
The late jazz master was not only a deep harmonic genius but could twist your ear with rhythms too.
Intermediate
Intermediate
• Learn how to outline chord changes with motives.
• Develop a sense of “3-over-4” rhythms.
• Understand how to increase tension in your solos.
A quick online search will uncover an overwhelming amount of information about Martino’s amazing bebop lines, concepts such as the minor conversion technique, his “The Nature of Guitar” writings, and transcriptions of his solos. I decided to take a slightly different view for this lesson. Throughout his career, Pat used a wealth of exciting repetitive motives that was as much a part of his signature sound as other more melodic and harmonic devices. These motives intensified the drama in many of his solos, kept audiences on the edge of their seats (check out the cheering at the 3:04 mark after one such example during his “Oleo” solo on Live at Yoshi’s), and the repetitive and rhythmic nature of these ideas was the perfect complement to his monstrous eighth-note lines.
Oleo (Live From Yoshi's, Oakland, U.S.A./2001)
When studying the masters, I don’t like to just learn licks. I find great importance in examining the theory and mechanics behind each idea to understand the language and assimilate the concept. The first idea (Ex. 1) can be found in many of Martino’s solos (check out “Mr. P.C.” on Pat Martino Trio Young Guns (1968/1969), but I found it when transcribing his other-worldly “Just Friends” solo on El Hombre (1967). The C# is optional as Pat sometimes plays this note as part of the idea and sometimes it is omitted.
Ex. 1
Ex. 1 can be viewed as an Fmaj7(#5) arpeggio built on the root, but we could also consider it as a DmMaj9 arpeggio built on the b3, a Bmin9(b5) arpeggio built on the b5 and also a G13(#11) arpeggio built on the b7. If we dig deeper we discover that all of these arpeggios/chords are based out of the D melodic minor scale (D–E–F–G–A–B–C#). In fact, Ex. 1, played over G13(#11), comes from the 4th mode of D melodic minor. This mode is also referred to as G Lydian dominant or G Mixolydian #4 (Ex. 2).
Ex. 2
The motive works beautifully over G13(#11) as it outlines the upper extensions: 13, #11, 9, and b7. Knowing that this idea comes from D melodic minor, we can experiment with superimposing the idea of other harmony from this scale. It can be used over a variety of chords like DmMaj7, C#7 alt., Bm9(b5), and Fmaj7#5.
If we take this idea one step further, we can apply it to the most prominent progression in jazz, the IIm-V7-I. Ex. 3 show this idea over a slightly modified progression in C major. Here we are starting each phrase on a specific chord tone or extension. For the II chord, start on the 9, the V7 chord start on the #9 (or b3) and for the I chord start on the 7.
Ex. 3
With a few slight position shifts, we can use that same phrase over a II-V-I in C minor (Ex. 4). Similar to the above example, we start on the 11 of the II chord, the #9 of the V chord, and the 9 of the I chord.
Ex. 4
We can also practice this idea over a 12-bar blues. Ex. 5 shows one possibility when superimposing this idea over a Bb jazz-blues progression.
Ex. 5
Martino also uses a variation of this idea to create a 3-over-4 rhythmic pattern (Ex. 6). Here, we are taking a six-note pattern and playing it over an eighth-note line. The effect builds tension before repeating every three measures.
Ex. 6
That’s a lot of information to digest, but the time spent will be worth the effort as it is a great motive that you can incorporate into your playing rather quickly.
The next motive (Ex. 7) is based on an Em7 arpeggio (E–G–B–D) and is played during the “Strings” solo on his record, Strings (1967).
Ex. 7
Pat Martino - Strings!
I previously mentioned the rhythmic nature of Martino’s repetitive ideas. This motive illuminates his penchant for ideas that create a 3-over-4 feel. Coupled with repetition, this concept can generate loads of rhythmic intensity. As you will see, he employs this device often. Dig the super-hip rotation between Em7 and EmMaj7 arpeggios, marked by the alternating D and D# top pitches. He plays this idea over A7, but it creates a toggling effect between A7 and A7(#11) which is more harmonically interesting. Bonus: This idea can also be played over Em7.
Ex. 8 is a variation that comes from the “Sunny” solo on Live! (1972). The Am7 arpeggio works so well over this entire progression. This example is somewhat unique as these repetitive ideas generally don’t include space. The idea incorporates an eighth-note rest to create the 3-over-4 sound once again. The phrasing, which includes a pull-off at the top of the arpeggio, demonstrates how articulation can also generate interest.
Sunny (Live / New York, NY / 1972)
Ex. 8
Although the Gm7 arpeggio doesn’t necessarily “fit” chords such as Am7 and D7b9, the strength of the repetition makes it work. This is similar to the concept of a minor blues scale working over the entire 12-bar blues progression. The hammer-on articulation at the bottom of the arpeggio as well as the short, accented top not really makes this idea pop.
Ex. 9
Ex. 10 is another uber-hip idea taken from the “Strings” solo. This is a six-note repeating motive with the 3-over-4 rhythmic grouping. The b3 and b5 “blue notes” contribute heavily to the sound, and this motive works wonderfully over the A7 chord. I’m not sure about Pat’s picking motion, so I supplied what I feel is comfortable. The slide going from the C to C# creates a slippery feel.
Ex. 10
Ex. 11 (again from “Strings”) exemplifies one of the most effective repetitive patterns in his playing. It consists of a 3-note pattern based on the minor 3rd interval. I love the way Pat toggles between picking each note and hammering-on the bottom two notes. The top pitch (C) is the #9 of A7, exuding a bluesy flavor.
Ex. 11
In Ex. 12 Martino plays the identical pattern during “Strings” with the root (A) as the top pitch.
Ex. 12
Ex. 13 occurs during the “Just Friends” solo, and rather than 16th-notes, he employs triplets over a IIm7–V7–IIIm7–VI7 progression in the key of F.
Ex. 13
There’s a very similar pattern during the “Oleo” solo on Live at Yoshi’s (2001). Ex. 14 is based on the interval of a minor sixth giving it a more vertical spread. The previous examples repeated every three beats, but this one repeats every three measures. This is slick, as Martino is outlining the upper extensions—the 13 (A) and 11 (F)—to give some harmonic color. You could easily adjust to use the 5 (C) and b3 (Eb), which he actually shifts to during the solo.
Ex. 14
Martino would often use open strings against moving fretted notes. It’s kind of funny. I first learned this idea as a teenager from Iron Maiden’s “Wasted Years” and AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.” Martino was doing this in the 1960s, so I’m confident his influence crossed genres!
Ex. 15 comes from his “Mac Tough” solo on Live at Yoshi’s. Again a three-note pattern is utilized to create rhythmic interest.
Ex. 15
The final motive (Ex. 16) is what I describe as a Chromatic Melodic Connector. This idea has no harmonic implications, meaning it works in any harmonic situation, and is literally just a way to get from point A to point B. This specific example is from the song “Lazy Bird” on East! (1968) and it consists of three notes with the intervallic structure of two whole steps. Notice the accents on every third note. This reinforces the 3-over-4 motive and creates rhythmic intensity. The ascending and descending nature of the idea also builds excitement.
Pat Martino - Lazy Bird
Ex. 16
There are many more examples not discussed in this article, however, I hope this sheds some inspiring light on the more rhythmic and motivic side of Pat Martino’s playing.
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The country virtuoso closes out this season of Wong Notes with a fascinating, career-spanning interview.
We’ve saved one of the best for last: Brad Paisley.The celebrated shredder and seasoned fisherman joins host Cory Wong for one of this season’s most interesting episodes. Paisley talks his earliest guitar-playing influences, which came from his grandfather’s love of country music, and his first days in Nashville—as a student at Belmont University, studying the music industry.
The behind-the-curtain knowledge he picked up at Belmont made him a good match for industry suits trying to force bad contracts on him.
Wong and Paisley swap notes on fishing and a mutual love of Phish—Paisley envies the jam-band scene, which he thinks has more leeway in live contexts than country. And with a new signature Fender Telecaster hitting the market in a rare blue paisley finish, Paisley discusses his iconic namesake pattern—which some might describe as “hippie puke”—and its surprising origin with Elvis’ guitarist James Burton.
Plus, hear how Paisley assembled his rig over the years, the state of shredding on mainstream radio, when it might be good to hallucinogenic drugs in a set, and the only negative thing about country-music audiences.
Tom Bedell in the Relic Music acoustic room, holding a custom Seed to Song Parlor with a stunning ocean sinker redwood top and milagro Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
As head of Breedlove and Bedell Guitars, he’s championed sustainability and environmental causes—and he wants to tell you about it.
As the owner of the Breedlove and Bedell guitar companies, Tom Bedell has been a passionate advocate for sustainable practices in acoustic guitar manufacturing. Listening to him talk, it’s clear that the preservation of the Earth’s forests are just as important to Bedell as the sound of his guitars. You’ll know just how big of a statement that is if you’ve ever had the opportunity to spend time with one of his excellently crafted high-end acoustics, which are among the finest you’ll find. Over the course of his career, Bedell has championed the use of alternative tonewoods and traveled the world to get a firsthand look at his wood sources and their harvesting practices. When you buy a Bedell, you can rest assured that no clear-cut woods were used.
A born storyteller, Bedell doesn’t keep his passion to himself. On Friday, May 12, at New Jersey boutique guitar outpost Relic Music, Bedell shared some of the stories he’s collected during his life and travels as part of a three-city clinic trip. At Relic—and stops at Crossroads Guitar and Art in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, and Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center in Wheaton, Maryland—he discussed his guitars and what makes them so special, why sustainability is such an important cause, and how he’s putting it into practice.
Before his talk, we sat in Relic’s cozy, plush acoustic room, surrounded by a host of high-end instruments. We took a look at a few of the store’s house-spec’d Bedell parlors while we chatted.
“The story of this guitar is the story of the world,” Bedell explained to me, holding a Seed to Song Parlor. He painted a picture of a milagro tree growing on a hillside in northeastern Brazil some 500 years ago, deprived of water and growing in stressful conditions during its early life. That tree was eventually harvested, and in the 1950s, it was shipped to Spain by a company that specialized in church ornaments. They recognized this unique specimen and set it aside until it was imported to the U.S. and reached Oregon. Now, it makes the back and sides of this unique guitar.
A Bedell Fireside Parlor with a buckskin redwood top and cocobolo back and sides.
As for the ocean sinker redwood top, “I’m gonna make up the story,” Bedell said, as he approximated the life cycle of the tree, which floated in the ocean, soaking up minerals for years and years, and washed ashore on northern Oregon’s Manzanita Beach. The two woods were paired and built into a small run of exquisitely outfitted guitars using the Bedell/Breedlove Sound Optimization process—in which the building team fine-tunes each instrument’s voice by hand-shaping individual braces to target resonant frequencies using acoustic analysis—and Bedell and his team fell in love.
Playing it while we spoke, I was smitten by this guitar’s warm, responsive tone and even articulation and attack across the fretboard; it strikes a perfect tonal balance between a tight low-end and bright top, with a wide dynamic range that made it sympathetic to anything I offered. And as I swapped guitars, whether picking up a Fireside Parlor with a buckskin redwood top and cocobolo back and sides or one with an Adirondack spruce top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides, the character and the elements of each instrument changed, but that perfect balance remained. Each of these acoustics—and of any Bedell I’ve had the pleasure to play—delivers their own experiential thumbprint.
Rosette and inlay detail on an Adirondack spruce top.
Ultimately, that’s what brought Bedell out to the East Coast on this short tour. “We have a totally different philosophy about how we approach guitar-building,” Bedell effused. “There are a lot of individuals who build maybe 12 guitars a year, who do some of the things that we do, but there’s nobody on a production level.” And he wants to spread that gospel.
“We want to reach people who really want something special,” he continued, pointing out that for the Bedell line, the company specifically wants to work with shops like Relic and the other stores he’s visited, “who have a clientele that says I want the best guitar I can possibly have, and they carry enough variety that we can give them that.”
A Fireside Parlor with a Western red cedar top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
A beautifully realized mashup of two iconic guitars.
Reader: Ward Powell
Hometown: Ontario, Canada
Guitar: ES-339 Junior
I’ve always liked unusual guitars. I think it started when I got my first guitar way back in 1976. I bought a '73 Telecaster Deluxe for $200 with money I saved from delivering newspapers.
I really got serious about playing in 1978, the same year the first Van Halen album was released. Eddie Van Halen was a huge influence on me, including how he built and modded guitars. Inspired by Eddie, I basically butchered that Tele. But keep in mind, there was once a time when every vintage guitar was just a used guitar—I still have that Tele, by the way.
I never lost that spirit of wanting guitars that were unique, and have built and modded a few dozen guitars since. When I started G.A.S.-ing simultaneously for a Les Paul Junior and a Casino, I came up with this concept. I found an Epiphone ES-339 locally at a great price. It already had upgraded CTS pots, Kluson tuners, and the frets had been PLEK’d. It even came with a hardshell case. It was cheap because it was a right-handed guitar that had been converted to left handed and all the controls had been moved to the opposite side, so it had five additional holes in the top.
Fortunately, I found a Duesenberg wraparound bridge that used the same post spacing as a Tune-o-matic. I used plug cutters to cut plugs out of baltic birch plywood to fill the 12 holes in the laminated top. I also reshaped the old-style Epiphone headstock. Then, I sanded off the original finish, taped the fretboard, and sprayed the finish using cans of nitro lacquer from Oxford Guitar Supply. Lots of wet sanding and buffing later, the finish was done.
I installed threaded insert bushings for the bridge, so it will never pull out. The pickup is a Mojotone Quiet Coil P-90 and I fabricated a shim from a DIY mold and tinted epoxy to raise the P-90 up closer to the strings. The shim also covers the original humbucker opening. I cut a pickguard out of a blank and heated it slightly to bend it to follow the curvature of the top.
All in all, I'm pretty happy how it turned out! It plays great and sounds even better. And I have something that is unique: an ES-339 Junior.
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