6 PRO Guitarists Give Their BEST Secret for Playing on Ballads

[@pickinstone]

Chase, First off, the amount of work you did to gather all of these guitarists together is commendable and greatly appreciated by us all. In my opinion, this series is among the best on your channel. Rare that we get to hear from multiple pro's about ballad playing, blues, standards... maybe rhythm changes is in the works? Even in-person masterclasses fail to offer the opportunity to hear from these many pro's in the biz. Awesome use of the KZbin medium to add to the jazz guitar community--that's a serious compliment, not jaded sarcasm. Secondly, Brandon Coleman started talking about the importance of a rhythmic palette. I bet he's a writer as well--as us guitarists often are--because the "claws of music" was visceral enough to resonate with my own sensibility. That reminded me of Barry Harris. Unfortunately, many of us often "flatten" and reduce Barry Harris to "playing off the V" and "using that chromatic scale." Barry said a lot more. For instance, with ballad playing--and midtempo tunes--Barry spoke about the wide array of triplets at your disposal. Quarter note triplets for ballads and midtempo tunes, and half note triplets for up tempo. He taught us to stomp on 1 and 3 on the left foot and 4 on the right. Marking the 1 and 3 grounds us with the bassist--especially with ballads. If you turn the 1 and 3 into a type of 6/8, ONE-2-3, THREE-2-3--you get the feel of that slow ballad. You don't always play the quarter note triplet, but you use it to sub divide and get the lilt of the ballad feel. Just like you use the half note triplet to get the lilt of up tempo tunes. Barry explained it WAY better on video--I think you can find clips on KZbin. Just giving you the invitation to dig deeper into the world of Barry Harris ;) By the way, Peter Mazza strikes a homerun again. He may play with the complexity of Bill Hollman balanced with the joy of Neil Hefti--but the singing he demonstrated shows us the importance of internalizing the SOUND of the tune. By singing the melody while accompanying yourself on guitar, even if you aren't the best singer, you really get to KNOW that tune. If you can really sing it, you can song it! Apologies for the long comment--but you put in the work to make the videos, so I felt like a short comment wouldn't suffice.

[@hackdog69]

AWESOME JOB Brandon!!!!!

[@richmalloy2308]

These are fountains of interesting and profound advice. I’ll watch this again and take notes and see what I can do with their guidance. Thank you all. I had been following Cecil and John and now I have been introduced to three more prolific and beautiful players.

[@ChaseMaddox]

Awesome! Love when I can introduce people to these great players 🤘

[@guyturck2015]

Super interesting getting these guys perspective on ballad playing, priceless really. Perhaps the main take away, for me, as I work on my arrangement of Georgia On My Mind, is how they all feel so *free to do whatever they want in service to the song and their vision...no holds barred.* I always feel like I get more out of this style of teaching than the usual KZbin fair (at least once you know the basics). It's more how to be a musician vs how to play your instrument. Thanks to all the players that contributed and Chase for putting it all together!

[@ChaseMaddox]

My pleasure, Guy! Glad you got a lot out of it 🙏

[@grahamriach3297]

Cool idea for a video - and these guys are the best around

[@kevinmaddox]

Appreciate all these cats taking the time to share their tips with us 🙏