Joe Pass's style

[salsainglesa]

I have been working in a little piece vby this fellow Joe pass.. . he is quite stunning...
But anyway, the song is "Blues for bassie", and even though its only a blues, he does like a thousand substitutions of chords... the things is, how in the world can i play like that...
a little overview here is that he plays the bass and the harmony at the same time than he does the melody...
Is there a method i can follow? to make the study less painful?
i have the score, no tab.

comment would be aprettiated

[Bizarro]

Joe Pass had just as much technique as Yngwie or any shredder you can imagine. He revolutionized fingerstyle technique and brought it to a whole new level. Nothing he plays is easy. That style can take decades to learn how to play well.

I suggest learning as many fingerstyle songs as possible, and start working on your classical chops too. You'll need to learn as much theory as your brain can hold! :)

Seriously, this is some of the hardest guitar work, both physical and mentally, that exists. It makes learning a challenging rock song seem like twinkle, twinkle little star! :eek:

"only the blues"... I think you are seriously underestimating the blues! Anyone can play the blues very poorly. Very few can play it well and with authority.

[salsainglesa]

oh i know it is hard work... and i have worked haaaaard on my theory. Also try to apply it in the instrument... but hey.. wait a minute... can you play anything he does?

i have a good finger picking.. i can even sing with it... i am reeeeeeaaaaaady for the challengue

lots of chords inversions, degrees, modulations all that crap is in my veins lol... not quite... they are in my brain still
I knew this guy who could play like joe, and when he looked at a real book he did the harmonization (with chord substitutions and all kind of stuff in there) and also played the bass... he did this jazzy version of eleanor rigby... and then misty, and then a hole other bunch of jazz standards...
hell he was so good...

[DemonSorcerer]

Yeah, Bizarro...

That old fella Joe Pass surely can take us all to bed...and Yngwie too...Fingerstyle guitar can be freakingly complicated...and i mean complicated...not like your typical fingerstyle song like Stairways to Heaven or Nothing else Matters...just check classical guitar pieces and you'll see...Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Tarrega...some serious fingerstyle tremolo in the WHOLE PIECE...

David

[salsainglesa]

Recuerdo de la Alhambra is a bloody nice tune... sorry for the curse... I used to play it when i was young and.. uhmmm clasicall... should I get back to some classical? Havent played it for years...
I feel chatty tonight, can you feel it?

[Bizarro]

I never worked on any Joe Pass tunes, but I did study his instructional video quite a bit. There was about a 5 year period in the early 90's when I got bored with rock and went deep into the jazz world.

I studied classical and jazz when I was a kid (20 years ago now!) with an incredible instructor that was very accomplished in the Joe Pass style of play. I learned many of the jazz standards (Misty, Blue Bossa, etc), plus tons of classical tunes. I also studied with Jay Roberts, son of the legendary Howard Roberts, jazz great and co-founder of GIT/MIT in LA.

IMHO, for that style you have to start small and work your way up. I did arrangements of pop tunes (Beatles, etc) for bass/chord/melody. Start with one bass note per measure, then work up to two per measure, then add some pickup or lead-in notes, and so on. Keep the melody strong, then work on improvising the melody while keeping the bass strong. Then improvise with the bass...

I am basically competent but not flashy in this style. It is fun, extremely challenging, and it sounds good. My kids like it! :)

[salsainglesa]

Yes that i am going to try... some nirvana with pass style
must be creepy!!

[HughM]

Bizarro makes a very important point when he says to start slow and build up. This applies acutely to fingerstyle guitar, but to other styles as well. Slow and steady gets you places; dashing madly off in all directions with the horizon in your eye is crazy-making.

[salsainglesa]

i dont know the name of the technique I am using, but i use a pick and my middle, ring and sometimes, when neccesary the pinky fingers...
And indeed, to take things slowly is much better, still, you need someplace to go, sometimes we loose it in the middle of trying something new... anyway... i am playing the first two 12 bars of blues for basie and that makes me happy enough... how wuold you call each of the 12 bars?

[Gunnan]

I have been learning this song over the last few months as well.

What I did was slowed the tempo down a bit and just worked on it peace by peace. I hybred pick because I like the way it sounds better and I cant play some of those runs without a pick.

I have the transcription at my house if you want me to send it let me know.

I realy like this song!

[salsainglesa]

it would be interesting to see how you fingered some of the passages, to check the diferences, sure i would like to see the transcrition