PlayJazzGuitar.com Forum

[Nadav]

Hi

well... i'm pretty young(16) but not bad as a player the thing is i'm playing a trio now and we have a pretty serious gig ahead of us a little sooner than we expected. so far i've been managing my way through the tough job of filling spaces with music and working a lot on inversions for that matter. the good thing is I have realy incredibale bassist and drummer with me and. now I was wondering if anyone has some tips for playing a guitar trio, stuff I should work on and so on? to make it all sound a bit better?
I might put here some samples of us playing and you'll be able to get a notion of how we sound.

Thanks

[alex hunter]

great stuff! Im afraid that im quite hopeless, but i would like to hear what advice others give.
Actualy one bit of advice would be to listen to many trio albums. Guitarwise there is john scofield's new album enroute. Joe pass trio and pat metheny 99-00. All the dogs bollocks.
Try some piano trio stuff, keith jarrett standards volume 1 to a million should be good, aswell as bill evans, ahmad jamal and hundreds of others. Listen mostly to how they change the mood of tunes and their brilliant listening skills and arrangements.
Most importantly keep jamming with your pals as you will soon develop amazing rappore, maybe even telepathy!

[Nadav]

were pretty close friends and i also talked to my guitar teacher today and said to just wait a while( also in my playing) to have space so everything will be more relaxed and i'll be able to listen. I listend to enroute, awsom record though now i'm leaning towards more traditional jazz.
I listen to joe a lot and evas' sunday at the village vengaurd almost doesn't leave my stereo ( :

Thanks man

[paddy116]

I have been playing in trios now for quite a long time, but mostly in a rock and blues context, so it is a little different than a jazz trio. But one thing that I have found, no matter what style I am playing, is that you have to put yourself out there with confidence. Hit everything like you mean it! If you hold back, the listener will feel it. And listen to everything going on around you. The drummer might hit some crazy roll that will spur some other musical line from the bassist which will in turn inspire you to play something else. Always have your ears open.

[Ronjazz]

Working on some fingerstyle approaches is a great way to fill out a trio set. Lenny Breau had a great self-comping style. Playing the guitar as a horn will leave harmonic holes, so play it as a guitar, less of a problem. Also, consider the architecture of your solos, starting spare and bulding to octaves and chords, a la Wes Montgomery. Spend time on your sound as well. The typical dead flat jazz sound is less appealing to modern listeners than if you use some reverb and even a little delay. I've had a trio gig on Thursday nights for years, and I find that using a Roland guitar synth is a nice way to create some orchestral interest for a non-jazz crowd. Anyway, best of luck...

[Nadav]

about the effects and stuff, now it's not the thing i'm in to. I workes a lot with effects a while back( rack systems,pedals and stuff) so i'm now off those things...
about the fingerstyle an chord melodies, so the Heads work out fine and we do some nice arrangments and stuff, my biggest problem now is realy playing a solo and filling it with chords.

[Nadav]

I *worked