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Frank is now on tour with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, and Lenny White as Return to Forever IV. (Jean-Luc Ponty is also part of this lineup.) Frank is an old friend of Chick's and was part of his Electric Band.
Here's a YouTube clip of Frank soloing with Chick's Electric Band. (About two minutes in, the burning starts.)
I mention this because there's been renewed talk about speed hereabouts and I thought Frank should be part of that because a) he can play blazingly fast, b) he's got Serious Jazz Cred for being in bands with Chick Corea, and c) he's put out several books / CDs / DVDs on playing fast.
What's your take of his approach and his playing?
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09-09-2011 03:31 PM
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love his playing and his approach. Don't like most of his CDs. My favorite is Brave new Guitar.
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"Brave New Guitar" was the first thing I heard by him. Read a review in the "Wall Street Journal" (of all places) and took a shot. Not my usual fare, but the guy can fly and he's damned musical about it.
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He makes some cool faces when he is playing. Kinda like he's saying, "That felt good didn't it?"
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Not long ago one of his students was Pat Metheny...
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Pat Metheny studying with Frank Gambale? Elaborate, please ...
Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
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Jerry Garcia was a huge fan as well...
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I distinctly remember Pat saying in an interview that he had started taking lessons from Frank. He said Gambale had really sussed the right hand pick action, and he wanted to learn from him. That was about five years ago. Unfortunately I can't remember where I read it! Sorry.
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I saw Pat quoted as saying he *wanted* to study with Frank but I don't know that they ever got together. If they did, I'd love to hear more about it.
Frank is right about one big thing: traditional scale fingerings were designed for the *left* hand, not the right. As a result, most players fret better than they pick. Frank switched things around and found a couple *picking patterns* that he then applied to all the scales and modes. Further, he refined the use of "sweep picking" in smaller doses (-the archetypal use of sweeping is for arpeggios running from the low to high E strings, and one reason some people dismiss it is that it turns unimaginative adherents into arpeggio zombies.) Although Frank doesn't sound like Eddie Van Halen, they have one thing in common: however fast they play, it always flows and never sounds mechanical.
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Well, I would not like to be the source of a false statement, so as I am not 100 per cent certain, all I will say is that is what I seem to recall.
I do small sweeps here and there, certainly not systematically. I often wish I could, but I keep thinking there is something unmusical about it. I know, who am I, etc? But when you start moving away from strong and weak strokes lining up with strong and weak beats, something gets lost, I feel. But, I do wish I could play faster when needed...
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Jimmy Bruno doesn't like the term "sweeping" but says it's pretty much what he recommends: move to a higher string with a downstroke and to a lower one with an upstroke. Having looked at some of Jimmy's material ("The Art of Picking") and Frank's ("The Frank Gambale Technique Book I"), I think Frank is the better teacher of this approach.
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Here's a taste of Frank showing a) adding the second to triads (-1,2,3,5: a bedrock jazz 'cell') and then b) playing a tasty blues solo.
Here's a short clip on blues playing.
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I was a HUGE fan of Gambale back in the late 80s or so. I even picked up a fluorescent yellow Gambale saber to see if some of that mojo would rub off on me.
Kids.
I never reached that level of technical prowess, but I certainly did incorporate his economy picking into my playing, and after a couple of decades, it's now it's sort of an ingrained part of my style.
I also typically use those 3 note per string scalar patterns, gleaned simultaneously from Gambale and watching Racer-X play.
Of course, after a period of "too many notes" excess in my playing, I eventually came back to that whole "taste and restraint" thing, but I had a better level of technical ability to execute those more musical ideas.
On a related note, Gambale certainly seems to have really branched out from his earlier more fusion-centric playing. Oh, I'm sure he could ALWAYS play various styles, and play more melodically and tastefully, but I seem to be hearing more and more of that from him as time goes on.
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One of Frank's picks for his "ten favorite albums" is "all the Steely Dan albums" and Donald Fagen's "Nightfly." I've loved Steely Dan since I was a kid and appreciate the influence of that kind of playing on Frank. That, to me, is what "fusion" should be.
I like the three-notes-per string scale patterns. The conventional four-fret-range approach is all about making it easy for the left hand, but like every guitarist I have ever met, my *right* hand gives me more grief than my left, so making things easier for it seems smart. (At the same time, using wider scale patterns has helped develop my *left* hand too, which is great for s-t-r-e-t-c--h-y jazz chords.)
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Yeah, I had unknowingly prepped myself for being comfortable with those stretches by playing The Police's "Message in a Bottle" over and over in cover bands as a teen. :lol: Originally Posted by markerhodes
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I wanted to hate, I couldn't stand what he did earlier in his career, this I like. I prefer a cleaner tone but the note choices sound nice to me.
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Not my cup of tea stylistically or tone-wise, but the chops are certainly there. When I listen to fusion of this elk I often find myself wondering "what is the point?" I suppose it's simply music for other people.
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"Music for other people" is one way to put it. It's also music musicians like. (Not all of them, but the *purpose* of most fusion is to play long solos over cool grooves---lot to like about that!) It's also tuneful, so non-musicians enjoy it too. (It was a weird off-shoot of bebop for some jazzers to think that unless heads are hard to play and harder to hum, they ain't jazz.)
Electronics have a lot to do with it: because electric basses are used and drums are mic-ed, the rhythm section is not "playing for the band so they can play for the people who can hear them." It allows for a groovier approach, which suits the modal vamps endemic to the genre. My ideal for this sort of thing is Donald Fagen's "Kamakiriad." ("Night Fly" has more great songs but "Kamakiriad" remains my favorite because of its seamlessness.)
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Well, he certainly is fast. I would love to have that speed in my playing. One of my weaker points is that I just can't play fast enough to my liking during short runs.
Jake, I actually have your SOS book, but it's been gathering dust - does SOS specifically improve speed? I'm pretty booked up with my daily regimen, but I could squeeze in an extra 10 min a day if you thought that would help. I'd love to show off a little bit when my senior recital rolls around in April of next year.
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Hi Jeff,
I doubt you'll see much progress from a 10 minute/day regiment unless you do it consistently for 6 months or so. Typically, a noticeable improvement in chops takes an hour a day for several months.
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Well, as I said, I have a recital in April - that's 6 months, give or take. I'm not looking for blazing speed ( I can work on that after I graduate ) ... just a noticeable improvement. If there are other methods that might yield faster results, I would consider those.
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how about the johnny smith technique book?
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The longer you wait to develop speed technique... the less likely it will ever happen. Not trying to be negative... just general observations over many years.
I've always dug FG's playing with other great Jazz players... Don't like his blues playing... he's more of a rock blues player. Just personal choice. His picking technique is for solid body style of playing and his style somewhat dictates how and what he plays.... he's not what I would consider a jazz player or a fusion player who uses a jazz approach... there's obviously nothing wrong with that, as I said I really dig some of his playing. I respect all his playing. He's put in the time and knows what he playing. But if your heading in a jazz direction, his style of picking and playing may not be the best path.
In the end all the methods for speed come down to putting in the time on the studies and getting your technique as close to possible as required for the style(s) you choose.
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I don't see myself becoming a fusion or a rock player. I like bebop just fine, and some of the more modern stuff.
I've got Jack's book, so I may as well use it. I looked it over again last night and there is some stuff in there that addresses exactly what I'm working on at the moment (diminished scale work, melodic minor). So I'm just going to go ahead and move forward with it.
The only other time recently that I got a noticeable increase in speed was when I was doing the Howard Roberts Super Chops routine (about a year ago). I've not kept that up since I completed the 20 week course, and I've noticed my fingers have gotten slower since.
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There's a lot of truth in that, Reg. I would say it's the whole truth but I think there's a snag: some techniques won't get you certain places. Jimmy Bruno, for example, argues that straight alternate picking will not allow a guitar player to play Charlie Parker's faster lines at tempo on a guitar. I think he's right about that. Frank took things a lot further than Jimmy did, but Jimmy alone will tell you that straight alternate picking is an impediment to playing jazz fast. Originally Posted by Reg
"Frank learned to operate the guitar like a keyboard player...Frank is one of the most incredible guitarists on the planet." Chick Corea.
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