Channel: New Secret Guitar Teacher

Category: Music

Tags: slim gailardjazz leadjazza well a take em a joesecret guitar teachersoloimprovanalysisleadguitarnick minnionslim gaillardjazz solo analyzedtake em joesecretguitarteacherimprovising

Description: Learn the challenging but great fun second half of Slim Gaillard’s solo from A-Well-A-Take-Em-A-Joe. Nick breaks down the complex tune into bitesize chunks so you can master this jazz piece. Missed part one of the solo? Catch up here: youtu.be/zsTOjEJDcZ4 -- Find the tab and backing tracks to play along to at secretguitarteacher.com Don't have an account? Sign up for a free trial and find hundreds of lessons to take your guitar playing to the next level! -- Abridged Script In this lesson I want to take you through the second half of Slim Gaillard’s solo from a-well-a-take-‘em-a-joe. Here’s what this lesson will cover. We start off playing over the chords from the ‘B’ section. So, the first lick is a descending first inversion arpeggio of A7 played using the ‘D’ shape. I always find this an easy shape to recognize as a ‘diamond shape’ with the root note here at the top end of the diamond. In this case we call it a first inversion because it’s lowest note is the third – C# in this case. Now we have a two-note pick-up into the next lick G# to A here at frets 9 and 10 on the 2nd string before we descend a second inversion Dm chord in anticipation of the change that comes in the next bar. Then as the underlying chord does change to Dm, Slim plays a really nice lick that actually combines two other D chords. The first part of the lick traces the notes of a D Major ninth chord then after the lick turns back on itself repeating the notes F# E D C – themselves a segment of the D whole tone scale – we segue neatly into outlining a D dominant chord on the lower strings. So, here’s the whole of the first line again at half speed. For the next line we head off on a striking descending chromatic sequence of minor triads. I am really hoping that no-one emails in to ask me why this works! Truth is I haven’t the faintest idea! But I know that when I first heard this solo it was the part that most jumped out at me. It starts with a pair of pick-up notes played on the second string at frets 11 and 12 then simply hold down this three note D minor chord and play it backwards take the shape down one fret and repeat and again …and again until you reach Bb minor played here at fret 6 and 8. Then it’s on to the next idea which is based on a C natural minor scale. Now we head off abruptly to the lower end of the fretboard jumping from the note D at fret 7 on the 3rd string …down to work the open F chord shape. Notice we are using the same trick as way back at the start of the first part of the solo – landing on the minor third and ‘correcting’ it to the major. The last line starts with a brief visit to the ‘D’ shaped F chord playing the triad F A C before sliding up to the E to imply an F major 7th and then settling back to the D note. Then we just play three notes from the F major scale from C at fret 13 here …down to fret 11 for Bb and fret 10 for A before finishing with this version of the F chord using the minor to major 3rd trick, but this time with a slide from Ab at fret 9 on the 2nd string to A at fret 10, adding the C at fret 8 on the top string… This is played a total of 5 times before resolving back to the F at fret 10 on the 3rd string from the A at fret 10 on the 2nd string. If you are watching this video as a member of the SecretGuitarTeacher site you will find a link near the video screen to the tab as well as two versions of the backing track for the whole solo, including the first 16 bars as taught in the previous lesson in this series. I have made these backing tracks at slow tempo and full tempo to help you with the learning process. It’s always better to first get the timing right and then work it up to speed. My thanks to Gregory for asking me to work out this great little Jazz tune! I hope you have fun learning this brilliant little jazz guitar solo – there is much to learn from it that will help you develop your own improvising style. See you again soon.