How to Play "Giant Steps" | Easy Guitar Lesson and Improvisation | Adam Rafferty
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 มิ.ย. 2024
- Are you curious, confused, or scared by "Giant Steps" by John Coltrane? I was too - so I understand how you feel.
This started as a "guitar performance" video but when a good friend told me the music was too complex to follow, I decided to put a lesson upfront.
(To skip the "lesson" and just listen to the MUSIC - see the timestamps below.)
A lot of people "enjoy" jazz but are not sure what they are listening to. It's confusing!
So, I hope I can clear some things up for you.
Jazz musicians forget that what sounds obvious to them, is often very confusing to listeners.
Enjoy, and please comment below!
0:00 What's in the video?
1:04 A listener gets confused
1:38 The Curse of the Expert
2:01 John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" - the song and challenge, explained
3:45 Slow and fast version of the main melody (the head)
5:08 How does one improvise over chord changes?
7:12 Melodies that fit the "Coltrane Changes"
9:42 Performance of "GIANT STEPS" - as guitar duo - enjoy!
Guitars Used:
Nylon "Crossover" built by Daniel Zucali (melody & improvisation - red jacket :-) )
guitars.zucali.com
Maton Michael Fix Model (streel string & chord "comping)
maton.com.au/product/ebg808c-...
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Hey Gang - leave a comment if you have questions or just want to say hi! :-)
Hi Adam! Good video. Do it yet:)
Sweet!!! My dying wish is to play at that before I pass
Excellent tutorial straight to the point, no fluff, no filler. 👏👏👏👏
Thank you Mark! 😊
Finaly I found an introduction to this great piece of music, which I understood in total (and I have watched many of them)!
Very well done, thanks a lot!
Nice! A guy at work told me about you. I saw several videos of you. You are great! I love your teaching style. God bless you and Merry Christmas! : )
Oh wow, thank you and Happy Holidays!
Nice explanation. Thanks, Adam
My pleasure!
Nice lesson, mate!
Thank you Mr Rafferty for your precious lesson 😀🙏🙂🙌💎
Thank you Adam for the excellent lessons!
GREAT! This is gold Adam!
Thank you Maestro! :-)
Very nice , always a pleasure seen you playing and talking about .Thank you Master .
Love your TH-cam guitar lessons and learning about jazz this way. Very inspiring, thanks!
I would definitely like more in depth lesson on this tune Adam. Especially a bassline to accompany someone else's improv over this tune(great for a duo setting & jamming with friends) , then more about those line ideas (1-2-3-5..etc) you started to discuss. Thank you!
A great Bassline is what Paul Chamgers did - whole steps down.
So for B D7 G Bb Eb. Play the following Bassline B A G F Eb - this gives a straight melody line which offers a great sense of counterpoint against all the other things happening!
Chambers
Perfect !!
Super cool, Adam -- thanks for this! You make it sound so smooth and melody-driven, which I know requires putting in a lot of time to get to that place where you can "play what you hear. You're the Master! Love the AR duo (particularly keeping the edit through the faces at the end :)
Craig thank you! Yes, it's a deep dig on this tune not to play patterns but to hear stuff, and try to pull it off :-) Thank you thank you thank you!
awesome. thank you.
Just hit subs... Ty.. tytytytytytytytytytytytytytytyyytytutuyuyuyuyytyyytyty🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏. The way you speak is like talking to a toddler learning how to ride bike the 1st time.. and i really² APPRECIATE IT SO MUCH! Ate yngwie from my teenage back in mid 90s. Easy! But stutter on understanding giant steps... Very² much appreciated this sir🙏
Thank you for the lovely comment and groove on
@@adamrafferty i wil. Have been out for almost a week now. Cant get my hand on a single guitar this whole week.. very itchy to try this.. 😁👍
I love this decomposition of a song ! Then see it played together is outstanding. I have always wanted to create all the backing parts and build a play from scratch. Building as I learn and play. Hearing, seeing, feeling and playing. Thanks for all your help !
Thanks Art!
Thanks for this video Adam! I first became a fan of yours when I heard your version of thriller. You inspire to become a better player every time I watch one of your videos. Makes me want to go practice!
Rock on!
Very interesting and helpful. And some nice playing. Thanks.
Thank you!
Two Adams are quite the thing. Very nice music and explanation.
love your teachings. I usually play death metal and this is all very new and interesting to try out and I find it very inspiring.
Great sound, natural and very fluid phrases and an incredible feel on nylon strings !
Thank you!
I going to try to learn this, I have always wanted to. If I do I will take some of your course and adopt you!!
Love the interactions between A.R. & A.R. on this fun track plus love that cool burgundy jacket!! Sybil..........I mean Jim C.!!!
Wow love to hear swinging and such a great sound. Never saw Adam picking this way and it sounds like it’s been his whole life. Very successful rendition. Loved it.
You are too kind :-)
I've been a fan of yours ever since buying your Stevie Wonder DVDs almost years ago. This video is great dude! I personally would love a deep dive on lines and soloing regarding this tune. I've always enjoyed your way of explaining ideas in a way that is simultaneously accessible to lesser experienced players and challenging to more experienced players. Bravo!
Davide - glad you liked the explanation. I do actually have a downloadable course on it already, I made it back in 2006 just as I was getting into fingerstyle and before I had uploaded the first YT video.. It's available here - www.adamrafferty.com/how-to-solo-over-ii-v-i-taught-by-adam-rafferty/. - BUT - I'll probably do some short youtube videos on it if there's enough interest - so the choice is yours!
Groove on! - AR
I really enjoyed this.
Thanks Henry! Did you get the StudyWIthAdam.com sign in issue figured out?
Brilliant...
Thank you!
Nice to hear two Adams again! My dream would be that one day you will play a jazz duo with Walter Rodrigues Jr., my other favorite TH-cam - Guitarist.
Sebastian Denhoff Walter is a friend and is love that too! Maybe!!!!
We did blue bossa as a duo. Go, check it out!
Hey Adam! Great stuff and I clearly hear how it inspired you in your Hippies' Dance - one super-groovy piece of yours that I've been playing for years now and never get tired of)
Oh man, thank you!
You are a Great musician, amazing, i apreciate that your explanation, many thanks. Ciao, Paolo Messina
Thank you!
I have been looking at this song for years, I was too intimidated to try it. YOU are the first person to make it make sense!!!I would love a complete lesson, is that possible?
Hello Adam! Thanks for a great performence and for your offer. Yes I would gladly enjoy a more in depth-lesson with "Giant Steps" including lines & soloing concerts!
Excellent - thanks for letting me know!
its truly amazing; you're literally changing keys while you're soloing , i know its following the song but those key changes look and sound very difficult. Anyways, sounds great and incredible👍🎸🔊💥
You’re too good and I respect you too much. I can’t just lay back and let you make this tune a Norah Jones song.
You’re right, if I had not heard your explanation at the beginning I would have thought you were just hitting random notes on the fretboard
Hi Adam, I knew your work when Henry Olsen has promoted your course on udemy and I really like the way you showed the fingerstyle mode. thanks for doing this great job.
Wow thank you. Henry is a close friend, were were talking earlier today! God bless!
Adam...Youda Man!
Wow! Sounds great! The solo is very melodic. Really like the fingerpicking solo, as an alternative to a pick.
Thanks Monteo! - And let me know if the StudyWIthAdam.com lesson I gave you made sense :-)
Adam Rafferty Yes. My comment must have not come through in the reply section of the lesson.
Best lesson ever! I’m now trying to incorporate more chords into the song. The addition of the chords add so much to the piece. I’m working on the “groove”, the chords, with the reduced counterpoint sprinkled in. This Study With Adam course is a necessity for anyone wanting to improve their playing skills.
Nice one, Adam-- (Ian)
you make this bloody difficult tune sound so easy and groovy. That's the mark of the greater greats !
Thanks & groove on! 😊
Grad to hear. This song, almost 10 years ago made me know you.
A small suggestion..... please, while making tutorials... use a guitar with marked frets. :) thanks for the video. Love it.
I really enjoyed that. Maybe someday I'll understand it! LOL. I've come such a long way thanks to you; not so long ago I wouldn't have dreamed that might be possible. Keep challenging us to open up to musical possibilities!
About that thumb thing: doesn't seem odd at all to me. I came to the same conclusion independently and at the same time. Mine isn't quite as far back as yours, but the principle is the same. I get much better articulation and tone with it. My thumb used to be a Travis-picking hammer, now it's an equal partner with the fingers.
Yes David - you said it right - "equal partner." I may do a vid on this.....keep rockin!
Hi Adam!! It would be great to make a blues improvisation video too
Great idea!
Hey do you mind if I Borrow the line starting at 10:43 its sick as hell and that nylon strong just makes it wild sounding!!
By all means do. A lot of people didn't like this solo so I'm honored you did!
Hi 👋 Adam, Great to hear you play a great Saxophonists Tune! Great Arrangement & Impro & fine wooden sound (Which guitar is the solo one?). I think guitarists can learn a lot of hearing saxxers in timing, phrasing etc. ... (I play both instruments & this song is a real challenge!) So ... keep on groovin‘ ! (Ralf from Munich, heard you some years ago in Ottobrunn/Munich)
Sorry, I found the guitar luthier in the description now 🧐
Great video. Way beyond my level of expertise but I enjoyed it nevertheless 👍.
Thanks Emlyn - now you know how the jazz players solo over the same form & changes - this will help later on!
i understand what your doing adam. play arpeggio n mix in scale tones
Dave - I'll do a lesson on this - it's called "harmonic melody." There are notes in the harmony called harmonic tones, and out of the harmony which are called non-harmonic tones. When you play over changes - like with bebop, you weave through the chord tones. So you think differently than "scales and arpeggios."
Thinking this way - I'd play the bracketed notes as harmonic tones, and others as non harmonic tones, over A-7.
[A] B [C] D [E] F# [G] [A]
It looks like a scale - but that's not what I am thinking when the lines get wiggly. I am thinking harmonic and non harmonic tones.
@@adamrafferty when is the lesson coming? I was playing Giant steps n using the 1235 of each chord is nice, I learned that from Carol Kayes Jazz Improv course, The Chordal Pattern System.,I want to hear Your lesson, bring it on Quick. Much Thanks. Dave Abrams
It’s like watching people try to play Spanish Fly. Almost no one captures the timing and feel.
I've been trying to play this tune for a while without being satisfied with the result. Watching your video I realised I'm on the right way, with the 1 2 3 5 pattern and so on. But, to be honest, my giant steps sounds anyway crap :D
Just keep at it!
I am an advanced Jazz Guitarist and never expected to read "Giant Steps" and "Easy Guitar Lessen" in one and the same Headline...
LOL :-) It's easy when you've practiced it for 10K hours...
Adam! Can you please tell me how to keep my thumb straight when Travispicking. I still have the hold a pencil style. Thanks
Play very light, and slow. Then add weight!
@@adamrafferty Thanks man! Makes sense
Brilliantly arranged & beautifully performed.
Don't get me the wrong way, since I really am a fan of yours, but your right hand technique seems rather questionable. Each time you use your thumb it goes behind i-m-a. Is there any reason why you pick like that? Is this habitual or intentional? Thanks Tom
maybe I'll do a video on it. It's loose and actually works great - but it looks crazy, I know. I studied classical & used to play a conventional technique - I'd never teach / advise anyone do as I do. I can play tirelessly with my thumb like this - it's absolutely hanging loose and the wrist is not tight. I'll probably do a demo video. Email me anytime if you want to ask anything further! - AR
Weeeeell, THEN ... it's easier and harder at the same time! :D So these fast lines are kind of just prepared licks which ... needs to fit those changes, not sound sloppy, have to swing and yet somehow should sound spontaneous and bravehearted. ... Ummm?
Takes some practice and it helps if you're not a jazz noob, correct? :D
Yes and no. Like the blues, you use the runs to make statements and musical sentences so it’s not exactly spitting back licks.
@@adamrafferty Yeah, like babies learn walk and run and also to goo goo gaa gaa before they say their first words then a lot of words then sentences and then there is no stop in them so you have to yell SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!!! :D
Haha, that's a fun way to put it! Just like with music, it all starts with small steps and then becomes a full-on sprint. Thanks for the laugh and the perspective! 😂🎸🎶
FB brought me here.
4:12
Should not be played on a 'steely acoustic' in my opinion.
Goood effort though.
I mean…no judgment…you’re WAY better than I aspire to be. But this isn’t up to speed. That band was cooking at least 20 bpm faster. This sounds all lazy summer day improv.
When John recorded Giant Steps it was like a speed and musical busy-ness statement. Like they were out to EARN it. Not lay around at the beach and enjoy the scenery.
Actually you DO mean judgement 😀 all good brother, I can play this fast and with more notes too.
(i am a jazz guy, but...) i am not a fan of adam when it comes to singlestring playing. solo chorus number 3 > bar 9-13 (11:10) really hurt my ears, sorry to say.....
Hmm the line fit the changes, what didn’t you like? Please describe! 😀
hi adam, always difficult to describe feelings that come from the gut... of course the line fits the changes, and all the rest too. when i listen to your fingerstyle playing i always find little licks & tricks i want to add to my reportoire because i like them. i checked again to the whole solo and there is nothing i'd be eager to know how to play. maybe i listened too much to other players? or maybe its just because you stand out so much as a fingerstyle player? this solo sounds all polished/fitting the changes/laid back/refined (and boring) to me. maybe throw in some sparks virtuosity once in a while?
@@adamrafferty Nothing wrong with the line. I've been jamming this song for 40 years.