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Quintessential Essentials

20 Top-Ranked Performance Studies

Marty FriedmanTommy EmmanuelSteve VaiEric GalesEric Johnson

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Quintessential Essentials
TrueFire

TrueFire

Educator

blues, rock, jazz

Genres

About this course

This is a compilation course.

What you'll learn

  • Play a complete jazz etude based on Summertime chord changes
  • Play stock 2-5 licks in both minor and major contexts
  • Use rhythmic displacement to create interesting phrasing
  • Visualize triad shapes within chord voicings across the fretboard
  • Identify and target notes outside the pentatonic scale that define chord changes
Release date: 12/03/2018 • 3h 46m runtime
intermediatelate intermediateguitarelectric guitarsoloingimprovisation
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Sample lessons
The Iceman Is In Charge
The Iceman Is In Charge
Perfomance
The Iceman Is In Charge
The Iceman Is In Charge
Breakdown
Funk Me Knots
Funk Me Knots
Performance
Giraldo's Jessie
Giraldo's Jessie
Performance

What's included

60 lessons • 20 charts • 14 Jam Tracks

Cannonball
Cannonball is a video guitar lesson presented by Adam Levy and is sourced from Essentials: Slow Burn Soloing

"Cannonball" is a soul-jazz etude based on saxophonist Cannonball Adderly's recording of "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy." The tune has three separate sections, and the trick here is to craft a solo that plays through all three with one continuous narrative.
Cannonball
Cannonball is a video guitar lesson presented by Adam Levy and is sourced from Essentials: Slow Burn Soloing

Listen to the backing track a few times, and even to play along, before diving into this solo. The etude was constructed to play against the backing rhythm in some key places. Unless you're well acquainted with the rhythm parts, it may be hard to land the solo lines exactly where they need to be.
Cannonball
Cannonball is a video guitar lesson presented by Adam Levy and is sourced from Essentials: Slow Burn Soloing

Once again, we'll toggle back and forth between major and minor pentatonic sounds. And, as we've done before, we'll use double-stops to add harmonic density as the solo progresses. Build, baby, build!
Prospect Shuffle
Prospect Shuffle is a video guitar lesson presented by David Hamburger and is sourced from Essentials: Fingerstyle Blues

In this tune we’ll take the steady-bass coordination, various articulations and call-and-response approach and put them through the paces on a full 24-bar blues chord progression. A twenty-four bar blues is typically just a twelve-bar blues in which you stay on every chord for twice as long. Keep an eye out for the ongoing transitions between the single-note licks in open position and the double-stop answering riffs up at the 7th and 5th frets.
Prospect Shuffle
Prospect Shuffle is a video guitar lesson presented by David Hamburger and is sourced from Essentials: Fingerstyle Blues

Pickup phrases, or phrases that lead into the first beat of a new measure or section, are an essential aspect of the blues vocabulary. In this tune, we open with an unaccompanied phrase (melody only, no bass accompaniment) that begins almost a full measure before the first thumb note comes in to indicate the beginning of the chord progression. When that same phrase repeats at other points in the tune, it is still functioning rhythmically as a pickup phrase even though it now has the bass underneath it.
Prospect Shuffle
Prospect Shuffle is a video guitar lesson presented by David Hamburger and is sourced from Essentials: Fingerstyle Blues

We interrupt the steady bass for two measures in this tune, in measures 7-8, just before going from the I to the IV chord. This kind of move, where the steady timekeeping is suspended for a single-note lick, is called stop time, and it’s a great way to add some drama to a tune. Improvised stop time goes back as far as the early recordings of trumpeter Louis Armstrong and turns up in all kinds of blues and jazz compositions as well, from Scott Joplin’s “Stoptime Rag” to Horace Silver’s “Stop Time.”
Open G Tuning
Open G Tuning is a video guitar lesson presented by Vicki Genfan and is sourced from Essentials: Open Tunings

This is commonly known as an open G tuning. The Hawaiian guitarists call it Taro Patch tuning. You’ll hear it used by slide players all over the world. It may have been my very first open tuning, though at the time I was using it in a pretty folky context. The intervals between strings are exactly the same as in the open D tuning, except you have to start with the 5th string instead of the 6th. That means chord shapes will transfer as well, as long as you abide by the rule. Make sense? Try it!

The etude I’ve composed for this tuning gives you an idea of its rich chord voicings (similar to those we find in open D) as well as a more funky, bluesy-jazzy approach to exploiting its virtues. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t get the syncopation of the end section right away. It’s great practice for isolating your thumb from the other right hand fingers! Play on!

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Reviews

6 results

raytcampbell

Verified buyer

04/03/23

An Excellent Sampler

This is a sampler of the Essentials series. They are in no particular order, but are all excellent stand alone lessons on topics as diverse as Vicki Genfan's three part lesson on G tuning and Frank Vignola's lesson based on the jazz standard Cherekee. For each instructor we get an overview, performance and, breakdown. There is lots of great material here. I am a fan of the Essentials Series. They tend to be straight to the point repetoire building courses. While each lesson teaches an essential technique, each technique comes with a piece to play. If you'd like to sample more than a dozen of these courses or are just looking to learn some pieces to add that may or may not be exactly what you already do, here is a fun romp. Check out some Dick Dale style soloing with Jason Loughlin or John Mayall style blues with Jeff McErlain. This is a fun mix of lessons you are bound to enjoy and find something of interest to add to your mix.

Ed

05/13/21

Great sampling of courses through a collection of studies.

Quintessential essential is collecting studies from some top Truefire instructors drawn from their courses and all containing the commonality of having important underlying stylistic messages for the guitar player. Each lesson includes a thoughtful breakdown that not only covers the essential techniques but excellent artistic points. Right away, in Cannon Ball, we have some competent advice about soloing, which is to think like a vocalist. Limiting your phrases to a specific range and working out the most melodic possibility sounds like simple advice, but it is a powerful tool to take away. It's just one of many that follow and also a great way to discover your next course.

patrick m.

Verified buyer

03/28/20

Quintessential Esentials

I found many of the studies very interesting, and you introduced me to several guitarists that I had not heard before. I will check them out in future..

ldrayrainey

Verified buyer

03/27/20

This is a WINNER!!

I bought this for a couple of my favorites, but when I dug in I found every 'etude' was worth learning. may select several more 'my favorites.' Ray Rainey.

chrisnatoli

Verified buyer

02/17/20

Quintessential Essentials

I have found the Quintessential Essentials course to be really helpful, because of all the different teachers in the course. Normally with all the other course’s l have bought from True fire they normally have just the one teacher in the course giving the lessons. It was great having different teachers in the one course because they have a different perspective and way of teaching. I highly recommend this course really great lessons.

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