5 Must Know Barney Kessel Licks

5 Must Know Barney Kessel Licks www.mattwarnockguitar.com Barney Kessel was one of the greatest jazz guitarist that ever lived, and he left us with a lifetime’s worth of material to study as jazz guitarists in his recorded output. In today’s lesson, we’ll be looking at 5 classic Barney Kessel Licks that explore various aspects of Barney’s improvisational approach to 7th, m7 and ii V I chords in both a diatonic and chromatic fashion. Check these licks out in the woodshed and break them down in order to get a bit of a Barney vibe in your playing this week, and make sure to check the practice guide at the end of this lesson to help you dig deeper into each of these licks in the practice room.

Barney Kessel Licks 1 As you will find this chord in Blues, ii-V-I’s and many other jazz situations, learning how to solo over Dominant 7th chords is an essential skill to develop when studying jazz guitar. Barney had a deep vocabulary when it came to 7th chords, and in this Kessel-inspired phrase, you can see an enclosure over the first three notes, as well as lower neighbors being used in bar three of the phrase. The last thing to notice and explore further in this phrase, is the use of various rhythmic durations, such as 8th notes, quarter notes, and mixing those two durations together. Mixing common jazz guitar rhythms together in this way was not only a characteristic of Barney’s soloing approach, but it is an easy way to break things up and prevent your lines from becoming rhythmically predictable.

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Click to hear audio for Barney Kessel Licks 1

Barney Kessel Licks 2 Here is another G7 Barney-inspired lick that adds in a number of chromatic notes that bring a “tension and release” vibe to this line. Notice the enclosure at the start of the line, the passing F# in the third measure, the enclosure that resolves to the first beat of bar four, as well as the lower neighbor A# on the & of 1 in that same bar. When exploring this lick in the practice room, make sure to take these smaller ideas outside this phrase and work them separately in order to develop an understanding of the building blocks of this phrase, not just the lick itself, allowing you to build your own lines using jazz guitar scales, arpeggios and chromatic patterns. Click to hear audio for Barney Kessel Licks 2


Barney Kessel Licks 3 As well as digging into 7th chords, learning how to solo over Minor 7th chords is also an essential part of any developing jazz guitarists’ practice routine. Here is a Barney-inspired phrase that outlines a Dm7 chord, with mostly diatonic notes apart from the C#, which is part of an enclosure, in the opening 3 notes of the phrase. Note the mixture of scale sections, as in bar one, and arpeggio phrases, as in bar two, that prevents the line from becoming monotonous while not stepping outside the basic sounds of the chord at the same time. Click to hear audio for Barney Kessel Licks 3

Barney Kessel Licks 4 We’ll now take a look at a Barney lick played over a ii V I Jazz Guitar Chord Progression. This line uses the Dm7 arpeggio in bar one, fairly basic approach, that then leads into a chromatic line in bar two, which adds passing notes between the 5th and 6th, as well as between the 7th and root of the G7 chord. The last item to notice, is the large interval skips in bar three and four. Barney was a big fan of large interval leaps in his solos, and so using 6ths, and 7ths between notes in your licks is a great way to bring a Barney vibe to your jazz guitar solos and phrases.


Click to hear audio for Barney Kessel Licks 4

Barney Kessel Licks 5 The last Barney Kessel ii V I Jazz Guitar Lick that we’ll take a look at uses a few interesting arpeggios that are a staple of the Bebop guitarist’s vocabulary. Notice the use of the G7 arpeggio that starts in bar one, before resolving on the downbeat to bar two. Superimposing the V7 chord over the iim7 chord is a common technique used by many jazz guitarists over the decades to add color to the iim7 chord without stepping outside the diatonic key center. As well, there is a 3 to b9 arpeggio that builds a bit of tension in the second half of bar two, before it is resolved to the note G, the 5th of Cmaj7, on the downbeat of bar three in this phrase. Click to hear audio for Barney Kessel Licks 5


Practicing Barney Kessel Licks To help you get started with these five Barney-inspired jazz guitar licks, here are five exercises that I like to teach and use myself when learning these, or any, jazz guitar licks in the practice room. 1. Sing the root notes of the underlying chord(s) and play the lick on guitar on top of that root note, repeat in 12 keys. 2. Improvise over a Jazz Blues Chord Progression and use the 7th chord licks from this lesson as the basis for your lines over those changes. 3. Solo over a modal tune such as Maiden Voyage, So What or Milestones, and use the m7 lick in this lesson as the basis for your lines over those tunes. 4. Play a solo over a ii V I chord progression, using a backing track, and use the licks in this lesson as the basis for your lines. 5. Begin to alter any/all of the licks in this lesson by adding in notes, taking notes away, changing the rhythms etc, so that you begin to take these licks off the page and make them your own in your solos. Barney was a master player, leaving us with many legendary recordings during his long and illustrious career. By studying these, and other, Barney Kessel Licks, you can get into the head of this master player, dissect his approach to jazz guitar soloing, and bring those ideas into your own playing as you continue to learn how to play jazz guitar. Do you have a question or comment about this lesson? Visit the Matt Warnock Guitar Facebook Page or Matt Warnock Guitar Twitter Page and post your thoughts, I’ll be happy to answer any questions that you have.


5 Must Know Barney Kessel Licks

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