50 Low-Down Rhythm Licks

50 Low-Down Rhythm Licks: #3 Soul Man

This guitar lesson is a preview of what’s to come in Adam Levy‘s 50 Low-Down Rhythm Licks. Stay tuned for more to come and an announcement of the full course soon. Be sure to subscribe to stay tuned!

Rolling Stone magazine rated Steve Cropper as #36 on their list of 100 Greatest Guitarists. For my own personal list of all-time guitar greats, I’d rate Cropper as #2 or #3. The first time I heard him was probably on Otis Redding’s “Dock of the Bay” or Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man” (later covered by the Blues Brothers, with Cropper reprising his role). His Telecaster tones on these classic 1960s soul records were always a little gritty and very much to the point—with no effects other than the occasional thrum of amp tremolo. Everything Cropper plays grooves from the first note to the last, and he never ever gets in the way of the singer.

The rhythm lick in this lesson comes from the verse sections of Sam & Dave’s 1967 hit, “Soul Man.” It’s essentially a one-chord vamp on G major. Instead of playing a full six-note barre chord, Cropper played a stream-lined four-note version, ducking the guitar out of the way of the song’s busy bass line. He answers each short vocal line with a higher G shape (comprising only three notes this time), then uses an A minor triad as a quick passing chord on his way back to the original G shape. Ingenious, and hooky as heck.

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A longtime friend of the ‘Fire, Adam Levy has been unlocking the guitar for students of all levels and varied interests for decades. His teaching experience comprises several years with the National Guitar Workshop, the Blue Bear School in San Francisco, and private lessons for New School in New York City. He is also a talented artist and songwriter, having worked with Norah Jones, Amos Lee, and Tracy Chapman. Be sure to check out Adam’s official website, his insightful blog, and his latest album, The Heart Collector.

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50 Jazz Blues Licks

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January 25th 2012

50 Jazz Blues Licks: #28 Jimmy Forrest

50 Jazz Blues Licks is an exclusive series of video guitar lessons by David Hamburger covering the jazz blues styles of historically great guitarists like George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Joe Pass, and many others. A new lick will be released each week, so be sure to subscribe and check back often!

When I lived in New York I spent most of my radio time with WBGO, the Newark-based 24-hour jazz station where, among other things, Bob Porter hosted the show “Portraits in Blue.” No matter who Porter profiled on any given week, I was always transfixed by the opening theme, which I eventually discovered was a track by saxophonist Jimmy Forrest called “The Bolo Blues,” which appeared on a1961 Prestige album called Out of the Forrest. Speaking anachronistically, it’s the 1950s version of a slow jam – when the lights dim and the downtempo, gutbucket sax licks start wafting through the window, you know the star of the film is about to get lucky, or get shot trying. Forrest was best known for another blues, “Night Train,” which was adapted from an earlier Duke Ellington tune and has an equally classy cultural role as the embodiment of the mid-century stripper groove. All that steaminess aside, however, Forrest was also a badass uptempo purveyor of bebop, as evidenced by his playing on organist Jack McDuff’s 1961 record The Honeydripper – check out the solo he tears off on the opening blues and you’ll see what I mean. Grant Green and McDuff are no slouches on this album either, but Forrest’s playing on tracks like this and on “Sunkenfoal” from 1959’s All The Gin Is Gone is at once gritty and dazzling, no mean feat.

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If you like these guitar lessons, be sure to also check out Frank Vignola’s Jazz Up Your Blues, which showcases essential jazz blues vocabulary and techniques, Mark Stefani’s Jazzed Blues Assembly Lines, which takes you on a sonic learning tour through the funky rhythm and blues stylings and fretboard concepts of top jazz blues players, and of course all of David Hamburger’s courses.

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50 Jazz Blues Licks

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January 18th 2012

50 Jazz Blues Licks: #27 Eddie Costa

There have been any number of piano/guitar/bass trios in jazz. Tenor guitarist Tiny Grimes described his position in keyboard wizard Art Tatum’s group as “low man on the Tatum pole,” and Nat Cole, who found himself leading such a group inadvertently when his drummer failed to show one night, was so successful with the format that Ray Charles did his level best to imitate the sound of the Cole group on his own first recordings (and came damn close). But the Tal Farlow trio with Eddie Costa on piano and Vinnie Burke on bass turned the idea sideways by featuring Farlow’s near-continuously unspooling lines that blurred Charlies Christian and Parker into his own inventive style. But far from being a mere vehicle for the formidable guitarist, the trio placed equal emphasis on deft, imaginative arrangments of well-chosen standards and on Costa’s own unique musical personality, which included frequent use of octaves, an unusual predilection for the lower register of the keyboard and a linear sensibility that had no trouble matching Farlow’s for intensity. My favorite of the Farlow trio records, simply titled Tal, has been reissued as part of The Complete Verve Sessions, and handful of those tunes also turn up on Tal Farlow’s Finest Hour; both include the blues “Chuckles,” which has plenty of soloing from both Costa and Farlow.

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Modern Blues Licks

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January 13th 2012

Modern Blues Licks: #5 Roy Buchanan

Modern Blues Licks is a preview video lesson series for Corey Congilio‘s latest course, 50 Progressive Blues Licks You MUST Know, which is now available! Also check out Corey’s other blues course, 50 Texas Blues Licks You MUST Know — it’s killer!

Pushing the envelope of guitar playing is something that all legendary blues players have done. Roy Buchanan unfortunatley gets overlooked when we talk about innovative guitarists. Roy defnitely left his stamp on the blues as well as guitar playing in general. For his groundbreaking licks, Buchanan received praise from John Lennon and even received an invitation from Keith Richards to join the Rolling Stones. Many of his songs were emotional guitar ballads, others were funky rocky jams. We’ll look at a lick he plays in his tune Tribute To Elmore James. This is a bluesy instrumental chock full of great blues playing.

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50 Jazz Blues Licks

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January 5th 2012

50 Jazz Blues Licks: #26 Tommy Flanagan

Once again, my first encounter with a legendary keyboard player was through the jazz guitar canon – Tommy Flanagan’s the pianist on The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, one of the first jazz albums I and probably zillions of other guitarists got turned on to. (Right after Wes lays down the two-chorus head to “D-Natural Blues,” that’s Flanagan who comes in with the righteously laid-back opening solo.) Much more recently, I picked up an LP of The Tommy Flanagan Trio Overseas, which quickly became an all-time favorite of mine (and made my then-three-year-old son’s heavy rotation list for about three months, which about as high praise as you can get). Turns out, of course, what I thought was some weird, obscure old reissue was in fact considered an all-time classic itself, and with good reason – Flanagan, bassist Wilbur Ware and drummer Elvin Jones (you may have heard of him – he played with a guy named Coltrane) apply their intensely relaxed bebop groove to original material, an Ellington/Strayhorn tune and three different views of the twelve-bar form, with results any jazz-exploring blues musician will totally dig.