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Four On Six

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxTD1XQTcyk

I'm learning to play with my fingers more (been watching J. Beck vids) but this cat -damn. He uses his thumb for things that drive me screaming back to my plectrum. (said with phoney Brit accent of course)

Talbot

he had a strangely jointed thumb to allow him to pick in a way a normal jointed thumbed guy could not do no matter how hard he tried.. his ability to mix it up is astonishing..

MikeTalbot wrote:I'm learning to play with my fingers more (been watching J. Beck vids)

Talbot

you notice how J. Beck always keeps a can of talcum powder on hand, he constantly is powdering his fingers

Three thumbs down on that video? Just to let you know the human race is hopeless.
Thanks for putting that up. I can fingerpick that fast, but not at that intensity or that crazy level of fretboard work. I learned classical guitar in high school. Kept up the fingerpicking as I switched to bass. Even stopped using picks altogether for a year and a half. But nothing like that!
Coincidently, I have a double jointed thumb like that, but on my neck hand.

Thanks for putting that up. I can fingerpick that fast, but not at that intensity or that crazy level of fretboard work. I learned classical guitar in high school. Kept up the fingerpicking as I switched to bass. Even stopped using picks altogether for a year and a half. But nothing like that!
Coincidently, I have a double jointed thumb like that, but on my neck hand.

cool schmedidiah, musicians growing frustrated at having exploited the diatonic system to the fullest love an absence of diatonic key centers to really groove on chromatic stuff..

the jazz world is divided into 3 main "schools", 1. traditionalists, who prefer the pre-war DIATONIC music; 2. the "hard bop" era of Parker, Monk & Mingus, and 3. the many variations producing "modern jazz" Dizzy Gillespie introduce Afro-Cuban rhythms, Brubeck popularized a more commercial stream with the hit, "Take Five" .. Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jean Luc-Ponty with Holdsworth on guitar, etc.

first off...BIG THANKS for posting that clip, dayne. never saw that before and of course...Wes is the man!

it's funny how the brain works (or DOESN'T). i've been familiar w this "Four On Six" tune for yrs and never really got the title until now. at first, i used to think it had something to do w the time.....like 4/4 being superimposed over 6/8 but ,nah....that wasn't right cos it's straight up 4/4.

so, now watching this and the great and respectful camera work (none of the current day A.D.D. camera work where the shot has to change every 30 seconds to "maintain interest")....like wow, they actually get and keep the camera on the person SOLOING....WHATTA CONCEPT...i finally get the title!

"Four on Six"...it's Wes' four left hand fingers on the six strings! Eureka!

wow, it only took me some 40 or so yrs to tumble onto that.

being a bass player who plays gtr....i do most of my right hand picking with my fingers. probably 75% or so of the time. it's a choice based on tone, being able to damp, break up chords into aprpeggios, and that i just feel more "in touch" w the instrument w "skin on strings".

i use my thumb for octaves (Wes style) or sometime for octaves i'll use my thumb for the lower voice and index or middle for the upper voice. i've tried that unusual right hand placement that Wes used in hopes of getting closer to his tone (yeah, right) but could never get comfy w that.

it's a shame, a lot of people aren't familiar w his older straight-ahead stuff like "Four On Six"and only know his more commercial stuff covering pop tunes from the mid 60's. (which still has some great playing and drop dead gorgeous tone)

ok dayne...i'm sorry but i gotta bust out my red pen on your behind.

Dayne Nobody IV wrote:the jazz world is divided into 3 main "schools", 1. traditionalists, who prefer the pre-war DIATONIC music;

'trad jazz' is dixieland. and there's plenty chromatic stuff going on there. to me the main predominant "pre-war" style was swing. again...PLENTY of chromatic stuff there. "A Train", "Sing, Sing, Sing", "Caravan"....lots of chromatic stuff there

2. the "hard bop" era of Parker, Monk & Mingus

that'd be "bop", or "be-bop".... though mingus had his feet in a few different camps like bop, hard bop, and third stream.

'50's (and later) "hard bop" was a most misleading label that music critics came up to describe music that had not so much to do w "bebop" but was actually an effort to get away from the tons of chord changes, fast tempos, and shifting key centers of "bebop". to me the term "hard bop" would suggest bebop on steroids.....it's quite the opposite, and really a very accessible music that makes an easily digestible and palatable intro to jazz for the non initiated!

"hard bop" is very much based on blues changes (often in minor keys) and has a much greasier and earthier vibe than bebop. Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, Freddie Hubbard, Horace Silver, Stanley Turrentine are some better know hard boppers.

it's interesting to me that when people talk about bebop's origins Bird and Dizzy are always mentioned, but you almost never hear anyone toss out Charlie Christian's name. there's a great album that i highly recommend of his called "Charlie Christian- Genius Of Elec Gtr". mostly small band recordings w the Benny Goodman Quartet and Quintet. very cool straight ahead swing based solos from BG, Lionel Hampton (vibes), and Teddy Wilson (piano)....and then....CC takes HIS solo and it's like a completely different level of hipness and grease....and it's total straight up bebop!

(red pen now sheathed)