Chordal Strategies to Stella By Starlight (Part 1)

John Stowell and Steve Herberman team up for a class on chordal guitar ideas over the beloved Victor Young standard tune. The focus is on solo guitar with performance clips of the two guitarists alternating ideas followed by interesting discussion.

Some areas that are covered in the class are:

• Solo guitar choruses and trading eights
• Melody and bass counterpoint
• Embellished bass lines for use in single note soloing
• Playing the melody as a bass line with chords above it
• Using approach notes in the bass in a contrapuntal context
• Use of cross rhythms in soloing and comping
• Odd meters over standards
• Essential tones and other double stops below a melodic line, deconstructing chords from familiar shapes
• Counter lines beneath a melody