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Welcome
to the personal section of my site - my cyber-lounge, if you will, where you can hang out and learn more about jazz guitar in general and me (Clay Moore) in particular.
The Web has the potential to bring people with similar interests together in previously unimagined ways. For example, as recently as the late 1980's a musician living in say, Seattle would have had limited access to what musicians in Chicago or Philadelphia were doing. A student or fan not living in a major metropolitan jazz center would have been able to interact with world class players only very occasionally through concerts and clinics. Now through the wonders of e-mail, newsgroups, mailing lists, message boards, web sites, and chat rooms, we can all communicate with players such as Fareed Haque and Jimmy Bruno and query them about what they do. For my part, I've posted some essays (culled from the quarter century I've spent as a professional musician and educator), as well as links to official web sites, tribute web sites, and educational web sites. I hope you enjoy your stay here, and I invite you to e-mail me with any questions or comments about the site. I'm a frequent contributor to the jazz guitar newsgroup, so you can catch up with me there, as well. |
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I've tried to be selective about which sites to link to, which was tough considering all the web sites there are to explore. Basically I've listed three types of sites: official, tribute, and educational.
Some of this categorization is a bit arbitrary, I admit. Most of the players' sites have educational material, as do some of the tribute sites. The educators are usually great players as well, and so on. However, I think breaking them up this way will make browsing easier. I hope you enjoy discovering (or learning more about) these great jazz guitarists as much as I did...
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Clay's practice tips series
A couple of years ago I ran a series of weekly e-mail tips that I sent to a group of people who signed up to receive them. Although time constraints eventually caused me to discontinue the series I enjoyed writing them, and I think the advice holds up. See for yourself. More to be added later.
Many people who I've met in my web travels are seeking advice about learning jazz guitar. Of course there is a wealth of information available through web sites, newsgroups, and mailing lists, but sometimes it's better to study out of an old fashioned book made of paper and other organic stuff. Below I've listed and annotated some of the ones that I first started with 25 years ago, which I believe have stood the test of time. In addition, there is a review of a newer text that has set the bar for jazz texts, Mark Levine's Jazz Theory Book.
This book was recommended to me when I was 17 by jazz guitarmeister Curt Warren. Written and first published in the 1950's, Baker's book (still published with the original cheesy cover art, typos, and other mistakes left intact) is an often hilarious window into a bygone era. With all its flaws it's still an extremely useful instruction book for guitarists who are newbies to jazz. It's divided into two sections, chords and soloing. The chords are all written as box diagrams (requiring no music reading ability), and the subsequent exercises teach you solid musical examples using the chords you've learned. If you work your way through the first section more or less as Baker instructs you'll know 90% of the basic "jazz guitar chords" that you'll need to play jazz/blues changes, standards, bop tunes, and bossa novas. The section on single note soloing is not as good, but it does teach you some simple jump blues lines and a few basic concepts about soloing on changes.
Jerry Coker started his career as a saxophonist, apprenticed in big bands such as those of Woody Herman and Stan Kenton, and later garnered fame for his extensive contributions to jazz education. Improvising Jazz was his first book, written in 1962. A thin paperback, its humble appearance belies the wealth of information contained between the covers. Coker discusses topics such as chord/scale relationships, jazz harmony, developing your ears, melody construction, analyzing tunes by their key centers and chord root motion, and how to swing. My mom bought me a copy when I graduated high school, and a better gift I can't imagine. Well, maybe a Shelby Cobra. Coker also co-wrote:
Unlike its svelte cousin discussed above, Patterns for Jazz is a full sized text meant for the music stand. My aged copy is spiral bound; unfortunately recent editions are bound with cardboard and glue, which makes the book harder to keep open. While this book contains ample theoretical explanation of keys, modes, and so forth, it is intended to be practiced from. The focus of it is to develop the jazz musician's technique and vocabulary through extensive study of scales, patterns, and lines, exercised through all twelve keys. As with many books of this nature, Patterns for Jazz is one of those resources that a person would have a difficult time studying to completion in one lifetime. In the interest of fairness, I should mention that quite a few musicians believe that studying and practicing patterns as outlined in this book is a waste of time - that such practice is anti-musical. Coker and other jazz educators of his generation were probably a bit overzealous in presenting these books, but I believe that pattern study can be not only practical but enlightening. All music makes use of patterns, and in a sense it's ridiculous to define some patterns as good and others bad. As with most things in life, pattern study is perhaps best done in moderation.
Joe Pass was one of my main influences on guitar. When I was nineteen I had the pleasure of meeting and studying with Joe at a seminar in Tampa, FL, and in addition to his book I had just about every record he had put out at that time. The Joe Pass Guitar Style book was carefully written by Joe and Bill Thrasher. Like Mickey Baker's book, Joe's is divided into two sections: harmony (chords) and melody (soloing). Unlike the Baker book, Joe's book uses only standard notation for the examples, so you have to be able to read music to get the most out of it. The terms and theories are clear and simple - a refreshing workingman's approach to the subject. The section on harmony is worth the $9.95 price alone, and the melodic etudes in the second part are examples nonpareil on how to solo over chord changes.
The second option I recommend is practicing along with recordings of real jazz musicians. Aebersold recordings have no soloists - you're the soloist - and as such you miss one of the most vital aspects of jazz, that of interplay between the soloist and the other musicians. When you play with actual jazz records you can hear how the soloist works with the musicians, and I believe you pick up much more by this type of practice. You can shift your focus back and forth from being an appreciative listener, a soloist, and a "copyist." (By the latter I mean you can copy bits and pieces of what the soloist is doing.) Since a majority of the music you might play along with will have no available sheet music, you'll be exercising your ears in the process - one of the most important skills to develop for jazz improvisation.
I need more books on jazz theory and methods like I need a hole in the head, so I resisted buying this book for a long time. Now that I own it, I can honestly say that it's the best single resource of its type I've found on the market today. During the last twenty-five years of teaching, I've mostly relied on explaining things my own way, because there was no single book that pulled all the aspects of theory and common practice into one place. Mark Levine has written just such a book. I studied all the chapters to see what was included and how it was explained, and in most every case it either matched my opinions exactly or explained things even more clearly than I could.
To conclude this little essay, I'd like to insert a few words of caution regarding books and other resources of the intellect. Learning the basic principles of music theory and jazz improvisation can be accomplished in a fairly short time if you're serious about it. In my case, I would say it took about two years, and that includes quite a bit of daily hands-on practice with the guitar to ingrain what I was learning. Also, I was perhaps a bit overzealous about the theory part of learning, and I could have probably gotten by just fine with much less theory, and learned it in even less time.
The point is that while it's nice to have a lot of books to study and practice out of, it's not necessary, and I think they can be a detriment in some ways. The detriment is thinking that the music is in the books. It's not; the music is in the concerts, jam sessions, and recordings, and, probably most important, it's in YOU. I believe in general our culture teaches us not to have much respect for our own tastes, and this isn't a good thing when we're talking about art. What you hear and desire to bring to musical life matters more than some dead idea of what music is supposed to be.
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