“You Stepped Out of a Dream“, after being written in 1940 became not only one of the most popular jazz standards,  but also the theme song of actress Lana Turner, often played when she made a dramatic entrance to a nightclub.

Sid Jacobs makes his dramatic entrance with his characteristic humor as he describes his “rolling chords” solo guitar approach. He shows how he uses his right hand to create beautiful-sounding arpeggios.

Sid describes a ‘gift from the guitar’ – something that happens when the guitarist combines fretted notes with open strings. This creates two timbres.

He further demonstrates these ‘mini-orchestrations’, as he describes them, through the use of clusters, for example when an F note is played simultaneously with an E note. This creates wonderful textures and a hauntingly beautiful style that will lead to creating new chord melodies.

Sid talks about building arrangements starting with shell voicings (root, third and seventh) and then moves on to incorporating chord extensions.

Sid’s philosophy about soloing is to emphasize the melody.  He feels that whole point is to ‘serve the music’, as opposed to being over-preoccupied with what scale to play over a chord.  He describes melody as “something to hang some feelings onto…” saying that “the chord symbols don’t exist without the melody”.

Other topics covered by Sid include:

• Voice leading
• Melodies, chords and fills as arranging tools
• Altered chord tones

This video is beautifully filmed and lit and Sid’s humor and skillful playing provide a wonderful way to learn this important jazz standard.

• 3 Pages in standard notation & TAB
• Full video is 32 minutes
• Soundslice Enhanced

[Description by Mike Bryant]