Jazz and Blues Single Note Soloing Recommendations ?

[jamiehenderson1993]

So I posted the other day about trying to develop my Jazz and Blues comping skills - and there have been some amazing replies - thanks!!

What I'm looking for now is the same type of thing, but for single note soloing.
I'm messing around with different ways of soloing over a 12 bar Blues and Jazz-Blues - mainly Now's The Time and Au Privave.

I've learned the heads, and am messing around in the F minor pentatonic box, and am applying some of the 'bluesy' vocabulary I know. It sounds fine, but I'm aware of my lack of vocabulary coming through my fingers.

I listen to jazz daily, and so I have a number of lines that I've transcribed, and lots that are 'on the list', but what I'm looking for is a book or resource that can show me some Jazz (and Jazz-Blues) vocabulary.

Ross Campbell released a book called Beyond Pentatonic Blues, where he basically breaks down common Blues vocabulary and shows you how to apply the phrases in different contexts and in different locations in the bar. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Pent...s%2C132&sr=8-1

What I'm hoping for is a book that someone has written on Blues and Jazz Soloing that can give me very concrete ideas that I can then mess around with ... does that exist!??

Any advice appreciated!

[ragman1]

You can either get a book, wade through it, eventually play some kind of beginner's solo and sound second rate like everybody does, or you can go to the horse's mouth.

If you can't get something from all these people, forget it.

You can do the same thing with Au Privave. Et voila.

[pamosmusic]

You can either get a book, wade through it, eventually play some kind of beginner's solo and sound second rate like everybody does, or you can go to the horse's mouth.

I think to reframe ragman's point: a book will contain vocabulary, maybe some concepts. But the question is still how to incorporate it into your own music. Which is generally the problem people have with transcriptions, and why they're looking for books in the first place. So why not try to figure out how to incorporate that transcribed vocabulary into your playing? Then you'll be able to get more out of the books either way.

But to be direct about it: David Baker has a series on the blues. It will be good, but will be very very vocabulary-heavy, which leads us round to the same point. Randy Vincent's Guitarists Introduction to Jazz is not precisely about the blues, but has a lot to say about it. That's one of the best books out there for getting started.

[AllanAllen]

Ragman is right, transcription and pulling licks is something you should do, asap and then also forever. Eventually you hear stuff and play it later without the part of finding it on the guitar. You'll get there with practice.

I will also add, beginner books have their place, the beginner solo Ragman speaks of is usually exhaustively analyzed so you know exactly what each piece is. See my example from Mickey Baker's Complete Course in Jazz Guitar. Which of course is yet another book recommendation. First half is comping, second half is single notes.

Anyway, seeing how you can piece things together will help you later.

Last thing I'll add is to listen to the clips people post here and weigh their advice against their playing. There's even a few guys who have every solution to every problem and know all the musical terms, but can't figure out the record button...

[pamosmusic]

Okay I think I’ll maybe adjust and say definitely the Randy Vincent. It’s got great stuff for how to start incorporating some of those licks and things you might glean from beginner etudes into your playing. The whole middle section of the book is on using melodies to start improvising. So obviously it works with melodies, but the same stuff applies to licks you might pull from solos.

[alpop]

Ragman is right, transcription and pulling licks is something you should do, asap and then also forever. Eventually you hear stuff and play it later without the part of finding it on the guitar. You'll get there with practice.

I will also add, beginner books have their place, the beginner solo Ragman speaks of is usually exhaustively analyzed so you know exactly what each piece is. See my example from Mickey Baker's Complete Course in Jazz Guitar. Which of course is yet another book recommendation. First half is comping, second half is single notes.

Anyway, seeing how you can piece things together will help you later.

Last thing I'll add is to listen to the clips people post here and weigh their advice against their playing. There's even a few guys who have every solution to every problem and know all the musical terms, but can't figure out the record button...

I went through these books many many years ago. I still use the lick in bar 4 of the second example here. lol

Also strongly agree with Allan's last statement.

[Bop Head]

I recommend (as always LOL) to dig deep into the roots of African-American folk music to get a better feeling for where blues and jazz are originally coming from. Blues is originally vocal music.

Search on YouTube for the Alan Lomax Archive and look for playlists containing blues, spirituals and gospel. Just listen a lot to that music without wanting to steal licks immediately. It will help your rhythm and phrasing, too.

What does that have to do with Charlie Parker? Well, it is the music he grew up with. As a kid he was busking in the streets of KC with a blues singer (whose name I have forgotten, it is mentioned in "Bird Lives").

Regarding jazz listen to other instruments than just guitar, especially horns and piano. One of my favorite jazz albums is "The Alternate Blues" with an all-star line-up consisting of Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Freddie Hubbard, Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass (who's only accompanying), Ray Brown and Bobby Durham.

And last but not least, Lennie Tristano (of whom people erroneously say he did not like blues) recommended to Conny Crothers to listen to trumpeter Roy Eldridge a lot to learn the blues.

[John A.]

To pile onto what others are saying here, people really don't learn blues soloing from books. People learn from listening and copying from both the "blues blues" and "jazz blues" traditions. I'd suggest transcribing a few nuggets from some classics:

- B.B. King -- Live at the Regal. The intro chorus to "Please Love Me" is a textbook of perfect and simple jazz blues vocabulary and phrasing.
Winton Kelly's and Miles's solos on Freddie Freeloader from Kind of Blue
S.K.J from the Bags Meets Wes (Milt Jackson and Wes Montgomery) album. Wes's and Wynton's solos are both relatively simple (Jackson's double-timed and a bit trickier)
Kenny Burrell Stormy Monday Blues (from the album of the same name).

If you're ambitious, sure, transcribe entire solos, but just figuring out bits and pieces from these will give you tons of phrasing and vocabulary to work with.

[wolflen]

There are too many sources to list regarding basic to advanced blues and jazz blues studies in books..

the amount of recordings of jazz greats playing straight ahead blues and blues flavored tunes are a treasure to behold.

Whatever source you obtain your study material from..learn it well..and try to learn it in all 12 keys.

I would suggest learning basic but very important guitar oriented solo ideas from the masters..

the three Kings will cover all the bases.

[pamosmusic]

There’s some conflation here of the blues form and the blues idiom.

BB King for example will give you everything you need to know about the blues idiom but won’t help much in navigating a jazz blues form.

So that’s the first thing to sort out. Are we looking for ways around a blues form or are we looking for blues vocabulary that can be used in any situation?

[pamosmusic]

If it's the latter, I actually just made this today for a class I teach on Wednesdays. I've been deep down a Clifford Brown rabbit hole lately:

24 06 05 clifford plays blue notes c - Score.pdf - Google Drive

EDIT: revised version of the document

[AllanAllen]

If it's the latter, I actually just made this today for a class I teach on Wednesdays. I've been deep down a Clifford Brown rabbit hole lately:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AcO...usp=drive_link

You need to update the access for that link.

[pamosmusic]

Whoops should be good now

[John A.]

There’s some conflation here of the blues form and the blues idiom.

BB King for example will give you everything you need to know about the blues idiom but won’t help much in navigating a jazz blues form.

So that’s the first thing to sort out. Are we looking for ways around a blues form or are we looking for blues vocabulary that can be used in any situation?

I disagree about BB. There's tons there for jazz blues playing.

[pamosmusic]

I disagree about BB. There's tons there for jazz blues playing.

BB wont really help you hit the changes on a jazz style blues. Love him to death, but it’s not quite the same thing.

Then again a book of ii-V licks won’t help you sound like you’re playing The Blues, so it’s two separate thing but both important

[starjasmine]

These Robben Ford performances posted in a different thread (Younger guitarists are discovering the joys of having a jazz box. Good!) are a crash course in blues playing:

Robben Ford sounded absolutely wicked on a Super 400 playing blues with Jimmy Witherspoon!

I've never tried one, but it's such an elusive dream guitar for me. There's something about it that's just like a grand piano. I'm 28 this week so still young!

[Bobby Timmons]

Op: you also want to work on outlining the changes. Jazz blues isn't only blues vocab on the 1 of the key. Although there is a lot of that and it's tough to go overboard with accumulating those chops!

And feel free to join the weekly jazz blues playing thread in the improv sub-forum. We could do one of the tunes you're working on if you want.

You can either get a book, wade through it, eventually play some kind of beginner's solo and sound second rate like everybody does, or you can go to the horse's mouth. If you can't get something from all these people, forget it.

Sick em rag.

Last thing I'll add is to listen to the clips people post here and weigh their advice against their playing. There's even a few guys who have every solution to every problem and know all the musical terms, but can't figure out the record button...

Sick em AA.

[John A.]

BB wont really help you hit the changes on a jazz style blues. Love him to death, but it’s not quite the same thing.

Then again a book of ii-V licks won’t help you sound like you’re playing The Blues, so it’s two separate thing but both important

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. I can find many examples of him hitting/arpeggiating changes, and doing things like throwing in alt-dom7 material on V chords (beyond the one tune I listed above), but it's not worth the thread derail.

[pamosmusic]

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. I can find many examples of him hitting/arpeggiating changes, and doing things like throwing in alt-dim7 material on V chords (beyond the one tune I listed above), but it's not worth the thread derail.

Yeah we will.

Again — I do love BB and I’m not saying the music isn’t sophisticated. Learning Au Privave won’t really get you there if you want to sound like BB King either.

It’s kind of important to have realistic goals with respect to what you’re practicing and BB King is the bomb for some stuff, but with respect to playing jazz, he isn’t going to help you access a lot of other stuff.

Thats why I was trying to clarify what the OP was hoping to learn. Idiomatic blues stuff or ways to navigate blues changes, etc. They are different things. They overlap in places but they’re not the same thing.

[pauln]

[Reg]

yea there is always good advice.... but all the language and ideas in the world will not help.... if you don't get your chops... technique together.

Typically jazz blues are at up tempos... just playing 8th notes won't cut it. I mean you usually take a few choruses unless the rhythm section sucks... LOL It becomes more of being able to play in a jazz style, rather than playing pieces of the language. If your still trying to remember what to play... your going to miss the boat.

You need to be ahead of what your playing.... use the Form to have targets... tonal , rhythmic or melodic Targets that your setting up... Your using organization of the Form.

I'm guessing your lost.... but you need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Bad metaphor...

The point... if you can't play what your thinking about, (or feeling). You haven't done the work....you need to work on technique.

[John A.]

Yeah we will.

Again — I do love BB and I’m not saying the music isn’t sophisticated. Learning Au Privave won’t really get you there if you want to sound like BB King either.

It’s kind of important to have realistic goals with respect to what you’re practicing and BB King is the bomb for some stuff, but with respect to playing jazz, he isn’t going to help you access a lot of other stuff.

Thats why I was trying to clarify what the OP was hoping to learn. Idiomatic blues stuff or ways to navigate blues changes, etc. They are different things. They overlap in places but they’re not the same thing.

[pamosmusic]

The irony of this meme is that it’s almost always posted in response to someone the poster thinks is Wrong On the Internet.

But your point is taken.

[pamosmusic]

And your point, reinforced.

[mr. beaumont]

BB was a knowledgeable player...and he loved Django.

Whether or not he played "jazz licks" on a blues, he definitely played changes...he treated each chord in a blues differently.