos.. This was definitely in the top five or so. Everything about it was great.

Chase, teach us some Charlie Christian lines. He was so good and left us so early. Ty

Cecil Alexander for me

👍

Jeez, people, what are you doing, I'm DYING at 240 BPM 😂

That tempo was too slow for cecil alexander, 😄😄 what a creative and wonderful playing. Well he was actually the guitarist i was waiting to listen to and he never dissappoints. Every other guitarist was awesome too.

Takeaway: Barry Greene says it. If you try to play every chord the conventional way it's very hard to improvise fresh ideas as opposed to using many licks you already played. His solo is very stylistically predictable and could have been played in the 50s. Technically it's highly accomplished precise and continuous. Rodney Jones plays relatively more modern lines in a choppy spurty kind of way. He said it was his first take so it did not have a satisfyingly continuity I like Hristo Vitchev with a Scofield/Metheny sound on the guitar (although not unique) he is able to improvise more freely as compared to Barry Greene because he has methodically figured out inversions so the changes require the minimum movement of the hand. The approach is very efficient using inversions of triads at first and then practicing specific modes for each chord. Cecil Alexander has a very plain sound clean tone. He has great flow in his playing and was able to make it easier to use substitutions by not playing every chord change as he describes, just playing some V, Is but when you are listening he don't get the impression he is simplifying. He also uses some wider interval sequences here and there and throws in some blues licks. Will Brahm has a beautiful tone where with some reverb and (compression?) Nice touch on the guitar, great flow and phrasing. He takes "breathes" within the solo. Larry Koones uses a lot of chords in his playing. On the surface somewhat in that old 40s style and in his single note runs but he does something with a pedal point fingering , one finger stays down while the other fingers change chords. Brad Mehldau does that on piano with some of his Beatles stuff which was very original. He simplified the chords which was another solution to the problem with playing this fast as Barry Greene described. Sheryl Bailey played melodically and properly following the changes and had a good flow. I thought stylistically it was very predictable like Barry Greene could have been done in the 50s as well as the very plain guitar tone. It was hard getting past here fingering issues where a certain portion of her notes we don't hear, the finger is not pressing down the string enough to properly sound the note. Dan Wilson plays somewhat like George Benson. He has a great flow and he digs in plucking hard on certain notes which punctuates the lines and has a lot of be bop dynamics His solo had the most fire and he threw in some nice chords and blues licks. He also talks about not playing every chord. That is one of the keys to the problem Barry Greene was talking about. You have to hear every chord, to be able to play each chord but when you actually play don't feel like you have to outline each chord or prove that you covered it. But you have to be able to do that (ta least at slow tempo) so when you leave out something he keep track of where you are. So when you practice these changes loop sections of them, play you most note dense riffs and then play them again one note per chord or even one note tremolo that works for two chords. Then mix that with some of the dense notes riffs to make it musical. I think that is the best method and the other best method was Hristo Vitchev's where he figured out inversion triad fingering leading to not have to require as much hand movement/finger motion between chords and this other thing Alexander and Dan Wilson talked about , you don't have to play every chord and as you do that you can use substitutions sometimes. Metheny uses a lot of that triad inversion approach like Vitchev but I think I heard in Alexander a short phrase of quartal sequence. That's a good spice if you are focusing on triads.

I'd pack up if I had to solo after Cecil or Dan.

Cecil Alexander woohaaa

why everyone plays on the beat the whole time? wouldve loved to hear some off beat playing or different time signatures

😮

Cecil Alexander, Will Brahm & Dan Wilson absolutely destroyed it

You MISSED The phenomenal "BEN EUNSON"! And he could easily play at 340 BPM with no sweat 😂😂 By the way, these lineups are incredible man! 🔥🔥 But would love to see ben eunson join in the next one! 🙏🙏

Where’s the great Bass backing track!? Come on, man. This was beautiful, btw

I liked Cecil the most. He had the best time, in my opinion.

Dan Wilson sounded the best overall to me. Greene uses a machine gun approach that is an instant turn off, but he certainly has the chops.

How to contact you?

Cecil

Ben Eunson couldn't make it to the jam? :(

Barry, Cecil and Dan are just ridiculous here

Not a competition but Dan Wilson 🏆, Cecil Taylor close second

Next time call Pasquale

all epic players, but i must say i dont understand why alot of jazz guitarists like the all picking style, to me it just sounds too much of a struggle, even though they´ve practised it alot. only a personal opinion from my own taste and liking, ofcourse, because damn i respect these guys for wanting to develop such a strong right hand. to me cecil stands out because he´s so godamn relaxed when playing all picking.

good idea with the time stamps removes the need to edit all the fluff of them talking, remember kids, real musicians do the talking with their instruments!

The point of this is not how fast but how melodic and swinging is the melodic content! It's not 100% technique. Everyone needs to go back in the Swing and Bebop era and lesson to those horn and piano players who had chops but the feel snd the melodic content was most important. Cats are missing the real essence of what this should be about!

I wish that you included the great Robert Conti who his friend Joe Pass called the world's fastest guitarist! This is a tune from his album Comin" On Strong. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AqhUfUH3oRA.html

This video rules! I especially liked Larry Koonse. Of course they’re all brilliant players. Have you ever heard of a guitarist named Peter Farrell? Maybe you could feature him