Research Paper Year 4

Arjun Desai

Jazz and Contemporary Music

6th October 2019

Thesis subject: An approach to guitar pedagogy and discipline from the stand-

point of other instruments and their scope of rhythmic, melodic, harmonic as well

as physical material.

Jazz guitar pedagogy is a very recent phenomenon dating back less than a century to

1926 ( Eddie Lang, Charlie Christian). Prior to this there exists information to aid in clas-

sical guitar development by Andres Segovia amongst others. In the current climate, the

craft of jazz guitar is constantly evolving aided by technology, amplification. In the 70’s

onwards the pianistic approach on guitar was being developed along with a horn like

approach aided by overdriven sounds.

The purpose of this article is from the perspective of a person who’s delved in different

instruments (Drums, Bass, Trumpet and Piano) to translate pedagogy from the rich her-

itage of these instruments to the electric guitar.

Within the pedagogy of the Drums there exists rudiments, stick technique(rebound/

push pull, Moeller) and limb coordination not to mention the universe of possibility in

subdivisions and groupings. There exists a lot of transferable information within these.

Research Paper Year 4

Some information such as rudiments applied to guitar, polyrhythms with both voices in

conjunction with a melodic/ harmonic aspect could be demonstrated using this

method.

On a brass instrument such as the trumpet there also exists platitudes of information

from Jean Baptiste Arban, Schlossberg, Herbert L Clarke amongst others. The princi-

ples of technique can be used as a basis for this.

Conceptually, brass musicians think more vertically and the ascending line differs very

little from the descending motion which is completely different from the guitar as an as-

cending line would require hammer ons and descending would use pull offs which is a

completely different technique. These lead to slight differences in timbre which is also

an area brass players refine endlessly. Alternate technical studies and exercises may be

developed pertaining to guitar and how one might develop a uniformity of sound in this

aspect.