Barry Greene Video Lessons

How about Elizete? Some weird/interesting changes.

Who is the composer?

Clare Fisher.

Fischer - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Fischer

Can you do Punjab by Joe Henderson? Tricky tune that I would like to learn more about

I agree with you 100%, thanks for sharing this!

Barry

Seconded.That would be another great lesson.

Thanks Kurt, great suggestion!

I can answer that here:) I would practice all diatonic arpeggios in position as well as 2 notes per string for quick ascent and decent of the neck. I never really practiced arpeggios specifically, I worked on those shapes when transcribing/learning jazz language. I put much more time into linear and intervallic practicing. I think this would be a great topic for a facebook live, if you're not on facebook, I always post them to YouTube after the fact. The two notes per string arp will get you up and down the neck in a beautiful way. Try your major 7ths starting with the 7th and minor 7ths starting with the 9th (ex. G-7 A, Bb------ D,F keep going..Killin.

Barry

Thanks for this Barry!

That was funny Kurt:) The reason I'm redoing some of them is because the PDF material is not up to the standard I'd like. The video quality is an issue also, but the written material is the bigger problem. Since those were done I have a much better way of creating the PDF's and there is no way to apply the new method to older lessons. I'm trying to balance the old with the new and keep the site consistent.
Thanks for the laugh!
Barry

Thanks Tommy! Check out line connections. I use Moments Notice to discuss lines but there is great chord material in there too.

Barry

Great tune, I used to play that on gigs all of the time!

Hey Drew,

Probably, it’s not just the PDF improvement. The video quality is very poor on those and do not look good on high resolution displays like AppleTV’s and Roku. I want the site to have a consistent high quality appearance in every regard. I’m trying to add brand new material as well as get to older lessons.

Thanks,

Barry

Totally understandable!!! The site looks great, the new videos look great and your playing, as ALWAYS, is fantastic. I do very much like the video quality on this site versus previous lesson videos - it is a distinct difference. Thanks again for your reply. I trust you are doing well and this response finds you happy and healthy. Keep up the great work and I appreciate all the time you take to make these fantastic, high quality, challenging, instructive and excellent video lessons.

Thank you Drew, I’m glad you’re enjoying the new site!

Is this what you mean?
https://barrygreenevideolessons.vhx.tv/chord-melody-lessons

Barry

Okay, that’s a good idea! Hope things are good Bob.

Barry

Yeah, I would love that too. I often play in a duo with a vocalist and then need to solo... buy myself. Although the chord melody stuff helps in that area, I really would like to learn to single line solo while inserting "stabs" of the harmony in the spaces. I know the basic idea is to use some guide tone pairs in those in-between areas but seeing you apply this to all different tunes would be VERY helpful to me.

Okay, I will get to that after I finish isn’t she lovely. Thanks for the input, I appreciate it a lot.

Barry

Yes I play with a Jazz Singer also. When it comes time to do a solo I do some things that make myself cringe! First of all, I'm not the teacher here, Im very mediocre soloing in this context, but Let me share a few things with you that have helped me:

I often turn to a lot of chord soloing, trying to sound like a big band, with a lot of "rhythmizing" for lack of better word. Since I don't have my single-line vocabulary up to where it needs to be, this helps a lot. Also I just do some short three and four note motifs..... and Try to keep that going over each chord, call and response, etc. etc. I'm sure Barry Will elaborate and expand on this (if he wants to) otherwise just seeing and hearing him play we'll do the trick for me!

As far as chord stabs, I don't limit myself to just that when soloing, my thinking on this is when we are soloing, at that point we are the entire band....... We can hit any size chord, partial chord, Octave, bass line, single note........ Whatever we choose......... But again this is just my take as I mentioned my skill level in this it's poor to mediocre. We are lucky to have someone like Barry that can help us improve with all this!

Couple of quick other things: as Guitar players, we are always told to not interfere with the singer. However, On some tunes I play the melody on top of the chords and I asked the vocalist if that's okay and she said she likes it?! I wonder what Barry thinks about that.

Lastly, among other things, some practice devices I use for this, are trading 2s and 4s with myself............ And also, taking 4 and 8 measure, or even smaller sections of the song and see how many variations I can come up with........ In all different areas on the fretboard.

Anyway I have found absolutely no instructional materials available on this, aside from my own transcribing and I think it's fantastic that Barry is willing to consider getting involved with this.
Aside from Solo Guitar, This is fantastic also because we could use all these techniques when playing in a trio or a duo with a bass player also! Or really any situation!

Bob B

Barry, maybe you can combine It Could Happen To You and this Duo lesson together? It could start with an introduction, then chords the way you may comp or accompany a single instrument (vocal or tenor) with no other backing from bass, piano or drums. Then when it come time for the solo, you can play the melody the first time through the way you may live in a duo, and then improvise, by yourself the way you would do it in the middle of the song live (with no other backing track ... as if you had no friends,... like me! LOL) Since I know in the past you were concerned that you didn't have a singer to do this lesson with, maybe you can just simulate the tenor or the singer by accompanying yourself playing the single line melody that you pre-record in on another track.

Hi Barry,

I have watched it ( soloing without accompaniment) twice in its entirety.......... It is just sensational!! , you really did a phenomenal job on this........... I can't believe how fast you got to this also!

I hope people realize that everything in this lesson is useful no matter what playing situation they are in......... Solo, duo, trio, etc. etc. It would be great if you did a solo guitar iBK with 10 solo guitar tunes, mostly common standards........ Just like you did in Your Chord Melody iBook. I'm really looking forward to see where you take this to and most certainly look forward to your next solo guitar video or video lesson!

Thanks so much,

Bob B

Thanks, let me know what you think after you’ve watched it.
Barry

Hi Barry. I've watched it and love that you listen to us. This is exactly the topic I've been needing and wanting. This is a great way to really learn the tune It Could Happen To You. I really feel there is no need for you to have backing loops and backing tracks on your lessons since if we can play melody, comping, chord melody, improv iand intros... all stuff you demonstrated in this lesson, then of course it will sound even better with a play along or backing track. But we (in my opinion), don't need the distraction of backing tracks. I loved this lesson, yet, as you implied, there is a lot to this topic, since it covers almost everything. Therefore, I would love you to demonstrate other tunes with this approach. I realize you won't present too many additional concepts, since you've laid out the approach here, but showing how you APPLY the SAME lessons to OTHER tunes will definitely be valuable.
I do have one request for a future lesson though. This would be a lesson much more basic than this one. At about 20 minutes into this lesson, you demonstrate improvising with chord stabs in a question and answer type format. This is something that on the surface seems simple, yet whenever I try it, I realize there is more to it than it seems. It involves leaving space in your phrases and learning how to use little fragments of chords (guide tones, clusters, etc.) in between. If it's possible to give a 30 minute lesson of tips on how to do this, I would love that. I always hear you and every other great jazz guitar player do this when they play alone for with a small group and I would love to learn how to do this better. thanks for listening to us. :)

Thanks for all of your thoughts, I do appreciate every word. To be clear, are you suggesting that I don’t use any accompaniment when creating examples that end up on the PDF? I’m asking because that is something that most users enjoy. I’ll read through this a couple of more times and think about how I can implement these ideas.
Barry

Well, I actually was suggesting that I love to hear the lessons without the backing track, but I'm fine with keeping it since I know a lot of people like it. I love that sound of hearing a sax player or other single line player playing lines over changes with no accompaniment. With a backing track, almost any note can sound good against the chords so it's easier to "cheat". Playing with no chords forces me to really imply the progression so a listener totally knows what changes you I'm playing... even if I'm still using extensions, tri tones, alterations etc. I am definitely no expert at doing it for sure... but that's why I want to get better at that. You, along with countless other jazz players, on the other hand can and DO make the lines clear enough to imply the changes or the song (as you've shown on this latest lesson and your earlier lessons without backing tracks). Nothing is more beautiful to me than hearing that tenor sax player through an open window, practicing blowing through a standard... unaccompanied. (Of course a modal tune would probably be better to here against the backdrop chords for the modal point of reference... but standards I think are different.
I'm fine with a separate section focusing on how to better play for the increasingly popular "stripped down band" gig such as solo, singer and guitar, guitar and sax, etc.) I see Chords Melody playing as a style and situation a bit different than what we are talking about here. You latest lesson (It Could Happen To You) nails the approach.
So... in summary, maybe we should keep the backing tracks since so many probably prefer it, but keep the hopefully new section of lessons backing track free (since that is the whole point of the lesson... playing without backing)
Oh yeah... and definitely keep the PDFs! :)

I think a good balance would be for me to play through the tune solo guitar as part of any of the tune based lessons. It is very important for most of the users. Thanks again for your input!

I think a good balance would be for me to play through the tune solo guitar as part of any of the tune based lessons. Thanks again for your input Bob!