LESSONS GIT Lesson

Sid Jacobs counting—Jacobs miraculously channels Lenny Breau, Bill Evans, Bach, and more, often within the same musical phrase. on Pedal Tones, Today, Jacobs is talking about pedal tones. “Listen to this note,” he says, striking the low-E string on a Hofner Verythin archtop. Slash Chords, “When you hit a low note like this— especially if you play it on an acoustic piano— and the it’s easy to hear that there’s a lot more in there than one single pitch. There are over- tones in there. Without those harmonics and Intriguing partials, the note wouldn’t sound natural.” Three notes that reside within a ringing Harmonies of low E, says Jacobs, are the harmonics heard at the 7th, 5th, and 4th frets of the same string. Pluck those three harmonics in suc- BY JUDE GOLD “Naima” cession, and you’ll hear B, E, G# —a second- inversion E major triad having the same pitches as the E triad fretted in Ex. 1. “If we hold a pedal tone root under that major triad [Ex. 2], it sounds very normal, because that major triad exists in that pedal tone. It exists in nature,” says Jacobs. “The bass note is very powerful—it’s generating the three notes of the triad. Things get weird when you put a different triad over that same note [Ex. 3]. In this example, the E triad within the bass note says ‘I am king,’ while the Eb triad fretted above is saying, ‘No, I am king.’ So, you have this interesting bi- tonal struggle going on—two territories vying for supremacy.” ALONG ONE WALL OF SID JACOBS’ As is demonstrated by the Eb/E symbol Hollywood teaching studio resides a stable we gave the chord we just played, sometimes of beautiful hollowbodies—everything from the best way to describe a bi-tonal harmony a custom 7-string Benedetto featuring a is simply to name the harmony that is sounded high-A to a ’71 Gibson Johnny Smith that by the upper voices, and then, on the right Jacobs bought new as a teenager. Along the side of a slash mark, name the bass note sep- Ex. 1 Ex. 2 Ex. 3 opposite wall stands a towering shelf of arately. One of the most famous and influential E E E /E books by or about everyone from Stravinsky studies of bi-tonal “slash chord” harmony is X X X 1 3 2 X X 1 3 2 X X 3 4 1 to Slonimsky, Miles to Zappa, Woody Allen John Coltrane’s entrancing ballad “Naima,” IV IV VI to George Carlin. In this room—and on off his seminal 1959 release, Giant Steps. The Jacobs’ fretboard—many eras of music and tune makes for a beautiful and approachable thought collide, and the ideas that result are chord melody on guitar because the theme is captivating. A performer who has worked so simple (lots of held notes) and the tempo with everyone from Eddie Harris, Buddy is so slow. Montgomery, and Brad Mehldau to Luciano “I usually don’t move a song away from Pavarotti and Ike and Tina Turner—and its original key,” says Jacobs, “but I couldn’t an instructor at GIT (Guitar Institute of resist moving ‘Naima’ up a half-step from Technology) for the past 20 years and Eb to E, so I could use the open low-E string

68 AUGUST 2007 GUITARPLAYER.COM PHOTO: BOB BARRY GIT Lesson LESSONS

GPTV MORE ONLINE To watch video of Sid Jacobs playing “Naima” and other beautiful solo guitar arrange- ments, click to guitarplayertv.com pedal tone in a lot of chords.” Jacobs, who plays the song with a loose, Rife with compelling slash chords, Jacobs’ almost rubato feel. “You don’t have to guitarplayertv.com arrangement of “Naima” is presented in Ex. 4. phrase this piece literally as written, har- Note: The melody is written in the upper monizing each melody note with a big chord out, try Jacobs’ simple rising chords in Ex. 5. voice throughout, though it doesn’t always on the downbeat. Instead of doing that, I Rich with the jangle of open strings (includ- appear on the highest string in the chord. For often give melody notes a little separation ing an open-A pedal), this soothing series of instance, in bar 2’s Em9, the melody note is by playing them first, and then filling in the diatonic harmonies makes a gorgeous ascend- the F# on the 11th fret of the third string. chord around them.” ing tag in the style of Coltrane’s famous outro “With some of the trickier grips, such The song’s AABA form is simple: Play on “Naima.” g as the very first chord, you’ll find the chord the first four bars of the example, repeat them Former GP Associate Editor Jude Gold is now is a lot easier to fret if you angle your as indicated, play through to the end, return the Director of the Guitar Institue of Technology guitar’s neck up, towards the ceiling,” says to the top and play to the fine. To close things (mi.edu).

Ex. 4 = ca. 59 Bm9/E Em9 F 7 9/E E7 9 Amaj9/E Cmaj7/B A /B 3 3 3 3 1 4 let ring throughout 9 7 12 0 0 0 0 0 7 7 7 0 7 0 10 8 8 0 8 9 7 T 7 11 11 9 6 9 8 A 11 12 14 12 6 10 10 B 12 10 13 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 7 Cmaj7/B B13 9 F13/B Cmaj7/B Amaj7/B B Locrian 3 3 3 3 3 7

7 7 7 4 0 10 7 10 7 7 0 0 0 5 4 7 8 8 9 9 0 T 5 5 8 9 9 6 5 A 5 7 7 10 7 7 B 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 “Naima” by John Coltrane Copyright © Jowcol Music, LLC (Renewed 2001) Used by permission. Ex. 5 Amaj7 Dmaj7 Amaj7 Dmaj7 Amaj7 Dmaj7 Amaj7 Freely

0 0 0 0 0 0 12 0 0 0 0 12 14 0 T 6 11 13 14 13 11 13 A 6 11 11 16 11 12 11 B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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