THE CROSSROADS Pt2 From Charlie Christian to Chuck Berry

Continuing to connect the dots between blues and jazz, John Wheatcroft shows how a saxophone cliché helped define the sound of swing, jazz, blues and rock and roll guitar.

- John Wheatcroft

Info

Key C Blues Tempo 160 CD TRACKS 20-29

Will improve your…

Bending and sliding accuracy

Fretboard knowledge

Stylistic awareness

This month’s lesson explores the idea of playing the same note on two different strings, exploiting the contrasting tones and allowing us to create great rhythmic interest with just a single note. The origins of this device in jazz can be traced back to saxophonists such as the legendary Lester Young (Lester Leaps In) and they refer to this technique as ‘false fingerings’, jumping between a note at the exact same pitch, albeit with a subtly different timbre. Guitarists were quick to notice this simple but ear -catching device and, by accident rather than design, a piece of classic saxophone vocabulary went on to define one of the mainstay sounds of swing, jazz, blues, and classic rock guitar.

Players as diverse as Hank Marvin to Joe Satriani, Pat Metheny to Stevie Ray Vaughan and countless more have all assimilated this approach into their vastly different and hugely stylistically broad repertoire of licks and phrases. The exciting news is that after working through this material, you can add your name to the list too, so on with the music.