Stella by starlight chord melody

[m78w]

Hey Everyone,

I was just messing around with my camera today and laid down a solo version of Stella by Starlight. Need to get a better mic but just wanted to pass it along.

Thanks!

[Ken Olmstead]

Beautiful! Very soothing!

[m78w]

Thank Ken, appreciate that kind words.

[Franklin52]

Nice Matt!

[wizard3739]

very nice Matt! nice Tele and a really nice arrangement. I love the way you harmonized the tune and played it with a good "feel".

wiz

[m78w]

thanks Wiz. I'm borrowing that guitar right now, a 72 Tele, from a friend. Great guitar, all original. I've played other Tele's, I have a 66 and a custom Tele from Dan Koentopp, and this one ranks as one of my favorites to play.

Glad you dug the tune, thanks for checking it out!

[NSJ]

What I love about it is that while it is an amazing arrangement in terms of degree of difficulty and all that, but the irrelevance of all that and the beauty of the tune comes out. (I almost said "piece" and not tune, sorry--I've been hearing radio ads for Russell Malone "performing works for trio" at the Chicago Symphony Center--"works for trio???"

I've become convinced that less is more is more meaningful path, if one seeks beauty and elegance in music. Even the technical difficulty of your arrangement becomes irrelevant when the beauty of the notes are allowed their proper place in the sun and truly given time and space to fully radiate, glow and ripen, as they do here. There was a great quote by Fred Hamilton on youtube that I watched and am absorbing--he was speaking of the particular issue of comping, but it seems it could almost become a sort of general principle: he said--"you can never be faulted for playing too little, but you can always be faulted for playing too much".

I feel that the "more is more" approach can be approached-but only with some initial fear and trepidation. There was a funny quote I read recently by the drummer Neil Peart, who was speaking of the recording of their new album--the producer wanted them to be more "Rush" than "Rush", and consequently, asked him to do a tom-fill using ALL of the toms in his set up. Neil quipped afterwards, "I felt so ashamed. We are not that this brash, we are humble. We are Canadians".

[m78w]

For sure NSJ. I actually sat down with that in mind, I wanted to develop an arrangement of Stella that was just the melody once through, any improv would be done within those 32 bars as well as an intro and outro, so not a typical jazz blowing idea. Then I wanted to really focus on having contrasting sections, so moments where I take detours with the chords before bringing it back to the melody.

I really enjoyed that process and appraoch, the older I get the less I care about chops, there are plenty of guys that can rip through changes, but I love just finding the right voicing and especially diggining on on rhythmic ideas right now rather than going for the chops approach.

Nothing wrong with chops, just where my head is at these days.

[JazzVocab]

Some really nice changes and twists on an old favourite there. Look forward to hearing the final cut when released.

[kris]

Nice freestyle arrange.
There is a lot of beautifull jazz chords.
Nice sounding TELE!!!

[m78w]

Thanks Kris, I really appreciate it, great Tele for sure!

[cano]

Hello here is a "Stella's" chord melody using intervals , spread triads and other stufs . (you can find the transcription below)
Philippe canovas

[Santi89]

Incredible playing!!!

[Little Jay]

Great!

Yeah, I do hear an echo of Philipe Catherine's version, but also a lot of yourself.

Very well done!

[Santi89]

I have seen a clinic of Kurt Rosenwinkel on youtube and I believe you're using some "solo guitar techniques" that he explained there. Am I wrong?

[cano]

Hi , thanks everybody for your kind words.

Anyway , Kurt is a master musician , and I can only say that I still continue spending a lot of hours transcribing masters like him and many others (all Jim Hall "sons"...),working and trying to understand and learn from that material how to play a song , a chord melody using some chord tones , intervals, triads,inversions ,shell voicings , drops, chord substitutions , open strings , harmonics , etc...and the way to do that in a musical way .. to me it's always a kind of "work in progress" and I love that .
Here is the transcription of the first Stella version for you guys . Feel free to ask question about that if you want , you are welcome .
Philippe .

[vhollund]

Fun read
Nothing chocking but it works well
Do I see a Bill Frisell inspired "voicing" , the b6 - 5 ...major 7 interval on the Cm7 ?

[Santi89]

Again, wondeful work Philppe!
One question a little outside the topic... Man, I love your acoustic sound and I was wondering... Wich strings do you use?

[cano]

Again, wondeful work Philppe!
One question a little outside the topic... Man, I love your acoustic sound and I was wondering... Wich strings do you use?

Thank you !!! I use John Pearse jazz medium 2700 (12-52) , great strings !
Philippe .

[renojazz]