Question for Jack Zucker

[Rock Fella]

Jack, ive read about your sheets of sound book, i see ed here endorses it , im not a fan of instruction videos for gtr, i have seen many and learnt bugger all from none of them.

one vid id love is danny gattons, would i get anything from it ? i dont know.

my playing style is hard rock based, my absolute idols are gary moore and john sykes, my rig is a R9 into a Cornford Hellcat head, gives you an idea of what kinda tones and vibes i try to create.

if a product or book exists that can help my playing in a tangible way , that is, i can actually hear the benefits, by all means, ill give it a go.

if i ask you straight, with the product you are selling, how can i reallistically measure any benefits ive reaped from it. ?

ive saw yngwie video , i mean how could anyone get anything from watching a guy sit talking about himself and then blazing thru licks and thats it, so i hope you can see how i just dont go for products like that which i deem a complete waste of time for a player.

ive listen to ouchagain by ed, his licks are phenominal in that cut, is there anything you hear in that which you can say, the dude used this or that concept from SOS ?

id really like to know jack and i hope you give me your input here.

jimmy

[Ed DeGenaro]

Videos...
I never found any use for them..none, zilch, nada. other than the guy talking about concepts. Which in Yngwie's case really is a non-evet.
But then again that video shoot took like 4 days to get enough material on tape. And it was inetrspersed with live footage to flesh it out enough.
Yngwie also was playing aline and commenting on...:that was harnonic minor". And the producer Don Mock who's a phenomenal palnk spanker had to correct him and Yngwie got his undies in a bunch over it.
But I digress. When it comes to video the only good thing I found to do with them is transfer it to audio only and trnascribe the stuff myself.

the reason I do endorse Jack's book is two-fold.
One, and this is the main reason. It sent me back in the woodshed and got me fired up about practicing.

The other is I finally got a handle on how to get pentatonics up to speed without just running them over the bar line aimlessly.

But to my defense I do have to say that the book alone is only printed paper. You'll only get as much out of it as you put in.

As for Ouchagain..mostly what it has to do with the book is me being able to do certain right hand stuff at quick tempos in the pocket that in the past woulda been just a run together egato line.

For example here's a thing that note choice wise has nothing to do with the book, but I couldn't have played it prior to using the book because my right hand would have not been able to do this stuff in sync with my left hand...
http://www.eddegenaro.com/audio/clip14.mp3

[Rock Fella]

glad you got the mail ed and thanks for replying.

im very much into right hand technique , my picking is far more developed than my legato technique, the speed thing is not as important to me as top notch phrasing and note selection.

i could wail away to my hearts content, but if im playing poorly selected notes or phrasing that doesnt work, then its worth squat all.

for example, i realise that angus wails away in whole lotta rose within his familiar box shapes in A minor pentatonic, sure i could do that, but where is the creativity and my tonal signature ?

i want the know how to create new and exciting ideas ,angus kills doing his thing, i want to move forward doing my thing.

can you see what im driving at ? to be able to dip inside and outside, sweep thru lines with interesting flavours and colourful notes and improve significantly on my phrasing.

can SOS help in these areas ed ?

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by Rock Fella
glad you got the mail ed and thanks for replying.

im very much into right hand technique , my picking is far more developed than my legato technique, the speed thing is not as important to me as top notch phrasing and note selection.

i could wail away to my hearts content, but if im playing poorly selected notes or phrasing that doesnt work, then its worth squat all.

for example, i realise that angus wails away in whole lotta rose within his familiar box shapes in A minor pentatonic, sure i could do that, but where is the creativity and my tonal signature ?

i want the know how to create new and exciting ideas ,angus kills doing his thing, i want to move forward doing my thing.

can you see what im driving at ? to be able to dip inside and outside, sweep thru lines with interesting flavours and colourful notes and improve significantly on my phrasing.

can SOS help in these areas ed ?
Hmmm...I think we're talking about different things.
I have yet to find somebody with a right hand that's more developed than their left unless they played Funk rhythms the last ten years.
Phrasing is whole different kettle of fish, and SOS doesn't do muh in that respect. But it will give you material to do stuff with your right hand at will that you couldn't prior.

From your desription I'd say it's time to learn some Landau stuff...

[lhallam]

If I may.

SOS is ca. 300 pages of exercises with some explanations as to where they can be used. It also has some tuneful examples/solos and some theory.

So there is more to get out of it than just technique.

For example, it's useful for coming up with some new ideas. I took an exercise and played just the first bar and then started riffing off of that idea.

Another thing it does big time, is have you approach the fingerboard differently. I find some of these approaches creep in when I'm jamming.

As Ed says, you get out of it what you put into it. I'm pretty confident that there is something in the book you will find valuable.

[Tag]

Originally posted by Rock Fella
i want the know how to create new and exciting ideas ,angus kills doing his thing, i want to move forward doing my thing.

can you see what im driving at ? to be able to dip inside and outside, sweep thru lines with interesting flavours and colourful notes and improve significantly on my phrasing.

can SOS help in these areas ed ?

(My opinion only!) Sorry to jump in here, but you sound like you hit the exact same point I did years ago. You are also into the same players I was. (Uli, G.moore,Schenker,Angus, Blackmore,Malmsteen etc.) You need to get yourself a great teacher, and learn to play some standard tunes, and how to improvise on them. Misty, Georgia, Willow weep for me, etc. You need to pick out some solos and lines by guys like Robben Ford, George Benson, Wes Montgomery, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis etc. This is going to be some HARD work. It will mean learning to play in a very different way than you do now. You will learn to hear music differently, and play it differently as well. Once you have a good foundation, and can play your way through musical chord changes, and not just tonal centers, you will slowly start to develope a style, and more importantly, you will be able to pick and choose WHAT you want to play, and when you want to play it. SOS will be a great addition to this, and a great reference point to turn to in ADDITION to your lessons, and regular studies. No matter how much you may HATE standard tunes, I believe you MUST learn to play them to ever be a truly great player. If you have ever listened to BB kings instructional video, you will see how much more that guy can play than what he usually does. He can hear changes, and make them at will. Once you can hear that, many players you think are so great now, will seem VERY average. I guarantee it. SRV as great as he is, will make you cringe sometimes on songs like "Riviera paradice". Of course this is mo, but it worked for me (again imo), but one thing it did for sure, is changed the way I hear music forever. For that I am eternally greatful to Richie Hart. :)

[Unburst]

Originally posted by Rock Fella

can you see what im driving at ? to be able to dip inside and outside, sweep thru lines with interesting flavours and colourful notes and improve significantly on my phrasing.

can SOS help in these areas ed ?

No question it will help, but if you think it will be put on a plate for you, it won't.

Get the book, it's great, and will last you a lifetime.
Start with the pentatonics section (it goes way beyond Angus blues boxes) and take it from there.

You seem pretty set in your style and tastes , if you don't look beyond that rather narrow genre and approach, how do you expect to develop your own tonal signature?

SOS will give you a wealth of material to work with, technical, melodic and harmonic.
As far as I know there are no chapters on playing like John Sykes/Gary Moore.

[Mark C]

Rock Fella, sounds to me like you want to play what you hear in your head, not patterns. Start transcribing - STOP using tablabture and figure out by ear the licks you want to play. Eventually, you start to hear things in your head and visualize them on the fretboard. Singing the notes you play helps a lot too. I'm still working on this. Over blues and simple rock tunes, I generally hear what I want to play before I play it (somedays are better than others) For more advanced stuff, I need a lot of work. The SOS book is great, but it is more about learning to build technique and opening your fingers up to new patterns. I do agree with some other guys here - you might want to get some inspiration from other music than early 80's metal. The players you like are fantastic, but they have many influences themselves which is why they are so great.

[JimmyD]

Originally posted by Tag
He can hear changes, and make them at will. Once you can hear that, many players you think are so great now, will seem VERY average. I guarantee it. SRV as great as he is, will make you cringe sometimes on songs like "Riviera paradice". [/B]

SRV can really channel the blues without question. The Riviera Paradise take was a little outside of his comfort factor as documented by the clams, but hey I play clams every weekend.

Get the SOS book though, if nothing else it will help you look at the fretboard differently. If you don't use it now you will pick it up later again and again.

Jim

[jackaroo]

"SRV as great as he is, will make you cringe sometimes on songs like "Riviera paradice".

"Clams"

Where exactly is he making me cringe? Seriously

JD

[Tag]

Originally posted by jackaroo
"SRV as great as he is, will make you cringe sometimes on songs like "Riviera paradice".

"Clams"

Where exactly is he making me cringe? Seriously

JD

Jack,
Its where he plays over the Fmaj7 to G7 if I remember the chords right. You cant miss it.

[jackaroo]

I don't know where... but it didn't seem to phase him, the band, or the engineer/producer. Anything really nasty, they'd have punched in and taken care of.

I like that song a lot. The quiet sections with all the slurry dynamic stuff is really pretty dope. I wish I could play like that.

It's pretty long tune and it repeats the form many times, at what min:sec is there a good example of what you're talking about. I'm not saying it's not there mind you, I'm just saying I'm yet to hear a clunker on that tune.

BTW is it just once, or does he not know how to play over the changes every time?

Peace,

JD

[Rock Fella]

Originally posted by Tag
Jack,
Its where he plays over the Fmaj7 to G7 if I remember the chords right. You cant miss it.

erm....................i missed it then and i havent a clue what yer talking about . if i could improv off the cuff like he did on that , i could die a happy man.

[jzucker]

Originally posted by jackaroo
"SRV as great as he is, will make you cringe sometimes on songs like "Riviera paradice".

"Clams"

Where exactly is he making me cringe? Seriously

JD

The Ebmaj7 (Cm7) to F7 where he plays a bunch of E Blues licks sounds awful. SRV's one of my heros but he shoulda kept that one in the can or let Reese solo over it instead...

[jzucker]

Regarding helping your playing in a tangible way...

The premise of SOS is to expand your mind, your imagination and your horizons. Out of 1000 books sold, I have had 2 folks that emailed me that they were dissatisfied. In both cases, they said that they were playing in bands where they just didn't think that the material would help them. One guy played in a blues band, the other guy in a pop band.

The material in the book is not about helping you directly in a specific band application. It's all about helping you grow. If you are interested in growth, than the book will sow your imagination and fuel your growth.

If you're looking for a bunch of hot and wicked licks to impress your friends with, there are plenty of those in there as well but that would be missing the main point of the book which is to get you to look at the instrument differently.

Jaz

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by jzucker
The Ebmaj7 (Cm7) to F7 where he plays a bunch of E Blues licks sounds awful. SRV's one of my heros but he shoulda kept that one in the can or let Reese solo over it instead...
Huh, it's been a long time but I remeber that progression as ending on Ebmaj7-F#7-B7#9-B7b9-Em.

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by Tag
Jack,
Its where he plays over the Fmaj7 to G7 if I remember the chords right. You cant miss it.
You guys are killing me...
Why do I remeber the progression as
Gmaj7-A7
Gmaj7-A7
Fmaj7-G7
Fmaj7-G7
Ebmaj7-F#7
B7-Em7

[jzucker]

Originally posted by Ed DeGenaro
You guys are killing me...
Why do I remeber the progression as
Gmaj7-A7
Gmaj7-A7
Fmaj7-G7
Fmaj7-G7
Ebmaj7-F#7
B7-Em7

You're partially right. Each of the Maj7 voicings in that chord progression was actually a min9 chord in first inversion. The next to last line goes like this:

Ebmaj7 F7 F#13 B7b9

With the last two chords played as 8th notes

[JimmyD]

Originally posted by jackaroo
"SRV as great as he is, will make you cringe sometimes on songs like "Riviera paradice".

"Clams"

Where exactly is he making me cringe? Seriously

JD

Hi guys, I popped it in the CD player to refresh myself. What I hear starts about 1:53 through 2:00. Stevie is laying on a B natural over Ebmaj7 to F#7. Lotta tension there!

The next time through the progression also on the Ebmaj7 at around 2:46 he starts his phrase on E.

I'm also surprised it wasn't corrected via a punch in.

Jim

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by JimmyD
Hi guys, I popped it in the CD player to refresh myself. What I hear starts about 1:53 through 2:00. Stevie is laying on a B natural over Ebmaj7 to F#7. Lotta tension there!

The next time through the progression also on the Ebmaj7 at around 2:46 he starts his phrase on E.

I'm also surprised it wasn't corrected via a punch in.

Jim
So it is Eb-F# as I thought...

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by jzucker
You're partially right. Each of the Maj7 voicings in that chord progression was actually a min9 chord in first inversion. The next to last line goes like this:

Ebmaj7 F7 F#13 B7b9

With the last two chords played as 8th notes
So...I dug out the album. And you're wrong the Ebmaj7 is not followed by a F7..it goes straight to the F#7.

http://www.eddegenaro.com/audio/nofnat.MP3

[jzucker]

Thanks for the clarifcation. I'd be interested if Reese is playing those "maj7" chords with a root a min3rd down making them ii-v chords and not IV-V...Not that it matters much. They're functioning as ii-v chords anyway.

[Tag]

Originally posted by jzucker
Thanks for the clarifcation. I'd be interested if Reese is playing those "maj7" chords with a root a min3rd down making them ii-v chords and not IV-V...Not that it matters much. They're functioning as ii-v chords anyway.

Jack, you DO group doms together like I do. :) (Or I should say I do it like you do) Maj key..II IV V VII are approach all the same. All the arpeggios\scales work over each other, and all lead you back to the tonic. :) Just different shades\colors of the exact same thing. Same with the I-III-VI Tonic chords. :dude Therefore in the key of C.. The D Dorian, F Lydian, G Mixolidian, B Locrean modes are all the same thing. One big dominat scale. The C Ionian, E Phrygian,and A aolean are one big tonic scale. Nice to know when you are starting, but since you naturally play phrases and arps starting on different notes, who cares? To me, thats why learning bebop lines are so much more important than scales\arps. There all in there in a musical sense!
Its amazing how few guys realize this., and to me, was such a HUGE key in not only freeing up my playing, but helping make tasty selectons vs non tasteful ones. Nothing worse than accentuating a tonic chord over a dominant area, or Dominant over tonic. That is the KEY to hearing things correctly.

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by Tag
Jack, you DO group doms together like I do. :) (Or I should say I do it like you do) Maj key..II IV V VII are approach all the same. All the arpeggios\scales work over each other, and all lead you back to the tonic. :) Just different shades\colors of the exact same thing. Same with the I-III-VI Tonic chords. :dude Therefore in the key of C.. The D Dorian, F Lydian, G Mixolidian, B Locrean modes are all the same thing. One big dominat scale. The C Ionian, E Phrygian,and A aolean are one big tonic scale. Nice to know when you are starting, but since you naturally play phrases and arps starting on different notes, who cares? To me, thats why learning bebop lines are so much more important than scales\arps. There all in there in a musical sense!
Its amazing how few guys realize this., and to me, was such a HUGE key in not only freeing up my playing, but helping make tasty selectons vs non tasteful ones. Nothing worse than accentuating a tonic chord over a dominant area, or Dominant over tonic. That is the KEY to hearing things correctly.
Curiois...why do you leabve out subdominant as a function?
I group everything by their harmonic finction...as in subdominant (needs to move on a bit)...ii-IV
Dominant (needs to resolve/move a lot-well unless you're Miles) V-vii
Tonic (at rest) I-iii-vi

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by jzucker
Thanks for the clarifcation. I'd be interested if Reese is playing those "maj7" chords with a root a min3rd down making them ii-v chords and not IV-V...Not that it matters much. They're functioning as ii-v chords anyway.
The first one is a ii-V in terms of harmonic movement, and then it's IV-V, IV-bV...tritone sub for the typical bVI-V-i Blues turn around. But I view it as a VofV, V, i.

BTW, I thought the guitar port clip I posted of it sounded alright for using EMGs.

[jzucker]

Originally posted by Ed DeGenaro
The first one is a ii-V in terms of harmonic movement, and then it's IV-V

So the bass (pedal) is playing the IV ?

[Tag]

Originally posted by Ed DeGenaro
Curiois...why do you leabve out subdominant as a function?
I group everything by their harmonic finction...as in subdominant (needs to move on a bit)...ii-IV
Dominant (needs to resolve/move a lot-well unless you're Miles) V-vii
Tonic (at rest) I-iii-vi



Subdominat?? Means SUBstitution for a dominant to me. A IImin chord goes right back to the I many times, and Ill play a IV chord against it, a VII chord against it a V chord, or even an altered V to really pull back to the I chord. To me, what you are calling a Sub dominant, is just a miler dominant. Something can be dark red or light red, they are both red. You can also do the reverse and play a II, IV or VII chord agains a V chord. Why make 3 groups out of what are only two?? If you do that, then you may as well say a V chord is different than a V altered. A Flat nine is not as dominant as a flat 9 flat13 chord, which is not as dominant as a b5b9b13 chord. Thats just making things WAY,WAY harder. The less you have to think, the easier it is to play. Either a chord is tonic, or dominant. A third is not as "tonic" sounding as the root, yet its tonic.

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by jzucker
So the bass (pedal) is playing the IV ? On the third chord yes.

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by Tag
Subdominat?? Means SUBstitution for a dominant to me. A IImin chord goes right back to the I many times, and Ill play a IV chord against it, a VII chord against it a V chord, or even an altered V to really pull back to the I chord. To me, what you are calling a Sub dominant, is just a miler dominant. Something can be dark red or light red, they are both red. You can also do the reverse and play a II, IV or VII chord agains a V chord. Why make 3 groups out of what are only two?? If you do that, then you may as well say a V chord is different than a V altered. A Flat nine is not as dominant as a flat 9 flat13 chord, which is not as dominant as a b5b9b13 chord. Thats just making things WAY,WAY harder. The less you have to think, the easier it is to play. Either a chord is tonic, or dominant. A third is not as "tonic" sounding as the root, yet its tonic.
Because of harmoni function. A dominant pretty much wants to go to I...a sub can go either to dominant or tonic.
A for dominant vs. altered dominant. They usually are used for different harmonic purposes. Dominant when there's a static vamp, altered dom when it's functioning.

[Tag]

Originally posted by Ed DeGenaro
Because of harmoni function. A dominant pretty much wants to go to I...a sub can go either to dominant or tonic.
A for dominant vs. altered dominant. They usually are used for different harmonic purposes. Dominant when there's a static vamp, altered dom when it's functioning.

Well any chord can act as a tonic! On a 7 vamp, the 7 chord is a tonic chord! At that point, I would group all the same chords together and view them as tonic. (Example..G7 vamp..D minor, B-7b5, G7 and Fmaj7 are all TONIC chords now. No get out sounds, I would likely superimpose II-Vs going INTO that G7, and alter them. I think that is a big difference between many fusion players an jazz players (not all). Many fusion players will play out my altering the G7...playing G whole tone, G diminished etc. Many jazz players will superimpose changes going INTO the G7, and that to me sounds sweeter and creates more logical movement. (To my ear) I also will use altered G7 lines at times, but that gives a much "harder" and less musical sounding "out" to my ear.

As far as the "subdominant" not going to a tonic area, where is it going? Give an example and ill show you how I would treat it. If a II chord is going to a III chord, thats dominant to tonic. I would sub a II-V into that in a heartbeat. Say a II A minor going to a III B minor. That to me is dominant to tonic. You can actually play V-I on that. If a IV chord is going to a V, thats the same tonality to my ear.

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by Tag
Well any chord can act as a tonic! On a 7 vamp, the 7 chord is a tonic chord! At that point, I would group all the same chords together and view them as tonic. (Example..G7 vamp..D minor, B-7b5, G7 and Fmaj7 are all TONIC chords now. No get out sounds, I would likely superimpose II-Vs going INTO that G7, and alter them. I think that is a big difference between many fusion players an jazz players (not all). Many fusion players will play out my altering the G7...playing G whole tone, G diminished etc. Many jazz players will superimpose changes going INTO the G7, and that to me sounds sweeter and creates more logical movement. (To my ear) I also will use altered G7 lines at times, but that gives a much "harder" and less musical sounding "out" to my ear.

As far as the "subdominant" not going to a tonic area, where is it going? Give an example and ill show you how I would treat it. If a II chord is going to a III chord, thats dominant to tonic. I would sub a II-V into that in a heartbeat. Say a II A minor going to a III B minor. That to me is dominant to tonic. You can actually play V-I on that. If a IV chord is going to a V, thats the same tonality to my ear.
When a ii isn't going to to tonic it's going to dominant.
When you have a static V chord you still playing over the V chord. It is not suddenly a I chord. If you're think of it modally it'll be mixolydian.
I understand where you're coming from. But that not withstanding every progression can break down in function to ii-V-I or part thereof.
I'm not talking about your approach to improvising but rather to how harmony functions. And a ii is different than a V, that's all there is to it.

[Ed DeGenaro]

Simply put...things can be broken down to everything being V-I...but not when a ii or IV is present.
Lets use this as an example...
i-I-IV-ii-V-i

[Tag]

Originally posted by Ed DeGenaro
When a ii isn't going to to tonic it's going to dominant.
When you have a static V chord you still playing over the V chord. It is not suddenly a I chord. If you're think of it modally it'll be mixolydian.
I understand where you're coming from. But that not withstanding every progression can break down in function to ii-V-I or part thereof.
I'm not talking about your approach to improvising but rather to how harmony functions. And a ii is different than a V, that's all there is to it.

We will have to disagree which is fine ! A II is a different shade of the same color as a V to my ear. Both pulling you somewhere, one just harder than the other. If you end a song on a II chord, it will sound unresolved, just like on a V chord.

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by Tag
We will have to disagree which is fine ! A II is a different shade of the same color as a V to my ear. Both pulling you somewhere, one just harder than the other. If you end a song on a II chord, it will sound unresolved, just like on a V chord.
I have no issue with disagreeing..

[Tag]

Originally posted by Ed DeGenaro
Simply put...things can be broken down to everything being V-I...but not when a ii or IV is present.
Lets use this as an example...
i-I-IV-ii-V-i

Yes it can! V-I. When you add subdominants, you are just extending the motion and adding subtle shades of color..

[Tag]

Originally posted by Ed DeGenaro
I have no issue with disagreeing..

Me either. It all comes out the same in the end anyway. :)

[Lucidology]

"SRV as great as he is, will make you cringe sometimes on songs like "Riviera paradice".

"Clams"

Where exactly is he making me cringe? Seriously

JD


Reading this blows my mind ...
I thought I was the only guy on earth who heard those "clams"...

[Mike T]

Reading this blows my mind ...
I thought I was the only guy on earth who heard those "clams"...

Nope....you ain't the lone ranger Joe.... it's funny though, cause I never EVER would say that in public for fear of the ramifications.......being that this board is private and only the whole world can see it makes me feel safe though :jo

[G-Let]

Could someone tell some more Yngwie stories? That guy is hilarious when he brings the fooking fury.

[Lucidology]

Nope....you ain't the lone ranger Joe.... it's funny though, cause I never EVER would say that in public for fear of the ramifications.......being that this board is private and only the whole world can see it makes me feel safe though :jo

Yo Mike..... whenever I've pointed that out in public there has certainly been ramifications ...
Have gotten slammed by guys who are into SRV bigtime (or not) ...

Thanks for the laugh about feeling safe here ... good one ... :BEER

[Clifford-D]

The Ebmaj7 (Cm7) to F7 where he plays a bunch of E Blues licks sounds awful. SRV's one of my heros but he shoulda kept that one in the can or let Reese solo over it instead...
I thought it was Cm9/Eb (Ebmaj7)to F#13 ???

That's where Stevie finds like one note
to milk till those changes are through.
If he only understood a little more theory.

Jack how would you play through those changes
It is an odd little move

Cm9/Eb | F#13 |

I've always thought of this tune as a series of II V I's

Em A7 | Dm/F G7 | Cm/Eb - and then the V is abandoned
in favor of

F#7 B7 | Em | - another II V I


Not to derail the thread, Stevie has been ok in this thread.

A good tune to use SOS on with all those changes :)

[GtrWiz]

Wow I don't think I've heard so much analytical BS since I graduated from Berklee...

Clams?!?! I had to bust the song out after reading that one... Does anyone remember that the song was supposed to be about his coming out of the darkest period in his life? Stevie could have made those changes, or as someone else mentioned, punched in over any rough spots. Considering the spirit of the song, his playing is perfect.

[Clifford-D]

Wow I don't think I've heard so much analytical BS since I graduated from Berklee...

Clams?!?! I had to bust the song out after reading that one... Does anyone remember that the song was supposed to be about his coming out of the darkest period in his life? Stevie could have made those changes, or as someone else mentioned, punched in over any rough spots. Considering the spirit of the song, his playing is perfect.
I'm not really talking about Stevie playing it, Stevie is great and will always
be great. What a great gift he gave us.
And I'm not talking about a period in his life.
I'm not really talking about Stevie.

But it is true that a gifted listener can hear when someone is playing with
ease and reckless abandon and they can hear when that same player
is in a harmonic territory that is "unusual".
In Stevies case I truly believe when that Cm7/Eb to F#7 he grabbed a note
or three that were "safe" and in great Stevie style, he rode the harmonic
wave with them.

And I don't think they were clams either. They were "chosen"notes.
He made those notes cry.
Good solution.
I dont think Stevie thought of the tune as a decending series of
II V structures. If he did have that harmonic knowledge
man, that would have been very cool.

Scott Henderson???

Yea, he's got it.

Robben?? Duh

[jzucker]

I don't know where... but it didn't seem to phase him, the band, or the engineer/producer. Anything really nasty, they'd have punched in and taken care of.

Just got back into town. I'll reply to this thread in more detail. But over the Ebmaj7 chord, SRV is running E blues scales. SRV is one of my favorite players ever but he was definitely out of his element there.

[Clifford-D]

Just got back into town. I'll reply to this thread in more detail. But over the Ebmaj7 chord, SRV is running E blues scales. SRV is one of my favorite players ever but he was definitely out of his element there.
I agree but he would always perform this tune live.

Stevie heard something he liked I guess :)

[GtrWiz]

It's one thing to not like the way someone played, but to say he was "out of his element" implies that he he couldn't handle the changes which is what I call BS on. Anyone with an intermediate ear could hear it, we aren't talking about Giant Steps here. He was only one fret off from "correct" notes, so there had to be something special about the performance, in his opinion, to not only leave it alone, but release it as the closing statement to his most personal record. Music is about self-expression right?

[jzucker]

It's one thing to not like the way someone played, but to say he was "out of his element" implies that he he couldn't handle the changes which is what I call BS on. Anyone with an intermediate ear could hear it

So why can't you? I've transcribed enough SRV and Coltrane to know the difference. He was a great guitarist but he wasn't God.

[GtrWiz]

So why can't you? I've transcribed enough SRV and Coltrane to know the difference. He was a great guitarist but he wasn't God.


I do hear the parts that you're talking about, but what I'm saying is that there are other qualities in his performance that go beyond "correct notes" that make it a great piece. As mentioned he could have fixed anything he wanted. I'm sure his ear was more than developed enough to hear the changes...

Perhaps we should agree to disagree and end it right here, coz I dig your books. :RoCkIn