The jazz guitarist flexes his muscles with Angels Around, a return to his beloved trio format that draws on inspirations from Monk to Bowie, while exploring digital tone shaping and prepping his debut rock album.
āIf I had pictures of my heroes on the wall, youād see Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Biggie Smalls, David Bowie, maybe a Zeppelin album, and the Beatles,ā guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel says.
Even via a transcontinental Zoom call I could see that his Berlin studio wasnāt a gear museum or memorabilia showcase. Itās a workspace that reflects his myriad influences and his never-ending string of varied projects. And Angels Around, his latest album, was recorded in this space with drummer Greg Hutchinson and bassist Dario Deidda, his gigging trio.
āIāve always loved trios,ā Rosenwinkel mentions. āThe trio format is very dear to me and itās a very intimate setting.ā This affection stretches back to his first album as a leader, East Coast Love Affair, which was released in 1996 and recorded live at New York Cityās Smalls Jazz Club, which was an incubator for a dynamic and youthful scene that also included pianist Brad Mehldau, saxophonist Mark Turner, and fellow 6-stringer Peter Bernstein. At the time, Smalls was the place to catch the next wave of fiery young improvisers, and East Coast captures Rosenwinkel using a clear, reverb-laden tone that matches perfectly when his gentle falsetto peeks through.
In a way, the album mirrors Angels, yet offers a controlled view of how Rosenwinkelās playing and composing has matured over the last quarter-century. The crispness of his melodic ideas is there, but the musicality behind them has become more meaningful, which can be attributed to his constant stream of recordings. His tone has lost a bit of attack, by design, but still feels as forceful and direct as it did that night at Smalls.
The idea of doing a live-in-the-studio trio album was interesting not only for musical reasons, but logistical ones, too. āIt was easy to do, because you just get in the room and play for a couple of days,ā says Rosenwinkel. āPlus, I have ongoing projects that are much more involved.ā
Over his shoulder, on the Zoom screen, sits an upright piano, which is demanding his attention for a forthcoming piano-based album. On his music stand sits a chart for āAll Is Well,ā a recently released track that shows off his more rock-pop side in an obvious nod to his melting pot of influences.
The sound of Rosenwinkelās guitar, at its core, is full, dark, and pillow-like. His lines flow like water and the trio setting offers space that allows him to explore every inch of the compositions. Both Hutchinson and Deidda push and pull the tunes in new and interesting ways. Check out the syncopated funk-like groove on Monkās āUgly Beauty,ā for example. Not to mention the bluesy, soulful original, āSimple #2.ā And read on for a breakdown of Angels Around, and to learn about his passion for digital guitar technology and his return to fronting a rock group.
At what point did you feel drawn to play as a trio for this album?
After I released Caipi [in 2017], I wanted to get back to more of the common ground of what I do. Plus, the trio really came together in the past few years. I was very happy with the chemistry of the group and everything was clicking. And I love playing with those cats. We had been playing a lot, so it made sense to record. Iām really happy with how it came out.
Have you become more productive recently or is balancing several projects at once typical for you?
Apart from the worry and the financial and health concerns, itās actually quite nice to have a time-out from the craziness of my life as it normally is and just have unbroken time at home. If you had asked me what my biggest wish was, it would be to just have three months of unbroken time at home. So, this is almost like a dream come trueāin the sense that thereās so much that I donāt get to because Iām away. Plus, Iām lucky that I have a studio.
Itās always interesting to hear the stories behind what tunes you choose to record. Did cutting [saxophonist] Joe Hendersonās āPunjabā bring back any memories of playing with him?
I love Joe Hendersonās music and having had the opportunity to play with him was just one of the biggest opportunities that Iāve ever had. I really cherish those memories. I loved those tunes before I got to play with him, and it was incredible to come into the first rehearsal and have him call āPunjabā and āSerenity,ā and āCaribbean Fire Dance.ā Itās an interesting song with its own arrangement and a lot of nooks and crannies in the composition that make for really interesting interplay with the trio.
What liberties do you feel like youāre able to take with a tune like that when you bring it to the trio?
The more I have a handle on what it is harmonically and structurally, the more I can play it true to itself and the more I feel like Iām not limited. My process is to try to get as deeply into what it is and live there so completely that I just feel so happy to be there finding my own melodies and being able to express my own feelings and instincts within that form.
TIDBIT: All of Angels Around was recorded and mixed in Rosenwinkelās home studio in Berlin. āIt was easy to do, because you just get in the room and play for a couple of days,ā says Rosenwinkel.
Do you have a mental checklist that you go down when youāre learning a tune, or is it as simple as playing it repeatedly?
Mostly sitting around and playing it over and over again. Playing it so much that you kind of forget that youāre playing it and you just find all of these places within it. You start discovering things that are unique to the song. I can take one song and play it for three hours, and then connections are made. Then you begin to discover your own relationship with the song and discover your language within the song. I just love these songs. I love to play them, and the more I play them, the more I find other ways to play them. I really enjoy the music of it.
Paul Chambers didnāt write too many tunes. How did you discover āEase It?ā
I discovered it on his album called Go. [Drummer] Jorge Rossy gave me a cassette tape of it when I moved to Barcelona in 1993. I spent about six months living in Barcelona, and I was originally staying at Jorgeās grandmotherās house. I just loved that album. Itās amazing how much great music was recorded and thereās so much to discover even if youāve discovered so much already.
I hear a lot of Monk in your playing. Do you think he was more of an influence on you as a composer, or as an improviser?
I would say both, because thereās so much composition in his improvising. Thereās so much architecture. I love that aspect of musicājust the way things are constructed and the concept of economy and that everything has a purpose and thereās nothing thatās superfluous. Even in my style, which Iām developing, that has a lot of notes and contains a lot of information, my goal is still economy and clarity of an idea. I donāt want to waste any note as well.
Listening to Monk is always an inspiration in that regard. His compositions are just so beautiful and the voice leading of his tunes is so inspiring because itās so tight, in that everything makes so much sense. But at the same time, itās so interpretable, and because itās interlocking you can find many, many different ways that it can interlock with other approaches, like substitutions and other pathways that he provides by making the structure so functional.
As a composer, Rosenwinkel looks to heroes like pianist Thelonious Monk and bassist Charles Mingus for inspiration: āThereās so much composition in Monkās improvising. Thereās so much architecture. I love that aspect of music, just the way things are constructed and the concept of economy.ā Photo by R.R. Jones
Itās so interesting to hear the indie-rock vibe on the intro to āSimple #2.ā Itās easy to pick out where those influences came from?
Oh yeah, totally.To me, that section is like [drummer] Elvin [Jones] and [John] Bonham. Itās like Coltrane, but itās also like Black Sabbath. I grew up on rock and hard rock, and I love British rock and classic rock. Itās definitely a part of me. Bowie is one of my most important influences, and also other kinds of music like hip-hop and rap. Biggie Smalls is a genius and I love to listen to his music. So, there are a lot of sensibilities in the music that come from places that arenāt only jazz. Thatās why I love playing with a drummer like Greg. Heās also like that. He loves a lot of different music, so he can feel the subtleties and sometimes disappears between these kinds of moments in different kinds of music. The heaviness of a vamp of the Coltrane quartet can easily parallel a Zeppelin groove.
Iāve read that youāve been working on a more rock-focused project. Whatās the status of that?
Actually, itās on the front burner. The two things Iām doing right now are a piano album and working on one of the songs that comes from what youāre talking about. Iāve been trying to figure out how to release this album of rock songs. I might just release them one song at a time. Iām gonna release this song called āAll is Well,ā and weāre just making a video for it now and Iām finishing the mix. Thatās definitely in that genre.
Whatās the instrumentation? Are you singing on these tunes?
Itās drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, and vocals. Iāve always been singing. Iām often known for singing what I play. People say, āOh, he wears a hat and sings what he plays.ā [Laughs] One time I was in Japan and I saw this kid outside of my concert, and he had a hat just like mine. I saw him in the hallway, and he said, āHey Kurt! I have a hat just like you and I sing when I play.ā [Laughs]
Does it feel different when youāre the frontman singing the lyrics?
Itās totally different. I had to get used to actually performing as a singer, and it definitely took a minute. I used to do it when I was a teenager. All of my songs had lyrics and I had bands that I would do concerts and sing, but then I got into jazz and I stopped doing that. At first, I was really paranoid about it. I got in-ears and I was doing everything I could to help myself with my pitch. Then after a while I began to actually learn some things about the instrument of the voice and my experience grew to the point where I realized a lot of stuff on how to do it. I gradually ditched the earphones and didnāt have a special signal path, and then Iād just get up there with the mic and feel really competent and comfortable. But it is different. One thing I really like about it is that you can express such specific ideas through lyrics, and itās really liberating to have the meanings of the music be overt instead of hidden. I can conjure up a lot more imagery and say things that were previously hidden in the music.
You mentioned that when you were younger your songs had lyrics. Has writing lyrics and poetry remained a creative outlet for you?
Yes. Iāve been writing in journals since I was 15, and Iāve kept them all. There are thousands of pages of stuff that Iāve written. Actually, another project I have is a collection of poems, reflections, essays, and dreams from my journals that Iāve been compiling. Iām taking the stuff I think is worth reading and Iām wanting to make a book with that material.
From when I was 16 to 22, I considered myself a writer more than anything else. I was living in a way that was inspired by writers more than musicians. My friend Bill Hangley, who is an excellent writer, is helping me with this project, and one of the things that weāve decided to do is to start a Twitter account called yesterkurt, which is curated excerpts from my journals. I have nothing to do with it in terms of selecting and posting. I have no idea what theyāre gonna do. Iām kind of amazed that these journals have stayed with me for so long. Theyāve survived every move since I was 15.
Did this habit of journaling spill over into your musical practice?
Yeah. There are some things that are music related. A lot of it has to do with chronicling my growth and my desires of where Iām at in music and what lessons I'm learning. They have a lot to do with life lessons. Itās a chronicling of a personās development through life and through music. Thereās a lot of expression of where I would like to be and a lot of analysis of where I am and how thatās working.
Is a memoir somewhere on the to-do list?
Yeah, Iāve already started to write down the key words of all the little episodes that I want to include in it. Thatās also something Iāve been thinking about actively in the past year.
I see you have an Axe-Fx in your studio, and when I saw you last year you had a pretty involved Helix rig. It looks like you are not afraid to eschew glowing glass tubes.
Yeah, my adventure through amplification as a touring musician started with playing Polytone amplifiers. During this really sweet spot in the ā90s, I was able to put a certain Polytone bass amp on my rider and get that amp everywhere I went. Polytone amps became so popular and successful that Polytone decided to streamline their production and cut costs in many different ways that had the effect of having their amps widely available, but they didnāt sound as good. The next most available amp was a Fender Twin Reverb, so I migrated to that. I never really liked it all that much because I would always have the treble at zero. It was always a negotiation with a Twin Reverb to try and get the sound I was hearing in my head.
So, youāre bouncing between the Polytone and Fender Twin on the road, but when youāre at home what is your amp of choice?
I have in my house an old Polytone, an old Twin, and a new Twin. I donāt want to get a really incredible amplifier and be really happy at home and then go out and, you know, cry after every gig. [Laughs] Iād rather work with whatās available in the world on the gig, and when Iām home do as much R&D as I need to try to get the sound closer to the sound I have in my head. Itās all about consistency for a touring musician who relies on the backline, you know. I used to be able to fly with my Polytone in a flight case.
When did you start to move to digital amps and effects?
Yeah, you know, with the digital revolution in amplification, Line 6 was the first and it was not so happening. Then Axe-Fx came along and theyāve just made leaps and bounds. Iāve been on board with every iteration of all this stuff. Itās just like video games. Iām a ā70s kid, and we had the first Pong Atari games and every iteration all through the development of video games.
Guitars
Yamaha SG200
Amps & Effects
Fractal Audio Axe-Fx III
Electro-Harmonix POG2
Electro-Harmonix HOG2
Boss OC-3 Super Octave
Electro-Harmonix Mel9
Vintage ProCo RAT
Strings & Picks
DāAddarios (.010ā.046)
Dunlop 207s
Where do you start when you develop a preset?
Iāll usually start with a Fender Twin. The thing thatās really cool about the Axe-Fx is that you can tweak parameters that arenāt available on the actual amp. You can change the tube type, the sag, or how the power supply works. All of the variations that you find when you go from one gig to the next is gone. They could all say Fender Twin Reverb, but one of them is really fast and soft; the other oneās really hard and tough and slow. Maybe one of them feels really glassy with a big low bottom, and the other one feels really focused in the mids, and another feels like when you play a note itās just like escaping from the speaker at the speed of sound. Another amp might feel like you play a note and it just is kind of getting sucked back inside of the cabinet. All of these things are aspects of the amp that you deal with when itās happening in real life that you donāt have any control over. But if you go into the Axe-Fx, you can tweak all these parameters so that it responds exactly the way I want it to. I love that.
You obviously arenāt intimidated by endless menus and editing. Some guitaristsā eyes just glaze over.
Sure. Iām susceptible to that, too. One thing thatās great about the new Axe-Fx is that it has a very large LCD color display and itās very well laid out. You donāt really have to go that deep into menus. Thereās a lot of visual feedback and interesting things to look at while youāre tweaking, so that itās not just like parameter name and parameter value. But itāll show you some interacting between things, like a threshold on a compressor or something like that. I feel like theyāve really improved the user interface from the last model to the new model.
Can you give me an idea of what your typical signal chain would be?
I can show you, actually. Itās pretty complicated [laughs], but basically what happens is the guitar goes in and then itās sent to this [EHX]POG2 and then it comes back. Thatās the basic signal path. [Kurt is showing the signal flow layout on his Axe-Fx III.] It goes to the amp cab, then youāve got a gate and an EQ. After that itās sent to two delays in parallel and then a little looperāI hardly ever use that. And then it goes to a reverb, a compressor, and then goes out. Thereās some distortion, but thereās a lot of compression going on. Thereās also a compressor in the amp thatās being used. It then gets split off and it goes to this Electro-Harmonix HOG, which I use for the freeze effect so I can hold chords. Next, it goes into this Boss OC-3 Super Octave that allows you to only effect the bass notes and not the top of the chord. And then Iām also going into this [Electro-Harmonix] MEL9, which I sometimes use for an extra quality, where I might blend Mellotron flutes in with the guitar.
You dial quite a bit of attack out of your sound. Do you do that with the POG2?
Yeah. I shave a little bit of attack off, because I donāt like the sound of the pick. Itās not exactly that I donāt like attack. Itās more that I want to be able to shape what that transient sounds like. There are lots of things that go into it. Before I was using this technological solution, it was about what kind of pick youāre using, and I would use those really heavy black Dunlop 207 ones that were really soft on the attack. And I would use heavy strings so that the attack wasnāt thin. It was a bigger sound. Iāve worked for decades on trying to achieve that sound. This way is still imperfect, but Iām probably closer to the sound that I have in my head than Iāve ever been, which is really excitingāto be able to express the way I want to express and also have the guitar respond the way I want it to.
Are you still using heavy strings?
No. I canāt even believe it, but Iām using .010s [laughs].
It seems like thereās a movement to move back to lighter strings.
Holdsworth used .009s, and I remember playing his guitar one time backstage and it was like you just blow on it and thereās a note. Iāve discovered that if the guitar is good, then you can use a lighter gauge and still get a big tone. In jazz it comes from the big jazz boxes and the history of not even having amplification. I used to play .013s and felt like I couldnāt play without them. [Laughs] I think the better your technique is, the more youāre able to deal with lighter strings, because every little nuance that you do is just slight movements and the expressiveness is much greater.
The spotlightās on Rosenwinkel as an improvisor in this solo performance from the Montreux Jazz Festival, where he elaborates on the classic āStella By Starlightā with some help from one of his core effects, the Electro-Harmonic Harmonic Octave Generator.
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In challenging times, sometimes elemental music, like the late Jessie Mae Hemphillās raucous Mississippi hill country blues, is the best salve. It reminds us of whatās truly essentialāāmusically, culturally, and emotionally. And provides a restorative and safe place, where we can open up, listen, and experience without judgement. And smile.
Iāve been prowling the backroads, juke joints, urban canyons, and VFW halls for more than 40 years, in search of the rawest, most powerful and authentic American music. And among the many things Iāve learned is that whatās more interesting than the music itself is the people who make it.
One of the most interesting people Iāve met is the late Jessie Mae Hemphill. By the time my wife, Laurie Hoffma, and I met Jessie Mae, on a visit to her trailer in Senatobia, Mississippi, sheād had a stroke and retired from performing, but weād been fortunate to see her years before at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival, where she brought a blues style that was like quiet thunder, rumbling with portent and joy and ache, and all the other stuff that makes us human, sung to her own droning, rocking accompaniment on an old Gibson ES-120T.
To say she was from a musical family is an understatement. Her grandfather, Sid, was twice recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. While Sid played fiddle, banjo, guitar, harmonica, keyboards, and more, he was best known as the leader of a fife-and-drum band that made music that spilled directly from Africaās main artery. Sid was Jessie Maeās teacher, and she learned well. In fact, you can see her leading her own fife-and-drum group in Robert Muggeās wonderful documentary Deep Blues(with the late musician and journalist Robert Palmer as on-screen narrator), where she also performs a mournful-but-hypnotic song about betrayalāsolo, on guitarāin Junior Kimbroughās juke joint.
That movie, a 1982 episode of Mr. Rogersā Neighborhood (on YouTube) where she appears as part of Othar Turnerās Gravel Springs fife-and-drum band, and worldwide festival appearances are as close as Jessie Mae ever got to fame, although that was enough to make her important and influential to Bonnie Raitt, Cat Power, and others. And she made two exceptional albums during her lifetime: 1981ās She-Wolf and 1990ās Feelinā Good. If youāre unfamiliar with North Mississippi blues, their sound will be a revelation. The style, as Jessie Mae essayed it, is a droning, hypnotic joy that bumps along like a freight train full of happily rattling box cars populated by carefree hobos. Often the songs ride on one chord, but that chord is the only one thatās needed to put the musicās joy and conviction across. Feelinā Good, in particular, is essential Jessie Mae. Even the songs about heartbreak, like āGo Back To Your Used To Beā and āShame on You,ā have a propulsion dappled with little bends and other 6-string inflections that wrap the listener in a hypnotic web. Listening to Feelinā Good, itās easy to disappear in the music and to have all your troubles vanish as wellāfor at least as long as its 14 songs last.āShe made it clear that she had a gunāa .44 with a pearl handle that took up the entire length of her handbag.ā
The challenge Iāve long issued to people unfamiliar with Jessie Maeās music is: āListen to Feelinā Good and then tell me if youāre not feeling happier, more cheerful, and relaxed.ā It truly does, as the old clichĆ© would have it, make your backbone slip and your troubles along with it. Especially uptempo songs like the scrappy title track and the charging āStreamline Train.ā Thereās also an appealing live 1984 performance of the latter on YouTube, with Jessie Mae decked out in leopard-print pants and vest, playing a tambourine wedged onto her left high-heel shoeāāone of her stylish signatures.
Jessie Mae was a complex person, caught between the old-school dilemma of playing āthe Devilās musicā and yearning for a spiritual life, sweet as pecan pie with extra molasses but quick to turn mean at any perceived slight. She also spent much of her later years in poverty, in a small trailer with a hole in the floor where mice and other critters got in. And she was as mistrustful of strangers as she was warm once she accepted you into her heart. But watch your step before she did. On our first visit to her home, she made it clear that she had a gunāa .44 with a pearl handle that took up the entire length of her handbag and would make Dirty Harry envious.
Happily, she took us into her heart and we took her into ours, helping as much as we could and talking often. She was inspiring, and I wrote a song about her, and even got to perform it for her in her trailer, which was just a little terrifying, since I knew she would not hold back her criticism if she didn't like it. Instead, she giggled like a kid and blushed, and asked if Iād write one more verse about the artifacts sheād gathered while touring around the world.
Jessie Mae died in 2006, at age 82, and, as happens when every great folk artist dies, we lost many songs and stories, and the wisdom of her experience. But you can still get a whiff of all thatāāif you listen to Feelinā Good.
Intermediate
Intermediate
How David Gilmour masterully employs target notes to make his solos sing.
When I was an undergraduate jazz performance major struggling to get a handle on bebop improvisation, I remember my professor Dave LaLama admonishing me, āIf you think playing over the fast tunes is hard, wait until you try playing over the ballads. What Dr. Lalama was trying to impart was that playing fast scales over fast changes could get you by, but playing melodically over slow tempos, when your note choices are much more exposed, would really test how well you could create meaningful phrases.
Although getting past the āthis scale works over these chordsā approach to improvisation generally requires hours of shedding, aiming for particular target notes (specific notes over specific chords) is an optimum strategy to maximize your practice time. In the realm of rock guitar, I can think of no greater master of the melodic target note technique while playing ballads than David Gilmour.
For the unfamiliar few, Gilmour was first enlisted by fledgling psychedelic rockers Pink Floyd in 1967, when original guitarist/vocalist Syd Barrett began having drug-induced struggles with mental health. The band experimented with various artistic approaches for several years before refining them into a cohesive āart rockā sound by the early ā70s. The result was an unbroken streak of classic, genre-defining conceptual albums that included Meddle, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall. Although bassist/vocalist Roger Waters assumed the role of de facto bandleader and primary songwriter, Gilmour was a significant contributor who was praised for his soulful singing and expertly phrased lead playing that seemed to magically rework pedestrian blues phrases into sublimely evocative melodies. His focus on musicality over excessive displays of technique made him a musicianās musician of sorts and earned him a stellar reputation in guitar circles. When Roger Waters left Pink Floyd in the mid ā80s, Gilmour surprised many by calmly assuming the leadership mantle, leading the band through another decade of chart-topping albums and stadium tours. Although Pink Floyd are not officially broken up (keyboardist and founding member Richard Wright died in 2008 while Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason joined forces with Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk on the one-off single āHey Hey Rise Upā in 2022), Gilmour has mostly spent the last few decades concentrating on his solo career. His latest release, Luck and Strange, features his wife, novelist Polly Sampson, as primary lyricist and daughter Romany Gilmour as vocalist on several tracks. His recent tour filled arenas around the world.
Letās take a page from Gilmourās hallowed playbook and see how incorporating a few well-chosen target notes can give our playing more melody and structure.
For the sake of simplicity, all the examples use the Gm/Bb major pentatonic scale forms. In my experience as a teacher, I find that most students can get a pretty solid handle on the root-position, Form-I minor pentatonic scale but struggle to incorporate the other four shapes while playing lead. One suggestion I give them is to work on playing the scales from the top notes down and focus on the four highest strings only. I believe this is a more logical and useful approach to incorporating these forms into your vocabulary. Try playing through Ex. 1, Ex. 2, Ex. 3, and Ex. 4, which are based on the top-down approach of the Form I, Form II, Form IV, and Form I (up an octave) shapes respectively.
Ex. 1
Ex. 2
Ex. 3
Ex. 4
Once youāve gotten a handle on the scales, try playing Ex. 5, which is loosely based on the extended introduction to Pink Floydās āShine On You Crazy Diamond.ā We begin by soloing over a static Gm chord for four measures. As target notes, Iāve chosen the root and 5th of the G minor chord ( the notes G and D, respectively). In the first measure, weāre starting in a minor pentatonic Form I with a bend up to the root of the Gm chord. A flurry of notes on beat 4 sets us up for the bend to the D in the second measure. The D note is again targeted in measure threeāthis time up an octave via a shift into the minor pentatonic Form II shape. Measure four aims for the G tonic up an octave, but ends with a bend that targets a Cāthe root of the IVm (Cm) chord in the final measure. By focusing on target notes and connecting them with embellishing licks, your lead lines will have a much better sense of direction and melodic narrative. Also, by only targeting the root and 5th of the chord, the target note approach will be easily transferrable to songs in a G blues context (G pentatonic minor over a G major or G dominant tonality).
Ex. 5
A further exploration of this approach, Ex. 6 begins with a two-beat pickup that resolves to the scale tonic G. This time however, the G isnāt serving as the root of the Im chord. Instead, itās the 5th of Cmāthe IVm chord. Employing the root of the pentatonic scale as the fifth of the IVm chord is a textbook Gilmour-ism and you can hear him use it to good effect on the extended intro to āEchoesā from Live in Gdansk. When approaching the C on beat 2 of the second full measure, bend up from the Bb on the 6th fret of the 1st string then slide up to the C on the 8th fret without releasing the bend or picking again. In the final measure, Iāve introduced two Db notes, which serve as the b5 āblue noteā of the scale and provide melodically compelling passing tones on the way to the G target note on beat 4.
Ex. 6
Exclusively positioned in the Form-IV G minor pentatonic shape, Ex. 7 is based on a bluesy lick over the I chord in the first and third measures that alternately targets a resolution to the root of the IV chord (C ) and the root of the V chord (D7#9) in the second and fourth measures. Being able to resolve your lead phrases to the roots of the I, IV, and V chords on the fly is an essential skill ace improvisers like Gilmour have mastered.
Ex. 7
Now letās turn our attention to the Bb major pentatonic scale, which is the relative major of G minor. Play through the Form I and Form II shapes detailed in Ex. 8 and Ex. 9 below. Youāll see Iāve added an Eb to the scale (technically making them hexatonic scales). This allows us a bit more melodic freedom andāmost importantlyāgives us the root note of the IV chord.
Ex. 8
Ex. 9
Channeling the melodic mojo of Gilmourās lead jaunts on Pink Floydās āMotherā and āComfortably Numb,ā Ex. 10 targets chord tones from the I, IV, and V (Bb, Eb, and F) chords.
The muted-string rake in first measure helps āstingā the F note, which is the 5th of the Bb. Measure two targets a G note which is the 3rd of the Eb. This same chord/target note pairing is repeated in the third and fourth measures, although the G is now down an octave. For the F and Eb chords of measures five and six, Iāve mirrored a favorite Gilmour go-to: bending up to the 3rd of a chord then releasing and resolving to the root (an A resolving to an F for the F chord and a G resolving to an Eb for the Eb chord.) The final measure follows a melodic run down the Bb scale that ultimately resolves on the tonic. Be sure to pay attention to the intonation of all your bends, especially the half-step bend on the first beat of measure seven.
As a takeaway from this lesson, letās strive to āBe Like Daveā and pay closer attention to target notes when soloing. Identify the roots of all the chords youāre playing over in your scales and aim for them as the beginning and/or ending notes of your phrases. Think of these target notes as support beams that will provide structure to your lead lines and ultimately make them more melodically compelling.
This legendary vintage rack unit will inspire you to think about effects with a new perspective.
When guitarists think of effects, we usually jump straight to stompboxesātheyāre part of the culture! And besides, footswitches have real benefits when your hands are otherwise occupied. But real-time toggling isnāt always important. In the recording studio, where weāre often crafting sounds for each section of a song individually, thereās little reason to avoid rack gear and its possibilities. Enter the iconic Eventide H3000 (and its massive creative potential).
When it debuted in 1987, the H3000 was marketed as an āintelligent pitch-changerā that could generate stereo harmonies in a user-specified key. This was heady stuff in the ā80s! But while diatonic harmonizing grabbed the headlines, subtler uses of this pitch-shifter cemented its legacy. Patch 231 MICROPITCHSHIFT, for example, is a big reason the H3000 persists in racks everywhere. Itās essentially a pair of very short, single-repeat delays: The left side is pitched slightly up while the right side is pitched slightly down (default is ±9 cents). The resulting tripling/thickening effect has long been a mix-engineer staple for pop vocals, and itās also my first call when I want a stereo chorus for guitar.
The second-gen H3000S, introduced the following year, cemented the deviceās guitar bona fides. Early-adopter Steve Vai was such a proponent of the first edition that Eventide asked him to contribute 48 signature sounds for the new model (patches 700-747). Still-later revisions like the H3000B and H3000D/SE added even more functionality, but these days itās not too important which model you have. Comprehensive EPROM chips containing every patch from all generations of H3000 (plus the later H3500) are readily available for a modest cost, and are a fairly straightforward install.
In addition to pitch-shifting, there are excellent modulation effects and reverbs (like patch 211 CANYON), plus presets inspired by other classic Eventide boxes, like the patch 513 INSTANT PHASER. A comprehensive accounting of the H3000ās capabilities would be tedious, but suffice to say that even the stock presets get deliciously far afield. There are pitch-shifting reverbs that sound like fever-dream ancestors of Strymonās āshimmerā effect. There are backwards-guitar simulators, multiple extraterrestrial voices, peculiar foreshadows of the EarthQuaker Devices Arpanoid and Rainbow Machine (check out patch 208 BIZARRMONIZER), and even button-triggered Foley effects that require no input signal (including a siren, helicopter, tank, submarine, ocean waves, thunder, and wind). If youāre ever without your deck of Oblique Strategies cards, the H3000ās singular knob makes a pretty good substitute. (Spin the big wheel and find out what youāve won!)
āIf youāre ever without your deck of Oblique Strategies cards, the H3000ās singular knob makes a pretty good substitute.ā
But thereās another, more pedestrian reason I tend to reach for the H3000 and its rackmount relatives in the studio: I like to do certain types of processing after the mic. Itās easy to overlook, but guitar speakers are signal processors in their own right. They roll off high and low end, they distort when pushed, and the cabinets in which theyāre mounted introduce resonances. While this type of de facto processing often flatters the guitar itself, it isnāt always advantageous for effects.
Effects loops allow time-based effects to be placed after preamp distortion, but I like to go one further. By miking the amp first and then sending signal to effects in parallel, I can get full bandwidth from the airy reverbs and radical pitched-up effects the H3000 can offerāand I can get it in stereo, printed to its own track, allowing the wet/dry balance to be revisited later, if needed. If a sound needs to be reproduced live, thatās a problem for later. (Something evocative enough can usually be extracted from a pedal-form descendant like the Eventide H90.)
Like most vintage gear, the H3000 has some endearing quirks. Even as it knowingly preserves glitches from earlier Eventide harmonizers (patch 217 DUAL H910s), it betrays its age with a few idiosyncrasies of its own. Extreme pitch-shifting exhibits a lot of aliasing (think: bit-crusher sounds), and the analog Murata filter modules impart a hint of warmth that many plug-in versions donāt quite capture. (They also have a habit of leaking black goo all over the motherboard!) Itās all part of the charm of the unit, beloved by its adherents. (Well, maybe not the leaking goo!)
In 2025, many guitarists wonāt be eager to care for what is essentially an expensive, cranky, decades-old computer. Even the excitement of occasional tantalum capacitor explosions is unlikely to win them over! Fortunately, some great software emulations existāEventideās own plugin even models the behavior of the Murata filters. But hardware offers the full hands-on experience, so next time you spot an old H3000 in a rack somewhereāand youāve got the timeāfire it up, wait for the distinctive āclickā of its relays, spin the knob, and start digging.