Question for you jazz guitarists

[skeith]

I am taking up my guitar again after many years.

I can read a bit of music and recently purchased a book, "Charlie Christian: the Art of the Jazz Guitar" which has some great solos written out in regular music notation, but no charts telling you what strings or frets to play the notes on.

My question is this, unlike the sax, my other instrument, with the guitar the same note could be played on many different strings or frets, so when you get a book like this, what is a logical way to finger the solo?

The only thing that occurs to me is not to have one's hand moving too much.

[Joe G]

It's going to come down to some experimentation on your part to see how a phrase played in different positions will lay under the fingers. Sometimes you can tell what part of the fretboard a phrase was played on by listening to the recording, as something played up the neck on the lower strings will usually sound darker than the same notes played down the neck (closer to the headstock) on the higher strings.

Even though Charlie played it one particular way, it doesn't mean that it couldn't work another way, so don't worry about being "wrong". There will be one way that will feel more natural and easy, probably. Have fun!

[037]

  skeith said:

I am taking up my guitar again after many years.

I can read a bit of music and recently purchased a book, "Charlie Christian: the Art of the Jazz Guitar" which has some great solos written out in regular music notation, but no charts telling you what strings or frets to play the notes on.

My question is this, unlike the sax, my other instrument, with the guitar the same note could be played on many different strings or frets, so when you get a book like this, what is a logical way to finger the solo?

The only thing that occurs to me is not to have one's hand moving too much.

Charlie Christian moved his left hand a lot.

http://home.elp.rr.com/valdes/xcrpt.htm

"7"

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[7/4]

What Joe G said.

I started checking Freedom Jazz Dance lately and I can almost play the head. All I had to do was shift around a bit.

Doh! Why didn't I think of that before?

[Sundog]

Obviously, you have to observe the overall contour of the melody to assure you don't run out of room. That said, I find it very helpful to relate the melody to an appropriate chord shape, scale, series of scales, arpeggio(s), chromatic lick, or any combination thereof. This not only helps me find appropriate positions, but it has to extra added benefit of making memorization and transposition of the melody (if desired) relatively easy once I've worked the positions out in this manner. It's just a matter of "seeing" the the scale, chord, or arpeggio shapes, etc. in a different position on the fretboard.

The other real key benefit of this approach is that you instantly have a road map for how to play over the changes. Maybe not the only way that you would want to approach the changes, but it's one way, you have in your back pocket that will keep you close to the melody, if that's what your looking to do. Not sure if I've been totally clear in explaning this; but I hope it helps.

[skeith]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Many years ago I was in a blues band and it seemed that it was normal to formulate your hand position around the particular key you were in. For example, when playing a blues in the key of A, I found that my fingers spent most of the time around the 5th fret (which is the tonic note for the key of A) and 7th frets.

Is that at all translatable to jazz playing?

[7/4]

  skeith said:

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Many years ago I was in a blues band and it seemed that it was normal to formulate your hand position around the particular key you were in. For example, when playing a blues in the key of A, I found that my fingers spent most of the time around the 5th fret (which is the tonic note for the key of A) and 7th frets.

Is that at all translatable to jazz playing?

I think you should know all the scales in all the positions.

[AllenLowe]

I've only been playing for 5 years, but what I found helpful was training myself to start virtually anywhere on the neck and to know, from that position, the intervals of scale -

[fasstrack]

  Joe G said:

It's going to come down to some experimentation on your part to see how a phrase played in different positions will lay under the fingers. Sometimes you can tell what part of the fretboard a phrase was played on by listening to the recording, as something played up the neck on the lower strings will usually sound darker than the same notes played down the neck (closer to the headstock) on the higher strings.

Even though Charlie played it one particular way, it doesn't mean that it couldn't work another way, so don't worry about being "wrong". There will be one way that will feel more natural and easy, probably. Have fun!

What he said.

Hey Joe. Joel Fass here. I may get down to the upper peninsula this summer.

[Joe G]

  skeith said:

I am taking up my guitar again after many years.

I can read a bit of music and recently purchased a book, "Charlie Christian: the Art of the Jazz Guitar" which has some great solos written out in regular music notation, but no charts telling you what strings or frets to play the notes on.

My question is this, unlike the sax, my other instrument, with the guitar the same note could be played on many different strings or frets, so when you get a book like this, what is a logical way to finger the solo?

The only thing that occurs to me is not to have one's hand moving too much.

How's it going?

  fasstrack said:

  Joe G said:

It's going to come down to some experimentation on your part to see how a phrase played in different positions will lay under the fingers. Sometimes you can tell what part of the fretboard a phrase was played on by listening to the recording, as something played up the neck on the lower strings will usually sound darker than the same notes played down the neck (closer to the headstock) on the higher strings.

Even though Charlie played it one particular way, it doesn't mean that it couldn't work another way, so don't worry about being "wrong". There will be one way that will feel more natural and easy, probably. Have fun!

What he said.

Hey Joe. Joel Fass here. I may get down to the upper peninsula this summer.

Hey Joel - I missed this post, but I've noticed you hanging around; hope all is well. The upper peninsula?? Must be either Mackinac Island or Marquette, if you're playing music up there. The bridge is about 4 1/2 hours north of me (iirc), and one does not go DOWN to the U.P, unless you live north of Lake Superior.