Guitar Logic

Mo' Better Blues

Hello everyone! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I wish you all the best of health and joyous guitar playing!

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This time I chose to cover the iconic melody Mo' Better Blues from the homonymous movie. The song was composed and performed by the great jazz  players Branford Marsalis and his Quartet, featuring Terence Blanchard  on trumpet.

The original song is in the key of G but I transposed it to ...

05 Bonus - December 2020

This month's bonus is another set of essential exercises that will help you learn a simple way to play walking bass lines along with chords.

First, let's look at the approach notes: approach notes lead you to a target tone, which can be a root tone or chord tones. You can play an approach note from above or below the target note. You can also approach the target note chromatically or diatonically.

With these concepts in mind let's look at the exercises:

Example 1 - Chord...

Let it snow!

Here is an unexpected bonus song for the Holidays! I just happened to stumble upon a very nice backing track for the Sinatra version of Let it Snow and I thought it would be great to play it with my jazz guitar.

If you research this song you'll find two main versions: Sinatra's and Dean Martin's. The melody and the key (D major) are basically the same in both versions, except in Sinatra's version you have an additional  part in the key of Db.

Just in case you wanted to p...

Petite Fleur

There are three parts that begin in the same manner: A1, B and A2; however, the B part develops differently, so you will want  to pay attention to that. With this cover I experimented with different combinations searching for  a pleasing balance between the melody line, the chords, and the rhythm. Interestingly enough, I discovered that a simple Travis picking in combination with a March rhythm feel worked very  well here. I was inspired by Sidney Bechet's, Henry Salvador'...

Behind the scenes (December, 2020)

Hey guys, how you doing? Here is an update on what's coming up:

I'm  working on a version of the classical piece Cavatina for two guitars: classical and electric. The plan is to film it with a fellow musician who will play the beautiful chords from the song and  I'll accompany the melody on my electric guitar. But this project is on hold for now because of this Covid situation...

So, in the meantime, for the next cover I picked up Petite Fleur, an old instrumental tu...

Bistro Fada

Bistro Fada is a gypsy jazz composition from Woody Allen's movie Midnight in Paris. It was composed and performed by the great  French jazz guitarist Stephane Wrembel.

What  I did here was a simple transcription of the song, with all the phrases  arranged to the most playable left hand positions  I could manage. The song is another opportunity to practice  straightforward alternate picking. Each downbeat note is played with  downstroke and off-beat or sy...

04 Bonus - November 2020 - Fingerstyle Booster 2

Hi everyone, for this monthly bonus material we have a fingerstyle exercise. It builds upon one of my older posts - a video called Fingerstyle Booster.

The exercise is in 6/8 and each bar contains the same pattern for the right hand. This repeating pattern consists of two groups of three notes linked by pull-off, hammer-on, or slide. You will usually have a thread of two pull-offs and two hammer-ons. Sometimes there is a slide instead. The whole exercise travels through different chords...

Little Wing

I'm a huge fan of Jimi Hendrix's music; of his energy and phrasing, and  I've been wanting to cover this song for a while. Little Wing has become  an iconic song and almost every guitar player has tried it at some  point. I think, whether you play it with a pick  or fingerstyle, this one is a must in your repertoire.

Did you know that several of Hendrix's songs reference an idealized  feminine or guardian angel-like figure? This song is melodically concise &nb...

El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor)

El Manisero is one of my favorite songs to jam over. It has a strong  rhythmic pattern over a simple I-V7 harmony set in the  key of G major. Coming up with phrases to play over this simple harmony change could be a first and basic step from improvising with one chord  to improvisation on chord changes. I-V7 is actually the simplest harmony change in jazz from which ii-V-I later arose. So here is a great opportunity for creativity :)

The song has a lot of room between the...

Behind the scenes (October II, 2020)

Hey all! Here is a short update on what's coming next!

I'm currently working on songs El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor) and Over  the Rainbow, two very old tunes (both from '30s) extremely popular to  this day.

I'll be playing El Manisero in a multi instrument arrangement: 3 guitars, accordion, and marimba, along with a standard bass and drums rhythm section with an additional latin percussion set.

As for the song Over the Rainbow I'm choosing to do a very sim...

03 BONUS material, October 2020

Hi, this is a new monthly bonus material. For this month I chose a simple arrangement of Blue Bossa.

Blue Bossa is a jazz composition by Kenny Dorham. It’s a nice blend of  hard bop and bossa nova. It was introduced on Joe Henderson's album Page  One.

This arrangement is for two guitars. I was careful to pick the best  positions on the fretboard for the first guitar (lead guitar), and for  the second guitar (accompaniment guitar) I gave it a simple and ...

MOZART - Symphony No. 40 Gm

This time for my cover I used a part of Mozart's famous Symphony No. 40 in G minor. I found that the best and easiest way to play this on guitar is to put the capo on the 3rd fret. This way G minor becomes E minor and you could play most of the song using open strings.

I used only drum and double bass for the backing track. The drum is  playing a nice slow samba pattern and the bass simply follows the  chords. This actually meshed well with Mozart's piece. ...

Behind the scenes (October, 2020)

Hey guys, it's been a fruitful week! I started working on arrangement a while ago that somehow didn't progress beyond a rough sketch of a few  bars and a basic idea for a drum pattern, so I shelved it. But then I got a new guitar and it inspired me to get back to this beautiful composition - I'm almost done with it; the drum and  bass fit very well.
 

Here is a short preview, I have no doubt you will recognize the piece ;) 

Volare

Volare  (Nel blu, dipinto di blu) was originally composed and performed by the  great Domenico Modugno and the song became  so popular over the years that it was covered by many artists resulting  in a wonderful array of performances. I mostly like jazz renditions and  the two that caught my attention the most were the versions of  guitarists Bill Jennings and Tony Mottola. I combined  and rearranged the two, sped up the tempo a bit and added some  orch...

Behind the scenes (September, 2020)

Here is a preview of the new song I'm working on. For this one we go back in time to catch the vibes of the hugely popular  tune Volare! I'm playing with my archtop guitar so be ready for some jazz!  

02 BONUS material, September 2020

These exercises are designed as an introduction into the basics of Travis picking fingerstyle. This booklet is made up of six basic exercises (1-6) with variations, and an additional eight exercises (A-H)  which are combinations of the previous six.

My suggestion is to play each exercise as many times as you need to master it and then proceed to the next one. In order to take full advantage of the benefits be sure to carefully follow the right hand finger placement indications for ...

Memories - Maroon 5

Here is my transcription of Maroon 5's Memories. Doesn't it remind you of Pachelbel's Canon in D? Well, the song was actually based on "Canon in D" by German composer Johann Pachelbel.

This one is for pick users, although you can play chords with either pick or fingers. This song is in the key of B (I know, too many sharps but, hey, let's not be flat 😉), and it's made up of four parts in this order:

Intro (Chords)

A B C A D

B C A D

Stay tuned, see y...

Tennessee Waltz

As you already know this cover of Tennessee Waltz is made up of two parts. The first part, in fingerstyle, is in the key of G major as are the majority of interpretations of this song. I particularly like Eva Cassidy's version, and it was the inspiration for the harmony in my cover. 

The second part, played by trumpet and guitar, modulates to Bb major. This part is based on Doc's Severinsen version. The trumpet here plays a pretty straightforward melody while I follow one octave hi...

Behind the scenes (August, 2020)

Hello everyone! 

I want to announce my new project: the beautiful "Tennessee Waltz". For this song I have a fellow musician making a guest appearance on trumpet! The first part of this rendition is the fingerstyle guitar with  the corresponding onscreen tabs, and the second part is a wonderful  duet of trumpet and electric guitar.

While we are putting the finishing touches on this cover, here is an audio excerpt to catch  the mood ;)

Enjoy and stay t...

Sleep Walk

This  is a great ballad composed by Santo & Johnny and also performed by many other great musicians, notably among them is Jeff Beck who has a great rendition of this song  performed at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City with Imelda May's band.

Here I did a pretty straightforward presentation of the main melody however, I added an intro and outro with a blues flavor. It seemed to me that the harmony  presented a perfect landscape for blues so I decided to take adv...

01 BONUS material, August 2020

With this post I am delighted to present a series of monthly bonus TABs for PDF World and Audio Zone tier patrons. I'll be uploading material that will include fingerstyle and flatpicking songs, as well as exercises and guitar theory. This material will be specifically chosen to enhance your performance.

Let's start with a very well known song: La Vie en Rose. I uploaded this song in a fingerstyle version on my channel and now I will give you a flatpicking version. In the PDF file you w...

Samba Pa Ti - Santana

Project "Samba Pa Ti" is finished!

You will occasionally see a video on my channel with no on-screen tabs but, do not worry, Patrons  will always get the tabs! I just wanted to showcase this beautiful melody with some nice camera angles to create a video for pure enjoyment.

The  song consists mainly of two parts that give the impression of a major change in tempo from  slow to fast. But it is actually just the change of rhythm at the start of the solo that gi...

Updates

Hi everyone,

News update! I'm upgrading each tier starting August 1😃😃 All existing perks remain, plus I have  added new perks to each tier.

These are the new perks:

Now the  $5 tier (PDF world) will have an additional perk: Exclusive Bonus TABs and Scores. These will be uploaded once a month and will be a song or an exercise. It will be Patreon-only content which means I'll not be uploading it to my youtube channel.

The $10 tier (Aud...

Santana!

After I finished my last project I was wondering what to do next. I usually have a lot of ideas for my next covers but somehow the next one always becomes clear so suddenly and naturally that it never fails to surprise me and  fill me with enthusiasm.
 

Some  time ago I did a cover of Speak Low and I mentioned it's kind of  similar to some of Santana's  songs. There was one in particular that was constantly playing in my  mind, and that was his great bal...