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Post by joachim on Apr 2, 2020 13:53:22 GMT -6
I think Phil is a Barney Kessel fan? He is largely unknown to me, but I listened to this Charlie Parker tune:
and the guitar playing was pretty cool and made curious. Sounded a little like Wes Montgomery, so I googled the song and found Barney Kessel in the credits - pretty cool! John also had a Barney Kessel videos at his webpage at one point.
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Post by Phil on Apr 3, 2020 8:52:21 GMT -6
Thanks for the link. I haven't listened to a lot of Barney Kessell, but he's certainly one of the most admired Jazz guitarists. He also did a lot of studio work and is on many of the hit pop songs of the 60s from the Monkees to the Beach Boys. The most surprising thing for me about your post is that I never heard Charlie Parker play in a band with a guitarist before. Guitar wasn't used a lot in the Bebop bands of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie (that creators of Bebop).
Kessell was heavily influenced by Charlie Christian (one of the early adapters of the electric guitar), who John Ganapes references in "Jazzin' the Blues". Speaking of Christian, check out the tune "Swing to Bop" on YT. This was recorded in the 40s and you'll be surprised at how modern and ahead of his time his playing was.
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Post by bluesbruce on Apr 3, 2020 13:35:51 GMT -6
That's pretty incredible, alright. Phil, did you notice he's playing with a plectrum?
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Post by joachim on Apr 3, 2020 14:17:56 GMT -6
Thanks for sharing, Tbone. Very musical and impressive!
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Post by Phil on Apr 3, 2020 16:13:30 GMT -6
That's pretty incredible, alright. Phil, did you notice he's playing with a plectrum? Yes, I did. Most Jazz guitarists play with a pick. As a matter of fact, many go back and forth - playing rhythm with fingers and single note lines with a pick. I'm not that talented.
Do you remember Kevin Eubanks? He was the guitarist and band leader on the Jay Leno show for several years. I never noticed back then, but he plays exclusively with his fingers. He plays lightening fast lines with what looks like his thumb and middle finger. I just recently ran across some of his videos. I'd forgotten about him.
Anyway, the point is there are some great guitarists who play only with fingers - Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck, Tuck Andress, Kevin Eubanks are a few who come to mind.
Oh, one more thing: Barney Kessell was from Oklahoma. I think Tal Farlow was too. Is there something in the water there?
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Post by bluesbruce on Apr 4, 2020 4:21:35 GMT -6
That's pretty incredible, alright. Phil, did you notice he's playing with a plectrum? Yes, I did. Most Jazz guitarists play with a pick. As a matter of fact, many go back and forth - playing rhythm with fingers and single note lines with a pick. I'm not that talented.
Do you remember Kevin Eubanks? He was the guitarist and band leader on the Jay Leno show for several years. I never noticed back then, but he plays exclusively with his fingers. He plays lightening fast lines with what looks like his thumb and middle finger. I just recently ran across some of his videos. I'd forgotten about him.
Anyway, the point is there are some great guitarists who play only with fingers - Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck, Tuck Andress, Kevin Eubanks are a few who come to mind.
Oh, one more thing: Barney Kessell was from Oklahoma. I think Tal Farlow was too. Is there something in the water there?
So was Tuck Andress and I believe Charlie Christian! If there's something in the water, it must have been filtered out of my water...
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Post by jack1982 on Apr 4, 2020 6:40:48 GMT -6
Yup, some folks can play pretty fast with their fingers
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Post by wannaplayblues on Apr 5, 2020 15:40:39 GMT -6
Jazz is amazing - and beyond my brain and musical comprehension.
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Post by Phil on Apr 5, 2020 18:57:02 GMT -6
Jazz is amazing - and beyond my brain and musical comprehension. It does seem that way at first. In fact, that's what kept me from even attempting to pursue it in the past. Now I'm kicking myself. If I had taken the time to gain just a tiny bit of musical knowledge the magical illusion would have been revealed to me years ago.The complexity is just an illusion. It's a nothing more than a bunch of simple concepts strung together.
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Post by Phil on Apr 16, 2020 8:01:10 GMT -6
Weird, the links I just inserted malfunctioned - bummer...
Hey y'all,
okay, this already was watched/read befor I could put it down because of the broken links, so I'll just repost... in my original post I was referring to Phil's comment about the pros and cons of playing with bare fingers as compared to play with the pick. I agreed and pointed out that I actually always had problems with properly using the pick and therefore prefer my fingers or hybrid picking. Especially when transcribing tunes and such I really have problems to successfully mimic dynamics, timing etc. as I hear them. I'm not sure if I do much better when using my fingers, but at least it feels much better. I do run into problems with fast runs and such, though.... of course, my main attention with this post was to upload an impro of mine and show off a little, proving that I'm still playing the guitar and not only trolling the forum. Well, that didn't work out as dropbox doesn't accept the video format, so I'll post this instead:
Greetings, T.
Picks? Picks? We don't need no stinking picks. (Bogart fans will get that.)
That was great, T. I really enjoyed that.
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Post by Phil on Apr 16, 2020 20:43:20 GMT -6
T-Bone,
I went back and forth with the pick vs. finger thing before settling on fingers only. I really envy the people who can effortlessly switch bewteen both. Guys like Jack Pearson, Jimmy Bruno, and others have mastered the art of tucking the pick away in their hand and miraculously pulling it out when they want it.
Like you, I was never satisfied with the sound I was getting with a pick. I can't play fast lines with my fingers, but I couldn't play very fast with a pick either. There are also things I just can't do with fingers, but I try to focus on what I can do.
Check out Kevin Eubanks. He can play play extremely fast with fingers only. It looks like he uses thumb/middle finger alternating for fast lines. Interesting technique.
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Post by bluesbruce on Apr 17, 2020 12:14:28 GMT -6
+1 to Molly Tuttle - she's awesome, a monster picker
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Post by Marc on Apr 18, 2020 8:12:44 GMT -6
I had to watch that video of Kevin Eubanks & Stanley Jordan a few times. Great tune, and is it just me, or the camera angle or is Kevin's guitar have a really wide neck. I thought it might have been a 7 or 8 string at first glance.
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Post by Phil on Apr 18, 2020 10:57:15 GMT -6
I had to watch that video of Kevin Eubanks & Stanley Jordan a few times. Great tune, and is it just me, or the camera angle or is Kevin's guitar have a really wide neck. I thought it might have been a 7 or 8 string at first glance. I noticed the same thing in another video where he's playing a different guitar. It had a neck width like a classical guitar. I'm sure he has them made that way so he has more room between the strings for his style of finger picking. Martin Taylor's signature guitars have a slightly wider neck for this reason, but nothing like what Eubank uses. I'd like to hear more about his guitars but haven't found anything where he talks about them.
Regarding Stanley Jordan: I could never get into his playing. It's so unorthodox that I simply can't relate to it.
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