JazzTalk with Ed Byrne

Functional Skills

Most of the guitar students I have taught had, when we
first met, been frustrated by contemporary jazz education,
namely Chord Scale Theory, the current reigning jazz
pedagogy, since it (CST) doesn’t offer a clue as to what to
play, supplying only the “correct” notes–7 at a time! The
student who is left to figure out meaningful linguistic
content on his or her own will tend to flounder from having
been sidetracked practicing scales out of theoretical books
in their back rooms, never even venturing out to play with
others–the very point of learning to play.

It would therefore be irresponsible to begin their
tutelage with the finer points of Linear Jazz Improvisation,
in which one learns how to use the salient information
contained in specific compositions in melodic improvisation,
when they haven’t yet gained basic small jazz ensemble
skills and a working relationship with the jazz language
itself.

The latter begins with the blues forms and such
functional skills as comping and soloing on cadences, in all
keys and in various rhythmic styles. It is these essential
skills that we shall attack head-on below. We will do this
artfully, and you will find these etudes to be as fun as
they are effective.

Ours is a unified approach to learning all aspects of
the basic cadence and blues forms, skills which can be
readily applied to all jazz repertoires, including standard
tunes from the Great American Songbook. Moreover, we will
address all the essential ensemble roles, such as the
fundamental bass role, the linear accompaniment role of the
guide-tone line, and the voiced chord and rhythmic
accompaniment (comping) styles of swing, bossa nova, and
funk. Finally, we will learn extended solo lines on all of
these basic elements.

We neither attempt here to be ground breaking, nor to
demonstrate all possibilities. Neither shall we offer
fingering positions or special guitar techniques. But if you
learn these exercises by rote with the sound files, you will
be able to play real jazz with others.

LJI Functional Jazz Guitar
~ w/ Great Sound Files for Practicing

Check this link for music and sound examples:
http://byrnejazz.com/product.php?id=22

LJI Functional Jazz Guitar is a very practical book.
It’s fun to practice with the inter-related sound files–in
all keys. Learn the skills needed for playing in a jazz
group with this fun 255-page method. Practice specific
cadence and blues comps; guide-tone and bass lines; rhythms,
chord voicings and melodic licks in major and minor, in all
12 keys–with 185 pages of inter-related sound files.

Product Details:

Convenient e-book format–or spiral bound hard copy

9 Free Sound Files

255 pages

View sample pages and Listen to Finale sound samples:
http://byrnejazz.com/store.php

Contents:

Thinking in Jazz

Guide-Tone Lines and Cadences

Blues Comping

Bossa Comping

Bass Lines

Linear Melodic Lines

Diatonic Modal Planing

Improvisation Advice

Functional Jazz Guitar is designed for all the students
I have had that have practiced chord scales and done the
usual stuff in their back room, but don’t know how to get
out and function in a jam. What they had learned (chord
scales) didn’t help them enough at how to apply it to
performance. FJG does–big-time, without any need for scales.
The book focuses on specific lines, chord comps, and rhythms
on the basic major and minor cadences and 12-bar blues–with
specific voicings. It also covers Diatonic Modal Planing of
triads and voicings in 4ths.

You can mix and match the chapters, which is really
fun. For example, after you learn the guide tone line in all
keys, you can go to the comping chapter of the same cadences,
and then play one with the other. Virtually everything in
the book is interchangeable in that way. I am currently
running a (mixed instrument) class at home with my long-term
students–on this book exclusively–and it’s effective and
fun. You can practice by yourself with it, or with any
combination of other players on any instruments. You can
then break it up and have each person do a different part
from the book, all at the same time. While written for
guitarists, this book works well for all instrumentalists.

There’s a common thread throughout this 255 page book.
Rather than offer theoretical explanations, the book simply
and directly puts the basics to work, supplying specific
comping rhythms to use, over a supplied paradigm walking
bass line, rhythms and other specific solutions to learn in
all keys on the basic cadences major and minor; the 12-bar
blues in major and minor, and funk, and diatonic planing
though the modes in all keys; and in swing and Latin and
funk–with specific comping rhythms and voicings in all keys.

All of this is practiced with free sound files and
learned by music and ultimately by rote (9 separate files,
168 pages in Finale). The 2 major and minor blues bass lines
are written out in all keys to be learned first as such, and
then used against learning the anticipation comping-pecks
(always difficult to get used to). Then the riff-style comp
is introduced.

The entire book is self-explanatory, however, and the
explanations are irrelevant: Just play the whole book and
you are ready to play in a group. It is both efficient and
artful, and you will have fun learning in this manner. To be
able to function in a jazz group setting, the jazz guitarist
needs to know some basic cadences and blues form-types, in
all 12 keys, in the basic rhythmic feels of swing, bossa,
and funk. To fully know these cadences and blues forms, we
internalize the guide-tone line, basic cadences, root
progression, and melodic line realizations of these same
forms.

We also address the various roles of the jazz guitarist,
while continuing to focus on the same essential forms: those
of the bassist, accompanist, and soloist. In this effort,
specific solutions for each of these roles will be learned
by rote in all keys, such as guitar chord voicings and
comping rhythms, specific bass lines, and melodic solos on
all of these roles, including blues scale licks.

After learning these paradigms individually, you can go
back and mix and match. For example, you can practice
playing the comp against the bass playback–or visa versa;
or play the solo against the comp of the blues or a cadence
in either major or minor. Play the bass against the comp.
All combinations are helpful in acclimating yourself to the
entirety of each style.

It is not a play-along, but rather, a practice-with.
All of the accompaniment material, though, is comprised of
what you learned earlier in the book, so it is cumulative in
nature. Click here to see and hear examples from the book:

http://byrnejazz.com/product.php?id=22

To get a better idea of LJI and how it works, there are
a great many both music and sound examples of the 15
different LJI books to be found in the More Information
sections for each book in the ByrneJazz Online Bookstore
(just click on each book):  http://byrnejazz.com/store.php

Tomorrow’s topic is: Advanced Outside Approaches

Yours in jazz,
Ed

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