THE JAZZ GUITAR VLOG
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Fly Me To The Moon
This is my 3rd chord melody arrangement exclusively using the Barry Harris system of harmonization! It’s a very popular standard that many jazz musicians tend to associate with “Autumn Leaves” and “All The Things You Are” due to their similarity in the initial...
Kumoi Pentatonics: Coltrane Perspectives 2
This is the 2nd in a series of "Coltrane Guitar Perspectives" on using pentatonics. If you missed the first one be sure to check it out here. In it I show you how the legendary John Coltrane pioneered the use of the common minor pentatonic in jazz by super-imposing it...
Minor Pentatonics: Coltrane Perspectives 1
If you’re a guitarist, I wouldn’t be surprised if the very first scale you ever learned is the minor pentatonic ! And most likely…you first learned it to solo either over the blues or your favorite rock tune. But if you’re like most guitarists who get into jazz, it’s...
Major 9th Arpeggio Superimposition
If you’re an intermediate to advanced player, do you ever get tired of hearing yourself play the same old lines when improvising? Maybe you’re just in need of expanding your vocabulary or simply exploring some new melodic perspectives. If so, in my newly posted video...
“Bluesette” Barry Harris Style
Hope you had a chance to check out my arrangement of “I’ll Remember April”, exclusively harmonized using the 6th & diminished chord concept associated with Barry Harris. For my 2nd arrangement in this series, I’ve decided to feature a popular standard in ¾ time....
“I’ll Remember April” -Barry Harris style
I hope you had a chance to watch my lesson titled, “Wes and the Barry Harris 6th & Diminished Connection”! Towards the end of it I promised I would be posting some chord melody arrangements featuring the Barry Harris method of harmonizing lines. I am happy to...
Barry Harris 6th & Diminished Chords
For some time now, several students have been asking me to do a lesson on how to use the “6th and diminished” harmonized scales associated with the late bebop pianist, Barry Harris. However, I’ve been hesitant because personally, it’s a concept I picked up over the...
Jazz Motifs with Common Tones
An important resource that great jazz musicians use in order to tell a story when improvising, is the element of repetition. This is often done by stressing a note that is common to various consecutive chords in a progression. And it is effective because it creates a...
Too Marvelous For Words
Are you familiar with Johnny Mercer? He wrote the lyrics to some of the greatest and most played standards in the history of jazz...Autumn Leaves, Days of Wine and Roses, I’m Old Fashioned and countless more. Recently I fell in love with a lesser known standard...
Jazz Improvisation Over-Simplified
If you’re starting out with jazz improvisation and you’re overwhelmed with the amount of chords in a 32 measure standard, I think this lesson will be of utmost help. In it I show you how to improvise over almost any standard by reducing it down to its bare-bone...
Bluesify your Bebop with Double Stops
Do you employ double stops in your playing? In case you’re not familiar with the term, it was first devised by violinists to denote 2 notes played simultaneously. Nonetheless, it is applicable to any any polyphonic instrument! You’ve probably heard and identified the...
I Love Lucy
Finally, a chord melody arrangement of the theme song to one of my favorite sitcoms when I was a kid... "I Love Lucy" written by Eliot Daniel. If you’re familiar with the original, before you check this one out, let me just warn you that I’m not adhering to the "Ricky...
The Most Useful Scale In Jazz
If you had to pick just 1 scale to learn in order to use over most standards, what would it be? Some say the major scale or one of it modes such as the dorian or lydian. Others swear by the so called bebop scale. But if you had to use any of those scales exclusively...
Aquarela do Brasil
When it comes to Brazilian music, I’m sure you’re already aware that Jobim’s “Girl from Ipanema” easily takes first prize as the most popular bossa-nova worldwide! But how about the most popular samba? Most Brazilians agree it’s Ary Barroso’s “Brazil” known as...
Chords w Harmonic Identity Disorder
If you’ve been playing guitar long enough, at some point you’ve probably read some notation or TAB for a chord voicing and the familiar shape you ended up playing was being called something completely different than what you always knew it as. Who knows? Maybe you...
All Blues
I’ve got More Miles for You! And don’t get me wrong, this isn’t an ad for a new Visa Credit Card (lol). I’m talking about this video! It's my finger-style chord melody rendition of “All Blues” by Miles Davis from his classic recording, “Kind of Blue”…. historically...
2 Steps To A Great Bebop Line
Every now and then, do you feel like you’re just incessantly playing the same licks, scales and arpeggios without saying anything? Furthermore, do you sometimes feel like they don't even sound jazzy? In this lesson I teach you a seldom taught line construction...
It Could Happen To You
This is not meant to be click bait, so my sincere apologies if this title sounds as a cautionary warning! 🙂 It’s simply the title of my solo guitar version of a lovely standard written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Jimmy Burke which has been recorded by countless jazz...