Jazz Guitar Etudes by Greg Fishman contains 12 jazz etudes and a CD with three practice tracks for each piece: one with the etude played on guitar, another with the etude played on tenor sax, and another with only a rhythm section. The book sells for $19.95.
Jazz Guitar Etudes is the first of two books I’m going to be reviewing that is NOT written by a guitarist. It turns out that Jazz Guitar Etudes was originally written by Chicago-based saxophonist Greg Fishman as a collection of saxophone etudes that has recently been adapted for guitar. Fortunately for us guitarists, Fishman did not simply transpose his sax studies for C instruments and leave it at that. Instead, he brought a guitarist on board. The guitar edition relies heavily on contributions from guitarist Mike Allemana who provides guitar tablature and relevant ideas of fingering and articulation options. The book also contains detailed notes from both Fishman and Allemana on how intermediate, advanced, and professional level students can use the etudes to further their improvisational skills.
Beyond these few pages of text the book gets right down to business with 12 etudes based on a variety of familiar chord progressions including blues, rhythm changes, and the changes to standard tunes such as “Alone Together”, “Body and Soul”, and “Have You Met Miss Jones”. The melodic lines in each etude are fantastic examples of classic bebop phrasing. Fishman makes the etudes thematic to a point, but doesn’t go so far as to make them sound like sound like tunes so much as really well-constructed solos that are hip and fun without ever straying from the underlying harmonies. There was obviously enough thought put into each etude that you could do an analysis of the material identifying common elements in bebop phrasing. However, just playing through the etudes will provide guitar players with a lot of great ideas to add to their vocabulary.
Once players get the etudes under their fingers they can play along with the included CD. Probably the most useful tracks to play along with are the tenor sax tracks. Playing along with Greg on the sax is a really fun and satisfying experience that will challenge your timing, tone, and articulation. Guitarists who are working to get that horn-style phrasing into their playing will especially benefit from this feature and this is the only book on the market that offers this option.
Below are videos of guitarist Mike Allemana demonstrating this feature with the etudes “Halsted Street” and “State Street”:
I really enjoyed working with this book and I hope that Greg Fishman will eventually make some of his other books available for guitarists as well. I think his books Jazz Saxophone Duets and Jazz Phrasing for Beginners would also translate particularly well for guitarists.
A couple of years ago I decided that while I really wanted to do a lot of the old standards on my dinner music-type gigs, I was a little concerned that I might alienate some listeners with songs that they were unfamiliar with. Although the tunes I like to present are old classics, they are no longer a part of the mainstream media. Most people seem to be only peripherally aware of these wonderful tunes and if anything they seem to have become a part of our musical collective unconscious.
So I turned to the movie soundtracks of When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle. These films and few others like them use a lot of great sentimental old tunes in their soundtracks. I hope that by including these songs in my sets they will suggest the same air of romance and nostalgia that they did in the films, and sound at least a little bit familiar to the average listener.
I’ve been winging my way through one of these tunes: “You Made Me Love you” from Sleepless in Seattle on the gig for a while now with just a lead sheet and I figured that it’s about time to write out some of my better ideas and clean up the rough spots. This arrangement seems to lean heavily on some of the ideas I picked up from studying Barry Galbraith’s work. Below is the arrangement for you to check out in PDF format. If you enjoy the arrangement or have any questions please leave me a comment. I’d love to hear from you!
The Music
NOTE: The arrangement was updated Friday March 6, 2009. The newer version includes first and second endings and a tag.
July is just around the corner and you are invited to join The Jazztet for two lunchtime concerts at Ohio University. If the weather is nice we’ll be playing on the green at the West Portico of Memorial Auditorium. Bring a friend, a couple of chairs, and something to munch on. In case of rain, we’ll see you in the Front Room inside Baker Center.
The details:
Tuesday July 8 2008 12:00pm
Noon Jazz Series with The Jazztet
West Portico of Memorial Auditorium or The Front Room in case of rain.
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701
Tuesday July 29 2008 12:00pm
Noon Jazz Series with The Jazztet
West Portico of Memorial Auditorium or The Front Room in case of rain.
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701
Here’s a lick that works well over both the I VI ii V section of rhythm changes and the ii V leading to the IV chord in bars five and six of the progression. Theres are a lot of reasons why this works but it’s more fun to play it than it is to dissect and analyze it. I was kind of surprised to see the relationships between the two sections. I sure hadn’t thought about it before! Maybe this will open up some new approaches to playing over rhythm changes in the future. Enjoy and let me know if you have any thoughts about it.
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