
A foray into the fretboard wizardry of one of the greatest of all time.
Advanced
Intermediate
⢠Unleash the power of the superimposed arpeggio.
⢠Organize advanced language in a guitar-friendly way.
⢠Create excitement and forward motion in your solos.
George Benson is a jack-of-all-trades in the music world. He's known by many as a talented R&B singer and he's floored listeners with his melodic guitar-driven smooth jazz instrumentals, but to me (and my fellow jazz guitar nerds), Benson has all of the qualities that make him one of the greatest straight-ahead jazz guitarists of all time.
He is fiercely swinging, has a fluid command of the jazz/blues language, and possesses some of the fastest fingers in the business.
Influenced by instrumentalists such as Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, and Charlie Parker, Benson has a very deep bag of bebop licks and tricks. This style of jazz improv is notoriously hard to approach on guitar, but Benson's virtuosity lies in the way that he's reworked key elements of the jazz idiom to fit the nature of the guitar. Dense chromatic lines, chordal soloing, and blazing triplets sound and feel as natural as an A minor pentatonic scale using his intuitive ways of organizing the fretboard.
Ex. 1 is an excerpt from one of my favorite Benson solos, "I'll Drink to That," a blues in F off of organist Jimmy Smith's classic 1982 release Off the Top. Benson blazes through some otherworldly double-time ideas that almost knocked me out of my chair when I first heard them. This lick is textbook Benson: a muscular barrage of 16th-notes packed with superimposed arpeggios, sinewy chromaticism, and a punchy minor pentatonic idea to bring things back home.
The first measure of this lick is straight bebop, with Benson making extended use of the Dm7b5 (DāFāAbāC) and Abmaj7 (AbāCāEbāG) arpeggios on a Bb7 chord. Superimposed arpeggios are often used to emphasize different colors on a chord or tonality, but in this instance, Benson uses it to generate forward linear motion and get from one area of the fretboard to the next.
Benson also utilizes a delayed melodic resolution in the first measure of Ex. 1, landing on a B natural directly on beat two, but immediately resolving it to a Bb by way of a chromatic enclosure. Delayed melodic resolution is a hallmark of the bebop idiom, having been pioneered by Charlie Parker and Bud Powell. The chromaticism in this idea also happens to be symmetrical, with the interval of a minor third anchoring the outside note to the key. Oftentimes without a common interval linking chromaticism together, it can sound random or unorganized. Guitarists like Benson and Pat Martino have employed this symmetrical chromaticism to great lengths, as it not only sounds great, but it feels great and lays out nicely on the fretboard.
George Benson Ex. 1
Ex. 2 gives you an idea of the possibilities of the superimposed arpeggio over a Bb7, and also happens to be similar to a lick that Benson plays in a variety of contexts. The concept is to move through different arpeggios over a given chord and connect to the various arpeggios using scales and chromaticism. In this lick, we're using the arpeggios Abmaj7, Dm7b5, and Fm7 (FāAbāCāEb) over a Bb7. The superimposed arpeggios also give you an idea of what other harmonies you can use this lick over: Bb7, Dm7b5, Fm7, and Bb7 are all interchangeable.
The picking directions for Ex. 2 will also include some insight into how Benson groups lines on the fretboard to work in favor of his right hand. A lot of times, he'll begin each string with a downstroke and end each string with an upstroke, a system that a lot of speedy pickers have favored. But when playing arpeggios like we see in this example, Benson will utilize short downward sweeps to execute them confidently and not run into any right-hand "hiccups."
George Benson Ex. 2
I demonstrate more symmetrical chromaticism over a Bb7 in Ex. 3. This lick uses descending minor thirds to connect chromatically from Bb to Ab, and then descending major thirds to connect chromatically from D to C. Gaining fluidity with this concept will really open up the bebop sound in your playing and will help thread together longer lines.
George Benson, Ex. 3
I think that one of the coolest things about Benson's original lick is how he slips into a greasy minor pentatonic run in the second measure. This is a masterful display of bridging the gap between bebop and blues: two styles that are like bread and butter in the hands of a masterful jazz guitarist.
Ex. 4 shows another way of injecting blues into your bebop playing (or vice-versa). This time we start with an F blues scale run, which seamlessly transitions into a more bebop-oriented idea with chromatic approaches targeting Bb7 chord tones. The logic that ties these two worlds together is melodic voice leading. This essentially means that we're looking for areas where we can connect the two ideas (the blues scale and bebop derived ideas) using the least motion possible. To accomplish this type of voice leading, it's important to understand the shared notes between sets of scales, arpeggios, chordsāwhatever it is you're trying to voice lead between.
George Benson Ex. 4
This next example is one of my favorite ways that Benson commandeered a concept that is not typically guitar-friendly: soloing with chords (Ex. 5). Chord soloing, especially at any tempo faster than a ballad, is usually best left to the pianists. The nature of the guitar makes it very difficult to shift around different chord shapes quickly, but Benson remedies this by moving around the same chord shape quickly. By taking a stack of fourths (or a quartal voicing) and using it to harmonize a blues scale melody, Benson creates forward motion and excitement. It's important to note that the only consistent notes from the blues scale are the top notes of each voicing, the bottom and middle notes are usually non-diatonic.
George Benson Ex. 5
Ex. 6 will give you an idea of how you can extend this quartal idea to include more chromaticism. Getting accustomed to using ideas like this on a blues will train your ears to hear bluesy key-center based chordal lines on standards, which provides a nice contrast to strictly playing the changes.
George Benson Ex. 6
In jazz and blues playing, the notes are only half the battle. Playing along to recordings of guitarists like Benson, Wes, and Grant Green will show you how to swing and phrase in a way that's informed by the tradition.
For more great straight-ahead Benson, I'd recommend checking out the albums It's Uptown, Giblet Gravy, Big Boss Band, and my personal favorite, Cookbook. Finally, listen to hear the natural progression of the jazz guitar vocabulary in Benson's behemoth of a solo on the tune "Ready and Able."
- Ibanez GB300 George Benson Signature Guitar Review āŗ
- George Benson: Still the Coolest of Cats āŗ
- Wong Notes Episode 10: George Benson | Premier Guitar āŗ
- Remembering Pat Martino (1944ā2021) - Premier Guitar āŗ
- George Benson: āThereās Always More to Be Discoveredā - Premier Guitar āŗ
Nile Rodgers brings the rhythm at Bonnaroo 2018.
How the rhythm-playing hitmaker behind Chicāand our columnistālearned to love pop music, and why maybe you should, too.
When Nile Rodgers speaks, we should listen. His seminal work with his own band, Chic, as well as Sister Sledge, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel, Madonna, David Bowie, and Daft Punk, has made him a legend. He also filmed an entertaining Rig Rundown with PG just last year.
I recently listened to his 2017 South by Southwest address, where he told a story about a formative moment in his life. Nile was complaining to his guitar teacher, Ted Dunbar, about having to sing the Archiesā āSugar, Sugarāat an upcoming cover band gig. Dunbar replied, āLet me tell you something. Any song that sells and gets to the Top 40 ... is a great composition.ā Rodgers was skeptical. Then Dunbar added, āEspecially āSugar, Sugar.ā That has been No. 1 for four or five weeks.ā Next, Dunbar said something that changed Rodgerās life. āāSugar, Sugarā was successful,ā he said, ābecause it speaks to the souls of a million strangers.ā Rodgers noted: āTwo weeks later, I wrote a song called āEverybody Dance.āā Released in 1977, it was a Top 40 single on Chic's first album.
In a BBC This Cultural Life interview, Rodgers said that Dunbar ādescribed an artist to me. I wasnāt an artist until he defined that. I wanted to speak to the souls of a million strangers, but I thought what I wanted to do was speak to some real cool people hanging out in jazz clubs.ā
āEverybody Danceā and āSugar, Sugarāboth have hypnotizingly simple lyrics you inevitably replay in your head. Humans like chants, cheers, slogans, and catchy choruses. Rodgers' success came, at least in part, from opening himself up to simplicity that appeals to the masses instead of the complexity that appeals to jazzers. Thatās the irony. Jazz, which ostensibly is all about freedom, is often restrictive. Like the old joke goes, jazzers play millions of chords for four people. Pop, rock, and country artists play four chords for millions of people.
Rodgers said, āThat's what my teacher taught me, that anti-snobbery. Be open. Love all the music you are around, or at least try and appreciate what that artist is trying to say. Try and have, what we call in the music business, big ears.ā
My friends and I have all, at times, been music snobs. I went through a blues binge in my youth where I was prejudiced against shredders. This was not uncommon at the time. After Nirvana hit with Nevermind in 1991, suddenly musicians were openly mocked for playing complex, difficult parts. It was almost like if you cared enough to really learn to play guitar, you were uncool. That was a big relief for me, as I could play neither complex nor difficult parts at the time.
āTaylor Swift is the Beatles of my daughterās generation.ā
Later, when I moved to Nashville, I was all about clean Telecasters and thought ill of music with lots of dirt or effects. Younger me would have plenty of condescending quips about my current love of overdriven humbuckers and delay. Most of my snobbery was driven by my deep insecurities, but part of it was tribalism. The heart wants what it wants; when you find your musical tribe, most of the young zealots trade all others for their one true religion. It might be the only way to get good at something.
On the other hand, my friends and I listen to a variety of music, but the common factor is it usually involves good guitar playing. We love what we love because it speaks to our souls. But most guitar players are drawn to those who are doing what we wish we could do. My uncle Fred used to say, āThereās nothing wrong with being a snob. It just means that you have good taste.ā
Between club dates, sessions, and the occasional TV gig, I play with tons of people. I have no say in the set list, so āSugar, Sugarā moments are unavoidable. I used to feel deep shame playing those types of songs, like it reflects poorly on my personal taste or abilities. In short, I was prejudiced until I saw all of the true pros who could find something beautiful, challenging in the seemingly mundane. Itās like the old actorās adage: There are no small parts, just small players.
According to Forbes, Taylor Swift was āThe Biggest Artist in the World in 2023.ā That being the case, her songs inevitably come up on cover gigs. When this happens, some musicians might groan, like it makes them cool to hate on pop culture. But thatās probably because they don't really know her work. Taylor Swift is my 8-year-old daughterās Alexa go-to, so I know Taylorās catalog really well. Turns out, itās amazing, full of truly catchy, engaging, touching songs. Taylor Swift is the Beatles of my daughterās generation. Snobs will think that statement is heresy, but snobs often donāt know what they are talking about, and they never have as much fun as the people who are dancing violently to āShake It Off,ā or singing with eyes closed to āAll Too Well.āMeet Siccardi Number 28: a 5-ply, double-cut solidbody tribute to Paul Bigsbyās āHezzy Hallā guitar.
Reader: Mark Huss
Hometown: Coatesville, PA
Guitar: Siccardi Number 28
May we all have friends like Ed Siccardiāalong with a rare stash of tonewoods and inspiration to pay tribute to a legendary luthier.
I have too many guitars (like at least some of you Iām sure), but my current No. 1 is a custom guitar made for me by my friend Ed Siccardi. Ed is an interesting and talented fellow, a retired mechanical engineer who has amazing wood and metal shops in his basement. He also has an impressive collection of tonewoods, including rarities like African mahogany and some beautiful book-matched sets. He likes to build acoustic guitars (and has built 26 of them so far), but decided he wanted to make me an electric. The fruit of this collaboration was his Number 27, a Paul Bigsby tribute with a single-cut bodyālooking very much like what Bigsby made for Merle Travis. Note that Bigsby created this single-cut body and āFender-styleā headstock way before Gibson or Fender had adopted these shapes. This was a really nice guitar, but had some minor playing issues, so he made me another: Number 28.
Number 28 is another Paul Bigsby tribute, but is a double cutaway a la the Bigsby āHezzy Hallā guitar. This guitar has a 5-ply solid body made of two layers of figured maple, cherry, swamp ash, and another layer of cherry. The wood is too pretty to cover up with a pickguard. The tailpiece is African ebony with abalone inlays and the rock-maple neck has a 2-way truss rod and extends into the body up to the bridge. It has a 14" radius and a zero fret. Therefore, there is no nut per se, just a brass string spacer. I really like zero frets since they seem to help with the lower-position intonation on the 3rd string. The fretboard is African ebony with abalone inlays and StewMac #148 frets. The peghead is overlaid front and back with African ebony and has Graph Tech RATIO tuners. The guitar has a 25" scale length and 1.47" nut spacing. There are two genuine ivory detail inlays: One each on the back of the peghead and at the base of the neck. The ivory was reclaimed from old piano keys.
This is Number 27, 28ās older sibling and a single-cut Bigsby homage. Itās playing issues led to the creation of its predecessor.
I installed the electronics using my old favorite Seymour Duncan pairing of a JB and Jazz humbuckers. The pickup selector is a standard 3-way, and all three 500k rotary controls have push-pull switches. There are two volume controls, and their switches select series or parallel wiring for their respective pickup coils. The switch on the shared tone control connects the bridge pickup directly to the output jack with no controls attached. This configuration allows for a surprisingly wide variety of sounds. As an experiment, I originally put the bridge volume control nearest the bridge for āpinkyā adjustment, but in practice I donāt use it much, so I may just switch it back to a more traditional arrangement to match my other guitars.
āCrank That Sh*t Up!ā Greg Koch on Teaching, Mistakes, Modeling, and Modern Blues
The Milwaukee-based āguitaristās guitaristā doles out decades of midwest wisdom on this episode of Wong Notes.
You might not know Greg Koch, but weāll bet your favorite guitarist does. In 2012, Fender called the Wisconsin blues-guitar phenom one of the top 10 best unsung guitarists, and in 2020, Guitar World listed Koch among the 15 best guitar teachers. Heās been inducted into the Wisconsin Area Music Industry Hall of Fame. Koch is a bonafide midwest guitar god.
He joins Cory Wong on this round of Wong Notes for this meeting of the Middle-America minds, where the duo open with analysis of music culture in Wisconsin and MinnesotaāKoch taught at Saint Paulās now-shuttered McNally Smith College of Music, which Wong attended. Koch and Wong zero in on the blues roots of most modern music and talk through soloing theories: It can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be, but Koch shares that he likes to āpaint himself into a corner,ā then get out of it.
Koch and Wong swap notes on the pressures of studio performance versus the live realm, and how to move on from mistakes made onstage in front of audiences. Plus, Koch has created scores of guitar education materials, including for Hal Leonard. Tune in to find out what makes a good guitar course, how to write a guitar book, Kochās audio tips for crystalline live-stream sessions, and why he still prefers tube amps: āI like to crank that sh*t up!ā
John Petrucci, St. Vincent, James Valentine, Steve Lukather, Tosin Abasi, Cory Wong, Jason Richardson, Fluff, and more are donating instruments for contributors, and contributions are being accepted via this LINK.
The L.A. wildfires have been absolutely devastating, consuming more than 16,200 structures, and tens of thousands of peopleāincluding many members of the LA music communityāhave been displaced, as well as 29 persons killed. Historic gear company Ernie Ball has stepped up with a large-scale fundraiser, for MusicCares and the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, to assist those impacted by the fire and responders on the front line. The company kicked off the initiative with a $50,000 donation.
āWe are absolutely crushed by the devastation Los Angeles has endured over the past few weeks,ā CEO Brian Ball said in a statement. āAs a California-based company with origins as a small retailer in LA County, seeing the impact of these fires in our community is heartbreaking.
Message from Tim Henson
Tim Henson is donating one of his own Ibanez TOD10N guitars for the cause.
āThatās why weāre partnering with our family of artists to give back in a unique way. In addition to our donation, Ernie Ball artists are stepping up to donate personal guitars and gearātruly one-of-a-kind pieces that money canāt buy. Hereās how you can help: Donate any amount and we will randomly give these items away. Every dollar goes directly toward helping those affected by these devastating fires. If you canāt donate, sharing this message can still make a huge impact,ā Ball declared.
The fundraiser will continue until February 14.