Widely known for his work
with Gary Burton, John Scofield, Charlie Haden, and others, jazz guitarist
Mick Goodrick is also an innovative educator whose popular book The
Advancing Guitarist has remained a touchstone of unique perspectives
on guitar techniques since it was first published in 1987. He further
develops his inventive approach to harmony in a new series of chord
books, Mr. Goodchord's Almanac of Guitar Voice-Leading for the Year
2001 and Beyond. "It's an expanded approach to stuff that's in
The Advancing Guitarist," says Goodrick, a professor at Boston's
Berklee College of Music. "I had no idea how big it was when I started."
The project was so
massive that Goodrick enlisted Berklee associate professor Mitch Haupers
to help organize his copious notes into the current two-volume format
(with a third volume forthcoming).
The series explores the
intricacies of voice leading—the way individual notes move within
chord changes. Volume 1 (Name That Chord) is dedicated to triads,
seventh chords, and triads over bass notes. As its title implies, Volume
2 (Do Not Name That Chord) gets into fourth voicings and clusters
that defy labels. Taken together the two books show every possible movement
between all these chords within three given scalar environments—C
major, C melodic minor, and C harmonic minor. Volume 3 will complete
the picture with chromaticism. Goodrick identifies four- and five-note
motifs (and their permutations) that form the foundations of each chord
progression, weaving through the chord changes to form longer chains
that he calls the "melodic strand replication procedure." The idea is
simple enough, but it may change the way you think about sound and conceive
of patterns on your fingerboard.
The creative presentation employed in the books
is perfectly suited to their extraordinary content. They have no page
numbers, underscoring the idea that there is no specific entry point;
each page shows a cycle of chords plus several ways to comprehend the
inherent motion; colored pages differentiate between scales; and an
easy-to-read system of letters and arrows graphically depicts various
aspects of voice leading, including intervallic voice leading, functional
voice leading, and voicing type. Moreover, to the benefit of those who
don't read mu-sic, there is no standard notation or tablature–so
while sophisticated musicians like jazz guitarists Pat Metheny and Joe
Diorio and keyboardists Lyle Mays and Russ Ferrante have praised these
books and are enthusiastically exploring Goodrick's ideas, a relative
novice can join in the fun if you can find the notes on your fingerboard,
no matter how slowly. Goodrick advises students to simply play through
the progressions and let them work their magic on you rather than trying
to "learn" them. He provides scant direction on how to proceed, encouraging
you to experiment and follow your mistakes because "that may be where
the most creative stuff is."
Intellectual understanding of abstract theory,
Goodrick maintains, is secondary to playing. "The concepts are very
useful," he says, "but I'm more concerned with the music that's going
to come out of it. It's supposed to help people produce better music."
Project editor Mitch Haupers offers a helpful analogy: "What Mick's
done is say, 'OK, here's all the sand that there is. I've put it in
one box for you. Now play.'"
The tongue-in-cheek warning
at the beginning of each volume is well worth heeding. Goodrick and
Haupers didn't leave out any voicings just because they'd be hard to
play on the guitar. Most are playable, but some necessitate very wide
stretches. If this is true for electric guitarists (Goodrick plays a
Klein and uses very light gauge strings), the physical challenges will
be even greater on acoustic guitars, which typically have higher action
and heavier gauge strings. So proceed with caution and common sense.
When you can't simultaneously play all four notes of a particularly
difficult voicing, be creative: try playing two or three at a time;
arpeggiate; experiment with alternate tunings that can reduce the number
of fretted notes; or bring in other players—two guitarists sharing
the voicings, or a
guitar quartet dividing them into four individual lines, can play everything
in the books. Goodrick recommends fingerstyle as the "infinitely superior"
way to execute the voicings. And Haupers encourages guitarists to try
the patterns on a
piano if possible. The point is to be able to hear the movement of embedded
melodies in these voice-led
chord progressions, even when that movement is as multifaceted as a
Rubik's cube. There is more information in this series than can be absorbed
in one lifetime, but the exciting surprises awaiting your ears, hands,
and mind will expand your chord and fingerboard knowledge, making every
minute you spend with these books worthwhile.
|
MICK
GOODRICK
Mr. Goodchord's
Almanac of Guitar Voice-Leading for the Year 2001 and Beyond,
Vol. 1: Name That Chord, Liquid Harmony LH1113-1 ($50);
Vol. 2: Do Not Name That Chord, Liquid Harmony LH1113-2 ($35),
www.mrgoodchord.com.
|
Excerpted from
Acoustic
Guitar magazine, January 2004,
No. 133.
