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Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 4 2016, 02:09 PM

Hey guys!

Is there anybody enjoying this guitar style lately?

Posted by: klasaine Apr 4 2016, 02:48 PM

This (Al Greene) is kind of 'ground zero' for that guitar style ...



Here's a lesson for it ...



*Aretha Franklin's really great too.
Playing guitar that way is an R&B thing (way before it started happening in church). And as usual, with pretty much any type of pop music that employs more than 5 chords, a healthy dose of Jazz will go a long way in understanding how and why it all works.

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 4 2016, 03:01 PM

Great addition klasaine! You have a lot of knowledge about jazz and chord melody so you are THE man to go deeper about this styles.

Being a fan of Ted Greene's works I have to say that I'm happy to find lots of new music full of chords and voicing, combined with tasty playing and grooves. I know that this is not a revolution since I've heard this stuff a lot in the past but I'm happy to see many new players developing it.

Posted by: klasaine Apr 5 2016, 01:38 AM

Absolutely agree and I definitely like that it's again becoming popular in 'rhythm' guitar playing. *But I think you can learn it and utilize it better when you learn it within the context of the songs where it was pioneered.

Another great one to watch is Bill Withers. His guitarist, Benorce Blakmon is a master of the style. It starts at about 1:00 ...



A little more on the funk/soul side ...

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 5 2016, 03:16 PM

Beautiful! I have to say that I'm enjoying this videos a lot. The groove on the second video is killer. I knew the song but haven't seen this version, it's so good!

Feel free to share more guitar pioneers of this style. I'm sure that this will motivate some GMCers to get into this kind of rhythm and chords work.

Posted by: klasaine Apr 5 2016, 04:48 PM

Groove starts at about 0:56 ...



Tower of Power



One of 'the' all-time classics ...



A little more of a southern rock context ...

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 7 2016, 05:17 PM

Awesome stuff! I'm listening and enjoying each one. I'll bookmark the videos to continue exploring on each direction. Music is infinite.

I've just found this cool video:





You have a very wide and tasty musical taste, what are you listening nowadays?

Posted by: PosterBoy Apr 8 2016, 06:11 AM

Some of this and Ted Greene is what made me interested in extended chords, reharmonisation and substitutions etc.

I learnt quite quickly at least for me, you have to get a really good foundation to get anywhere which means Jazz standards and Jazz blues, and understanding of Functional Harmony, identifying the common progressions like ii V I in major and minor and what the common extentions and substitutions are for each of the chords and all the various common voicings Drop 2, Drop 3 Drop 2&4 and Shell voicings.

I'm still at the very early stages of this and it's a mammoth task and very humbling seeing as I've been playing for 33 years.

At the moment I have no interest in Jazz soloing that's another huge journey, though I'm sure that will change. but solo guitar made up of Chords, walking bass, arpeggios and the melody line is enough for me to set my sights on as a goal.

When I get more comfortable with jazz standards I can venture out into the RnB Neosoul stuff, and it 'should' make sense to me a lot quicker. but as for now... Autumn Leaves, All The Things You are, Blue Bossa and Girl From Ipanema are on my music stand!!!

Posted by: klasaine Apr 8 2016, 02:48 PM

If you're working on those, you'll have no problem with the gospel and neo-soul thing.
Jazz standards are much more complex harmonically.
Make it funkier, throw in a couple of Hendrix and Curtis Mayfield double stop slides and you'll be there in no time. *Jimi was HUGELY influenced by Curtis Mayfield in his chordal approach.

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 11 2016, 03:26 PM

Interesting! I think that klasaine and Posterboy has shared a good map to structure guitar practice if your goal is mastering the style covered in this thread.

It's also cool to know that we have all this info at GMC, you just need to learn the right things and organize it correctly. This styles are good excuses to learn more the harmonic side of guitar which is so powerful and limitless.