The Importance of Scat

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As a jazz guitarist, it took me a while before I realized most of what I played was coming from my guitar neck and not necessarily from my head.  One night at a gig a jazz vocalist sat in and sang the blues.  Although she didn’t know a whole lot about musical theory, or even what notes she was singing, I realized her solo was more thematic and melodic than mine.

It was at that point I started to use my voice and scat my ideas and make my guitar express what I was singing/hearing.  This opened up a new world for me and a deeper level of improvisation.

This class is about learning to be in the driver’s seat and in control of what you play.  It’s about making your instrument become your voice from the inside out.  I would say the level is intermediate to advanced.

I use a simple vehicle of Blue Bossa to demonstrate, and designed this class for interactive playing with me.  The last stage opens up the harmonies and expands the stock changes to a new level without losing the integrity of the piece.  In this re-harmonization part, I explain what I did which should give insight to the viewer’s harmonic vocabulary.

The video is approximately 95 minutes in length.