The Secret To Soulful Jazz Guitar Lines: Ballads

[@vincentchen5341]

Denis you are right. I learned singing technique as well, one of the things stop me from the beginning is the same thing that stop me from improving my jazz playing, people don’t understand that their speech habit affects the vowels they made and vowels are the actual range physically. Which means learning to sing requires a longtime lifestyle change, you have to be aware of how to adjust the way you speak or produce sound and stop swallowing tongue or having any muscle being tensed. But people generally assumed you just need to practice so-called vocal technique then you can sing, it is so absurd but it is a very popular idea😂 I understand what you talking about, I watched a lesson made by Barney Kessel years ago( it is available on KZbin) he talks about practicing making up melodies that’s exactly what we need to do. Learning to improvise is really learning to express yourself through melody, the song is the context, different song forms are similar to a set of vocab that you need to use for a particular social context and interaction. In actual performance or improvisation, how is it even possible to start to think about theories again or techniques, those things you should have practiced a trillion times so they become an automatic process that you don’t need to think anymore. To really absorb and internalize a sound you have to be emotionally engaged with whatever materials you are practicing, it is the emotion that connects with your whole body, your neurological system that allows you to absorb whatever information that you can sense with your senses. To play and to improvise really requires a re-engineering process of activating your authentic emotions that are connected to the music(the language). Without this connection, you can play whatever difficult piece but you don’t feel a thing. I believe that why people want to improvise in the first place, I want to express my self through music. Another thing I wanna say is I just keep buying your lessons your lessons are too good to be true. 😂

[@greeeng]

we love you Denis

[@Swing20]

I moved to Germany years ago and I can related 100% with the analogy you’ve made. I am terrible with grammar so in the beginning i skipped a lot of formal learning and jumped into the experience of learning the language in an intuitive way, like children do, I am now confident with the German language. On the other side I started playing the guitar many years ago and although I play in a musical way I am not able to play jazz … it’s really frustrating… I think the difference is that here I have 90 million people how speak German but I know just a couple how play jazz, that means I cannot socialize my jazz playing…maybe your advice on picking up licks and phrases is really important. I just purchased your book by the way. Really like your lessons Denis thank you!

[@JimmyGrantMusic]

Great lesson Denis!

[@Landon.Skalsky]

Great video! At the end your emphasis on recording yourself is SO important. For me, it’s one of the best tools i have to narrow down what needs work. Thanks Denis! 😎

[@Guitarvision1]

Denis, when are you making a gypsy jazz guitars buying guide? Would love to see different segments being mentioned; there's just such a vacuum related to this topic online.

[@steveplummer1894]

Maybe you have a vid already but I Would love to see a vid about trio vs quartet or having a rhythm player . Any thoughts would be amazing .

[@eddierocksteady]

This is THE WAY!

[@oldmaterizz4516]

Deserves more likes

[@DjazzYMas]

Thanks for this priceless information 🙏🙇🏿‍♂️

[@steveplummer1894]

Great concept

[@peternonsense]

couldn't agree more.

[@steveplummer1894]

Your a baaadaaassss Denis !

[@jz4901]

Which tunes do your recommend to start with? Thank you Denis!

[@DenisChangMusic]

The ones you like and/or the ones that get called often at jam sessions!

[@GerardoCoronadoGuitar]

Nice denis

[@JamesMacColl-v8i]

Dennis,,,,Great video! Many thanks. Question: is that an Altamira N700F Flamenco guitar you're playing?

[@DenisChangMusic]

No it’s just a crappy flamenco guitar that ‘s not worth much but it’s kinda fun to play

[@jorgebermejo3708]

17:30 In Spain it is called «El baile de los pajaritos», i think it comes from a Swiss melody...it was the last thing i expected you to play 😜

[@DenisChangMusic]

In French, it’s “La danse des canards”😂

[@surprisedmike]

The proof of your advice is in the playing of a solo over a ballad. Without a good melodic conception, it just doesn't work. In my opinion, part of the problem with learning jazz is the idea of everything being improvised. The goal of a musician, in any form of music, is to play something that catches the listeners ear and that won't happen just because it is "improvised". Jazz playing can be just noterrhea. At the other extreme is memorizing everything. This can be a monumental task, although rewarding too as with classical guitar pieces. Relying solely on memorization, however, leaves you with little opportunity to develop your own compositional sense and that is a big part of musicality. Your video caught my attention because, while I can play an okay solo on medium and up-tempo tunes, on ballads it is another story. So I'm working on that and I have to prepare ahead rather than just improvise. Hopefully at some point I will be able to get by with less preparation and can just rely on my skills to do it quickly. I'll buy your course on jazz phrasing as that should help. Nice video!

[@謝孟錡-w2g]

What is the song you play first minute !?

[@DenisChangMusic]

Bei dir war es immer so schön , such an obscure song, yet I got a copyright strike for quoting the melody in the first A by a record label….. The composer is looooong dead lol

[@kenster3554]

Scat sing a solo away from the guitar. That’s the ultimate litmus test. What do you hear in your “mind’s ear”?

[@DenisChangMusic]

I don’t believe that to be 100% true. Indeed if you can do that, it’s certainly 100% proof, however, i have noticed that even perfect pitch jazz musicians don’t scat well because singing perfectly in tune can require some training. To scat a coherent solo in tune is like learning to play another instrument. Some people certainly go for that, and that’s really great. There are tons of fantastic improvisers who wouldn’t be able to scat to the level of their guitar playing.

[@kenster3554]

@@DenisChangMusic Perhaps I should clarify further: By “scat singing ideas”, I’m not implying that one should strive to be George Benson or Ella Fitzgerald, or pay any mind to vocal quality or to syllabic concerns, etc.. What I am saying is that we should “hear” what we are playing as we are playing it, not after it comes out of the guitar. Being able to sing ideas is a clear indication that your mind is “owning” your choices. I have seen that very same Barney Kessel video, and what I am suggesting is not very far afield from what he is saying. Years ago I attended a jazz camp taught by the late Ted Dunbar. His mantra was, “Sing and swing”. Good words to live by IMHO.

[@LostSoulAscension]

That lick works over Gm, Bbmaj and C7 because it's basically all extensions right? So C7 is really Gm add11add13, and Bb maj is really just Gm7b9? Or mainly because all those chords just share G and Bb and maybe has nothing to do with the chord extensions but the notes in the lick?

[@marcelloestemiele]

I'm not very fluent in english but i'm gonna try my best at explaining: Yes you could always analyze what intervals you will obtain by playing the same melodic phrase over different chords, but you should try to go beyond that. If you've transcribed a bit of solos, you will find out that often when you meet a ii-V (in this case Gm7-C7) some soloists may play a melodic idea that only outlines one of the two chords, and that will be enough to create the "movement" feel (so not feeling like you are playing a F major phrase that will instead feel like "home" since it's the tonal center in this case). The reason why it works on Bb (Bb6 usually in the early years of jazz) is because it works like a substitution. Most of the times, in tonal tunes, there are chords that give a similar feeling so they are interchangeable. Substitutions are quite a large topic, but in short you can play for example either a phrase that implies Am7 or Em7 instead of a C6-Cmaj7 (so a third below or a third above the major chord you would have to outline with your solo) and the harmonic direction of it will still sound similar/the same.

[@DenisChangMusic]

Marcello explained it very well!

[@marcelloestemiele]

@@DenisChangMusic coming from you, it means a lot to me, thank you

[@rom4486]

Is it really improving memorizing Licks ? True improvisation to me is playing melody that never play before and able to play over whole song without using phrases that been memorized , creating completely new Melodie’s , just my opinion ,..

[@pickinstone]

Can't it be both instead of either or? You can use phrases as connective tissue to guide lines that are more improvised. Melodic phrases or cells can help you focus on the flow and rhythmic articulation when you solo. I used to focus on developing my ears to hear every note. Learning phrases helps me hear in phrases too. Thus, the rhythmic component doesn't suffer as it might by thinking note by note. If you limit your improvisation just to the note level, you're missing out on a whole other world of music to integrate into your musical statements.

[@TheDjangofan]

Jazz isn't just improvisation, it's history and culture. You can't sound like a jazz musician without acknowledging this in your music.

[@pickinstone]

@@TheDjangofan That's what Denis is all about, the historical approach. That Louis Armstrong reached beyond his grave into all periods of jazz. That bebop didn't happen in a vacuum. Melodic phrases and harmonic "limitations" help us tap into that historical reservoir quicker and with more authenticity than mere theoretical formulas. Building on the history is as much respecting the tradition as innovating from it. Rhythm is the least studied and closest fingerprint to the history of the jazz tradition.

[@DenisChangMusic]

I can’t think of any famous improvisor out there who does not have some sort of “muscle memory” pattern . Having listening and transcribed so many players over the past 20 years, I keep recognizing patterns. If we did the same thing that you suggest with the alphabet it would end up like this : asda jiopjkasd maklma mklasd lasd . This is certainly very new but also very incoherent

[@karlderdelinckx]

@@DenisChangMusic interesting… wonder if a vocal jazz singer scats on a song. If I try that I don’t think licks. If I hear great jazz singers scat it doesn’t sound incoherent. I ‘m wondering if they would have some vocal musclememory…