My sincere compliments to Warren Sirota, the inventor of "Slow Gold". It really is a great package and most useful in the analasys and learning of complex phraseology ESMOND SELWYN'S GRESFORD ACADEMY OF THE JAZZ GUITAR WELCOME TO THE LAND OF TRUTH! TRUE MASTERY , TRUE INSTRUCTION AND QUITE A FEW HOMETRUTHS!! Definitely not for the self-deluded or faint of heart. If you are of such a delicate mindset, you are courteously invited to leave this website now... For those that want the fast and easy route to becoming a jazz guitarist, here are a few well placed do's and don't's from one of the world's finest jazz guitarists and leading instructors, Esmond Selwyn: Don't believe in the miracle shortcuts and fast solutions promised by some rather suspect internet freebies. Material that is inappropriate to your level will only hinder your progress. So don't be taken in by some very dubious "gifts"! Stop wasting your life in drifting and dreaming and start to get real. This means: Stop pushing buttons on software toys and fancy backing tracks that make you sound great when you are not! "Those who can, do. Those who can't, shouldn't..." Remember - cheap is bad, and sometimes very bad. If it's free, it's probably not worth having - that's why it's free! (Think about it). There is no such thing as a free lunch. Anything that is worth having will carry a price tag. So DO start to pay for high quality information that is specific and matched to your personal needs. A visit to the tutorial page will indicate what a rich harvest of fine and original material is available right here. By all means download the film clips and tackle some of the real issues demonstrated by a recognized master musician and one of the music world's great communicators. This will be a start for you. But only a start. Remember - true learning needs to be structured, sustained and supervised. Non-investment is a false economy. There is no future in turning your back on high quality information that is specific to your personal level and needs. Brilliant and effective courses available for all levels. If you are a beginner, we'll get you started. If you are intermediate, you will become advanced. If you are already brilliant - wait for it - we'll make you even better!!! ESMOND SELWYN'S ADVANCED JAZZ GUITAR TUITION REAL SECRETS UNVEILED!! GUARANTEED!! This is the stuff that most players/instructors keep
to themselves "Moves on Songs" Demonstrates Esmond's very individual approach to harmonizing
standards with small voiced pianistic chords across all registers and
using some very adventurous extended and displaced harmony..... "Body and Soul" Shows a very useful and practical way to play this song
correctly before trying out anything more adventurous. Gerswin's "My Ship" starts with a I/VI/II/V progression
- this page shows four different ways of harmonizing this song. Esmond's
personal file on this song contains a total of 72 variations of these
two opening bars alone... This is the bit that costs money! There are elaborate courses on chord work and single line - all scored out and printed clearly with music/tab/chord diagrams and text + technique development guaranteed to acquire blinding single line speed. Esmond's original Gems 3 is a prime example of this. So what is "Gems 3" all about and why do we put ourselves through all this? Esmond explains: "When I was a young jazz guitar student way back in my formative years, I wanted to play like the good guys. No, not like a kack-handed student trying to get it together, but like them over there - those guys way on the other side of the fence who played like gods - Tal Farlow, Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown. They reeled of streams of complex jazz phraseology - extended dominant lines in quavers and semi-quavers, technically daunting and yet full of depth and musical meaning - all this coupled with blinding speed and delivery and all this they did with apparent ease. So I always wondered, where is it all coming from, how did they get it together, and much more to the point, how could I ever get it together? "It didn't take me long to discover that most jazz educators and theorists were a bunch of charlatans, imposters and general mixed tossers of various persuasions who talked a lot, said little and played even less. "They and their publications all suggested that you can extend your dominant lines with b5, #5, b9 and #9. But no one told me how and where and to what effect. It was then I realised as a student and instructor, that you positively cannot talk in generalities - you must be specific and offer full details on content, performance and delivery. "'Gems 3' is part of a much bigger overall scheme to deal with mature jazz phraseology over extended dominant chords. A major part of the plan is to escape from the strictures of the major/minor scale and arpeggio programme and to access the 'wavey' lines of jazz. It is important that training for jazz is built on a syllabus of material that actually sounds like jazz! The range and scope of 'Gems 3' is much more typical of the sax and keyboard rather than the guitar. The three main new issues that are dealt with are: 1 Phrases that are multi-directional and zig-zag and spiral in tight little pockets. 2 Phrases that are legato in their nature and how we are best to create a legato effect at the guitar through careful thought to phrasing, fingering, plectrum strokes and the judicious placement of hammers and pulls. 3 We stay with the hands-on and performance-orientated concept - by the 3rd CD track of each exercise, great speed is demonstrated and encouraged. Exercise 1 - the original line - was inspired by John Coltrane's unaccompanied drop phrase at the end of his solo on 'Moment's Notice' on his album, 'Blue Trane'. "The best approach is to take each exercise and to isolate it and to work slowly and painstakingly with a metronome and to do at least 20 examples flawlessly before marginally increasing the speed. Fingering and stokes need to be observed. And stay with it and focus until you can go no faster. When the accuracy and performance gets ragged, that's the time to pull the tempo back and to consolidate the slower speed and to build up again. If you have a programme of backing tracks, then switch to that after the metronome work. It's pure draining and exhausting drudgery - but at least it sounds like jazz and the result from this approach will be blinding!" APPLICATION Play any of these lines at bar 4 or over bars 3 & 4 of the Bb Blues. They all sound great! Look for any standard songs which feature long sections over one dominant chord, eg. Bolivia by Cedar Walton In order to stop the result from becoming clinical or mechanisitic, start to lodge the sounds of 'Gems 3' to the inner ear and sing and hum the lines as you play them. Despite being technically challenging, they do nevertheless have a melodic and vocal quality. If you can latch on to this aspect of it, then it will add a whole new development and dimension to your playing. See the sheet music for 'Gems 3' here There is also a beginners course on starting guitar - there has never been a clearer or cheaper package produced to set the beginner up for life with all the necessary skills for great hand co-ordination. Technique and delivery. Please contact Esmond at esmondselwyn@btinternet.com ONLY THE REAL THING ON THIS WEBSITE! SO CHECK IT OUT ! |