Barry Greene Video Lessons

Hi folks!

I have a question for Barry, but I would like to see the student's answers too:

In my area, there's few jazz players, making very difficult to find piano players or someone to comp. That leaves me with the big responsability to play in trio setting.

What do you think a guitar player needs in order to play with bass and drums with no piano?

Thanks a lot in advance and sorry for my bad english.

N.

In this setting, the guitar is handling the melody and harmony. You have more freedom with chord voicings and subs. Depending on what the bass player is doing, you are also liberated when soloing. To answer your question, a guitar player needs a good command of chords and lines. If you are going to take a standard and stretch it out to 10 minutes, that means a pretty substantial solo section (no offense to bass players, but there is a reason there isn't a bass solo on every song). The other option is playing more tunes with just a few choruses of soloing. In that case, you need to be fluent in playing over many types of changes if you want to have variety in your setlist.

Great Stuff. I might also add that it's similar to a rock trio setting. If the bass player vamps on just a root note, you are free to weave in and out of tonalities from minor to major, or whatever. Good luck! I'm glad to hear you have some other guys to play with. One day I hope to find my way out of the woodshed.

In a jazz trio you want the bass player to sometimes be able, or willing, to play more than roots or fifths, which can be hard to do. I've had a bassist tell me that no one has ever asked him to play counter melodies before!, so why should he?.