Chords for Cool 'Rhythm Upgrade' Trick for FAST Jazz Guitar Licks

_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ So, something I [Ab] always get asked when I'm teaching [Bb] lessons in the club [Abm] is, you know,
[Bb] give us some faster lines to [G] play.
You know, [Ab] I'm getting bored just playing eighth note
lines.
Have you got anything which is a bit more flashy?
Now, here's the thing.
[C] You don't
actually need to learn special faster [Bb] flashy lines.
You, in fact, [Abm] have everything you need
pretty much [Bb] already with [C] the eighth note lines that you might have already [Bb] learned.
So, in
this lesson, I'm [Fm] going to show you just by some simple rhythmic [Cm] alteration how you can
_ [F] transform lines that are [Ebm] normally played more slowly in [Fm] eighth notes into _ [Bb] fast flashy phrases
that [F] you can [Bb] use to brighten up [Fm] your solos and create a bit of a climax.
Okay, so this
is pretty easy to do.
Let's go to a close [Bbm]-up and [Db] get into it.
_ _ _ [Ebm] Okay, so to get started with
this technique, let's have a look at a line that I based quite a bit of the [Gb] improvisation
off that you can hear in the example solo for Stellar by Starlight that was featured
in an earlier _ lesson video.
So, this is just a standard 2-5-1 line in the key of C minor.
It's a nice long line though which is quite useful for the purposes of this lesson that
we're doing now.
I'll just play it over a backing track so you can get a sense of what
it sounds like.
Here we go.
_ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Cm] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
[Ab] _ _ [G] _ [Eb] _ _ _ So, yeah, it's a pretty cool line.
It's got lots of nice
chromatics in it.
It's got like a double approach _ idea in there and it's also nice and long.
_ So it's kind of _ a useful line to transform into something more flashy.
So, this is all
you have to do.
You can just play this in say triplets or in double time.
_ _ Maybe we'll
just stick to triplets because this tempo is quite difficult to play double time unless
you've got really good chops but most of us should be able to play a line like this in
triplets instead.
So let's have a listen to what that sounds like.
Okay, so [G] _ I'll just
generally approach it with a triplet feel now. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
[D] _ _ [Cm] _ _ [G] _ _ [Cm] _ _
[Bb] _ _ So, just by changing the rhythm and thinking
in terms of triplets instead of eighth notes means straight away you have a flashier line
without needing to do [N] anything else.
_ _ _ But this is the issue though.
You'll find that you
won't have enough material anymore because _ _ _ _ previously the line sort of covered that whole
four bar progression and when you do triplets, you've got less amount of _ material because
it's played faster.
So you'll end up with a gap at the end.
So all you have to do is
start the line later in the bar.
_ So rather than starting it where you started it with
eighth notes, just wait a couple of beats and then play it in triplets and it should
roughly cover the whole bar.
So let me show you what that sounds like now. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] So _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [Cm] _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ that's [C] _ _
[G] _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ kind
of how you do it basically is whenever you want to compress the rhythms, you just play
the line later than _ when you usually would and then it kind of [N] works out that you'll
have a piece of double time material that's a good starting point for kind of filling
up a standard progression like this.
[Gb] So I actually find that this is, well this wasn't
double time of course, this was triplets, but you can still do the same approach with
double time.
I'll show you what I mean.
I'll _ take the tempo down to a little bit slower
for my fingers, so let's say _ 125.
_ I'll start by playing the line just in boring old eighth
notes and then I'll compress it and wait a little bit into the progression before playing
it in double time.
Let's have a go. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ [G] _ _ [B] _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [Cm] _ _ [C] _ _ _ [D]
Okay, so that was [A] the whole line in [Eb] eighth notes.
Now [C] let's play it in double time.
I'm just going to hang back [Eb] for a few beats [Dm] or even
a whole bar.
[Ab] Okay, now double time.
[G] _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
One more go. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ [D] So these are great ideas for getting more
bang for your [N] buck out of the ideas that you do learn and like all good compositions, _ it
doesn't work when you have lots and lots of disparate ideas.
It actually works a lot better
if you have a few ideas but play with them in rhythmic or melodic ways _ and this kind
of rhythmic _ treatment of turning something into triplets or into double time is a very
effective way to create climax and variety in your solo.
So give this idea a whirl.
I
would suggest that you use one of the lines that you're already very familiar with.
For
example if you've been a part of my Fundamentals of Jazz Guitar Improvisation course or one
of my other courses, there's an abundance of lines that you should be able to pick out
and [E] give it this triplet or double time treatment.
And so just remember all you have to [Bb] do is
play it in a different rhythm, compress [Gm] the rhythms like this and [Ab] just wait a couple of
beats before you play it over the [Gm] progression and [D] it should line up very nicely.
[Cm] Okay, have
fun with this and let me know how you go.
_ [Fm] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _
[Fm] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _
[Fm] _ _ _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _