ASSESMENT MHCJ6 2122 | RATIONALE | Saurabh Shivakumar

‘SOLO GUITAR… WHATS THE BIG DEAL?’: INVESTIGATING THE DEVELOPMENT OF

SOLO GUITAR PLAYING THROUGH THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY TO MODERN DAY.

Initially when beginning my solo guitar endeavour for this research assignment, my aim
was to research the different ways guitar players approach playing solo guitar, with the goal of
uncovering ways to incorporate these different methods into my own solo guitar playing. Playing
solo is often where guitarists are most vulnerable as it often incorporates the required
knowledge and understanding of applying both chords and melody. What I find most challenging
when approaching solo guitar is the use of vocabulary and certain techniques/effects to aid my
playing. I am intrigued as to how players like Eddie Lang and Peter Bernstein might be reliant
on the acoustic temperament of the instrument whereas nowadays you tend to see guitarists
like Kurt Rosenwinkel using extended techniques in addition to effects and pedals to incorporate
into their solo guitar playing.

I hope for this project to establish a clear grounding in the way different guitarists
approach solo guitar playing, paying attention to specific techniques, harmonic concepts and
even the textural/tonal variety they achieve. The guitar, in particular, is an interesting example
due to its ability to perform as both an ensemble and solo instrument. After a brief introduction
to the concept of solo guitar playing, I will tackle 3 recordings of solo guitar and discuss what I
think of them. I will also be recording a solo guitar piece of a standard at the end of my research
bringing together my findings and transcriptions. I think this would be a great way of trying to
emulate a variety of solo guitar styles and really push myself to be creative and intuitive when it
comes to playing music. I would also like to talk about and reflect on my own experience of
playing solo guitar until this current moment in my musical journey. I hope to be able to answer
the following questions during this whole process:

1. How will I be able to bring my own practise, performance, or solo guitar writing to my
research and vice versa?

2. In what ways has solo guitar changed over time and if there are any aspects that haven't
changed?

3. Why is it that I personally like solo guitar, and is it something I can see myself doing more
of? 

Technical Jargon

Jazz guitarists use the term "chord melody" to describe the way they play a certain song.

It is in fact the harmonisation of a melody (aka playing chords / harmony AND melody at the same

time). So to de ne this way of playing jazz guitar further, we can think like piano players, where

they "play the melody with the right hand, and chords with the left hand”. The usage of interesting

chord voicing’s is something lots of great guitarists have found their way around. As great and

important it is to learn drop 2 chords, there are a few inversions that provide di cult stretches or

simply just don’t sound particularly ‘hip’, so most jazz guitarists use chord voicings from a

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di erent family that have the same melody note. Just to clarify, when I am referring to

‘harmonising’ a scale in chords I mean ‘harmonising’ each note from a scale with a chord and

keeping the chord type the same which is di erent from ‘harmonising' each degree of a scale and

obtaining di erent chord types.

Recording Analysis’ : EDDIE LANG

Link to Audio

The earliest notable case of where solo guitar was observed by the masses was in

Chicago, a traveling bluesman, named Lonnie Johnson stepped into the rich and diverse jazz

scene. He was soon joined by a young guitar compatriot by the name of Eddie Lang who had his

own take on solo guitar playing. He was a student of the school of Andres Segovia and the Italian

classical guitar playing descent while Johnson was steeped in the southern “blues” sound. "Eddie

could lay down rhythm and bass parts just like a piano. He was the nest guitarist I ever heard in

1928 and 1929. I think he could play anything he felt like," said Johnson of his experience with

Lang.1 Guitarist George Van Eps perhaps made the most poignant observation, saying that the

guitar is an orchestra within itself. This thought is echoed through generations of jazz guitarists

since to this day. His fast melodic runs are precise, articulate and accurate. The nails on the

picking hand soften the attack while his fretting hand provides the “relaxed, horn like” phrasing

and “smears and glissandi”.

This study will show how Lang uses large intervals to create piano-like chord voicings that

accentuate note movement. He sometimes uses unusual intervals, which create awkward chord

shapes but are important in creating the lush, thick timbre of the harmonic changes. American

guitarists had not heard this technique until Lang’s arrival on the music scene. There has been

scholarly research on other jazz guitarists such as Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian and Django

Reinhardt, which thoroughly analyses aspects of their playing styles. Eddie Lang recorded music

before all three of them.

The rst piece of music I have to chosen to analyse is Eddie Lang’s recording of the song

“A Little Love a Little Kiss”. Uninhibited by a rhythm section, guitarist’s arrangement is a

revelation,  with its sophisticated harmonic treatment throughout and its periodic shredding that

1 Hadlock, Richard B. Down beat. Pg. 17.

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predates some of the lines we identify with Django Reinhardt—just check out the swift ourishes

in bars 29 and 44 and the diminished chord run in bar 41.

From the moment I heard this recording I noted the bright tone of his guitar and how the

tuning might be tongue in cheek, his playing was genuinely brilliant. To further the fact I would nd

it hard to replicate it let alone attempt to learn what he’s playing! I was amazed at his uency

through the standard in addition to how creative he was at approaching the very simple changes

and incorporating solo melodic lines within itself.

I have noted down below some points that encapsulate a lot of what guitarists nowadays

do in their chord melody playing that can be taken from the lineage of listening to Eddie Lang and

then Django/Christian and so on so forth. It all stems from here!

• Play the melody up high.

• You don’t need a chord for every note.

• Don’t need to over re-harmonise.

• Add di erent alterations or colours to chord (rather than heavy re-harmonisation).

• Have strong voice movements between chords.

• You need to have motion and movement in chords.

• Don’t play lls that don’t go anywhere.

• You don’t have to play bass, chord, melody all the time, dip in and out between all three.

• Keep it easy for yourself.

Having discussed the roots of what you may call solo jazz guitar, I want to now move onto

a contemporary examples of solo guitar playing and take a look at Peter Bernstein.

Recording Analysis’ : PETER BERNSTEIN

I’m gonna be taking a look at a version of “Who Can I Turn To” by Anthony Newley and

Leslie Bricusse, that Peter Bernstein does early on in his career. I have learnt the arrangement and

aim to demonstrate it in an attempt to take hints of it into my own playing. In a solo guitar setting,

he gives it to us stripped down. The naked desolation of the tune speaks all the more clearly.

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Despite being known primarily for his small combo work, I was struck by Bernstein’s,

chord melody approach from the very rst instance of it as it invokes a similar quality to that of

somewhere in between a horn player and a piano player. His sound is open and mellow – the

antithesis of Lang’s harsh tinny sound. Bernstein explores the tune’s harmony with the various

closed voicings of the instrument and utilises the range of the fretboard well partly due to his

great technique creating an interesting sonic palette to listen to. He rarely uses his pinky nger as

well when playing which encourages him to play lots of block chords and barring many strings

together at once as well.

Recording Analysis’ : KURT ROSENWINKEL

Its almost perfect that I have found such a contrasting and tting example for the third part

of my study. Despite being known primarily for his straight ahead approach to jazz in the late 90’s

and early 00’s, over the years Kurt has developed an original way of looking at both harmony and

the sound of his guitar taking away a lot from the tradition in terms of sound but not in quality of

lines and language.

Kurt employs extended techniques such as playing with harmonics while employing his

array of e ects to produce drone tones while soloing over it in a-la Holdsworth - in many ways

one of his heroes. Kurt explores the entire range of the guitar, and with what feels like almost

every voicing in the book (although not literally surely!). He improvises lines with wide intervals

lled with fast runs and passages. This is all before he even gets started with the standard at

hand.

“If I had pictures of my heroes on the wall,

you’d see Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell,
Biggie Smalls, David Bowie, maybe a Zeppelin album,
and the Beatles,” Kurt Rosenwinkel says.

I resonate a lot with what Kurt has to say here. Personally what I have always found
trouble with as a jazz guitarist is which direction do I nd myself heading in, and what is the sound
I hear in my head. As someone who listens everyone from Bill Frisell to Wes to someone like Kurt,
it can be hard at times. And thats just in jazz guitar to say the least, without leaving the instrument
or the genre!

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 ASSESMENT MHCJ6 2122 | RATIONALE | Saurabh Shivakumar

This performance of Kurt is of him tackling Stella by Starlight (melody starts around 9:20
and again at 11:00) with just his guitar (and an array of e ects and pedals). I nd it very interesting
how its the very same standard, but to the untrained ear you wouldn’t be able to tell. His
approach is almost completely di erent to that of an arrangement done by Peter Bernstein or
Eddie Lang, though rooted in the same tradition of chord and melody. Kurt employs an range of
harmonic variety in through chord substitutions and enclosing or approaching the melody in
di erent ways. There are signi cant passages where each note he plays is accompanied
harmonically by a chord in addition to grooving and vamping on parts of the performance. One
must also not forget the technical ability and knowledge/experience required to attempt and
succeed in a performance.

Video Presentation

Regarding my presentation, I decided to focus on tonal varieties in addition to a few di erent

approaches to playing standards. I explore the di erent techniques Lang, Bernstein and
Rosenwinkel use in their playing as well as attempting to recreate their playing in my own versions
of standards. Finally, I talk about the impact this project has had on me as a musician and on my
musical journey.

Here is a link to my video:


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References

1. Bernstein, P. (2009, January 1). Who Can I Turn To. Cross Jazz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=Uw-6lifWOB8&ab_channel=PeterBernstein-Topic

2. Cerra, S. (2009, September 23). JazzProfiles: Peter Bernstein: Jazz Guitarist - Part 1. JazzProfiles.

https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2009/09/peter-bernstein-jazz-guitarist-part-1.html

3. Lang, E. (1927). Eddie Lang - A little love, a little kiss. Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=b_noh14dp8g&ab_channel=elfuserguevara

4. Perlmutter, A. (2018, February 15). Acoustic Classic: Eddie Lang’s “A Little Love, A Little Kiss.”

Acoustic Guitar. https://acousticguitar.com/acoustic-classic-eddie-langs-a-little-love-a-little-kiss/

5. published, B. M. (2020, November 19). Kurt Rosenwinkel Discusses Sound, Technique and Approaching

Jazz Guitar Like a Pianist. Guitar Player. https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/kurt-rosenwinkel-

discusses-sound-technique-and-approaching-jazz-guitar-like-a-pianist

6. Rosenwinkel, K. (2014, December 14). Kurt Rosenwinkel - Stella by Starlight - H.O.G Improvisation.

Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=THFJw0-0Y_Q&t=557s&ab_channel=JavierSpicer

7. Saladino, F. (2013). An examination of Eddie Lang’s technique and textural treatment in three selected

solo guitar performances - ProQuest. Www.proquest.com. https://www.proquest.com/openview/

07b572438f5887f621b6ebffebccca8e/1?cbl=18750&pq-origsite=gscholar

8. Shadrick, J. (2020, November 12). Kurt Rosenwinkel and the Power of 3. Premier Guitar. https://

www.premierguitar.com/kurt-rosenwinkel-and-the-power-of-3

9. Yanow, S. (2019, September). Eddie Lang: Profiles in Jazz – The Syncopated Times.

Syncopatedtimes.com. https://syncopatedtimes.com/eddie-lang-profiles-in-jazz/