Monthly Archives: December 2008

The Guitar of Brazil

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The guitar in Brazil has been influenced largely by Brazilian popular music (the choro, samba, bossa nova etc.) as well as a huge repertiore for solo guitar that includes works by composers such as Villa-Lobos, Camargo Guanieri, Francisco Mignone and Radames Gnattali. In the more contemporary world of popular music there was Laurinda Almeida (1917-1995), Luis Bonfa, Baden Powell, Dilermindo Reis, Paulino de Noguera, Sabastiao Tapajos, Carlos Barbosa-Lima and the Assad duo of Sergio and Odair. All these guitarist have contributed to the development of the Brazilian style and repertiore.

The guitar of Brazil differs in several ways from the Spanish descended guitar styles in 3 ways.

  1. Brazilians tend to pluck the guitar and do not use strumming as much as other Spanish countries.
  2. Duple time signature is more prevalent than the Spanish 3/4-6/8 meter.
  3. Brazilian popular music use more complex chords i.e. minor sevenths with a flat five, ninths, elevenths and thirteenths with chromatic alterations etc.

This is why Brazilian music has become very popular world wide; it uses duple meters, jazzy chords and a minimum of strumming.


Developing Melodic Material for Improvisation

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Here is a cool way to break away from regular patterns your fingers are used to. I’ll call this the digital method. The pattern is developed by using any sequence of notes from any scale or mode. Let’s start by assigning numbers to the notes in a scale one octave long. See example below:

C Major Scale

C D E F G A B C (alphabet names of C Maj. Scale)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (numerical assignment)

C Dorian Scale

C D Eb F G A Bb C  (alphabet names of C minor Scale)

1 2  3  4 5 6  7  8 (numerical assignment)

C Mixolydian Scale

C D E F G A Bb C (alphabet names of C mixolydian Scale)

1 2 3 4 5 6  7  8 (numerical assignment)

The numeric values are just that, numbers assigned to each step of a scale so, don’t confuse them with the interval names as they don’t take into account raised or lowered intervals.

The most common digital patterns to begin with are 1-2-3-5 for Major chords and 1-3-4-5 for minor chords. See example below:

C Major Numerical assignment

C D E G

1 2 3 5

C minor Numerical assignment

C Eb F G

1  3 4 5

The patterns 1-2-3-5 (Major chords) and 1-3-4-5 (minor chords) can be mutated or mixed up to create a many other patterns. Below is a table showing different digital patterns or permutations.

Major Chord Digital Patterns

1235 | 2135 | 3125 | 5125 |

1253 | 2153 | 3152 | 5132 |

1325 | 2315 | 3215 | 5213 |

1352 | 2351 | 3251 | 5231 |

1523 | 2513 | 3512 | 5312 |

1532 | 2531 | 3521 | 5321 |

Minor Chord Digital Patterns

1345 | 3145 | 4135 | 5134 |

1354 | 3154 | 4153 | 5143 |

1435 | 3415 | 4315 | 5314 |

1453 | 3451 | 4351 | 5341 |

1534 | 3541 | 4513 | 5413 |

1543 | 3541 | 4513 | 5413 |

1543 | 3541 | 4531 | 5431 |

These types of patterns can be used when soloing over rapidly changing chord progressions. One example I could think of is the tune “Giant Steps” by John Coltrane or “Cherokee” by Ray Noble. You can find the chords and chart to that in any jazz fake book.

Remember to practice these patterns in all 12 keys and mix up the patterns and you will have some very interesting solos. Go slowly at first if you can’t play it slow you certainly won’t be playing it fast. The idea is to practice the patterns over and over in one key, then move the idea around the circle of fourths then you will hit all the keys.


Melodic Developement

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Melodic development is the process of manipulating a melody into other related melodies. If you learned a tune and know the melody why not try making variations of the actual melody. You can spend hours just messing around with any given melody.

One way would be to take the original phrase and lower/raise a couple of notes within that melody keeping most of the original notes.This is very much like a theme and variations thing.

Another idea would be to extend the melodic phrase up to or down to another note within the melody, why not add some scale material there. A good place for the extension is where the phrase has some rests or space you can fill it up with anything.

Another Idea would be to take an original phrase and transfer it (by altering tones) to another area or a repeat of a phrase and change some of the tones to fit whatever chord is at that spot.



Dynamics in Music

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The gradual decrease in volume over a musical passage is called a decrescendo. Typically indicated with the sign (>) below the staff. Generally the sign is stretched out as far as needed to include the entire section that is affected by the decrescendo.

Crescendo, the oposite meaning the gradual increase in volume of a musical passage, typically indicated with the sign (<) below the staff.

Crescendos and decrescendos are very common in the classical idiom; however, these signs are virtually unheard of in the jazz idiom. This is because the jazz improviser utilizes dynamics at his/her own discretion.

Accenting, crescendos and decrescendos can be compared to the speaking voice. When we talk, we emphasize certain words and phrases by raising and lowering our voices, and this is how we communicate effectively with our thoughts and feelings. Imagine being in a classroom and the monotone proffessor is trying to convey a thought, it would sound flat and unconvincing and I don’t think he/she would get the point across effectively. Playing music is just like the spoken language. Without accenting notes here and there, the music sounds mechanical and non-expressive.