Bruce, my friend, this is possibly the best guitar lesson I have come across on RU-vid, thank you! You simplified a Giant piece and made it available to the masses. I was able to pick it up in an hour, forever grateful. If you take requests, I'd love to see your take on either Donna Lee or Spain, mainly how to approach soloing and chord melody for the tunes.
@@SantiagoPombo Yes sir. I have new tunes every Tuesday and Friday. And I also have a Monday Night Live Series which is like a live guitar lesson folks can tune in and ask questions, make suggestions etc. Thanks
For sure brother - there is blues in everything and in fact Coltrane himself played blues lines on this very tune! That is def the key to keep the blues! Keep playing and peace!
How is this guy not more famous. Yeah yeah there’s a billion great jazz players and so on but I just find his choice of notes, approach to tunes and overall sound so comforting and pristine, which I really like finding in jazz.
I think you picking this specific guitarist as better than the rest is kind of just contradicting what you said about there being a billion great jazz players.
Wow! This is, without a doubt, the best analysis of Giant Steps I've seen for guitar! Thanks so much for the video. I've really wanted to dig into this tune for a long time, and will do so now.
This is the best lesson on Giant Steps I've ever heard. Why all the teachers I had before even in the academia, never talked about those things? You made it so clear! Thankyou!
Very few "great" players are great teachers. Bruce is clearly an exception who knows how to strike a good balance between showing how it works and explaining why it works, without getting bogged down in technicalities that lose sight of the music.
DIG IT! - Check out Giant Steps and leave a comment below on some strategies you use to play on this tune. Let us know how you get through and what helped you to learn and master it. And if you are just learning to get through it, share some struggles you might be having with Giant Steps. Remember what Joe Pass said - there are no wrong notes, just unexpected ones! Peace.
Correct - This is a strategy I learned from Joe Pass. You can really play any chord voicing you ears like when you stay inside the same key. Since the bass note is landing on Bb, playing a EbMaj7 voicing still yields a Bb dom chord. It is a way to keep this chord melody simple and parallel at the same time. Joe was all about simple...try it out in different places it works really well, esp when you are searching for other voicings. PEACE
not very many people can really solo on giant steps, I mean really solo.hearing what your playing.its a major line in the sand for jazz players..once you can do it, you have arrived as a jazz player...just like paganini's concerto number 1, is a demarcation point for violinists..great video bruce
@@brucegregori I was just having a little bit of trouble following the chords especially for that G near the start, I think maybe you were muting one of the strings?
HOW DID I NOT KNOW OF THIS MAN BEFORE?? HE IS STELLAR COOL, TALENTED AND HAS DISSECTED A PILLAR OF JAZZ IN LESS THAN 20 MINUTES. PROBABLY THE BEST TUTORIAL ON GUITAR I'VE EVER SEEN. #KING!
You could use G#m as well. Ebm hits all the sweets spots of BMaj7 chord. Think of the notes A#-M7, C#-9, D#-M3, F#-5, G#-M6, etc. remember when you have a pentatonic scale you can many times superimpose the associated pentatonic from the 4 and 5 degree. Some of this you discovered on your own!
Bruce I never thought I'd be playing Coltraine ! Such a great lesson ! I'm trying to pull apart the music theory behind this and it's kinda coming together thank you! One thing on your TAB you note the Am7 as 5557 but in the video you play 4457 as this is Jazz I presume both are correct ?
Man I’ve been busting my balls trying to understand the movement to this song! I’ve watched many players explain their concept of how to play over the changes. Your explanation to this song is so simple it’s crazy! I get you, thank you so much!!
hi Bruce! i was about to get this lesson from you but is not working at the moment the link, is under mantenance your web site? thanks man great lesson
Great lesson! Kudos! Coltrane wrote this piece as a personal way to challenge himself when privately practicing and admitted that it took him forever to perfect it long before he decided to record it. The best way to approach GIANT STEPS is to take your time and sneak up on it. This way you get familiar with the song's DNA. Like life itself, you have to start off as an ocean liner before you become a speedboat. And thanks BG for sharing and doing your part to help tame mankind with your gift, talent and knowledge..
I just discovered you yesterday, Bruce, as I was challenged by a friend's practice routine of GS and went looking for guidance. You are an incredible player and teacher! Thank you so much for your helpful insights to simplify and boil this tune down. Much appreciated!
ok Bruce, Im diggin it. Im a good guitarist who never learned jazz after all these years. I'm gong to the shed with you on this... I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks
Bruce, I'm a saxophonist from Jamaica 🇯🇲 and don't read music. I'm just getting into chords and this lesson on Giant Steps has pushed my understanding way further. You have great teaching skills. I didn't even have to touch the horn before getting it. God bless you man.
Bruce just wondering if you use any extensions. One chart of GS I've got shows the D7 in mm 4 as a D7#9, for example, and then a Bb7#5 in mm 8; also an F#7 #5b9 in mm 12. Great lesson, and great tone from that Benedetto!
All of those would work great - mostly how I think of 7th chords is that any extension is fair game if it a resolving dominate. In this tune they all are so you can blow as many extensions as you hear, but mostly I stay diatonic in this one since the "wideness" of the key centers create lots of tensions as well. The approach you thinking of is a fine one although. I am going to be doing a live master class hopefully tuesday that cats can ask lots of questions about tunes. Check it out if you are around. I will post the time and date coming up soon. Keep me posted on your progress!
ive been playing guitar for a while but have always wanted to learn jazz and r&b. I figured dive into the deep end and learn this song, soooo glad I came across your video Bruce! Explained the song very well and now i could at least play the chords and the melody to sound cool lol. Thanks!😄😄
I think Giant Steps is not as daunting of a tune as people expect. The play on an augmented form is the key here. It is more about the sound which makes it cool. There are lot of "harder" harmonic concepts but this one is the key to the guitar. The instrument is organized in the augmented form.
Like everything else people make everything.more complicated than it is..I've told many players learn the melody ..make a solo out of the melody..you will be able to construct a new melody out of the melody..this process makes you listen to what your doing instead of thinking of scales arpeggios while your soloing..the melody tells you where all the arpeggios and scales go...
Bruce brother! This lesson brought Giant Steps into a new light for me. Along the way, you illuminated paths for understanding the music of Coltrane in particular and jazz more generally. I also got fresh inspiration for playing my own music. Much gratitude to you!
I'm a keyboard player but REALLY enjoyed this video so much! A very cool approach to these 'bouncing around the circle of fifths' changes. Thanks so much!
You are a phenomenal teacher! I had blowing over these changes as a goal for the end of the year but now I think I’ll have to step up my goals! I love your energy and enthusiasm too. Dig it!
My first teacher taught me a lot about jazz and jazz standards but i always was more into rock/metal...reminds me those days. Nice channel. Unbelievable tune. Giant composer.
It is funny how so many metal players dig jazz - a lot of it is the noteness you can have with playing fast tempo jazz guitar. I actually saw a metal band cover ginat steps. It was really cool. Peace!
I can only dream of playing as clean as you do. If I buy a beautiful ax like the one you have perhaps it will motivate me to practice harder? Just watching your videos is very motivating. Tito Puentes exposed me to Giant Steps. You are helping keep this music alive by motivating me to attempt to learn how to play it. Dig it!!!
Hi Albert! You can do it! Don't be intimidated by Giant Steps - it is easy to get in your ears and it can be played. Take it slow and try it one chord at a time. Also try it Bossa style. That tends to work well for folks...PEACE!
Awesome stuff, but confused about the Bb7 which is written in your PDF. You are playing a Bmaj7 instead, sorry I am a bit new to Jazz, so I assume this is a common substitution for a Dom7 chord? Also I am struggling to see how that first chord is a B major 7th. Thanks for sharing this!
He never seemed to explain why in the key of B (as an example), we should play Ebmin pentatonic. Why not simply play B major pentatonic instead? Did I miss that explanation somewhere?
The rule of pentatonic. In B Maj we can think of B as B major pentatonic and G# minor. A good hack when playing minor pentatonic is to play off the 5th and play pentatonic again. In this case Eb. Or if you are in the key of B major you can usually play a minor pentatonic off the 3rd of the key. In this case Eb minor pentatonic. I like to think minor pentatonic because it is common and easy in this situation since the changes move so quickly. See if you can decipher the other chords!
Eh mister BRUCE greetings from FRANCE. I am getting into jazz and I really appreciate the man and your way to explain jazz standards. You really make them simple. Your are my reference in you tube. Now I have no more excuse! Next days I will try to dig GIANT STEP. Congratulations for your job very very great job. I hope every where in Africa young guitarist can see this and learn! God bless you man!
When I was young in NYC in the 1960s-70s I attended the "Bar Talk Music Conservatory" mostly at the Vanguard and the Blue Note. The very best players to connect with for picking (of brains) were on your wavelength. "Keep it real, play what you can feel, simplify... once you own it you can always embellish and make fancier connections". Some people describe a solo like it was a round of golf... "he was hitting 3rd and made a 5 on the 13th on the back 9". Such folks are brilliant but I much prefer what you brought to this lesson. Thank you so much for making a 71 year old feel like an enthusiastic student again.
Wow. I'm impressed. I just, watched a non-jazz guitarist try to explain Giant Steps and then try to improvise over it. I was lost the entire time. Hearing a jazz guitarist explain it makes so much more sense and I have almost no theory knowledge at this point in my guitar playing. I know what, triads are and chord progressions, etc...but it's just the most basic stuff. Gonna have to sub to this channel 🙏👍Thank you! Jazz was never something I listened to until I started playing guitar. Id be missing out on far too much if I limited myself to just the music I've always liked.
This really works during the top 8 bars! So, 1st bar is 2 beats B and 2 beats D7. On the B (beat 1,2) we play Eb minor pent. Do we switch to B minor pent on the D7 (beats 3,4) or wait for the G in bar 2? Thx!
Basically there are three key centers in the augmented form. B, G, Eb. The dominate chords are there just like a standard II-V. You can choose to alter them or "ignore" them and treat the form as just those three key centers. In this case D7 would be part of the G Family since it is the V of G. Trane just left out the II in tis case and reserved it for the bridge of the song.
Thanks JP - purely to get the melody but also an Ebmaj7 is a Bb7 chord and we are getting the Eb which gives it a SUS sound. Diatonically we can use it as a sub because it contains the same notes.
I can say without a doubt, as a valve bone player, this was a GREAT lesson. Thank you, Bruce! Going to watch this often and get to work! P.S. - love the color combo / aesthetic at play with your axe/shirt/studio/graphics. KILLER.
Wow… I just stumbled upon this, not a jazz player but like somebody just opened a big door…. Playing the the third pentatonic, Coltrane arpeggios, those chord changes… subscribed!
