Customer Reviews

Bebop and Swing Guitar

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This video together with the other one Emily recorded is very useful for the beginner jazz guitarist. I would rate these videos from Emily as beginner-intermediate level istructionals, but they could be useful for players of every level. In essence what Emily focus is the importance of good and strong timing in music. I think she really got the point of playing music in general. It is so hard to have a good time sense and I personally think that the time sense is just what separate a lot of good players from the masters (and a lot of bad players from good players too of course). In the end notes are only 12. you can play thousands of notes but they always will be those 12. But the sense of time united with a good sense of phrasing (something covered by another great video from Scott Henderson for example) is just what really stands behind a great jazz improvisor. So in essence in these two videos Emily teaches you how to practice with the metronome to get a good and strong time sense, something that is EXTREMELY important. She don't teach you licks or lines, she leaves this to you, and this is the right thing to do, because each one of us should phrase as he or she feels. But the sense of time instead is a pure technical topic which should be covered and teached properly by a professional player such as Emily. Don't think that because you'll not have licks to transcribe this video is unuseful! WRONG! Learne carefully from Emily's videos instead, practise alot and it will be incredibly rewarding! Believe me. In the first video "BEBOP" Emily focus is teaching about the sense of swing and teach you how to use the metronome on 2 and 4. This is something that can't be underestimated!!! It's dramatically important. Learn how to practice with the metronome on 2 and 4 and you'll learn how to play with swing and you'll be aware of your actual time sense. It will be even frustrating to understan that your time sense in the end is not what you thought it was, but finally you'll be perfectly aware of it and you could begin to work on that! In the second video from Emily which is dedicated to the latin music, bossa nova in particular (the other rhythmn played often in jazz repertoire) you'll learn how to play straight with the metronome on 1 and 3. Spending time practising with the metronome on 2 and 4 (swing) and on 1 and 3 (latin or straight music) will teach you how to play properly and to have a professional kind of time sense. These videos from Emily are still full of informations about how to practise and what to play. In the end of the second video, the latin one, you could gain the most important theory about playing jazz, the use of primary resolving dominant, and secondary static dominant chords (and more than anything else scales). Emily, correctly, reports that there are many difficult scales you could use in jazz over dominant chords, but she points out the most important two (not considering major and minor... modes from major scales), being the first the lydian dominant(being the 4th mode of the melodic minor scale) that you should use on 7dominant chords which DOESN'T resolve and the superlocrian scale (being the 7th mode of the melodic minor scale) which you should use over 7dominant chords that DO resolve. If you practise and gain dexterity in alternating modal scales from diatonic major harmony with the two "jazz minor scales" that I have sintetically described here to you, you will play Jazz with autority and you always will sound RIGHT. Think about Wes Montgomery. Sounds good!?! =))) Personally I judge the two Emily Remler videos as two really important learning tools if you are into jazz guitar. The explanation is extremely clear and simple and seeing Emily playing is inspirational because she isn't technically inhuman. She played with an extraordinary good time sense but she wasn't unreachable. Seeing her playing let you think "wow, I can do it, if I practise hard I could go there too" .. and this is something very inspirational. Emily did this to me! And I learned a lot from her! Thanks Emily so sad you passed too early. Ciao and thank you!