Playing styles Jazz guitar

1 playing styles

1.1 big band rhythm
1.2 small group comping
1.3 chord-melody , unaccompanied soloing
1.4 blowing or single-note soloing
1.5 chord soloing

playing styles
big band rhythm

in jazz big bands, popular during 1930s , 1940s, guitarist considered integral part of rhythm section (guitar, drums , bass). played regular 4 strums bar, although amount of harmonic improvisation possible. freddie green, guitarist in count basie orchestra, noted exponent of style. harmonies minimal; instance, root note omitted on assumption supplied bassist.

small group comping

when jazz guitarists play chords underneath song s melody or musician s solo improvisations, called comping , short accompanying , complementing . accompanying style in jazz styles differs way chordal instruments accompany in many popular styles of music. in many popular styles of music, such rock , pop, rhythm guitarist performs chords in rhythmic fashion sets out beat or groove of tune. in contrast, in many modern jazz styles within smaller, guitarist plays more sparsely, intermingling periodic chords , delicate voicings pauses in melody or solo, , using periods of silence. jazz guitarists commonly use wide variety of inversions when comping, rather using standard voicings.

chord-melody , unaccompanied soloing

in style, guitarist aims render entire song — harmony, melody , bass — in way classical guitarist or pianist can. chord roots cannot left bassist in style. chords can used sparsely or more densely, depending on both individual player , or arrangement of particular piece. in sparse style, full chord played @ beginning of melodic phrase. denser chordal textures, in contrast, approach chord soloing (see below). third approach maintain steady, busy bass-line, new orleans pianist. here, no more 2 or 3 notes played @ time, , full harmony indicated arpeggiation. exponents of style come country, folk or ragtime background, such chet atkins, although employed straight-ahead jazz practitioners, instance martin taylor. chord-melody played plectrum (see tal farlow, george benson , others); whereas fingerstyle, practised joe pass, george van eps, ted greene, robert conti, lenny breau or hybrid picking practised ed bickert, laszlo sirsom , others allows more complex, polyphonic approach unaccompanied soloing.

blowing or single-note soloing

charlie christian , django reinhardt held have initiated use of guitar play melodies , improvisations on other instruments, former using form of amplification, latter playing forcefully on acoustic guitar. on years, jazz guitarists have been able solo in standard jazz idioms, such bebop, cool jazz , on, while in absorbing influences rock guitarists, such use of electronic effects.

chord soloing

jazz guitarists not limited single note improvisation. when working accompaniment, chord solos created improvising chords (harmony) , melody simultaneously, in upper register on strings 1,2,3 , 4. wes montgomery noted playing successive choruses in single notes, octaves , chord solo - can heard in improvisation on standard lover man (oh, can be?). when playing without accompaniment, jazz guitarists may create chord solos playing bass, melody , chords, individually or simultaneously, on or strings - such work of lenny breau, joe pass, martin taylor , others. technique can incorporated unaccompanied soloing: instance django reinhardt s improvisations , called solo pieces.