Tea Break - Giant Steps
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- Опубликовано: 4 сен 2024
- Internationally renowned jazz guitarist Martin Taylor shares his creative process on John Coltrane's Giant Steps
This is the best guitar lesson of all time, revealing a master jazz improvisor's process and attitude, taste and musicality. And I LOVE what he says about speed: "not only is it difficult for the musician to improvise at that speed, it's very difficult for the listener to listen at that speed!" That quote should be branded into the foreheads of every jazz musician - those who care about the listener" - Dr Richard Niles (Record Producer & Music Educator)
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You have been my teacher for many years, I have study deeply all you have taught, and have changed my playing into a playful free expressive pro level performer, really thank you! You are the best.
This 'Tea break' is actually a Masterclass! Thanks for sharing your creative process Martin.
AGREED! And great to see that making a few fluffs along the way is part of the process.
@@smileyfdave Yes, and making a few "fluffs" is part of being human. So it's not only a great musical lesson, but also a great example of how someone can put their ego aside, focus on the message and expose their vulnerable humanity and the precious gifts they have to offer!
Just want to say Martin that I think you were a Godsend to Stephane Grappelli and really prolonged his career by being some one he really loved to play with. There's several generations of Jazz Violinists now that, Oh My, Really could have benefited from this type of instruction if only You Tube had been around and Steph could have done what you are doing. As a Jazz Violinist myself, I hope I can find a guitarist like your self to jump start and prolong my career. Cheers. Oh, and as a post note I should say I have your book "Walking Bass for Jazz Guitar" and am learning it on both the guitar and the violin. I was amazed at how your chords and Ideas work on the violin. Cheers, and God bless! Beautiful rendition of an awkward song.
That’s one of the best versions of Giant Steps I’ve heard. A lot more musical than usual.
So soulful... yes most musicians blast through these tunes and you're left feeling like it was an exercise but this idea of syncopation, inflections, new changes... so nice..
Martin - you have been my inspiration ever since the Serabanda album in the 80's. Your approach on optimizing what's possible on the guitar is equivalent to what Bob Ross did with paintings. You tell a story in such a beautiful way. You are my favorite guitarist- and a beautiful human being. Safe travels ....
Excellent point about memorizing tab vs. actually learning a song.
Joe's gone, but we've still got Martin.
Fantastic!
Every time I hear Martin play, I feel a sense of great love and gratitude.
Hope he comes to Worcester again soon! 🙏
I love the relaxed, natural presentation. It's very interesting to get a peek in the "laboratory" and "under the surface" as all the pieces of the puzzle are placed together. Especially so with a tune like this. Thank you for sharing Martin.
Delightful!
Your slowest rendition - immediately before the Earth Wind & Fire notion - reminded me (in v different moments) of Ray Charles & Aldo Pärt. Charles could slow a piece down to breathholding tempos and, in so doing, lay bare the arrangement, lyric, & performance, exposing every nuance. Legend has it that some members of his touring band had trouble "keeping down" with him & could be fired for that failing.
Pärt, similarly given to slower tempos, could also denude a composition, suspending listeners with each exquisite note. His composition Fratres (which appears in several variations) exemplifies this skill.
Giant Steps has so much to offer yet, as you correctly point out, most performances has listeners trying to keep up. Your approach in this demonstration gives time and space for listeners to luxuriate in the changes and appreciate the less obvious subtleties the composition & its performance have to offer.
All which is to say: Delightful!
What an amazing accomplishment, certainly a wonderful use of your talent. 👏👏👏👏
Thanks for sharing.
Always a feast for ears, when you play Martin
I love seeing how a solo guitar arrangement of yours comes together 👍
Never listened to this song so slowly and I must say that I like very much this kind of feel. 👍🏼
An awesome guitar player and an awesome teacher.
Bravo Martin, your process is as inspirational as your playing!
Thanks for sharing the process. That was inspiring in so many ways. To be able to follow the steps that a master musician goes through is a priceless lesson!
Hi Martin, saw you play at Flambards in Cambridge in the early 80's and always admired your playing. If Giant Steps is like the Tour De France, I guess you could use 'pedal point' theory!
This is totally awesome. Thanks for the break down. So interesting how everything is split into smaller pieces and put together in a new creative form with lots of other interesting ingredients. :-) Thanks
Ur a one of a kind human being Marto
WOW!!! Joe Pass reincarnation. You sir is amazing. I've learned from you the process of imprinting improvised ideas and you showed me the right way when learning Giant Steps from slow using different inversions of Giant Steps to fast tempo improvisation. I came across your channel serindipitously. Thank God, now I need to listen to all of your videos. BTW if you must know, I'm a musician for years and performed all over the world. I give credit when it's due to exceptional players. I haven't played for years after college. My hat is off to you. Your playing inspired me to open my guitar case. Not too many guitarists motivate me, but there are very few exceptions eg. Joe Pass, Lenny Breau, Chet Atkins and of course, you sir.
This was great. Howard Roberts moved the melody in a a similar way, in a band setting. Thx for this. That guitar sounds really nice. The volume to amp setting is perfect for youtube. Your interpretation, and that section you've added, the bluesy interlude, its is GREAT.
Awesome. The best, the most enjoyable RUclips video about Giant Steps I ever seen. I too often feel that the song - although is very mesmerizing when I see musicians played it with very fast virtuosic ways like Coltrane did or similar, but it - also can be very beautiful, if not more, more enjoyable, more fun, when played slow. (I even often played it) as a 3/4 too,.. and/or other modifications to it, (and to add part like bridge, or etc. is inspirational too, indeed). Thank you Martin Taylor.
the slow Version is just a lovely pwace of music. I wish you had played that in Freiburg at the ZMF last Sunday
A triumph of musicality over lickmongery! Thx 🙏
I really appreciate you choosing musicality over speed in this approach to playing Giant Steps. Often times musicians are judged by how fast they can cram as many notes as possible into a bar, and that it presented as a good thing. The musicality of what is then essentially a demonstration of mechanical or technical prowess is completely lost on me.
This was a good example of how I think music should be played. Thanks.
Thank you friend, you've inspired an old picker to get back on that horse.
What a masterful arrangement that says something. An old dog can learn new tricks.
and who is the old dog?
You feel like an old friend, Martin, if I may say so. I first saw you play in a barn attached to a farmhouse out in the hills in South Shropshire, just you and Peter Ind, in about 1981 or 1982, great gig. And then again at Ronnie Scott's in Birmingham about ten years later during its short life. I also have an album of you and Ike Isaacs from god knows when.Thanks for all the great music.
Wow! Sonic bliss! Thank you for sharing your magic! Enjoy your travels Martin! Best wishes ❤
Just sat down to enjoy a fine Earl Great Black Tea and what do I find... Martin Taylor's Tea Break! Enjoyed the playing along with my tea... thank you Sir Martin.
Martin, it is so amazing to hear your thought process as you sculpt your version of Giant Steps. What a unique spin. The bridge that you are adding gives it some depth. Might you consider modifying it a tad? IMHO it seems an E9 or even better E13 should follow the Bmin. Using the E7 sounds just a little bit Country mixing genres.
Martin, I saw you live twice, once at a club across from Windsor Castle in May 1998 where you invited a French accordion player up at the end. Then in Portland, Oregon around 2006 with a Scottish singer/guitarist. Very great memories from both concerts. In Portland I remember you telling the story about your first job getting the gig on the ocean liner where you told them you could read music and thought that by the time they figured out otherwise you would be at sea and it would be too late to do anything about it.
Sounds so great as usual. I love how you break things down and build them up. Sorry I'll miss Big Indian. God Bless
Absolutely amazing stuff ❤
Keep going with this! I can honestly say this is could be the most enjoyable version of this tune I’ve encountered. You’ve brought the music back to ‘Giant Steps’ Great to see the process of chord melody and line improvisation
Giant steps is one of the first albums that got me into jazz, it's special!
Thanks so much for this virtual 'hang' with you Martin. A pleasant morning for me (Giant Steps, well, I'll get that one BACK OUT again now...after setting it aside a couple times in my day :-) )
Coltrane would be proud. Your improvisation is a treat. Chord changes are intricate but you make it look easy of course
Good to see you healthy and performing Martin. Stay safe!
You always have the greatest Tone!
Marvelous, I could listen to Martin endlessly.
Thanks. That was fantastic. I appreciate the insight into your process, your talent, and your agreeable self. Cheers.
The OG CGP Martin/mr Taylor...thank you for sharing these skills with people. What a gift man. Hot jazz brother. THE OG CGP.
Best tea break ever thank you, lovely to listen to the processes
Mesmerizing lesson...excellent way of explaining...a lot of stuff to work with a lot of it above my my head ...but a great adventure...thanks!
Thanks so much for letting us into your "laboratory" and showing us the process. What a great lesson. Thanks for your openness and generosity!
People will critique anything, this was honestly refreshing and I couldn't agree more in regard to music being more about emotions than technicalities
WHAT a great wonderful guitar-sound! ... CHEERS from Austria!
Ah!!! Good to know you ARE able to 'do gigs'!! And going to Bilbao too. Here in Colombo we are still needing to remain cautious and confined. Vaccine is done done...but , we are urged to remain almost isolated. I was interested to dig in here, because of seeing "Giant Steps" in the title. By the way, wonder what tea you are imbibing!!!!!!
Gday martin I met you in Melbourne when you did a workshop for Bruce Clarke at the musos union many years ago and you wrote some nice words at the time of his death. Lovely to see you looking well and doing your thing. Love hearing and learning from your work. 🦘🦘🦘
Caution - genius at work!!!
Love the way you break it down. Of course your melodic playing adds a beautiful dimension to the progression. Thanks for doing this!
Great 👌🤗Thanks😊
Speed and technical ability is not what music is about - it's about conveying feelings and emotions. Speed and technical ability alone can be impressive, but if it isn't musical then it's just finger gymnastics. My favorite musicians usually play at a slower vocal-like tempo, singing through their instruments. So many of the guitar greats bore me, because despite their technical virtuosity, they aren't compelling in a musical way. Maybe I'm not sophisticated enough to appreciate it, but great art to me shouldn't need to be understood, it should be self-evident and hit the heart chakra. When I saw Muddy Waters in Tucson back in the late-1970's, he tore my heart out of my chest.....!
I don't agree at all. Some music does require an ear to be unpacked, and it is more rewarding that way. It took me years to figure out Holdsworth for example, compared to say Gambale whose harmonic language is very self-evident. Speed and technique are like the vocabulary of language, they are required to be a proficient musician, there is no skipping it. A good book requires good vocabulary but a good vocabulary doesn't guarantee a good book. The same is true in music.
Great insight into the creative process by the master.
The workings of a fine artistic mind
It's like Bob Ross' painting. I'm constantly thinking "You really messed up this time, no way it will become a stone!" And then it's a beautiful and creative piece of music.
More like Michelangelo or Raphael, Bob Ross made awful trite painting available to the retarded masses.
@@WS-ij1fu Raphael became a thing, because he discovered how to use perspective, so his paintings appeared three-dimensional. Bob Ross' paints that way without any helping tricks. We know for sure, because we can see it.
@@bakters Where can you see his Paintings ? He never sold any and there are none in any gallery. Raphael was famous for his line and colour not his use of perspective. The one thing Ross did for painting was to destroy his own shite.
@@WS-ij1fu "Raphael was famous for his line and colour not his use of perspective."
Art appreciation without historical context is a weird approach. Look at preraphaelites, and you'll see that they had colors all right, but what they couldn't do, was paint a 3D picture.
@@bakters Art appreciation and Bob Ross in the same discussion is fucking weird.
So great! Totally agree with you on Giant Steps. Almost every time I've heard it live it sounded like an exercise. Incidentally, Seven Steps to Heaven is the same...it's incredibly beautiful played as a ballad. Really really gorgeous.
You are a master...appreciate you sir 🙏
Wow. Great stuff. Coltrane is a favorite of mine. Thanks.
This is a great lesson. It’s how I am approaching learning piano, too.
So nice to watch the under the hood work being put in ! Awesome
we love you Martin! thanks for sharing these
Basically it's an exercise in showing how II-V-I sequences can be used as modulation tools.* And the three main chord centres were picked to be equally spaced from each other, (in the cycle of fifths/fourths) so that they are in (Sort of!) unrelated, or distant key centres from each other. This makes it hard to improvise over, as the changes occur so quickly, that standard scales/arpeggios don't "fit" with each other easily as notes from one scale don't fit in easily with the ones in the next chord change. Thus its status as an improvisational "challenge" or "rite of passage" for the aspiring jazzer!
This of course amplified by the speed that it is played at. The original Coltrane recording is played at almost breakneck speed, partially because Coltrane COULD play it at that speed, which is of course not necessarily "the best". The story that the original recording, done without much rehearsal, at least as far as the rest of the band were concerned is legendary, including the belief that Tommy Flanagan (on piano) was blindsided by this and failed to solo fluently over the "Changes"(!) is also well known. Whether or not that is true, is a matter for debate!
Coltrane himself, had obviously created this chord sequence with some thought, and so was prepared for the improvisational challenges.
* the II-V-I can be used as a precursor to almost any abrupt key change, that's why it's all over the world of Jazz songs. One of the best tools in the book!
I’m pretty sure Coltrane was inspired by the bridge of “Have You Met Miss Jones”. Dividing the octave by major thirds.
Trane practiced his tune for two years before recording! Yes Tommy even with Perfect Pitch had some issues but better then most on the only session to do it! Trane managed to show feeling and have a story telling quality in his performing of his tune!
I studied with Sandole (Trane's teacher). Minor third root movement was a big topic. I would learn the three tonal centers and how to navigate the odd harmonic structure with them.
man when you threw in the bassline ... insanee
Saw Martin few years ago with Tommy Emanuel. Was amazing!!!!
Wow, just wow! I'm still in the laboratory.... lol... I have a transcription of Coltrane's solo. If you play it slow at the tempo you are, it's really quite beautiful. Btw... nice groove.... you truly are a master!
Beautiful sound and gorgeous guitar. Very nice show all round! Cheers brother!
Magic
Awesome to follow along in your creative process, thanks so much for sharing !
Great guitarist, lovely guy.
You are one of favorite guitar players. Thank you for sharing your process. I want to take some lessons with you
Thank you for the very nice lesson Martin, as players we're always looking to fill in gaps in our knowledge.
Thanks so much. Great talk!
Thank you for the chat Martin. Illuminating.
Grande Martin!!! 🙏 grazie
Thanks Martin, that is a fantastic insight into your workings…magic.
Ohh ... it's really helpful for me to improve my study
Thanks, Martin 😉👍🙏
Thank you Martin!
I have to comment on the beautiful tone of your instrument. I wish I could afford one.
Jesse van Ruller you mentioned is a great guitarist as well. Would be wonderful to see you here again in the US. I met you in Seattle Washington at the Jazz Alley several years ago between one of your sets. I haven't washed my right hand since we shook hands then LOL. You are such a wonderful and humble human being. I'm in Phoenix, AZ now and there's an amazing Musical Instruments Museum here that often feature world class musicians such as yourself at their music hall. Maybe one day... To me Giant Steps is sometimes more difficult to play at a slow tempo.
It sounds absolutely amazing !!!
So great to see your working process, so motivating & inspiring. Thanks !!!
Thank you.!!!👍🎸
Mr. Taylor is obviously a fantastic player. He comes across as a pleasant man, relaxed, convivial and - a true lover and teacher of the instrument . With that said - I would not put up with the insane bureaucratic b.s. we now have to go through in order to travel, no matter how strong my desire to perform. My way of thinking about it is - if this is how the world is going to be now, I want no part of it. My freedoms have been stripped from me and the government is selling pieces of it back to me if I meet all their conditions. Well, I'm not buying. But I'm glad Martin Taylor is willing to have a cup of tea with us and impart his guitar wisdom. Much appreciated
Man I wish I had a modicum of this guy’s talent.
How this "doesn't" remind me of Metheny's "Sirabahorn" 🤣.
Thank you, Martin Taylor, for the insight you've generously provided into your thinking.
The Good Book says we should seek "Wisdom as Silver". Your contribution shouldn't be underestimated 😎🎶🎶🎶
molto bello caro martin!
Thank you for shearing your knowleg¡dge and experience. You are a master!
Amazing ! Thank you Martin
PERFECT!
Genius!
Very intersting method to develop new music interpretations. I´m just a engineer in love with music. really apreciate your wisdom. I´m going to interiorize all your insights.
What an appropriate name for a guitarist.
We’re just luvin that Bm ! I’ve often thought similarly about this tune too - in the sense that it’s more interesting to play ‘reverse psychology’ with it, slow it down and de-escalate the madness - really nicely put wee vid Martin ..but don't let that cuppa go cold now! 😄🎻🎸
Love this cat ! Great Guitar !
Very nice stuff, enjoyed listening!