Articulation and phrasing like a horn player
Shape your lines the way saxophonists do: legato and picked notes, slurs, ghost notes, slides, dynamics, breath-length phrases, and a clear choice between alternate, economy and sweep picking.
Why guitarists study horn players
The vocabulary of jazz guitar was mostly written by people who did not play the guitar. Charlie Christian learned from Lester Young, Wes Montgomery from Charlie Parker, and almost every guitarist since has transcribed saxophone and trumpet solos. What they took from the horns was not only notes but articulation: which notes are tongued (attacked) and which are slurred, which are swallowed, which are bent into, where the phrase breathes. A horn player cannot play a long line without these decisions because the instrument forces them; a guitarist can pick every note at the same volume forever, and that is exactly what makes so much guitar playing sound flat.
This lesson goes through the tools one at a time, with a short example of each, then puts them together in a four-bar phrase. All of the lines use only chord tones (plus two marked approach notes) so that your attention stays on how the notes are played, not which.
Legato versus picked
A picked note has a clear attack; a slurred note (hammer-on or pull-off) has almost none. Horn players mix the two constantly: typically they tongue the first note of a group and slur the rest, or tongue the upbeats and slur into the downbeats. The result is a line in which some notes stand out and some are connected, which is what a melody needs.
The example plays a C major scale in position twice: first every note picked, then with the second note of each pair slurred. Listen to how much smoother and lighter the second version sounds, and how the picked notes (now only the downbeats) stand out as a skeleton.
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\tempo 116
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\ts 4 4
:8 8.6 10.6 7.5 8.5 10.5 7.4 9.4 10.4 | 10.4 9.4 7.4 10.5 8.5 7.5 10.6 8.6 | 8.6{h} 10.6 7.5{h} 8.5 10.5 7.4{h} 9.4 10.4 | 10.4{h} 9.4 7.4 10.5{h} 8.5 7.5 10.6{h} 8.6 |A practical rule for swing lines: slur into downbeats, pick upbeats. The pick stroke on the upbeat gives it the accent you learned in the first lesson of this module; the slur makes the downbeat long and connected, which gives you the long-short articulation for free. Where the fingering does not allow a slur (a string change), the pick does both notes and you shape the accent with the right hand.
Ghost notes
A ghost note is a note that is fingered but barely sounded: a muffled "dup" rather than a pitch. Horn players produce them by half-tonguing; guitarists produce them by lifting the fretting finger slightly so the string is damped, or by muting with the picking hand. Ghost notes let you keep the rhythm of a line going while removing some of its pitches, which makes the remaining notes sound stronger and gives the line a conversational, speech-like quality. In fast bebop lines half the notes are often ghosted.
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\ts 4 4
:8 5.5{ch "Dm7"} 7.4{g} 5.3 7.4 3.4{g} 5.5 7.4 5.3 | 6.2{ch "G7"} 7.3{g} 4.3 5.4 7.3 6.2{g} 8.2 7.3 | 5.2{ch "Cmaj7"} 8.2{g} 7.1 8.1 :2 7.1 |Which notes to ghost? Usually a weak note between two strong ones: an upbeat that is a repeated pitch, the middle of a three-note group, or the note just before a strong downbeat. Never ghost the note you want the listener to hear, and never ghost the last note of a phrase.
Slides
A slide into a note is the guitar's version of the saxophone scoop: the pitch arrives from just below (occasionally above) instead of starting clean. Two uses matter most:
- Sliding into a chord tone from a half step below, most often into the 3rd or the root. The approach note is heard only as a smear; it is not a "wrong" note because it has no duration of its own.
- Sliding off the end of a phrase (a fall) so the last note drops away rather than stopping. This is not notated in the examples because the destination is indeterminate; simply let the last note of a phrase slide down the string a few frets while you release pressure.
The line below is over F7. The marked notes are half-step approaches that slide into the 3rd and into the root; the chord-tone check allows those two pitches for that reason.
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\ts 4 4
:4 8.5{ch "F7"} :8 6.4{sl} 7.4 5.3 8.3 10.3 8.3 | :8 7.5{sl} 8.5 :4 r :8 6.4{sl} 7.4 :4 8.5 |Keep slides short, one fret, and quick. A slow slide over several frets is a different, much more obvious effect that belongs in blues and ballads, not in every bar of a swing line.
Dynamics
Most guitarists play at one volume. Horn players cannot: breath support means every phrase has a shape, usually rising towards its highest or most dissonant note and falling away afterwards. Apply this consciously. The four-bar phrase over a ii–V–I in Bb below is marked with dynamics: it starts quietly, grows through the F7 bar to its peak on the highest note at the start of the Bbmaj7 bar, and falls away to nothing.
| Symbol | Name | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cm7 | minor seventh | 1 b3 5 b7 | C Eb G Bb |
| F7 | dominant seventh | 1 3 5 b7 | F A C Eb |
| Bbmaj7 | major seventh | 1 3 5 7 | Bb D F A |
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\ts 4 4
:8 3.3{dy p ch "Cm7"} 5.3 8.3 8.2 :4 8.3 r | r.8 7.4{dy mp ch "F7"} 5.3 8.3 7.4 5.3 :4 3.4 | :8 7.3{dy mf ch "Bbmaj7"} 6.2 5.1{dy f} 6.2 :4 7.3 3.3 | 3.3.2{dy p} r.2 |The right hand controls dynamics: pick depth and pick angle. Practise a single note at four levels (very soft, soft, medium, loud) with the metronome, four notes at each level, until the four levels are distinct and repeatable. Then play the phrase above. Dynamics on the guitar are small compared with a saxophone; exaggerate them in practice so that enough survives on stage.
Breath-length phrases
A saxophonist plays a phrase, breathes, and plays the next. The breath is not a weakness; it is what makes a solo sound like sentences rather than a paragraph with no full stops. The typical jazz phrase is two to four bars long and is followed by a rest of at least a beat, usually more. Guitarists, who never need to breathe, tend to run phrases together; the fix is to breathe anyway: inhale when you start a phrase, and when you need to exhale, stop playing.
The next example is eight bars over the same ii–V–I in Bb, played twice: a two-bar question with a rest, a two-bar answer with a longer rest, then a longer four-bar sentence. Play it with real breathing: breathe in on each rest, and do not start the next phrase until you have.
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\ts 4 4
r.8 3.3.8{ch "Cm7"} 5.3.8 8.3.8 8.2.4 r.4 | :8 7.4{ch "F7"} 5.3 8.3 7.4 :4 8.5 r | r.4 :8 7.3{ch "Bbmaj7"} 6.2 5.1 6.2 :4 7.3 | 3.3.2 r.2 | r.2 :8 5.3{ch "Cm7"} 8.3 8.2 8.3 | :8 7.4{ch "F7"} 5.3 7.4 8.3 10.3 8.3 7.4 5.3 | :8 7.3{ch "Bbmaj7"} 3.3 7.3 6.2 :4 5.1 r | :2 6.2 r |Apply everything from this lesson to the eight bars: slur into the downbeats, ghost one or two weak notes per phrase, slide into the A at the start of bar 7, and give each phrase a dynamic shape. That is the whole lesson in eight bars.
Compare three saxophonists on a medium-tempo blues: Lester Young (light, many ghost notes, phrases that start late), Dexter Gordon (long notes, heavy slurs, enormous dynamic range) and Cannonball Adderley (crisp tonguing on upbeats, scoops into notes). Then listen to guitarists who absorbed them: Wes Montgomery for dynamics and phrase length, Jim Hall for breathing, Grant Green for ghost notes and repetition, and George Benson for slurs and slides at speed.
Picking choices: alternate, economy, sweep
There is no single correct picking technique for jazz; there are three, and good players choose by situation.
- Alternate picking (strictly down-up-down-up) gives the most even, driving sound and the clearest upbeat accents, because every upbeat is an upstroke you can dig into. It is the default for scale lines and for anything with two notes per string. Its weakness is string crossing on "outside" changes, which is where most alternate-picking errors happen.
- Economy picking keeps alternating until a string change, then continues in the same direction across the new string (a down-stroke on the last note of one string followed by a down-stroke on the first note of the next). It is smoother and faster for three-notes-per-string fingerings and for lines that move steadily across the strings. Its weakness is that the accents become less predictable, so it suits legato-style lines more than hard-swinging ones.
- Sweep picking is economy picking taken to its limit: one note per string, one continuous stroke across several strings. It is the natural way to play arpeggios across the neck and gives a smooth, almost harp-like result. It is not a swing technique; the notes come out even and unaccented, so sweeps are used for arpeggio flourishes, the ends of phrases, and chord-melody fills more than for eighth-note lines.
The example shows one bar of each over C major: a Dm7 arpeggio swept with one note per string, a two-notes-per-string run with alternate picking, and a three-notes-per-string run with economy picking. Mark your pick strokes above the notes before you play.
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\ts 4 4
:8 5.5{txt "sweep"} 7.4 5.3 6.2 5.1 6.2 5.3 7.4 | 5.5{txt "alternate"} 7.5 5.4 7.4 5.3 7.3 6.2 8.2 | 5.5{txt "economy"} 7.5 8.5 5.4 7.4 9.4 5.3 7.3 | :2 5.2 r |Many jazz guitarists use pick and fingers together: the pick on the lower strings and the middle and ring fingers plucking the higher ones. It solves most string-crossing problems and gives a different, rounder attack on the finger-plucked notes, which is itself an articulation. If you already play fingerstyle, try the ghost-note and dynamics examples with the fingers alone; the thumb and fingers give you more dynamic range than any pick.
Exercises
- Picked then slurred scale at 100–140 bpm, click on 2 and 4; then the same idea on the F and Bb major scales in position.
- Ghost-note line at 120–150 bpm, first every note full, then as written, then with your own choice of ghosted notes.
- Slides at 100–130 bpm, then invent one slide into the 3rd of each chord of the ii–V–I in Bb (the 3rds are Eb, A and D; find each one and the fret below it).
- Dynamics drill: one note at four levels, then the phrase at 120 bpm, recorded and checked.
- Question and answer at 126 bpm with real breathing; then improvise your own two-bar question and two-bar answer over the same changes, using chord tones only, with at least one slur, one ghost note and one rest of two beats.
- Picking example at 100, 120 and 140 bpm with the pick strokes written in.
Daily, 15 minutes, click on 2 and 4:
- 3 min: picked-then-slurred scale at 120 bpm in C, F and Bb.
- 3 min: ghost-note line and slide line at 120 bpm.
- 3 min: dynamics drill and the shaped phrase; record on day 7 and day 14.
- 4 min: question and answer over Cm7–F7–Bbmaj7–Bbmaj7 at 126 bpm: the written version once, then four choruses of your own with real breathing.
- 2 min: the three picking techniques at 120 bpm.
End-of-module check: play one chorus of the F blues from the comping lesson, comping with at least five patterns, then one chorus of chord-tone improvising on the same blues with slurs, ghost notes, a slide, dynamics and a rest of at least one bar. Record both and listen for time, swing and articulation in that order.