Trouble No More Slide Solos

The Allman Brothers have been known for decades for their blues inspired playing.  The band’s core sound centers around Duane Allman’s slide solos in the early years and more recently with Derek Trucks’ slide playing.  Thanks to a Facebook request, we are going to look at the slide solos from both players on this ABB classic.

Tune to Open E

Slide players typically use open tunings for playing slide solos.  Open E, open D, and Open A are all common slide tunings.  Duane and Derek both use Open E tuning which is, low to high, E B E G# B E.  Tune the 5th and 4th strings up a whole step each, and your 3rd string up a half step.  It helps to use heavier strings, either 10 or 11 gauge.  If you are nervous about tuning up, you can also tune to Open D (D A D F# A D) and add 2 frets to the transcription.

Duane Allman’s Slide Solo

First we’ll check out Duane Allman’s solo.  His playing is very influenced by some of the Chicago blues greats, like Elmore James, and other blues greats like BB King.

The tune is in the key of D, so we’ll play all around the 10th fret.  One great thing about playing slide guitar is that you can stay in basically the same position and still get many of the classic blues licks.  Once you find your root position (based on the low E string) you can play that fret and the notes two frets below.  In our case we’re using the 10th and 8th frets.

One technique that Duane use all the time in his slide solos is playing one note, and sliding into that note a second time.

Derek Trucks Slide Solo

Derek Trucks is a guitar prodigy who  was playing with the Allman Brothers Band by the age of 20.  He brings a completely unique approach to the slide guitar, combining the typical blues influences with jazz and world music influences.  He has studied Hindustani music as well as the Delta Blues.

His slide solo on Trouble No More really highlights his blues influence, and not surprisingly, his influence from Duane Allman.  The solo does not stay in the same general area, like Duane’s.  He does start in the 10th position but quickly goes to the 17th position for the higher notes.  In bar 5 and 6, Derek takes a Duane lick from “Statesboro Blues” on the ABB classic recording, Live at the Fillmore.

Who are your favorite slide guitarists?  Use the comments below to mention your favorite players and performances.

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Turnaround Licks

Turnaround licks are often the last thing many jazz guitarists (and guitarists in any style) learn.  Usually, after spending so much time on the other ii-Vs and chords you’re ready to get to the next chorus.  Well at least I have been like that in the past.

Well, no more!  The turnaround is one of the places that separates the proverbial men from the boys.  I’ve talked about it before with the blues, and sounding good on the turnaround section of any tune can help to make you sound more legit.

Sonny Rollins is one of the greatest jazz improvisors of all time.  Much has been written about his rhythmic creativity, and deservedly so.  His harmonic sense is also very creative and inspiring.  He’s particularly great at voice leading and resolving his lines in interesting ways.

Sonny’s landmark ablum, Saxophone Colossus, has a track called Moritat that features a number of great turnaround licks.  We’re going to look at 6 of them.  The song is in the key of Bb, so the turnaround section chords would be:

|Bbmaj7    G7  |Cmi7    F7   |Bbmaj7    |

Hit the Turnaround Changes

One way to ensure a good sound on the turnaround is to highlight the differences between the chords, especially when there are half step differences between chord tones.  When going from I -VI (Bb to G7 in this tune), the G7 contains a B natural, while the Bb contains a Bb.  This note is a key note to ‘hit the change’ when going to the G7 chord.

Moving to the Cmi7 chord has 3 chromatic note differences – B-C, B-Bb, and D-Eb.  These are all great areas to again, hit the change.  The idea is that you want to highlight these note changes in your lines, and we’ll see the Sonny hits these frequently.

Altered Sounds

The VI and V chords have a lot of room for alterations because they are acting as V chords and resolving to the next chord.  The bebop era and much of the straight ahead jazz that followed used two primary altered sounds: the diminished dominant and the ‘altered scale’/melodic minor.  Those two scales will get a deeper look in future posts.  Sonny uses both of these sounds in each of these licks.

Moritat Turnaround Lick 1

Our first lick has Sonny playing a G7b9 arpeggio on the VI chord and an F7#5 on the V chord.  It’s interesting that the final resolution happens on the 6th note of the Bb chord.  Check out how simple he plays on the Cmi7 chord.

Moritat Turnaround Lick 2

The second turnaround lick does not have quite as many altered notes.  The V chord does have a classic #9/b9 move that resolves to the 5th of the Bb chord.

Moritat Turnaround Lick 3

Sonny’s third turnaround lick uses the same sounds as the first; G7b9 and F7#5.  This one actually does not resolve! As you listen to the recording though, it doesn’t sound ‘unresolved’ in a bigger sense.  It’s almost as if the band does the resolving instead of the soloist, which could be a really interesting approach to add to your palate of sounds.

Moritat Turnaround Lick 4

Sonny again uses a G7b9 sound on the VI chord.  This time on the V7 chord he plays an F7alt-with #9, b9, and #5.  (Those notes are written all as flats in order to avoid mixing sharps and flats.)

Moritat Turnaround Lick 5

Sonny gets to his famous rhythmic sense here.  The sounds are more altered than the other licks.  He plays an altered sound on the VI chord, then uses a b5 on the Cmi7.  This is an interesting choice when just looking at the notes, but the b5 note resolves on beat three to the root of the F7 chord.  He plays an F7b9, then chromatically leads into the 3rd on the Bb to resolve.  Very cool turnaround lick here!

Moritat Turnaround Lick 6

This turnaround lick starts with a pickup leading into the 5 of the I chord.  The rest of this lick is pretty vanilla, but really effective because it is very melodic.

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Don Rich Licks Part 2

Don Rich is an icon of chicken pickin’. In this lesson we’ll look at some Don Rich licks that really helped put him on the chicken pickin’ map. All of these are taken from the album I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail. Again, make sure to use a telecaster and very clean tone.

Wham Bam

This first lick is a great end to the intro on Wham Bam. It’s in Ab, but could be transposed easily to any key. It’s based on the “F chord shape” so wherever you move that shape, the lick would fit.

Don Rich starts out his solo with this great chromatic chicken pickin’ lick. The idea is chromatically moving from the 3rd to the 5th of the chord (Ab in this case). Make sure to get the deadened notes between the main notes – that’s where the chicken pickin’ sound comes from!

Lick number 3 is very similar to the first lick, but moved up an octave. This also shows us a great way to change fingerings when working with vocabulary.

Fallin For You

In Fallin’ For You, Don Rich pulls out a ton of great licks. The first one from that song happens at the beginning of his solo. The song is in the key of E, but this lick happens over a B chord, the V moving to I. It starts with a clear B chord fifth and quickly gets into the blues scale.

The final lick we’ll check it out another B to E move. This time again it’s coming from the blues scale. Check out the final F# note bend. This is very reminiscent oh Johnny Cash guitarist, Luther Perkins.

Don Rich played a huge roll in creating the chicken pickin’ style playing with Buck Owens. If you would to find some more Don Rich licks, check out my first article on Don Rich here.

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We all know about Brent Mason’s chicken pickin’ wizardry by now. One of the tunes that clearly cemented his place in the pantheon of chicken pickers was the tune Hot Wired from the album of the same name. Hot Wired had been out of print for years, but now Amazon (and others) have it as a download… great news!

I have several articles here on Brent Mason, and the transcription of his first solo. This transcription is from his second solo on the tune. This one gets into some more of Brent’s jazz leanings, but still stays right in the chicken pickin’ vein.

Scale Choices – Brent Mason Hot Wired

Much of this solo is based on the hybrid, minor pentatonic and mixolydian scales, which gives it the chicken pickin’ flavor as well. The ‘hybrid’ scale is basically R 2 b3 3 4 #4 5 6 b7, but isn’t really played as a ‘scale’ but more used as a collection of notes to pull from.

Techniques – Brent Mason Hot Wired

Check out the 5th and 6th bars from some great chromatic pull off licks. In both cases he is using a very ‘guitar-istic’ approach of pulling off to open strings while moving up one fret at a time. Bars 19 and 20 have a very cool arpeggio figure. “Hot Wired” is very fast, so this phrase will probably have to be played using ‘hybrid’ picking.

The solo has a lot of pulling off to open strings in general, so be sure to check out how Mason handles these. This works really well in this key (A) because the open strings are all in the key.

There are a ton of licks you can pull here to add to your vocabulary. These are also very standard licks, so don’t be afraid to put them into your vocabulary!

One final note, the solo is notated in standard pitch. There are rumors that Brent played the tune and then sped it up to reach the key of Bb, but I think it’s just as likely that he used a capo for the recording.

Hot Wired (2nd Solo) (downloadable PDF transcription)

Check out more Brent Mason:

Brent Mason Chicken Pickin’ Licks
Brent Mason Hot Wired (first solo)
Brent Mason Chicken Pickin’ Licks (coming soon!)

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Here’s a short story on my guitar playing history and my journey with guitar warm up exercises:

As a young player I used to obsess over things like scales.  I needed at least 30 minutes to warm up and would go through a plethora of scales, exercises, and arpeggios.  Of course any time I only had 45 minutes to practice was ‘a waste of time’ because I would only get about 10 to 15 minutes in after the long warm up routine.

As I went through college I became a little self-conscience of the whole thing.  I got a big head about it and decided I’m too good to have a warm up routine.  Besides if I’m not playing regularly enough to always be warmed up I would need to practice more.

As an older player I have come to a balance between the two extremes.  I decided I needed a warm up routine to address certain issues and physical aspects of playing the guitar.  I’ve been humbled by playing way too many sloppy gigs to continue thinking that I’m so good that I don’t need to warm up!

I asked myself what was so sloppy about my playing and thought of certain things to play that would address those issues.  The guitar warm up routine had to be relatively short because sometimes I only get to gigs 30 minutes early.  Plus it needed to be something easily memorized.  Here are the guitar warm up exercises I cam up with.

Left Hand

The first thing I do is aimed at warming up the left hand.  I do this by playing simple finger exercises moving up one fret at a time.  Then I go back down the same ‘scale’.  I usually do this one just until the hands are feeling loose and ready to go.

Next I try to mix things up with another simple finger exercise.  In example 2 you’ll see that it simply goes pinky, middle, ring, and first.  I take this down all the strings.  Then completely reverse the pattern (example 3) and move up the strings.  You can also play the ascending pattern descending on the strings (ex 4), and vice versa – descending pattern ascending the strings (ex 5).  The purpose of this exercise is just to get some movements that are not in order, or to mix the fingers up a bit.

Right Hand

The main issue with the right hand is coordination and moving from string to string.  The right hand series starts out with a simple exercise with alternate picking.  First descend the strings and the pattern (ex 6), then ascend both (ex 7).  These do not have to be played on these two strings or frets, you can really use it as a jumping off point and play the exercises anywhere on the neck.

The next step is to get your hands used to switching strings on both up strokes and down strokes.  Exercises 8-11 are designed to address all of the combinations of string switching.  You can (and should) also change these to skip a string in order to get warmed up with skipping strings and on an upstroke or downstroke.

The Spider

Finally the last exercise is called ‘the spider.’  This one comes from a classical guitar text, though I can’t remember which one!  The idea with the spider is that you must keep 2 fingers down all the time.  Start with first and ring.  When the middle finger comes down your first finger can come up, so middle and ring are down.  Then put the pinky down, ring comes up.  Make the last two moves and you’ve gone through the cycle.  This exercise really helps with control in the left hand.  It also generates a lot of heat in the hand to loosen everything up one more time.  It’s also a good idea to put a string, or 2, or 3… between your fingers to get an even bigger stretch.

That’s the guitar warm up routine!  Total time should be around 5 to 10 minutes.

Now I used to use a metronome for all of this stuff.  It became sort of a hindrance though.  If I could play these all faster one night and slower the next I would immediately get down on myself.  Or even worse, would try to match the metronome markings even if my hands weren’t ready or warm enough to do so.
Again, try experimenting with changing the actual notes played and moving it around the neck.  Each area feels a little different so you should move it around to get your hands ready to play in any area of the neck.

Let me know in the comments some of the things you use in your guitar warm up routine.

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A lot of times when I talk about combining country and jazz people give me a raised eyebrow, ‘country jazz?!-seriously?’-look.  I always tell them that it’s in the roots of the music which of course gets me an even weirder look.  So I thought I’d share with all of my readers some of the best country jazz from the years.

Country Jazz

Some jazz artists found some of their repertoire in country music.  This in a way makes these songs country jazz songs.

Louis Armstrong & Jimmie Rodgers-Blue Yodel Number 9

This is one of the earliest recordings of the combination, but you really can’t get much more iconic than Louis Armstrong with Jimmie Rodgers.  These two were at the forefront of their musical genres in the 1930s and this combination really works.  It’s really easy to hear that the roots of these two styles start in a very similar place.

Hank Garland – Polka Dots and Moonbeams, and more

Garland truly was in both worlds.  While he rarely combined the two styles he was equally adept in both.  Check out his beautiful rendition(s) of Polka Dots and Moonbeams.  Then check out the second video featuring the Hank Garland Stomp-Giant Steps anyone??  I also included his iconic Sugarfoot Rag as well.

Sonny Rollins – I’m an Old Cowhand

Sonny Rollins released an entire album of western inspired music.  Here he approaches some country flavored material with his virtuosic jazz style.

Bill Frisell – Shenandoah

Frisell is one of my favorite guitarists, maybe even my favorite.  I love his different versions of Shenandoah and this live solo version is incredible.  This one isn’t pure country (Bill has played tunes by Johnny Cash and Hank Williams) but is close enough.  The setting would have been a very cool place to see Frisell play solo live.  This DVD is a must-have.

Wynton Marsalis with Willie Nelson – Unchain My Heart

Wynton Marsalis tackled an entire album playing country with Willie Nelson.  Nelson had been releasing his own versions of standards for years (see below).  Similar to the Armstrong/Rodgers combination, you can hear that these two styles really share some solid roots.

Jazz Country

Other times country artists would try to incorporate a jazz flavor into their playing.  These recordings are all jazzed country songs.

Bob Wills – Wang Wang Blues

Bob Wills pioneered and essentially codified the Western Swing style.  This band was always grooving, and here they sound like a little big band with horns and everything.  They almost have a New Orleans feel.  Check out more of this band as they found a great meeting point between country and jazz that was imitated for years to come.

Jimmy Bryant – The Night Rider

Here is an example of country guitarist Jimmy Bryant (and steel guitarist Speedy West) playing a rhythm changes-ish tune but using country aesthetics.  Very interesting. Bryant is stunningly good at the guitar (this recording doesn’t show it as much as some others do) and it would be a very good idea to check out more of his catalog.
[youbue=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E7Aok7xMxc&w=600]

Buddy Emmons – Killer Joe

Buddy played pedal steel on a ton of country recordings, but his real love is with jazz music. Here he is accompanied by a big band playing the jazz standard Killer Joe.  Emmons tears it up, and dig the synthy sound from guitarist Phil Baugh.

Willie Nelson – Stardust

Nelson has made some standards a steady part of his repertoire for years.  Here he plays on the Leno show in the 90s.  He applies his country stylings to the classic jazz tune.

Brent Mason – Smokin’ Section

Brent is one of the most recorded guitarists of all time.  Here he plays a rhythm changes inspired tune.  He steers pretty clear of the regular country licks but still shreds this tune.

Really you could keep adding tunes to this list.  Check out artists like Steve Travoto or Jim Campilongo.  Pat Metheny even straddles the boundaries on his more recent acoustic recordings and some of his earliest recordings.  You could mine ideas from Bill Frisell for years and listen to the way Brad Paisley incorporates jazz and western swing on every recording he has released so far.  Danny Gatton, Jimmie Rivers, it just goes on.

The post 10 Essential Country Jazz Videos appeared first on Sam Smiley Music.

This is Part 2 of 2.  Read Part 1 here.

Country chord progressions have a lot of similarities between songs.  So far, in part one, we’ve looked at how to ‘name’ the progressions using the Nashville Number System.  That info will be immensely helpful for looking for similarities between songs.

Hooks

I’ve always found it much easier to learn tunes when there are ‘hooks’ that I can grab onto.  A hook is a part of a song or a chord progression that you already know (note: I’m not talking about melodic hooks or pop song hooks).

Most experienced guitarists know the blues form, for example.  If I’m working on a tune that has part of the blues in it, or that’s based exclusively on the blues, I can memorize it much more easily because I can grab on the blues ‘hook.’

Not only can you learn a song easily, but you have things you can do over that part of the song.  You might have certain licks or ideas that work really well when going from IV to V.  If you know a major II chord (we’ll get to that below) is coming up, you’re much better prepared to deal with it than if you’ve never played a progression with a major II.  This is how some musicians can step in and play the hell out of a song they’ve never heard – they might not know that tune, but they’ve played those chord progressions a number of times.  My eBook Blues Language is all about using the hooks in the blues progression and knowing how to solo over them using the language of the blues masters.

The more hooks you know the better you’ll know the music and the better you’ll be able to deal with learning new songs.

Country Chord Progressions

Ok, so finally let’s talk about the actual country chord progressions!  I’m talking mostly about classic country here, think Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings, Wynn Stewart, etc.  The principles will still apply to newer country, and that music does have a lot of what follows in it, but I’m not as well versed in the newer country music.

Here are some hooks that I’ve found in country music.  Most center around using the 1, 4, and 5 chords in different configurations.  These could be an entire song, or just a verse, bridge, or chorus.  One of the beauties of country music is that the writers can be really creative with a pretty limited amount of material.

1          1          4          4
5          5          1          1

You’ll find this one all over the place.  In my quick research I pulled it from “Falling for You” by Buck Owens and “Lord Loves a Drinking Man” by Kevin Fowler (played by Mark Chesnutt).  You could easily find it a number of times in a Hank Williams compilation or Merle Haggard comp.

A short variation of the first hook is from “Hey Good Lookin’” by Hank Williams

1          1          1          1
5          4          1          1

“Hey Good Lookin’” has a bridge that uses a very common progression:

4          1          4          1
4          1          2          5

Notice that the 2 chord is major.   This is called the ‘secondary dominant’ in classical and jazz theory.  Basically you are playing a dominant chord (the V chord of) the V chord.  If you’re in the key of G, the D chord is the V.  The V of D is A, so the V of V (another way of saying secondary dominant) is A.  A is also the second note of the scale, so you could also call it the major 2 chord.  So… major 2 and the secondary dominant chords are the same thing.

1          1          1          5
5          5          5          1

This chord progression is found throughout country music.  I took it from “Cold Cold Heart” by Hank Williams when writing this article.   It’s also the verse for “Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffett.

1          1          4          1
1          5          1          1

This one is from Merle Haggard’s classic “Mama Tried.”

4          4          1          1
4          4          5          5

This progression is a great bridge selection pulled from “You Can’t Do Me That Way” by Mark Chesnutt.  A variation on this would be to replace the 7^th chord with a 2.

Find More

This article is just the beginning.  With the way that country chord progressions work, you can find a handful of these hooks to learn.  Then as you listen to more recordings you’ll find that they are being repeated constantly.  Again, this isn’t to say the music isn’t good.  It’s great music!  It just uses a lot of material over and over again, which makes the musicians’ job to find new and creative ways to get around these common chord progressions.

If you’re looking for more check out: Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, Jimmy Buffett, Hank Williams II, Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, and Mark Chesnutt.

The post Country Chord Progressions – Part 2 appeared first on Sam Smiley Music.

Country Chord Progressions Part 1

Country music has long been celebrated and mocked for being a simple music for simple people. I can’t disagree with that, but it’s also one of the things about it that I really love, usually honest music for honest listeners (with a bit of a cash grab thrown in for good measure). But let’s not kid ourselves, which style of music doesn’t have its share of hacks?

The chord progressions are one thing abut country music that make it simple. Almost all of this music is diatonic, and other than the ‘Disney half step up key change’ it rarely even changes keys or key centers in a song.

Three Chords and the Truth

You’ve heard that expression I’m sure, but here’s the truth about three chords and the truth… it’s (almost) the truth!! Really, most of country music is made up from 3 chords; the I chord, IV chord, and V chord.

Now there are other chords in the style of course, mainly the minor chords ii, iii, and vi, but they are heard with much less frequency. The magic in this style though is the different things the writers do with such little material.

Nashville Number System

Nashville Number System is a murky topic that many players think is very complicated. Really it’s a way of organizing and describing chord progressions regardless of key. It’s a great way to communicate with other musicians and can help reduce the time of explaining a new song to someone, especially when the key might end up changing.

This is ONLY a primer, there are much more detailed resources on this topic. If you’re really interested check out some of these websites and resources:
http://www.nashvillenumbersystem.com/index.html
Hub Pages
Nashville Number System – Chas Williams (Amazon link)

The basic idea is that each scale degree can have a chord built from that note. Then each chord is numbered in order.

In C:

C D E F G A B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Jazz and classical musicians will use Roman Numerals, but Arabic numbers are common with this system.

In major keys (which is what 99% of country music is written in) the 2, 3, and 6 chords are minor. Use either a minus sign or small m to denote minor chords.

2- 3- 6-

Dmi Emi Ami

The 7chord is rarely (I’ve never seen it) used in this style. But if it were it would be diminished, which is notated with a small o.

Dominant Chords are tricky because using a 7 would make a chord look like two different chords. For example 57 looks like a G followed by a B chord. Many musicians end up using carets around these chords when they are dominant, <5> would be G7.

Chords outside of the key are notated with a b symbol. So if you wanted a Bb chord you would write b7. Bb7 would be <b7>. F# diminished would be #4o.

Spacing

The other part of Nashville Numbering System is the spacing. This will tell you how many beats each chord will last. Typically a set space, like a TAB on the keyboard, will be used. Then if you see more than one chord in that space you’ll know generally where the changes happen.

1     1     4  5  1

Would be the 1 chord for two measures, 4 chord and 5 chord each for 2 beats.

Sometimes musicians will underline when 2 chords happen in a measure.

4  5   1

If you would like an even more detailed look into using the Nashville Numbers take a look here or at the other links mentioned earlier.

http://guitarthinker.com/nashville-number-system/

In part 2 we’ll look at common country chord progressions and how to use them.

The post Nashville Number Primer- Country Chord Progressions Part 1 appeared first on Sam Smiley Music.

Country music is one style that has been able to keep its roots while bringing it into the 21^st century. I think that the main reason behind this is the musicians’ dedication to learning the traditional vocabulary. And the main reason for that is because it sounds cool!

We’re going to look at some traditional ways to start off a tune. First, we’ll look at a very traditional intro in the key of E. We start with 6ths leading up chromatically to the 3^rd and 5^th. Then the lick descends to imply a B7 chord, playing the 5^th and 7^th. Finally a bend on both notes brings us back to the I chord. If you can’t make the two finger bend (it’s tough!) just bend the F#.

The second intro is very similar to the first. Harmonically we’re looking at the same chords. This time though a common tone is kept on the top, imitating a fiddle sound.

Intro number 3 is again very similar to the first two. This time we’re using the open position and thirds. This lick ends with a bend on the D string to bring it back to the tonic.

You’re Still On My Mind

The final intro comes from Clarence White. The Byrds’ album Live at the Filmore is a text book for chicken pickin’ licks. Clarence introduces this tune in the key of A. The second bar has a run of eighth notes. Try to let each ring into each other when you release the bend. The ending lick is a great lick to add to your vocabulary to use even outside of an intro.

If you’re interested in checking out even more great country guitar intros, listen to some of the lap steel playing on Hank Williams records. Really any classic recording will have a variety to pick out and apply to your own music.

The post Country Guitar Intros appeared first on Sam Smiley Music.

Soul jazz has an interesting place in the history of jazz.  It’s where jazz, blues, and rock met a decade before jazz fusion became ‘a thing.’  In the 50s and 60s the lines between these different styles were pretty blurry.  Was T-Bone Walker a jazz or blues artist?  What about Ray Charles, or Jimmy Smith?  Putting these soul jazz guitar licks into your vocabulary is a great way to expand your jazz and blues playing.

Much of this music that straddled the line featured the guitar playing of either Grant Green or Melvin Sparks.  Let’s take a look at some of great jazz guitar licks these players played.

Soul Jazz Guitar Licks

Melvin Sparks

Melvin Sparks played on many recordings by Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, and Idris Muhammad.  He played mostly out of the pentatonic scale-which was typical for this style, but would use more blues mannerisms than many of the other jazz guitarists playing soul jazz.   He would frequently bend strings and use some of chitlin-circuit licks that Jimi Hendrix later became known for using.

Our first lick comes from a Jack McDuff recording of the tune “Snap Back Jack” and uses hammer ons and double stops.  The lick is based on an Eb chord-it could be major or dominant, and is from the Eb major pentatonic scale.

The second lick is from a great Lou Donaldson recording called “Everything I Play From Now On Gonna Be Funky” in Bb.  Here we have some creative uses of the minor pentatonic scale and repeated notes.  He also uses some bends here to make the lick funky.  The second half of this lick uses double stops and ends with a bend on the b3.

Green With Soul Envy

Grant Green was a fantastic bebop player, but many feel he really made his name playing funky.  His album Live at the Lighthouse is sited as a huge influence on many players.

Double Stop Licks

Green played double stops frequently and made them funky.  Our first lick is from the tune “Iron City” from the album of the same name.  The lick is over a G7 chord.  He starts it out playing a 5^th and ends it with a funky half step bend line going back to the tonic.

The second lick uses another double stop-this time a minor 6^th between the 5^th and flat 3^rd.  This lick ends with a simple pentatonic lick again going back to the root.

Our third lick is a very simple repeating lick that is very effective.  Green uses repeating licks in many of his solos, even dating back to his bebop days.  This one is a pull off lick from the b5 to the 4 and flat 3^rd.  Again, he resolves it to the root.

The final lick from Grant is from the tune “Down Here on the Ground” which has been used as a sample for some hip hop groups.  The lick is a pretty simple minor pentatonic lick in the key of D.

 If you play either jazz or blues, adding some killing soul jazz guitar licks into your playing will give you some new things to work with.

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