Gilbert Isbin, a guitarist from Belgium, favors dynamic improvisations over a mixture of expressive ambient, meditative lines and world music.
His latest project is Red Wine, highlighting all the nuances and subtleties in Isbin's playing.
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© Gilbert Isbin
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Click here for a printer-friendly version of "Jazz Fingerstyle Improvisation Tools, Lesson 2".
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With this lesson we will experiment with the one bass, open string (b) at the beginning of each
measure combined with melody (m) and middle voices, or accompainment (a), all played
seperately.
|---m--------------------|------------m-------|
|-------a----------------|------a-------------|
|b-----------------------|b-------------------|
All notes will be plucked within the chord shape. For a change, we'll play our melody in Am7 (A,C,E,G). Look first for different Am7 chord shapes all over the neck. As you will notice, I use mostly four note voicings of which the fifth (E) might be omitted.
|------------------------------------------------------
|-------1---5--8--8---10-------------------------------
|-------0---5--5--9---12-------------------------------
|-------2---5--5--10--10-------------------------------
|-------0---0--0--0----0-------------------------------
|------------------------------------------------------
The accompaniment might be (there are other possibilities, but more on this later):
1. One fretted or open string
0--|---------------------3--2-0----------------------------
1--|--------------------------------1-0-3------------------
0--|----------0--------------------------------------------
2--|------------------------------------------------2--2---
0--|-0----------------------------0------------------------
---|-------------------------------------------------------
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 a & a 1 a & a 2 & 3 & 4
2. Two fretted or open strings, which are called intervals, seperately or simultaneously plucked
--|----------------2--3-------------------------------
1-|--------------------------3-1-0-1-----------------
0-|--------0---------------------------------0----0--
2-|----------2-------------------------------2----2--
0-|-0----------------------0-------------------------
--|--------------------------------------------------
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 a & a 2 & 3 & 4 &
----|---10-7-8-10-------------------------------------12-10-8---------
8---|------------------------8-----8--------- 8-------------------10--
9---|-------------------9------------9-----------9--------------------
0---|------------------10------10----------- 10-----10----------------
0---|-0---------------------------------0-----------------------------
----|-----------------------------------------------------------------
1 & a 2 a & 3 & a 4 & a 1 & 2 a & a 3 & 4 &
2. Three or more strings, arpeggiated or simultaneously plucked
--|-----3--0-----------------------3--5--7-----------
5-|-----------3-------5-----------------------5-5-5--
5-|---------------------5---------------------5-5-5--
5-|---------------5------ 5-------------------5-5-5--
0-|-0---------------------------0--------------------
--|---------------------------------------------------
1 & a 2 & 3 a & a 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
--|----------------3---0------------------------3--5-7---
5-|----5------------------3-----------5-----5------------
5-|------5-----5----------------------5-----5------------
5-|---------5-------------------------5-----5------------
0-|-0---------------------------0------------------------
--|------------------------------------------------------
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
SOME COMBINATIONS
#1 and #2
0--|--------------------3-2-0-----------------------------
1--|------------------------------1-0-3-------------------
0--|----------------0-------------------------0-----0-----
2--|----------2--2--2-------------------------2--2--2-----
0- |-0--------------------------0-------------------------
---|------------------------------------------------------
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 a & a 1 a & a 2 & 3 & 4
#2 and #3
--|--------------------2--3------3-5-7-----------------------
1-|--------------1---------------------------5-----5-----5---
0-|-------0------0---------------------------------5---------
2-|-----------2--2------------------------------5--5--5------
0-|-0-------------------------0------------------------------
--|----------------------------------------------------------
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 a & a 2 & 3 & 4 & a
#1 and #3
0--|------2-0-3---------------------------3-0----------------
1--|-------------------1-------------------------1-----------
0--|-------------------0-------------------------0-0-0-0-----
2--|----------------2--2---2------------------2--------------
0- |-0--------------------------0----------------------------
---|---------------------------------------------------------
1 & a 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & a 3 & 4 a &
Experiment! Next lesson: all parts played simultaneously on two chord voicings.
Additional Columns by Gilbert Isbin
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Additional Guitar Technique Columns
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- And 444 more in the Guest Columnists category, view the index
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Vol. 17, No. 2: Feb.-Mar. 2012
