GENERAL NOTES Playing over unusual unusual time signatures signatures can be daunting, because the familiar rhythmic rhy thmic signposts are different. The “shape” of 4/4 is second nature to most of us, but we often have trouble relaxing over other time signatures. We play carefully, counting the beats and trying to fit our phrases around the 5, 7 or whatever. But this can make you sound awkward. You’d never play like this in 4/4, starting every phrase on “1” and ending on “4”, right? We play across beats, across bars, starting and ending phrases on different different beats. The goal is to do this with odd time signatures, and this comes with practice, so we hope you can learn from Guthrie’s solos here. LICK1 All these licks are in A minor, minor, and Guthrie uses two t wo main scales as a basic framework... A Dorian (A B C D E F# G) and minor pentatonic (A C D E G). In the first phrase here, he adds the flat 5th (Eb) to the minor pentatonic pentatonic for a bluesy sound. Note how he shifts briefly into a little “outside” “outside” phrase in measure 3, quickly resolving by shifting down again to Dorian notes.
5/4 LICK 1
As recorded by jamtrackcentral.com
P
(From the 2015 Album 20 ODD-TIME LICKS: 5/4) = 132
Am7
V eV V V V V V k j u M
I 45
1
8va
k gVu V V V V V V V V V V V V fV M M MO M
1/4
10 11 10
T
8
10
10
1/2
8
1/2
14 (14) 14 12
1/2
1/2
14 15 14 14 (14) 12 13
13 12 13
A B
H
P
P
P
H
H
P
e V V V e V V f V V V V V V g V V V e V f V V VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV V V V V V V I 8va
