50 Jazz Guitar Licks you Must Know ( Frank Vignola ) Blog

[Rgalvez]

Hi again ! this is the last lick related to the minor bop sequence. Another interesting one , and Frank comments it comes from the great Django Reinhart. It's mostly a lower neighbor tone of a chord tone to that chord tone , and going up. At the end of the video Frank teaches the lick in reverse. I practiced both and it's a good one. Really good lick too.

Next : Funk Jazz licks.

[Rgalvez]

Cool lick which requires a bit of practice due to the bending and some palm muting in order to create the funk sound. There's a slide that should be played with the middle finger to keep the position of the lick. Once I handle it ,and with all those octaves from former licks, I'll feel like George Benson (without moustache).

[gadlaw]

Hi again ! this is the last lick related to the minor bop sequence. Another interesting one , and Frank comments it comes from the great Django Reinhart. It's mostly a lower neighbor tone of a chord tone to that chord tone , and going up. At the end of the video Frank teaches the lick in reverse. I practiced both and it's a good one. Really good lick too.

Next : Funk Jazz licks.

Man this one is fast. 8th notes and all. Fairly difficult to get going fast. Not quite there with it.

[Rgalvez]

I'm back!


A nice lick in D7. Don't get confused: when Franks says that it starts on the 7th it's actually the b7 (it's the C note) because it's a dominant chord ( Frank demonstrates the D7 chord).

Easy and practical lick.

[Rgalvez]

Interesting lick, though if you're not in the context of jazz you can sound like Jerry Garcia & Grateful Dead playing this lick. According to Frank the characteristic of this lick is playing the 6th instead of the b7.Again it's in D7 and it has some bends but it's an easy one.

[Rgalvez]

Simple lick..but it has lots of soul! Frank commentes he took it from the great Jim Hall.

[Rgalvez]

This is a more elaboated lick and it's taken from the mixolydian scale. It took me some minutes but I felt happy when I goy it.

[gadlaw]

This is a more elaboated lick and it's taken from the mixolydian scale. It took me some minutes but I felt happy when I goy it.

I'm getting it alright, but no feeling to it. Must be tired. You wouldn't think that such short little bits of music could be a bit difficult.

[Rgalvez]

I confess I saw the video last week and I didn't understand anything because I was really tired. Now (4.00 am) I'm lucid and with all silence evrywhere I got it instantly.
It's a cool double stops lick a la George Benson. The trick is to anchor the higher note (D) with your pinky. The rest is playing a slide with the index (in order to give it a bluesy expression) and follow the pattern. I almost scat something a la Benson, but I'm afraid my wife an daughter will get up soon.

[Rgalvez]

Welcome to the gypsy jazz section of the course. Nice sounding this one, very exotic. In fact it's like playing with Django Reinhart in some misty night club in Morocco.
I have to mention that, in the first tabbed fingering, the tab mentions the G of the third string , 12 fret, but Frank actually plays the G in the second string ,8 fret: this way your fingering won't be out of position (he's playing in the 8th position meaning that your index finger stays in the 8th fret).
Frank comments that it's the C7 arpeggio but with the addition of the b9.
Nice one.

[Rgalvez]

This one is a variation of the former lick. In fact Frank recommends to work both licks together.
It is a descending lick (also with the b9 note). Exotic and and bit eerie : if you play it slowly it looks like the score of the old Living Mummy movies starring Karloff and Lon Chaney (the son).

[Rgalvez]

ok this is the last lick for today . (I covered it with the others since it's a variation of the first gypsy lick). This one is more scalar than the previous ones, also Frank introduces a pull off which is a good drill too. With this exotic atmosphere I think I'm returning to bed..I feel a bit like Reinhart but I think I have all my fingers intact. see you later.

[gadlaw]

Working a bit on these three gypsy jazz lines, a bit awkward on the first one playing essentially the same notes on different strings the second time. Gotta work it slow or else I find that I'm not getting the fingers on and off those last notes. As I was wondering how Django would get this sort of thing done found this video with sample bits of three of his songs. Very Very fast. Yikes.

[Rgalvez]

Working a bit on these three gypsy jazz lines, a bit awkward on the first one playing essentially the same notes on different strings the second time. Gotta work it slow or else I find that I'm not getting the fingers on and off those last notes.

The first one- first fingering- is a C7 arpeggio shape (think like the Sweet Notes Course) adding the b9 (one fret after the root C). As I said in my comment the tab has a 'typo' compared to what Frank plays in the G note.
In the second fingering use the loop and check out how Frank plays it:what he does is playing the 10th and the 11th fret with the same index finger and then he goes up.

[Rgalvez]

Nice one. it requires some stretch but it gives a really cool diminished sounding and you feel the spirit of Reinhardt floating in your room (you can see how Frank loves this style because he gets so enthusiastic playing the lick at a high speed).

[wvgman]

I wish I was a gypsy! I love to be on the open road with freedom in the air. Then I could hang out with great looking young women sporting long dark hair who lived in wagons and could tell my fortune. I met one once and all she said when she looked at my palm was, "Forget about it!"
But the main reason I would like to be a gypsy is so that I would know the answer to the ever perplexing mystery of the ages that asks, "What the heck is a Limehouse anyway?"
Great blog, RG!

[Rgalvez]

I wish I was a gypsy! I met one once and all she said when she looked at my palm was, "Forget about it!"
Great blog, RG!

thanks wvg !!!

[richb2]

Lick 37. I have some interest in playing jazz and this riff is to be played over a II-V7. In jazz the II-V-I sequence of chords appears all over the place. Usually the II is a m7 chord, the V7 is a dominant chord (another name for a 7th) and the I is a maj7 chord. So it is actually IIm7-V7-IMaj7 (aka 2-5-1). So in lick#37 the backing track is Am7-D7. Where is the Gmaj7, you ask? It is common to find parts of 2-5-1's in jazz. Sometimes you see just 2-5, sometimes you see just 5-1, sometimes you see the entire 2-5-1. A good exercise is to photocopy a few jazz standards of your choice and mark off with a highlighter, all of the 2-5-1's (or 2-5's or 5-1's) you can find. I am not at the point where I can see a 2-5-1 in a chart while I am playing unless I have it marked off with a highlighter. This entire video is about pre-made licks. So for me, unless I can identify in advance, situations where I can use a specific riff, I am hosed.

What Frank is doing in this riff is he is outlining the chords, which is usually called arpeggiating. Notice that he starts out playing notes that make up an
Am7 chord. If you play a barre Am7 at the 5th fret you can see that the notes that he is playing (over the Am7) is really just the outline of an Am7 barre chord. Next he goes to the outline of a barre D7 chord at the 5th fret. I often do this same thing while soloing; I play an outline of the chord, note by note. Usually when players arpeggiate they don't barre the whole neck since this is too much trouble.

One problem soloing over 2-5-1's with arpeggios, particularly in many jazz standards is that some of the 2-5-1's are ripping by at high speed. This was a major problem for me since from listening to Larry Carlton's TF lessons, he said that the main idea is to play melodically, and how can you play melodically when you only have enough time to play one or maybe 2 notes/chord? I recently found an answer to this in a Jazz Theory Book (or was it Greene's Chord Chemistry book? I forget) which said that when 2-5-1's are really going by fast you can just play notes from the Imaj7 scale (which I think are the same notes as in the arpeggiated Imaj7 chord). When 2-5-1's are going by slower (a single chord per measure or two), you can apreggiate on each chord. I can't tell you how many times I asked people on other guitar forums about this and the answer usually was learn ALL the notes on the neck, learn ALL of the chords, learn ALL of jazz theory, etc. I guess the moral of the story is that it took reading a theory book to get answers to some really simple questions. Who would have known?

[Rgalvez]

welcome back jazz boy !

[richb2]

Thanks. It is my Birthday (52!) so I decided to take the day off of work and bring my dogs down to the beach. So I am kind of relaxed.

[richb2]

I wish I was a gypsy! I love to be on the open road with freedom in the air. Then I could hang out with great looking young women sporting long dark hair who lived in wagons and could tell my fortune. I met one once and all she said when she looked at my palm was, "Forget about it!"
But the main reason I would like to be a gypsy is so that I would know the answer to the ever perplexing mystery of the ages that asks, "What the heck is a Limehouse anyway?"
Great blog, RG!

I have been reading some news stories in the Economist about the treament of Gypsies in Europe. Be glad that you are NOT a Gypsy.

[gadlaw]

Thanks. It is my Birthday (52!) so I decided to take the day off of work and bring my dogs down to the beach. So I am kind of relaxed.

And a Happy Happy Birthday to you Rich! 52 doesn't seem as old to me as it used to seem.

[richb2]

well, it has been a few weeks since we were working on these lessons. I must say that at last weeks jazz practice, I couldn't remember and of these licks for the life of me.

[Rgalvez]

I have been quite ungrateful to this blog these weeks. I promise I'll be back soon !

[herby]

RG, I think you're doing a great job. You brave guys who undertake these course blogs shouldn't be (or feel) rushed. Each of these lessons takes some time to get under your fingers and we're warned over and over by the good teachers on here not to rush through them. So it might be just as well to take them at a slower pace. I know I need some time to digest one, before moving on to the next. The euphoria of learning one makes a guy want to get to the next one, but that same euphoria might mask some of the weaknesses we might still have with the previous one. I'd say, work them at your own pace, and we'll all still be grateful for the work. Thanks.

[Rgalvez]

thanks for the nice post Herby!! I have been kidnapped by my songwriting side.

[herby]

thanks for the nice post Herby!! I have been kidnapped by my songwriting side.

LOL RG, then by all means, run with it!

[richb2]

Frank is playing up here next week. I am going to go see him. Hopefully it will be a tiny little room so I can speak with him. Last time he played up here (last year) he played at a college near Mahwah, Les Paul's old stomping ground and there were a zillion personal friends in the audience, so I couldn't get anywhere near him.


WhenMonday, Nov 22, 2010

WhereNew Jersey Guitar.Mandolin Society (map)

DescriptionDirections to NJGMS
Room 5
Bergen County Academies
200 Hackensack Avenue
Hackensack, NJ 07601
http://sites.bergen.org/njgms/calendar.htmlmore details» copy to my calendar