Guitarists can learn a lot by dissecting the art of articulation.
Advanced
Advanced
• Develop a more fluid jazz time-feel by using hammer-ons and pull-offs.
• Create flowing, legato-based lines.
• Understand how to navigate tricky harmonic passages.
John Coltrane was a titan of jazz saxophone and an improvisor of unparalleled genius. Every jazz musician since has had to confront his instrumental prowess and musical legacy. In this lesson, we'll relate elements of his improvisational material to the guitar. His note choices are frequently addressed and much of his music is available in transcriptions, but authentic phrasing is not often attempted by guitarists. After all, jazz isn't just about what you say, it's how you say it.
Before we dig into the nuts and bolts of this lesson, let's listen to few essential Coltrane tracks to get our ears right. First, we have his classic tour-de-force, "Giant Steps." For decades this has been the pinnacle of how to play over fast-moving changes.
John Coltrane - Giant Steps (2020 Remaster) [Official Audio]
On the complete opposite side of the harmonic spectrum is "Impressions," which is a contrafact based on Miles Davis' "So What." Here's a live performance of the two-chord tune with his classic quartet.
John Coltrane Quartet - Impressions.
One of the most crucial aspects of Coltrane's articulation is the slurring of upbeat notes to downbeat notes. For guitarists, this means that we pick notes on the "ands" and hammer on, pull-off, or slide to notes on the downbeats. Pro: This gives the music an undeniable jazz feel and convincing phrasing. Con: Fingerings can be challenging and unorthodox.
Let's begin with Ex. 1, a I-VIm–IIm–V7 line in Bb, like we'd hear in "Rhythm" changes. This particular lick has typical bebop-type chromatic approach tones. As luck would have it, this lick fits well on the guitar, so it's a good introduction to Coltrane's articulation technique.
Coltrane for Guitar Ex. 1
Here's another line in Bb (Ex. 2), this one necessitates moving around the neck a bit more to make the articulations work. Again, we hear bebop language, but the superimposed Gb triad (Gb–Bb–Db) on top of the F7 chord is a Coltrane-esque development.
Coltrane for Guitar Ex. 2
Diminished licks are often discussed in Coltrane studies, so it's good to have a few patterns under your fingers. The obvious place to use such lines is over 13b9 chords. The fingering in Ex. 3 isn't the easiest way to play these notes, but it allows for the most authentic phrasing.
Coltrane for Guitar Ex. 3
You can't enter Coltrane's world without mastery of all sorts of chordal and scalar fundamentals. He practiced obsessively and had tremendous technique. Ex. 4 is in G minor takes a motive and moves it diatonically down the G Dorian mode (G–A–Bb–C–D–E–F). This implies the harmony of a series of diatonic chords. Try hybrid picking here. The fingering stays on the top three strings for a consistent approach and highlights that pattern-based thinking.
Coltrane for Guitar Ex. 4
One of Coltrane's notable developments was his harmonically adventurous series of substitutions that have become known as "Coltrane" changes. You hear this harmonic gauntlet on tunes such as "Countdown," "Giant Steps," and a few other standards that Coltrane would reharmonize. The tempos are fast, and the changes are relentless. Ex. 5 covers three somewhat distant key centers: B, Eb, and G in a matter of a few measures.
Coltrane used a combination of bebop language and purely diatonic patterns to navigate these progressions. We hear use of the infamous 1–2–3–5 patterns on many chords as well as simple triadic lines. This is the first example where it's impractical to adapt Coltrane's articulation to the guitar consistently.
Coltrane for Guitar Ex. 5
Ex. 6 is another lick you can use in a "Giant Steps" setting. Again, we do the best we can at capturing the Coltrane spirit without going totally crazy trying get every slur.
Coltrane for Guitar Ex. 6
Coltrane's modal playing is legendarily epic. He went on extended explorations the likes of which were never heard before in jazz or Western music. Ex. 7 has a Dorian flavor, but Coltrane is not one to be strictly limited to the mode, so notice the use of b7 and natural 7 (C and C#) in this lick.
Coltrane for Guitar Ex. 7
Ex. 8 is representative of Coltrane's development of gestural ideas—in this case a rising arpeggio-like idea that begins on an upbeat. Listen to his early '60s live work, where his solos could last ten minutes or more.
Coltrane for Guitar Ex. 8
Here's a particularly stretchy idea (Ex. 9), but if you keep your fretting-hand thumb low on the neck, it will allow your hand to "open-up" to the extended reach that's required. The ending is interesting because it has a hint of bebop approach tones in an otherwise modal setting.
Coltrane for Guitar Ex. 9
If you listen carefully to Coltrane's improvisations on a C minor blues, you'll hear that he doesn't treat the tonic chord modally, i.e., as a minor 7 chord—at least not exclusively. Instead, he thinks of it as a more tonal sound: Cm, Cm6, or Cm6/9. That accounts for his many melodic minor-based ideas in "Mr. P.C." for example. (As is typical in jazz, melodic minor is used in its ascending form, often called the "jazz minor.") To achieve a consistent articulation and match his phrasing, we can employ a rather guitaristic move down the neck here (Ex. 10).
Coltrane for Guitar Ex. 10
Sometimes Coltrane will use grand, sweeping gestures that are all legato (Ex. 11). On guitar, we do what we can—hammer-ons and three-note-per string ideas work well to emulate his licks, as in this excerpt from a C minor blues.
Coltrane for Guitar Ex. 11
Of course, this is hardly a complete overview of Coltrane's contributions to the language of jazz improvisation. Above all, deep listening is a required step in the process. Once you get the sound of Coltrane's articulations in your ear it will be much easier to get that sound out of your hands.
Melbourne native Tash Sultana is a force-of-nature performer who has mastered guitar, drums, trumpet, keys, and other instruments, and a wide variety of genres, to create their own genre-blending style.
Tash Sultana talks to us about their new album, Terra Firma, and—wuhoo!—returning to the stage in 2021.
Australian guitarist Tash Sultana's demeanor suggests that they have always known who they are. There's no shyness about how they speak their mind—cursing freely in interviews, declaring what they're passionate about, and frankly—though not abrasively—stating when they're not willing to speak on a topic. That freedom of expression is matched only by their devotion to their craft—which involves picking “over everything."
The new album Terra Firma is a product of that devotion. It also makes a bit of a departure from the loop-based jams Sultana is known for, exploring new combinations of styles across several genres. It's dreamy, undulating, and amorphous, weaving R&B, funk, folk, rock, and hip-hop textures across 14 tracks with moods the depth of oceanic trenches. Pun intended, as, mid-interview, Sultana expressed appreciation for a Frank Ocean comparison. Much like Ocean, the guitarist achieves something that speaks to their artistic vision alone.
Sultana is a self-described loner. That makes total sense, since they're a multi-instrumentalist who plays 20 instruments including trumpet, flute, and saxophone, and typically writes, performs, records, and produces all of their own music. Which is why it's notable that on Terra Firma, they invited collaboration for the first time, namely with fellow Australian Recording Industry Award-winning musician Matt Corby and New Zealand-based producer Dann Hume (Courtney Barnett, Amy Shark, Angus & Julia Stone). Together, they spent 10 days writing—an endeavor that resulted in four songs on the album—“Crop Circles," “Greed," “Beyond the Pine," and “Pretty Lady." They come in that order following the first track, helping to set the hybrid-genre, soulful, ethereal tone that continues throughout the rest of the album.
We spoke with Sultana over Zoom—and Australian fauna could be heard chirping in the background—10 days before Terra Firma was released. They were preparing for the live shows—yes, actual live shows—allowed in Australia and planned for the album's release week, and were “really fucking stressed about it."
“It's a little bit daunting," Sultana said, “because you have to relearn all the ropes that you know, but have got cobwebs on." But, when asked if they would be nervous, they replied, “No. I'll be a little fucking firecracker. I'll probably literally fucking explode or some shit." Read on see why that description fits right in with Sultana's unflinching, audacious energy.
So, tell me about the process of making the album.
It was the best fucking thing that I've ever done in my life, actually. I've never, ever tried so hard to achieve something, ever. Like, for real. I mean, the whole international lockdown was, for me, an experience that I really needed. Because initially what last year was meant to look like was…. I was meant to have a record out in May. And I was also meant to do six months of overseas touring in between trying to record this record. And that would have been absolutely fucked. The record would have sounded like absolute shit. The record probably would have had two songs on it, with the time I [had] to get it done. So the slate was wiped clean, and I spent more than 200 days on Terra Firma. From October until the following October, I was in the studio four to six days a week. Sometimes, I'd get there like 10 in the morning and leave at 2 in the morning, or I'd come in midday and leave at 3 in the morning, and I'd do that constantly. That was just what I ate every single fucking day.
Is that usually the way you like to work?
I'm a bit of a studio rat, to be honest. I'm a bit of a loner. If I'm going to spend time, I like to spend it kind of alone. I'll go for a surf, then commit to a full day of jamming or recording or rehearsing—that type of thing. I suppose sometimes it gets a little bit stressful because I've got this full-on OCD attitude when I do stuff. I don't do anything half-assed.
Would you say that idea of being a loner is reflected in how independent you are with your music?
Yeah. Well, I think anyone can do it. It's just about where you put all your passion, time, focus, spirit, energy … all of that. Which direction are you going in? For me it was just music and it was just about getting better. It's this thing that I'll never ever fully achieve, because the finish line just keeps getting further and further away. It's about being better than you were a week ago. Or acquiring more knowledge than you had a week ago, or a month ago, or a year ago. That's what it's about, and realizing you're not the best and you're not better than anyone else. It's just a personal journey, and that's it.
I know that this album was the first time you opened yourself up to collaboration, and you wrote with Matt Corby and Dann Hume. How did that happen?
Matt and I have known each other for quite a few years, and initially it just started out as a jam session back in 2016. And then he sent me a track a couple years later, of his, and he said “I would love for you to be the person that finishes this." I was really honored by that. I did that collab and shortly after that I did a similar thing with Milky Chance. That was the beginning point where I was like—that's actually really fun, to get all your minds together and get a fusion of styles and create something because it's the essence of everybody in the room.
TIDBIT: Sultana's new album was kickstarted by a 10-day writing spree with collaborators Matt Corby and Dann Hume. Sultana calls the result “a fusion of brains in the room."
Then, when it came to the beginning process of writing and recording, I had a couple of songs that I didn't really think were good enough. And we planned to do a 10-day writing session. It wasn't even for the purpose of writing anything for the record. It was just literally to get together and have some fun. And whatever happens in the room, I'll just decide later what I would like to do with those songs. And there ended up being four. Some of them I'd already written but there were some things that I couldn't figure out, and that all just fleshed out when we were together. It was a really awesome experience. The fact that we got that much done in 10 days is fucked. But yeah, Matt's just a really nice spirit; he's a really lovely guy and an incredibly underrated musician, really and truly.
We got the bones of something in the 10 days, and then I was left with everything for months following, so I changed a lot on some of those songs. Like time signature, key, tempo, flipped verses, changed choruses, changed the drums—I did a whole bunch of shit. But I wouldn't have even got to that point without the fusion of brains in the room in the first place.
What song on the album are you the most proud of?
“Blame It on Society."
Guitars
Fender Custom Shop StratocastersEric Johnson Signature Series Stratocaster
Richie Kotzen Signature Series Telecaster
Gretsch Electromatic
Fender Jazz Bass
Amps and Effects
Kemper ProfilerAxe-Fx
Strings
D'Addario EXL110 (.010–.46, for electrics)Elixir Phosphor Bronze (acoustics)
Because of the message?
That I'll never give away. That's going to be fun for everyone who starts interviewing me after this record comes out, because I'm not giving away the rest of the record.
[Laughs] Ok, fine with me. Did this album have a broader concept behind it?
I wrote the entire record as a piece of music, so they all flow from one to the next. I started it off with an instrumental with a sonic palette that I've used in every single song. I introduce the horns, strings, drums, beats, guitar, and synths. That set the pace and the sonic palette for the following songs.
What program did you use to record?
I use Pro Tools for this, but I also use Ableton Live and a lot of MIDI as well. Predominantly the entire record was done in Pro Tools.
I find Ableton to have a very unintimidating interface.
It's not intimidating until you start getting into [Program Change and Control Change] fucking messages, as in MIDI mapping and all that type of shit. Because all of the stuff that I use for my live rig, that's all custom and MIDI, and that shit is confusing when you're trying to program your fucking macro effects on a bloody keyboard and then you start hearing the kick drum coming out of somewhere that it shouldn't be. You're just like “Oh my god, what the fuck have I just done."
What's your live setup like?
[Laughs] I don't even know where to begin with that. I've been in the studio for the last few days with my production manager, just programming some new shit. It's turning these studio tracks into the live versions of themselves. But I suppose, in a very general sense, it's a custom design to have full separation across everything that's played—all effects, all instruments. Everything. And all of the sounds are entirely digital. I do not use any [analog] amps ever.
Sultana's main guitars are three Fender Custom Shop-built Stratocasters. Wanna know what makes these instruments special? That's Sultana's secret.
Another thing to be wary of is what is in your signal chain. What is first, what is second, third, fourth, and all that type of thing. That's really important in determining how things sound. But for me, I've got a hybrid analog and digital pedalboard. It's analog pedals at the beginning of the chain, and then it turns into digital at the end of the chain. The analog pedals are the obvious analog stuff, and the rest is all digital effects processing, so I have amp emulations. And I use a MIDI pedalboard, so every song is its own preset. If I'm playing “Big Smoke," it's going to load the sounds that I've made on the record, and then if I go into “Mystic," it's going to load those sounds. So every song is a different preset to match the tones and effects that I use on the records.
What is your main guitar and what do you like about it?
I've got three main guitars and they're all custom-built Fender Strats. They have a certain fretting and neck radius, and they're also made of a certain wood and they have a specific internal design as in pickups and what not ... but they're all secret [laughs].
Learn more about Tash's influences in this Hooked video she filmed for PG.
What would you say is the guitar's role in your music?
It's the home base. It's the beginning, usually. There's a few songs that are beginning on the synth and whatnot. But that's minimal. In a looping world, it's generally around the guitar. That's the foundation of everything. I also grew up playing so much guitar from such a young age and I just thought that in modern music the guitars were the lacking essence of songs. Like, people were making songs that didn't even have guitar in it, and I just found that really strange.
What's your creative process like?
It really depends on the day [laughs]. I'm literally so many fucking people in one. So that can be conflicting sometimes. It changes the process. If I'm feeling really chill, everything's in the moment. Whereas if I'm feeling stressed, it's kind of like an over-analyzation of shit and that's usually when I do the worst work. But it depends. It all comes as a little thought bubble, and sometimes they all marry up in the end. So I could be humming something and that hum could be the bass line. It'll stem from the guitar or the keys or from the bass or sometimes the beats. They come from different angles and they all meet in the middle.
What are your influences on guitar?
Jimi Hendrix, 100 percent. More so for effect than technicality. I just like that tube scream and the wah type of tinny screeching guitar. But as in like a technical aspect, I would say that John Mayer is a big inspiration—just that jazzy blues approach to playing. Then if you look at the acoustic guitar—when I was younger, well, I still am, but when I was younger I was very inspired by how John Butler played the acoustic guitar. He's fantastic and he's also a really lovely person.
With Sultana's rock 'n' roll energy, wide stylistic embrace, and exciting playing, they have redefined the concept of what a one-person show can achieve. This shot's from Shaky Knees 2019. Photo by Chris Kies
What are your influences in general?
To be honest, actually, Frank Ocean. I think that is some really strange, new age, ethereal kind of funk soul. I don't know what that is. I love that shit. I love Erykah Badu. And Bon Iver. Then, if we go back in time, I really love the arrangements and composition and sounds of '70s funk. I like Aretha Franklin and I like the Isley Brothers, and Marvin Gaye, and all that type of stuff. That's the type of drums that I like to hear.
I know you busked as a teenager. How did that inform your musicianship?
It was more like, “take no shit," to be honest. Because ... you're on the street, right? You're literally performing a show that no one fucking asked for. It's about winning the crowd over. And you come across all walks of life. So you'd have your business people, drunk people, people that were high on whatever the fuck they were high on, school students, elderly. And it used to be the best part of the day, bringing all those groups of people together to stop for a moment during their commute or whatever the fuck they were doing or wherever they were going. That was the best—that forced oneness. We all went in it, we all enjoyed it and it was some of the best parts of my life.
And that oneness you then recreate with the audience that chooses to be there when you do your live shows.
Which is also really sick, to be honest. There's nothing higher than the feeling that I get when being onstage. That's the highest point. There's nothing higher than that.
The week of Terra Firma's release, Tash Sultana performed a set in Australia for the Fortnite Championship Series. Here you can watch them build the album's opening track, “Musk," from the ground up, creating a smooth, soulful, and larger-than-life vibe that, amazingly, is coming from just one person. Oh … and Sultana plays everything, of course, from Stratocaster to trumpet.
Tremolo and phase modulation mingle, mix, and respond dynamically to your picking.
Be sure to check out our Pigtronix reviews: