The intro cracked me up jens! 😂😂 hahaha, dryer than dry humour. Great video! Yes, just reading through solo's can be detrimental, it might be indeed one of the most common mistakes made. May I add to the "just listen until you can sing it", which is great advice by the way, that for my part it can also mean "sing it in your head". Here at Sharp Eleven Music, we're both ehm... singing as good as Kanye. But we can simulate the audio (the solo) in our head, visualize it, although for audio the term would be "audiate". If we were to go with some of the jazz advice classics with "only play what you can sing", "make sure to be able to sing the solo you want to transcribe", the road to jazz would have ended a long time ago :) that's ust for people who are terrible in controlling their vocal chords, it's not game over. And if you can control those vocal chords, it can be a tremendous tool indeed!
This is a really practical and helpful video. You’ve always been clear: quickest way to learn Jazz is to listen to other players and copy them. Last week, I finally took your advice. I thought I’d start with something slow so chose Miles Davis opening on Green in Blue. I’ve already learned so much. With regard to listening, it’s given me an even deeper appreciation for his timing, timbre etc. In terms of playing, it’s given me a great problem to solve with regard to fingering, fretting and string usage. Thank you so much Jens. I feel like I’m starting to turn a corner with my playing and your channel has helped enormously. Signing up to Patreon now!
I said this on a previous video but it bears repeating. If i had to pick one solo or album to learn by ear that says this is what Traditional Jazz Guitar is supposed to sound like, it would be Wes Montgomery Smokin' At The Half Note. Tone, Rhythm, Language, Phrasing. Its all their. Great video Jens. Thanks.
I started transcribing Charlie Parker when I started playing jazz in high school. It was great for my ear, but it didn't really lead me to being a jazz musician. And I thought the tempos were half what they really were, 140bpm not 280bpm for example, thus my transcriptions were populated with 16th triplets and 32nd notes, haha.
Charlie Christian is a mad genius. The stuff he played sounds amazing to this day. How he came up with it 100 years ago, by himself, all before the age of 26 will always be a mystery to me.
When I was going to Berklee, I saw Kenny Burrell. Absolutely amazing. Since we were students and really appreciated him, he was smiling and in Heaven. He didn’t want to stop playing or leave. His drummer and bass player wanted to leave after the set. They had terrible attitudes. Kenny stayed and talked to us and answered our questions. I still smile when thinking of him, he wanted to share everything with us!
Not just the particular solos, but the way to learn them, listening over and over, and then singing them, is such good advice that I will take away immediately. My suggestions would be to learn whatever solos you realise you love! If you can get to know them well enough to sing you are probably going to pick up quite a few things. Very interesting suggestion about tunes that are only on RU-vid. That has the advantage of being easy to slow down while learning. And thanks for reminding us of Kenny Burrell, the soulmaster of cool!
Jens thank you for making these lessons easy, simple and putting your heart and soul into it. I spent years man, years, on and on getting faster and faster. It got me nowhere, I was determined. Kept playing faster and faster. It soon wore me down and i realised its not worth the chase. Thank you for showing how small and simple things create the most profound work of music. Long live to you man. Stay safe dude.
*What solos would you suggest?* ✅ My Videos Analyzing Great Solos: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Potz7UATr8Y.html ✅ More Great And Easy Solos To Check Out: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8wy6CYrw7Vc.html
A brilliant video, thanks for sharing. Transcribing was my Eureka moment and I had spent 20 years struggling with improvising and ignoring transcribing but when I started ... it changed everything. I am also a language teacher and I apply similar approaches to teaching/learning guitar and language. Do as much by ear, learn vocabulary in context, transcribe. In language learning it's called shadowing.
Looks to me like you've been sifting through my CD collection :) I have to admit to finding Grant Green rather late even though I had a couple of his albums for years and I agree his playing is tasteful and not too difficult to figure out. A couple of other names I would add is Louis Stewart and Herb Ellis. Well worth a listen. Herb duetting with Joe Pass is not for the faint hearted. I have Ulf's book on Saxophone solos for guitar. Really interesting study. Subscribed and looking forward to more content. Thanks Jens.
Bongo’s??…late fifties early sixties?? …because record company executives felt that all jazz fans must be “beat nicks” like Maynard G Krepps on Dobie Gillis. They were wrong on both parts. Bongo’s did become popular because of Life Magazine’s conceptions of the relationship between jazz and the Beat Generation. Seems every cartoon “Best” carried bongo’s
+1 for for prince of cool!! His recording of Autumn Leaves from She was Too Good to Me is was really put me onto jazz, Chet's solos on it were the first lines that I could sing to myself. One of the most purely musical guys ever recorded imo
Jens, thanks for your great improvisation guidance. I would like to add the wonderful Hank Garland's "Jazz Winds From a New Direction" album which influenced George Benson's development. Hank's lines are pure genius and so smooth.
Thanks Jens - this video gives me hope, after watching your videos for over a year, with the feeling I was a student registered in the wrong class, but too embarrassed to leave.
Thank you for the "Grand Slam" suggestion - the entire tune is worthy looking at. I think Benny Goodman should required reading for anybody that wants to play jazz in a small combo.
Being a bit older than you and learning to play in the 60’s by ear off records was really the way we learned. I particularly loved The Mundell Lowe Quartet and Grant Greens Grant’s First Stand. I wore those records out literally. I couldn’t afford to replace them so I put a dime on the turntable tone arm to keep the needle from skipping through the worn down grooves on the albums.
i love this comment, i hate myself a bit inside if i look things up. it’s like so dumb, you can hear it, you can replay it in your head. you can slow it down in your head, there really no excuse
Not to be pedantic, but I've always thought the only way any one should learn to play any instrument is to hum or sing solos. If you can't do that - you may wish to find another pastime!
Green Day trashing their guitars is well naff - Totally fake. Not a fan of guitar trashing anyway - Just fake 'rock star' posing... Great selection of guitar solos. Grant Green's solo on Parker's Cool Blues is probably the most modern, Bebop sounding of them all. However they're all good solos. Thanks for all the tips and advice. Very sound xx
just curious; what are your thoughts on Chris Standring or Joyce Cooling? I enjoy their type of playing. Of course all the greats are, well, great! thanks. Just found you and trying to start my Jazz playing.
One I've enjoyed learning is Miles Davis's solo on Autumn Leaves from Cannonball Adderley's album Somethin' Else. It's surprisingly straightforward and the phases aren't super fast.
I love playing that one on guitar! I play it every day to remind myself that space and patience are more important than raw speed… Not gonna lie though: sometimes I still let my mind go blank and my fingers do all the work 😂😂😂
I just discovered your videos and I find them wonderful and inspiring. I actually don’t play the guitar but the double bass. I can manage doing a decent walking bass line, but when it comes time to solo… well, I know now how to work on that. Do you think those 5 guitar solos could work on the db? Thank you.
Glad you like them Vincent! I am not sure how well these translate to double bass, I would imagine that it might be easier to find easy double bass solos to begin with? 🙂
This is great. Some of my favorite guitarists. Grant Green hardly ever gets mentioned among the great guitarists, but for my money he is among the very best when it comes to phrasing, His short rhythmically intense single note lines accented by stab chords make that guitar sound like it is having a singing conversation.
Grant Green was the first jazz guitarist that I ever sort of “got.” What I mean is, I can learn a, say, Charlie Christian or Wes Montgomery solo, but their improvisatory choices are not the ones I would normally make. It seemed alien to me. So unless I was consciously playing THEIR licks and trying to mimic their style, what I was playing didn’t sound anything like them. Grant Green was the first I felt in simpatico with-as if we were thinking along the same lines. It was the first time I ever really thought, “Yes, I CAN play this music.”
I appreciate congas, but music is about context ant the rhythmic knowledge possessed in African culture is not what you hear in the one pattern being played on top of a swing groove.
I have to thank you as well Jens. I've been playing guitar for 50 years (hours are another story) and always loved jazz, with hopes and dreams of being a jazz player, but found it too hard to remember all those changes and substitutions. You seem to make it feel achievable.
it's not a guitar solo but This Year's kisses with Billy Holliday and teddy wilson. The beginning sax solo is very good for phrasing, rhythm and simplicity
In addition to guitarists, would suggest checking out Lester Young solos. Reputedly, Charlie Christian did this early on. Lester Young in a trio with Nat King Cole and Buddy Rich is a good set of examples of some his best playing. I think it really teaches smooth, swinging phrasing and is not technically difficult for a beginning jazz player.
As a guy who started playing congas before switching over to guitar (and I still play them!). I think congas in jazz are awesome! Plus the guy who played on Midnight Blue is none other than Ray Barretto, who led one of the most iconic salsa ensambles of the 60s and 70s. You are truly missing out if you don't check him out. Much love.
Thanks a lot Jens! An incredibly inspiring (and fun) video. I'm also glad that there's Grant Green on the list, as I absolutely love his style:) A great video that gave me a boost and a sense of direction - thanks a lot again 🙌
6:19 - For guitarists working on becoming better readers, writing down the solo with notation can be help internalize what rhythms look like. But I agree, writing it and then trying to read it isn't the best way to learn the actual solo.
That whole album is the perfect gateway into jazz for those of us who come from a blues/blues-rock background, since it's a very bluesy approach to bop. The same can be said about most early Grant Green.
You are still the best, Jens! I feel like you are an old friend. If I met you on the street (unlikely, since I live in Oregon!) I would greet you like my best pal, and you wouldn’t know who the heck I was! Thank you so much for all you do. I can’t believe how much I’ve learned and continue to learn from you!
I feel much the same. I don't know if Jens fully understands how much impact he has on a planet of viewers. If half of my teachers in school were half as good at teaching as Jens is, then I would be twice as good as I am today. He has a great combination of humility plus professionalism, he has more clarity expressing himself than many native English speakers, brilliant video editing skills to help explain concepts and an ability to be interesting enough to keep the viewer's attention. His videos are a lesson in how to make educational videos. Thanks Jens!
I've been trying to nail that solo ever since that record dropped back in the 50s. I do okay but get frustrated when I find I'm making the same mistakes time and again.
YES! Very surprising when you first hear it--but it's got all the guts and bones of a great blues solo to learn for jazz. Billy Butler was REALLY precise and intentional with every rhythm in every note in that solo. Came across that solo after 15 years of studying jazz, as per recommendation from a great jazz mentor. Definitely worth a listen!
Thank you for the video. I would like offer a different angle to the conversation which would be to concentrate on motivic development and learning to sustain and develop an idea through a chorus. It can be a simple 2 bar phrase with variations in logical phrase lengths. it doesn’t have to be complicated. This helps you play what you can actually hear and to play horizontally across the changes instead of plugging in pre learned riffs. Listen to older players who have mastered this, Prez, Getz, Desmond, etc. simple yet sophisticated melodic construction. Horace Silver is another. Miles. Chet. Personally I find it difficult to really use licks that l learned from transcription but the value of transcription for me anyway is it gets you into the rhythmic feel and thought process of a great soloist.
Another great one imo is „Have you Met Miss Jones“ on chops from Joe Pass, if you start to incorporate more changes. He never loses his ability to play musically while showing several „concepts“, like arpeggios, scales, Coltrane pattern and of course the blues. And it’s also very guitarish, so not to hard to learn…
While I agree that there were a lot of congas on 60's albums, I'm more concerned that there aren't more of it now :) Personally I really love percussion in all kinds of jazz, not only latin. Great video!
I remember my years in jazz formation, the first solo we got to learn was that Grand Slam, and others that I remember were the "Bluesette" solo by Toots Thielemans, and the Just Friends solo by Chet Baker. Great video!
Amazingly but independent of you I teach the same solos - KB's "Chitlin' Con Carne"; Charlie C's "Grand Slam"; Grant G's "Cool Blues"; Wes' "Four on Six". I really emphasize listening to Grant Green who has to be the most underrated jazz guitarist - his "Miss Ann's Tempo" is another Bb blues like "Cool Blues". I think it is important to get through to students that what say Wes plays on "Four on Six" [which is a sort of contrafact on "Summertime"] can be applied to other tunes that have a similar harmonic movement. So by learning phrase by phrase you can play each phrase in other contexts by marrying the phrase with the underlying chords. Jens, thanks for this clip - Garry Lee: Perth, Western Australia.
Another interesting album with guitar channeled through Charlie Christian (CC was a mentor when dhe was a yeenager) but with 1959/60 studio recording is Mary Osborne's "A Girl and Her Guitar".
Came back to this vid just now after 7 months--I think that conga sound was probably (obviously) the latin/cuban influence in NYC in the 50's and 60's especially after dizzy went to cuba and helped bring latin jazz to a wider audience. And, I ask again: What's wrong with the funky conga, jens? I dig the groove they add. I learned KG’s gee baby aint i good to you arrangement and solo off midnight blue. Also very cool…more demanding. I found a very good transcription so i guess i cheated but i still spent weeks on it and used my ears as much as the chart…and i try to avoid the tab version of the chart as well…reading the actual music as needed…
Hey Jens, GREAT VIDEOS!, btw, briefly lol, the CONGAS are part of the Beatnik aesthetic, brought on by Jack Kerouac, Charlie Parker, Lenny Bruce, etc., from the 'Village' via parts unknown including route 66, all the way to Green Street, North Beach, SF, Vesuvio's bar, and so on. And on. and on. It was an ethos prop. Plus, congas were patently cooler, more tribal (aka somehow more 'ethnic') than the jazz drum kits of the day. And that was HUGE, just have a look at some early Art Blakey (can you say African roots?). It crept into the coolness factor back in the late 50s. CONGAS baybee. If you could do NOTHING else, you could borrow a conga, smoke a little, get some shades, sit in, and be part of the movement. Hey man--some guys were actually pretty darned GOOD at it! The sound of West Coast Shangri-la, think Roger Somers and Alan Watts. And it was contagious. Listen to the Donovan album, Mellow Yellow. Really a pretty cool album. One big cultural swirl, imformed by congas, marimbas, and even flutes, ala Dorothy Ashby. Coolness, baby. ;) --DorseyWilliamson
I like Charlie Christian’s solo on “Six Appeal” to start student’s off. Only 16 measures long, and the phrases are digestible. Pretty much only in one key, but a really nice V7 lick in there to show students how to outline changes.
Congas, why? The implied clave, of course. The 20th century drum kit has kept so much western music square. Nobody should get out of music school without Son and Rhumba Clave....in hand. And to be able to stay on the right side of a 2/3 or 3/2. Jazz is fun to play....but Afro-Latin genres increasingly dominate popular music....for good reason. The nice thing: classic bop goes great with the sophisticated afro-latin cinqillo. Congas, why? Manchito, Senor Gringo. ;) More history, less Memes, please.
1:06 The Conga Conundrum ..."a weird sidestep here is that, in the early 60s, had add congas to their jazz albums. You can hear that with Pat Martino but also with Wes (Montgomery) and I really wish that someone could just explain to me WHY"... Yes, that's funny, indeed...;-)
Re congas : In the mid 50s - 60s latin music became hugely popular in NYC. Large community of Puerto Rican & Cuban immigrants. Take note of Desi Arnaz, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, jazz albums by Cal Tjader, etc. Recent movie “The Mambo Kings”.
Charlie Parkers Version of Body and Soul with Efferge Ware taught me a lot! His feel and the melodic lines are awesome. If you leave out some of the fast arpeggios and the crazy ending youll have a blast learning it! Edit: to get the most out of it, write down the form and try to relate the lines and arpeggios to every chord underneath. It opened a lot of doors for me
Not so basic, but I asked a guitar teacher once to help me learn Django Reinhardt's recorded version of Body and Soul. Of course, Bebop "gypsy jazz" is not. But really, really worth a listen! Just gorgeous.
WHY??? I don't believe you asked that question Jens! That conga adds that #@%$!!! ....y'know...that funk to the music. I love that Gene Ammons, Wes Montgomery, 60ish conga tinged jazz tracks...makes me wish I had a time machine and could go back to that era of yellow lens shades and cigarette smokin in the studio and dominant 7th sharp ninth horn hits...with conga roll!!
Conga solos? White middle-class USA was fascinated by the TV show "I Love Lucy", which featured a 'wild" Cuban Conga player named Desi Arnaz. Thus, "White Middle-Class America", which was moving to the suburbs after WW2, with wealth and tree-lined streets for their kids...well, the powers that be added congas to everything jazz, from Tito Puente (which was an honest expression of Afro-Cuban heritage-and Congas were a natural part of Afro-Cuban music---perhaps it is better to say that Tito Puente was "allowed" an audience via records because he played that "exotic Latin music which featured Congas") to Gene Ammons and others. I am an older white guy and grew up here in the USA, and those are my "2 cents." Which means...."my opinion." As in any society, many cultures co-exist, but only some cultural contributions are recognized by the "media" in power. This is NOT so say that non-dominant cultural strains are by any means inferior, for ALL People and ALL Cultures create our world. All these strains co-exist, and all are worthy of recognition by intelligent citizens of the world. So that's why there are Congas in those late 1950's and early 1960's albums! I hope this helps give a broader perspective on things. Peace.
Why, oh, why so many congas? I'll guess the interest in Afro-Cuban music decades ago, appealing to artists as disparate as Dizzy Gillespie & Frank Sinatra. The record label people probably get the credit/blame for the rest. Personally, I can handle the congas better than the bongos, and either is better than some of the bebop + strings releases. A friend from central America says ONE conga player cannot play all the voices of a four-part conga ensemble & shouldn't try. (Fingers crossed).
If you have the patience to listen to Dizzy Gillespie's bellowing parody of 'hardcore' Cuban music like Ya Yo E, and James Moody's dry, sarcastic responses, the live 1967 album Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac is actually full of some good live jazz. I'm told a Cuban 'supergroup' was brought to NYC later in '67 or '68 to record material to show what the music was really supposed to sound like. I didn't think I had the patience to listen to BOTH albums, but my musical intellect forced me to. I got something out of both. SLSC, 1967: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RkhX-A9LwTo.html
Nobody is, but for beginners with learning by ear, it is often more useful to do a few guitar solos first to hear how the technique and phrasing can be applied
@@JensLarsen Hey Jens! So glad to hear from the man himself! Apologies if it sounded like criticism, it wasn't. You're right, I forgot the part about beginners. Keep up the good work, you're such an inspiration and I love your sense of humour. But why the conga hate? Lol
The closest solo to jazz that I've learned is Midnight at the Oasis played by Amos Garret. My learning process must be on track because I took this advice and learned it phrase at a time. I probably should now look at those phrases and how they synch up with the chord changes. Thank you for these suggestions.
@jenslarsen i love to early 60 conga infused bossa nova/latin jazz thing. Congas and Timbales are aresome. Tito Purnte has some fire tracks, samzies with kenny dorham (trompeta toccata) and pete la roca (basara). I love willie bobo too (spanish grease) and he also did a record with herbie hancock (inventions and dimensions) that is 🔥. Sabu made some good ones too. Especially the one he did with Horace Silver. But to each his own.
I think it's useful to write the solo down. Firstly, on paper i can see much clearly what harmonic and melodic choises is the soloist making. Secondly, when I write it down, I'm more likely to spend more time with it, think harder and sqish more ideas from it. Lastly I'm more likely to remember it, cause I can open my sheets and play it again years later, which helps me with implementing ideas to my own playing. I'm definitely learning by ear, cause of the feel, articulation and all kinds of stuff, but I'm also writing it down cause of those reasons.
As a Barry Galbraith fan I have to mention some of his solos here. He and Howie Collins played the guitars on Coleman Hawkins Desafinado record. Barry played the solos. Here are some cuts from that record. Un Abraco No Bonfa - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8DmXh2QuZZY.html Desafinado - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jsriFs5F3b4.html There are some fantastic short solos on "Willie Rodriguez - Flatjacks" record. That is a hard one to find. Very nice blues and minor blues solos and a rhythm changes solo. His record "Guitar and the Wind" has some good solos, as well as Hal Mckusick's East Coast Jazz vol 8.
This really shows that Jazz improv is a language. Learn phrases, get the rhythm and dynamics. Express yourself in ways that make sense and are interesting. Always be listening. Same rules for a good conversation.
Jens, have you ever heard of Billy Bauer? He plays guitar on my Lee Konitz records on the Verve label. I love B. B.'s playing, and because the record is Lee Konitz' record, the guitar solos are not too long.
"get frustrated and fail"... says the guy pretending a trumpets C is B flat, oh wait, it's the opposite... So, valves linking random lengths of tubes such that you try to discover where in the harmonic series you are...fun game of discovery, not particularly organized, other than for historic reasons relating to various hunting horns and their specific lengths and the need for certain intervals...played all of them since birth, still lousy, will likely never improve... anyway, no point in either piano envy or horn envy... to make piano players jealous just bend your minor third into a major third and watch them wince tears of squareness... PS. those are bongos. I like them too.
I believe the congas (and bongos) you hear in recordings from the late 19050s and early 1960s were an outgrowth of a musical style that became huge fad of that time period: Calypso music.
Please, if you like the song: Son of a preacher man make a short vid, e.g. with a bebop style, or style of your choice. Would appreciate; if not, that’s cool also. Long life to this channel!
