this is a good idea. all you need is a starting point - the single note. from there you'll know where to go. the problems with the caged and 3nps is the tendency to be boxed according to the positions. too; much thought is required, relatively speaking, to figure out where you are. and, they are too "prescribed". time and again i've seen players completely lost when they can't recognize where they are or should be based on caged and 3nps. they do have value, but not useful for beginners or even intermediate players. in my own, 45 years on the neck opinion, a sufficient yet simpler method is far better and leads to much better and faster understandings and function. my own method was scale based, but tweaked to my brain and personality. basically, i learned the major scale, BUT one octave only. take a note, A for example, and play the octave where ever there's an A. stick to the standard 3 string pattern at first, then vary from form to form, but always one octave only. after a bit it settles into your dna, and begins to make sense. when the major scale takes root, all other theory falls into place easily. after a while the stacking of octaves, extending them and chopping them up, becomes intuitive. arpeggios, modes, whatever, is easily grasped from spot to spot. a beginner can take the one octave after some practices, and recognize his micro environment on the neck where ever he/she is at anytime. its far easier than learning full grown multi octave monstrosities. with only one octave, you can always find out where you are and where to go. but it's more than merely navigation. it reinforces the meaning and function of intervals. it has very little sex appeal compared to all the boxes and shit, but it builds knowledge and confidence at a faster, more long lasting pace. moreover, folks will stick with it longer. a lot of people can play the major scale, but they don't know the major scale. christaan's method here, based on chords and the key tones, folds right into my own majorscale thing. i like it. well done!
Thanks, yes I think it's very important to show where following my methods has brought me. In fact I recommend before you follow any particular method of a teacher, first search for videos where they are performing something. If you don't love that or are completely underwhelmed don't follow those methods! If you can't find any performance or complete solos... well... that speaks volumes I would think!
Great system! This is pretty similar to how I've ended up visualizing chords as well. I wonder how you think about diminished chords within this approach?
Thanks, dim chords have 4 positions starting on each chord tone. Half dim is an inversion of minor so I just use the minor positions for those (e.g. Am7b5 = Cm).
Interesting approach. I have already studied scales and arpeggios but I think you make a strong point about learning scales and arpeggios horizontally along each string. I agree with your statement that your approach adds a powerful extra tool to a player’s arsenal of ways to play chord changes.
Yes I know what you are saying Christiaan. I loved your loops video, found the exercises extremely helpful. I painstakingly learned all the scales, arpeggios, notes of the neck and while good to know those alone really don't help you sound like your playing anything but scales, arpeggios, etc. I would say that knowing you start a diminished chord on the b9 Maj 3, 5th or -7 of a dominant chord would be a helpful guide in using the loops. I think your method may be a big time saver and more direct for a lot of people who want to sound good and have fun playing Gypsy jazz. I think it's safe to assume Django would have had a similar method.
I like what you are saying, but it ends up looking a lot like a CAGED system -- you have named your positions by the chord note on which you place the index finger on the high E string. We can translate between a CAGED system and your system. Here I give the position of your index finger for each CAGED position: C pattern -- 3rd for major, 5th for relative minor A pattern -- 5th for major, ♭7th for relative minor G pattern -- 6th for major, 1st for relative minor E pattern -- 1st for major, ♭3rd for relative minor D pattern -- 9th for major, 4th for relative minor So I think you are mostly using "CAGE", but when you place your pinky on the ♯9 on the B string, that's the D pattern (relative minor), so don't you end up with CAGED? I think, in the end, we all arrive at the same place. There are different ways of thinking about it, different perspectives. We may climb up different sides of the mountain, but there's only one mountain and when we get to the top, we're in the same place. For example, Pat Metheny recounts his one meeting with Wes Montgomery when he was a kid. Wes gave him the following advice: learn every note on every string. Metheny says he did that. You are saying that you didn't do it. But you're a great player anyway. I saw Martin Miller in a video saying that he always knows what note he is playing, kinda like Montgomery, I guess. But I've also seen a George Benson instructional video where Benson plays a long series of notes and chords and at the end he says, "Let's see, what key was that in?", then he looks at his finger and says "it was in G." Clearly, Benson was making a point -- he plays by relative pitch and he isn't thinking about note names and key signatures while he is playing. That said, I'm not sure that Metheny or Montgomery or Martin Miller are really thinking about note names while they are performing! Why would they? They know the notes, but isn't improvisational guitar playing really about patterns of both position (string, fret) and sound and not about note names? For me it is all about patterns. I see no way out of that. I think we agree on that.
Hi Christiaan great video! Can you offer some advice for playing the melody to the B section of Double Jeu up to tempo? I feel like my pick is 'tripping over itself' when I try to play it up to speed, I am trying to cross the strings like Stochelo using downstrokes. Thanks Matthew
Great concepts Christiaan - self learned the same way you have explained so do not know much about theory and nothing about scales. Have learned basics of notes - as you mention - but more about the "sound" and where that sound is on the fretboard and tuning my ear to what am listening to at the time. Of course, being creative and find new things on your own is a good self-motivator.
Very interesting Christiaan, at a time when I've been studying and monotonously practising 3 notes per string, after years of conventional scales. I learnt by ear (albeit 40 years ago) and played without any theory at all. I now have a good understanding of theory, but don't play with other musicians, or to people, which I think is the real key to becoming a better musician. Thanks for another wonderful video and excellent explanation.
@@ChristiaanvanHemert Yes exactly, finding the spots for grace notes. Thank you Christiaan, because of you I could make sense of it some months ago, still learning those pieces (yours and player x y z plus whatever I can come up with) to have them at command. Eventually to modify them at command.
I think it comes down to the question, "Do you have a musical goal and a purpose?" If you don't know what you want to do and where you want to go musically, how could you tell if a system or method or other tool will help you get there? But on the other hand, if you know what you want to do musically, for example outline a 7#9 chord in place of a simpler dominant, it's impossible NOT to find a way to do that and practice it until you're fluent. Where there's a will, there's a way. All these systems provide you with _ways_ to do _something,_ but they don't necessarily provide you with the things you _want_ in music. What do you want? To play scales just for the sake of playing scales? To be able to name modes and theoretical concepts? To pass an exam? To _play fast?_ My answer to this is, you have to have a _gig,_ where you play _songs_ to an _audience._ The more, the better. And for the purpose of playing songs in a juicy, entertaining, touching, dramatic, powerful, fun, sad, happy, groovy, rocking, swinging way, to make people _feel_ things, to make them _dance,_ to make them _laugh_ or _cry,_ to make them _remember_ things... for these purposes you want to do musical things! And that's when you start learning, and when maybe you start to see the "systems" as useful, or not useful, for your musical goals. :)
What's your own experience and history, what was it that drove you into learning the melody lines and fragments in all inversions - you obviously thought that you _need_ to be able to do that? I guess you played with someone and for someone, and those performance situations fueled your desire to learn, at least to some degree? Maybe at least a _dream_ of performing some day? When looking at music students and many UA-cam videos, to me it seems like they're being pushed with a rope, learning scales and modes and all sorts of techniques and theoretical concepts, and I can't help but think, what was all this technical practice and theory for, if they cannot play _songs_ and _melodies_ that move anyone. I say, the gigs and songs have to come first, it's the rope that pulls the needed technique and theory. You can't push with a rope. :)
Christian, you are very correct! I spent years reading theory and then trying to use it to make lines, It Sucks! This makes Way more sense, Know the notes of the chord, have something that works from the 1, the 3, the 5, and 7 Know the melody, and the little nuances of the chords ie: #5, b5, sus 4, (11) , throw in some tritone or dim runs to gain altered sounds, and "You Be Jammin"
hey christiaan ! im very interested in your system. is there any way of getting a printed or e-book version of you system written down purchaseable to learn it ? or do you only teach it by workshops ? I would gladly pay for this information. im getting into GJ and starting out with this method seems pretty interesting for me , best wishes and thanks for your teaching !
There is one other system: George Benson uses is and Django also(so it is incorporated in Gypsie jazz, but still it is tremenously difficult...I am talking vertical playing more like a saxophone player...the idea is to built from same fingers same intervals...and to use those shapes to imrovise with so, the only difference this fixed things is actually to be able to play with tremendous speed arpeggio's but it is possible to play any improvisation in between those vertical shapes it means also thinking in at least two octaves...most guitarist are not using the same fingers for the same intervals so that's where the confusion starts your system I am open to concentrate on the coming years....You sound as I said very musical with beatiful singing sound! Beatiful both Virtuose and Intriguing!
My analysis is that there is lot of classical/violin technique involved in your system...what I like also is the musical approach...you say 1st 3rd and 5th position so muscial functional and not dull 1 2 3 wihtout meaning just ranking number as a rakning number is of course lower in the hierarchie han musical functional numbering! Good advancement of regular guitar technique!...
Haha that minor lick is also played by Stochelo's on minor swing at the Rosenberg academy. But you make some interesting points Christiaan! On one hand I feel like I need to know the fretboard cold (note names, scales, arps) to be a "real player" but that could just be my OCD and black and white thinking. Perhaps I should be more pragmatic. But I like learning about music theory and mapping it to the neck. But I agree it doesn't give you any lines to play.
BTW I know a lot of "real players" that do not know the fretboard "cold" - Stochelo would be one of them. Just shows that knowing the fretboard "cold" might not be the best way of becoming a top player!
@@ChristiaanvanHemert Thanks for the reply! Yeah, good point, I think its also the "unrealistic" image bedroom players have of the top players. That they know everything (in all 12 keys, all over the neck, super ears etc) and you need to know that as well. One of your videos adressed this as well. I really like your pragmatic approach and contrarian viewpoints. In combination of course with the clickbaity headlines and thumbnails :p.
Interesting topic, and your perspective is unique. But you did not pick up the guitar as a musical beginner, correct? I get the distinct impression that your ears (and mind) were already very familiar with the sounds of major and minor chords, scales and arpeggios from practical experience/training with other instruments.
Pat Martino did what Trumpet players have done..minor conversions plus devices. Bottom line is swinging and Blues topped with pianists views of substitutions plus horn like qualities linewise.
The thing of it is working lines over progressions is a direct application to the changes Insted of wondering about the technical names how many three note triads, or 4 note arpeggios there are in a line Music must have melody _ W A Mozart
There are many systems that players develop for themselves, Jimmy Bruno's white keys for example. I think it is best that you discover your own individual system that is more likely to stay with you forever. Your system makes the chord tones immediately available for soloing and comping inversions.
Yes, that seems very reasonable. The only thing I'd like to add is that by learning systems that emphasize scales - especially on guitar - you're setting yourself up to sound very "diatonic" in your soloing, it will take considerable effort to get out of that and you run the risk of being a "diatonic noodler" for life. My system emphasizes learning lines tied to chord tones which will make sure you're outlining the actual chords all the time!
Yes! Your system is a good one and with practice helps to visualize the fretboard from a different and useful perspective. Another example of an individual approach is David Hamburgers Swing Blues Scale. So I think in some way it depends on what style you choose to focus on. I guess the trick is to learn something from each approach you are exposed to then make the whole your own. Thanks for your stimulating videos.
Exactly right and I'm sure same goes for Django. They were just practicing lines over chords and chord progressions. The whole fretboard system/modes/chord-scale thing seem to me like devices to keep teachers busy! Just my opinion of course, I might be wrong!
can someone summarize the system to me? something to do with my attention span, I still don't know exactly what the van system is the way I see it your applying the 3 note form but in a different way. so you choose a key and then play an arpeggio. that marks the root third and the fifth. so using chord melody knowledge you know that for example in the key of C the melody starts on a 5 right? to going bat to the arpeggio we can start on the fifth right then play that pattern. and you can translate it by changing keys. but what my question is when your playing, how do you figure out when to move to another string? and how do you start the melody? your system according to my understanding a melody should start on a fifth on the sixth string right? but you start on other strings as well
It's simple: instead of learning theory just learn phrases you've transcribed or got from my channel and start them around the root, 3rd or 5th of the chord on the high E-string you're playing over. You don't have to start on those note, they are just around the those frets. I'd watch the video again cause I do explain it in this video!
So basically, you for example have 3 positions for a G major chord. If you want to improvise over a G major chord you search for the root, 3rd and 5th on the high e string and then start to play a line from either the root, 3rd or the 5th on the high e string. Correct?
Yes but there's a bit more to it. You search for a line you like (transcribe, or take one from my videos or come up with one yourself) and then you place it in one of those positions - it doesn't have to necessarily start on 1,3 or 5; just that you place the line in one of those positions (it is best however to start your lines either on the high E or B string or the low E or A strings). Check out my loops videos to give you a clearer idea - links in the description of this video! Also take your time finding the best spot and then practice the line like that over and over again until you can play it automatically. Then start experimenting with that line over a chord progression playing it as often as you can. Rinse and repeat!
I think it's hilarious how you don't give a damn about the notes and you play really elegant guitar.I love your playing alot.I really like the chromatic stuff /embellishments you do.You probably don't care!🤣 Thanks so much for sharing this information with me and I transcribed the G violin licks(which if I didn't know my scales and arpeggios, I wouldn't have been able to do)! Not that I'm dissing you.Your approach is very welcome and beautifully inspiring.Now I'm going to TRY some of your guitar ideas anyway I love listening to your music brother, you jamm! thanks so much hope you are well and happy God loves you deeply Shalom 🎸 🔊🏞️🏔️⛰️🎆🎇✨🎊🎉🐕🎈
Thanks Brad! Haha, I do care but - like you said - not about the individual notes and what they mean harmonically (that is vertically compared to a chord). I ONLY care about playing nice lines - which I practice endlessly - played with a nice sound and appealing timing. I think it's not impossible to transcribe without knowing any scales and/orarpeggios. Just slow the music way down and go note-by-note. I mean, Stochelo has figured out tons of Django solos without knowing any scale, arpeggio or note name.
I gues vertical playing is also one scale patern or arpeggio, play it over the hole neck in all positions don't Sizzy about that that and make shure yu play it 130 in 16ths at least 160 is better! 180 is nice!
Also, did you learn violin in the same fashion? Or did you have to suffer like most of us, practicing things that didnt really help until you discovered a better way?
I some times get stuck, when I have figured out a nice line on the keyboards (I am foremost a keyboard player) and then want to transfer it to the guitar. Since I do not know every note on the fret board, unless I play by ear (I do that a lot), it is painfully slow for me to translate. To that end, thinking of writing a Reaper program to map keyboard notes to guitar shapes, figure out which part of the neck works best, learn that shape and then use your method for any key. As alway, great to watch your videos.
Thanks and yeah, it was painfully slow for me in the beginning too. I just sat down with a notation program that could translate notes into TAB and then started out trying different options until I found one that I liked for both my right hand and left hand and started practicing that one lick like crazy. So in the end it really does not matter if figuring out fingerings and picking patterns goes slow, I kind of started enjoying the process of sitting down with a cup of coffee and come to a solution. Now of course it goes much, much because I already have many patterns in my fingers and my technique has improved 100 fold in the past 7 years!
but I don't want to be patronising but your thinking is maybe one straight line to your goal making musi but about those fingerings is still nothing new....drastically new....but it is nice that you have totally your own way to to describe why and how you came up with it..This makes you still the Genius of your system we call that an Exoert System, if it has got a ratio to it...It is not that easy you have realy to check what the realy differences are....I would call it Horizontal merely with vilolin fingering and musical use of the positions(a new aspect) Iyour dim scale is the vertical subject that I noticed I don''t know how much more you do may be a lot You are pretty advanced player...But that is only my surface look I have to go deeper and will try to explore more a bout your way because I want to learn from you...(I come from the Tchechian guitar teaching for classical guitar but there are violin even piano aspects in those techniques...it is actually the universal approach of playing guitar, but I transposed part of those idea's to fingerings for vertical playing...I can play for instance Blue bossa with just one chord shape C m7 shell voicing C Bb(4th string) Eb(3rd) for Dbmaj7 I use Fm7 and for Cm6(NR) I use Am7 and for Ab7 I use Cm7 shape this is the easiest way for a beginner to almost at once play a jazz standard withj just one shape...I studied ideomacy versus pure music(than we a problem with the guitar because it isn't a piano!!! and ergonomy(not on University, but just as aspects I bass my susytem on it a lot built upon the fingering bass of baroque and also lots of jazz manierism of intervallic approach I use...this system is calle magical octave and it made possible to improvise in 1998 for about 1000 people fuges on guitar (Frechen-Colone Festival) because I am not that focused on making money per se I caried on and concentrated also on other things in my life Now I am Back for Jazz and piano to use my knowledge of guitar technique and look how fast I would be able to master the devices known in opaino style(of course there is alo t impossible on guityar and so guitarost know some of them... but what about Voicings guitar will not be in the advantge side of the chord(LOL)...! and made a system for classical impriovisation that;s why
Very interesting system Christiaan. There comes a point where you just can't explain this creative process. That's the nature of improv. That's a nice starting point though.
You're like the Bruce Lee of guitar teaching. Screw all the conventional bull. You teach what is useful for the real guitar world. No kommercial koreographed karate Krap!
Christiaan, Great video as usual. As a trained Violinist, I’m sure you learned all your scales and arpeggios on that instrument. It’s interesting how you approach the guitar; most of the guitarists I know don’t think in terms of positions as you do which I’m pretty sure comes from your violin expertise?
Oh yeah don't be afraid, my Vertical playing isn;t that good..I am still figuring out the holy Grale I gues that Alan Holdsworth plays like that...but that is also different that is way beyond my comprehension I hear that he base everything on maths I like it but that's still light years beyond....Great Inspiration it is!!!!!
I would see that as "arpeggios are part of the lines" but the fact that there are arpeggios in the lines doesn't mean one needs to practice arpeggios in isolation!
Christiaan van Hemert Perhaps. I know the Sinti don’t think as such now, but Django had a deep grasp of harmony and chose chords very carefully. I personally hear him being a very harmonic and arpeggio oriented player. He adored Bach, who certainly wrote many arpeggios. I’m willing to be wrong, but I just feel such a harmonic/lyrical draw from him. The followers I don’t hear as much.
"van Hemert system" Having 3 or 4 positions per chord type and develop lines in those positions. Check my "loops" videos for examples of this (links in the description).
How can you ever create new lines on your own, or even really improvise, if you've been using the same Django lines for decades? I'm not criticizing, just asking.
Good question, I should have addressed that in this video but I do talk about that in plenty of other videos! I have many, many different sources from many different styles. If you browse around my channel you can see videos in which I discuss lines from Bud Powell to Django to Guthrie Trapp to etc. etc. The unique combination of these sources will give me a unique sound because after a while all these lines start to combine in subtle ways! Also you start to alter and embellish the lines which will make them feel like your lines; again this will happen automatically after playing them for 100s of times!
Christiaan hasn't been playing Django lines for decades. I think he started learning guitar less than a decade ago.. so his systems must be pretty effective becaus his playing is great! I understand the point that learning lines in a copy/paste fashion can get in the way of creating fresh, vibrant improvisations. In my experience improvisations only really work when I follow my ears and heart, lines are a last resort, but learning other people's phrases is one of the best ways to develop your playing. It's a case of allowing all these things to absorb into your vocabulary and making them your own.
Yes, like I wrote elsewhere in the comments: "...The whole fretboard system/modes/chord-scale thing seem to me like devices to keep teachers busy!...".
Irrefutable steps to guitar greatness 1. get a good guitar 2. get a good teacher. 3. get the best books. 4. get a metronome or drum machine etc..5. get the recordings, and listen listen listen and transcribe 6. sit your ass down and practice..record yourself, and perform.. a lot... for a long long time with focus and clarity on the specific areas of your playing that represent your style of music and then you will get better. no system is absolute the mathematics and geometry of the guitar and music are nearly infinite it comes down to the willingness to do the hard work with passion and attentiveness to detail and form ... Good vid though....
Thanks and I mostly agree, however I started playing guitar late 2011 so you could go faster by skipping "get the best books" and sometimes even "get a good teacher" if you know where to find good technique exercises (there are many on my channel ;)
I don't know the arpeggios and scales and play the lines all the time. I don't have to understand them, I just have to know what they sound like and which chord progression they fit over!
Perhaps but realize that people like Bireli, Stochelo and Angelo also don't know any scales and/or arpeggios. Listening to and practicing good lines over and over will train your ears to great levels!
@@ChristiaanvanHemert They both started at 5 years old in a gypsy jazz environment and they re both genius'! A little unfair!? No? Anyway i really apreciate your vídeos i just dont understand why you deny some efficients tools! It s not bad to learn scales and arpegios it can be useful when you re not bireli!
this is a good idea.
all you need is a starting point - the single note. from there you'll know where to go.
the problems with the caged and 3nps is the tendency to be boxed according to the positions. too; much thought is required, relatively speaking, to figure out where you are. and, they are too "prescribed".
time and again i've seen players completely lost when they can't recognize where they are or should be based on caged and 3nps.
they do have value, but not useful for beginners or even intermediate players.
in my own, 45 years on the neck opinion, a sufficient yet simpler method is far better and leads to much better and faster understandings and function.
my own method was scale based, but tweaked to my brain and personality. basically, i learned the major scale, BUT one octave only. take a note, A for example, and play the octave where ever there's an A. stick to the standard 3 string pattern at first, then vary from form to form, but always one octave only.
after a bit it settles into your dna, and begins to make sense. when the major scale takes root, all other theory falls into place easily. after a while the stacking of octaves, extending them and chopping them up, becomes intuitive. arpeggios, modes, whatever, is easily grasped from spot to spot.
a beginner can take the one octave after some practices, and recognize his micro environment on the neck where ever he/she is at anytime.
its far easier than learning full grown multi octave monstrosities. with only one octave, you can always find out where you are and where to go.
but it's more than merely navigation. it reinforces the meaning and function of intervals. it has very little sex appeal compared to all the boxes and shit, but it builds knowledge and confidence at a faster, more long lasting pace.
moreover, folks will stick with it longer.
a lot of people can play the major scale, but they don't know the major scale.
christaan's method here, based on chords and the key tones, folds right into my own majorscale thing.
i like it. well done!
Christiaan I find your approach to guitar very insightful and liberating.
Dankjewel Christiaan, ik ga er meteen aan de slag
I appreciate how you start every video with you playing something. It's a good hook.
Thanks, yes I think it's very important to show where following my methods has brought me. In fact I recommend before you follow any particular method of a teacher, first search for videos where they are performing something. If you don't love that or are completely underwhelmed don't follow those methods! If you can't find any performance or complete solos... well... that speaks volumes I would think!
Great system! This is pretty similar to how I've ended up visualizing chords as well. I wonder how you think about diminished chords within this approach?
Thanks, dim chords have 4 positions starting on each chord tone. Half dim is an inversion of minor so I just use the minor positions for those (e.g. Am7b5 = Cm).
Interesting approach. I have already studied scales and arpeggios but I think you make a strong point about learning scales and arpeggios horizontally along each string. I agree with your statement that your approach adds a powerful extra tool to a player’s arsenal of ways to play chord changes.
Great, that's what I mean: no need to "unlearn" anything, just add my system to your bag of tools!
Thanks for this video Christiaan - this is the clearest I've heard you explain how you approach it. Thank you!
Thanks! Yeah, I figured I needed to explain it more clearly. It's actually pretty simple if you think about it!
I like your CD Time's Up. The song writing is really cool interaction between guitar and violin
Great work!
Thanks John!
Yes I know what you are saying Christiaan.
I loved your loops video, found the exercises extremely helpful.
I painstakingly learned all the scales, arpeggios, notes of the neck and while good to know
those alone really don't help you sound like your playing anything but scales, arpeggios, etc.
I would say that knowing you start a diminished chord on the b9 Maj 3, 5th or -7 of a dominant chord
would be a helpful guide in using the loops.
I think your method may be a big time saver and more direct for a lot of people who want to sound good
and have fun playing Gypsy jazz.
I think it's safe to assume Django would have had a similar method.
Thanks Rich, I think you're right about Django!
I like what you are saying, but it ends up looking a lot like a CAGED system -- you have named your positions by the chord note on which you place the index finger on the high E string. We can translate between a CAGED system and your system. Here I give the position of your index finger for each CAGED position:
C pattern -- 3rd for major, 5th for relative minor
A pattern -- 5th for major, ♭7th for relative minor
G pattern -- 6th for major, 1st for relative minor
E pattern -- 1st for major, ♭3rd for relative minor
D pattern -- 9th for major, 4th for relative minor
So I think you are mostly using "CAGE", but when you place your pinky on the ♯9 on the B string, that's the D pattern (relative minor), so don't you end up with CAGED?
I think, in the end, we all arrive at the same place. There are different ways of thinking about it, different perspectives. We may climb up different sides of the mountain, but there's only one mountain and when we get to the top, we're in the same place.
For example, Pat Metheny recounts his one meeting with Wes Montgomery when he was a kid. Wes gave him the following advice: learn every note on every string. Metheny says he did that. You are saying that you didn't do it. But you're a great player anyway. I saw Martin Miller in a video saying that he always knows what note he is playing, kinda like Montgomery, I guess. But I've also seen a George Benson instructional video where Benson plays a long series of notes and chords and at the end he says, "Let's see, what key was that in?", then he looks at his finger and says "it was in G." Clearly, Benson was making a point -- he plays by relative pitch and he isn't thinking about note names and key signatures while he is playing.
That said, I'm not sure that Metheny or Montgomery or Martin Miller are really thinking about note names while they are performing! Why would they? They know the notes, but isn't improvisational guitar playing really about patterns of both position (string, fret) and sound and not about note names? For me it is all about patterns. I see no way out of that. I think we agree on that.
Maybe we should add an F pattern to create CAGFED --- this might be closer to what you are doing:
F pattern -- 7th for major, 9th for relative minor
Hi Christiaan great video!
Can you offer some advice for playing the melody to the B section of Double Jeu up to tempo?
I feel like my pick is 'tripping over itself' when I try to play it up to speed, I am trying to cross the strings like Stochelo using downstrokes.
Thanks
Matthew
Thanks Matthew, yes that is a particularly tricky passage. Just as tricky as something like "Rythme Future". I will make a video about that one soon!
@@ChristiaanvanHemert thanks a lot. I'll look forward to that video!
Great concepts Christiaan - self learned the same way you have explained so do not know much about theory and nothing about scales. Have learned basics of notes - as you mention - but more about the "sound" and where that sound is on the fretboard and tuning my ear to what am listening to at the time. Of course, being creative and find new things on your own is a good self-motivator.
Thanks! It sounds like we're walking the same path!
Very interesting Christiaan, at a time when I've been studying and monotonously practising 3 notes per string, after years of conventional scales. I learnt by ear (albeit 40 years ago) and played without any theory at all. I now have a good understanding of theory, but don't play with other musicians, or to people, which I think is the real key to becoming a better musician. Thanks for another wonderful video and excellent explanation.
You're welcome Stephen. Playing with others is very important for one's development indeed!
Nice. So it's about learning your lego pieces. And making clever pieces.
Yes and then find ways to subtly vary the pieces you know by embellishing!
@@ChristiaanvanHemert Yes exactly, finding the spots for grace notes. Thank you Christiaan, because of you I could make sense of it some months ago, still learning those pieces (yours and player x y z plus whatever I can come up with) to have them at command. Eventually to modify them at command.
Hi Christiaan. What do you think about the usual teaching of playing all you have to learn in 12 keys? Do you find that necessary in guitar?
Beautiful playing and excellent teaching.
I will never stop learning.Great video!
Thanks and in jazz improv we can always keep learning indeed!
I think it comes down to the question, "Do you have a musical goal and a purpose?" If you don't know what you want to do and where you want to go musically, how could you tell if a system or method or other tool will help you get there? But on the other hand, if you know what you want to do musically, for example outline a 7#9 chord in place of a simpler dominant, it's impossible NOT to find a way to do that and practice it until you're fluent. Where there's a will, there's a way. All these systems provide you with _ways_ to do _something,_ but they don't necessarily provide you with the things you _want_ in music. What do you want? To play scales just for the sake of playing scales? To be able to name modes and theoretical concepts? To pass an exam? To _play fast?_
My answer to this is, you have to have a _gig,_ where you play _songs_ to an _audience._ The more, the better. And for the purpose of playing songs in a juicy, entertaining, touching, dramatic, powerful, fun, sad, happy, groovy, rocking, swinging way, to make people _feel_ things, to make them _dance,_ to make them _laugh_ or _cry,_ to make them _remember_ things... for these purposes you want to do musical things! And that's when you start learning, and when maybe you start to see the "systems" as useful, or not useful, for your musical goals. :)
Thanks for contributing your thoughts!
What's your own experience and history, what was it that drove you into learning the melody lines and fragments in all inversions - you obviously thought that you _need_ to be able to do that? I guess you played with someone and for someone, and those performance situations fueled your desire to learn, at least to some degree? Maybe at least a _dream_ of performing some day? When looking at music students and many UA-cam videos, to me it seems like they're being pushed with a rope, learning scales and modes and all sorts of techniques and theoretical concepts, and I can't help but think, what was all this technical practice and theory for, if they cannot play _songs_ and _melodies_ that move anyone. I say, the gigs and songs have to come first, it's the rope that pulls the needed technique and theory. You can't push with a rope. :)
Christian, you are very correct!
I spent years reading theory and then trying to use it to make lines, It Sucks!
This makes Way more sense,
Know the notes of the chord, have something that works from the 1, the 3, the 5, and 7
Know the melody, and the little nuances of the chords ie: #5, b5, sus 4, (11) , throw in some tritone or dim runs to gain altered sounds, and "You Be Jammin"
Sounds good!
hey christiaan !
im very interested in your system. is there any way of getting a printed or e-book version of you system written down purchaseable to learn it ?
or do you only teach it by workshops ? I would gladly pay for this information. im getting into GJ and starting out with this method seems pretty interesting for me , best wishes and thanks for your teaching !
There is one other system: George Benson uses is and Django also(so it is incorporated in Gypsie jazz, but still it is tremenously difficult...I am talking vertical playing more like a saxophone player...the idea is to built from same fingers same intervals...and to use those shapes to imrovise with so, the only difference this fixed things is actually to be able to play with tremendous speed arpeggio's but it is possible to play any improvisation in between those vertical shapes it means also thinking in at least two octaves...most guitarist are not using the same fingers for the same intervals so that's where the confusion starts your system I am open to concentrate on the coming years....You sound as I said very musical with beatiful singing sound! Beatiful both Virtuose and Intriguing!
How do you know GB uses the same fingers and same intervals? AAlso doesn't GB mainly use three fingers for lines?
My analysis is that there is lot of classical/violin technique involved in your system...what I like also is the musical approach...you say 1st 3rd and 5th position so muscial functional and not dull 1 2 3 wihtout meaning just ranking number as a rakning number is of course lower in the hierarchie han musical functional numbering! Good advancement of regular guitar technique!...
Haha that minor lick is also played by Stochelo's on minor swing at the Rosenberg academy.
But you make some interesting points Christiaan! On one hand I feel like I need to know the fretboard cold (note names, scales, arps) to be a "real player" but that could just be my OCD and black and white thinking. Perhaps I should be more pragmatic. But I like learning about music theory and mapping it to the neck. But I agree it doesn't give you any lines to play.
Yeah, it was just the first line that came to mind!
BTW I know a lot of "real players" that do not know the fretboard "cold" - Stochelo would be one of them. Just shows that knowing the fretboard "cold" might not be the best way of becoming a top player!
@@ChristiaanvanHemert Thanks for the reply! Yeah, good point, I think its also the "unrealistic" image bedroom players have of the top players. That they know everything (in all 12 keys, all over the neck, super ears etc) and you need to know that as well. One of your videos adressed this as well. I really like your pragmatic approach and contrarian viewpoints. In combination of course with the clickbaity headlines and thumbnails :p.
Interesting topic, and your perspective is unique.
But you did not pick up the guitar as a musical beginner, correct?
I get the distinct impression that your ears (and mind) were already very familiar with the sounds of major and minor chords, scales and arpeggios from practical experience/training with other instruments.
This is actually like CAGED system, but not restricted to the shape and focus more on solo lines vocabulary
YOU SHOULD DO A VIDEO ON HOW YOU PUT YOUR IDEAS OVER A PDF FORMAT PLEASE!!
Pat Martino did what Trumpet players have done..minor conversions plus devices. Bottom line is swinging and Blues topped with pianists views of substitutions plus horn like qualities linewise.
man its amazing tips thank you so much for share it. by the way i love your guitar sound. what guitar is that?
It's the prototype of the Altamira TD which will be in the market officially within two months. Contact Tommy Davy of DjangoGuitars.com for more info!
And thanks, glad you enjoyed the video!
@@ChristiaanvanHemert thank you so much . i really hope see you in Dublin Ireland in some concert or workshop.
do you have videos of indepth chord construction?
I have some videos about voicings and videos about basic chords for rhythm on my channel!
The thing of it is working lines over progressions is a direct application to the changes
Insted of wondering about the technical names how many three note triads, or 4 note arpeggios there are in a line
Music must have melody _ W A Mozart
3NPS for shredding?...Legato? I try both, but some of the stretches on 3NPS kills my pinkie!
I have a wrist ligament problem and can't stretch that far for 3NPS.
I'm glad that I've found you today!
Welcome to my channel!
There are many systems that players develop for themselves, Jimmy Bruno's white keys for example. I think it is best that you discover your own individual system that is more likely to stay with you forever. Your system makes the chord tones immediately available for soloing and comping inversions.
Yes, that seems very reasonable. The only thing I'd like to add is that by learning systems that emphasize scales - especially on guitar - you're setting yourself up to sound very "diatonic" in your soloing, it will take considerable effort to get out of that and you run the risk of being a "diatonic noodler" for life. My system emphasizes learning lines tied to chord tones which will make sure you're outlining the actual chords all the time!
Yes! Your system is a good one and with practice helps to visualize the fretboard from a different and useful perspective. Another example of an individual approach is David Hamburgers Swing Blues Scale. So I think in some way it depends on what style you choose to focus on. I guess the trick is to learn something from each approach you are exposed to then make the whole your own. Thanks for your stimulating videos.
Wes knew nothing about either and was the master on multiple levels of Jazz guitar!
Exactly right and I'm sure same goes for Django. They were just practicing lines over chords and chord progressions. The whole fretboard system/modes/chord-scale thing seem to me like devices to keep teachers busy! Just my opinion of course, I might be wrong!
can someone summarize the system to me? something to do with my attention span, I still don't know exactly what the van system is
the way I see it your applying the 3 note form but in a different way. so you choose a key and then play an arpeggio. that marks the root third and the fifth. so using chord melody knowledge you know that for example in the key of C the melody starts on a 5 right? to going bat to the arpeggio we can start on the fifth right then play that pattern. and you can translate it by changing keys.
but what my question is when your playing, how do you figure out when to move to another string? and how do you start the melody? your system according to my understanding a melody should start on a fifth on the sixth string right? but you start on other strings as well
It's simple: instead of learning theory just learn phrases you've transcribed or got from my channel and start them around the root, 3rd or 5th of the chord on the high E-string you're playing over. You don't have to start on those note, they are just around the those frets. I'd watch the video again cause I do explain it in this video!
Very interesting!
So basically, you for example have 3 positions for a G major chord.
If you want to improvise over a G major chord you search for the root, 3rd and 5th on the high e string and then start to play a line from either the root, 3rd or the 5th on the high e string.
Correct?
Yes but there's a bit more to it. You search for a line you like (transcribe, or take one from my videos or come up with one yourself) and then you place it in one of those positions - it doesn't have to necessarily start on 1,3 or 5; just that you place the line in one of those positions (it is best however to start your lines either on the high E or B string or the low E or A strings). Check out my loops videos to give you a clearer idea - links in the description of this video!
Also take your time finding the best spot and then practice the line like that over and over again until you can play it automatically. Then start experimenting with that line over a chord progression playing it as often as you can. Rinse and repeat!
@@ChristiaanvanHemert aaah got it!! Just think in 3 or 4 positions and play nice lines there!! Thank you very much!!
Bingo!
I think it's hilarious how you don't give a damn about the notes and you play really elegant guitar.I love your playing alot.I really like the chromatic stuff /embellishments you do.You probably don't care!🤣 Thanks so much for sharing this information with me and I transcribed the G violin licks(which if I didn't know my scales and arpeggios, I wouldn't have been able to do)! Not that I'm dissing you.Your approach is very welcome and beautifully inspiring.Now I'm going to TRY some of your guitar ideas anyway I love listening to your music brother, you jamm! thanks so much hope you are well and happy God loves you deeply Shalom 🎸 🔊🏞️🏔️⛰️🎆🎇✨🎊🎉🐕🎈
Thanks Brad! Haha, I do care but - like you said - not about the individual notes and what they mean harmonically (that is vertically compared to a chord). I ONLY care about playing nice lines - which I practice endlessly - played with a nice sound and appealing timing.
I think it's not impossible to transcribe without knowing any scales and/orarpeggios. Just slow the music way down and go note-by-note. I mean, Stochelo has figured out tons of Django solos without knowing any scale, arpeggio or note name.
I gues vertical playing is also one scale patern or arpeggio, play it over the hole neck in all positions don't Sizzy about that that and make shure yu play it 130 in 16ths at least 160 is better! 180 is nice!
Also, did you learn violin in the same fashion? Or did you have to suffer like most of us, practicing things that didnt really help until you discovered a better way?
Violin I was struggling for a longer time until I discovered the tricks for that instrument. I can teach it easily now!
I some times get stuck, when I have figured out a nice line on the keyboards (I am foremost a keyboard player) and then want to transfer it to the guitar. Since I do not know every note on the fret board, unless I play by ear (I do that a lot), it is painfully slow for me to translate. To that end, thinking of writing a Reaper program to map keyboard notes to guitar shapes, figure out which part of the neck works best, learn that shape and then use your method for any key. As alway, great to watch your videos.
Thanks and yeah, it was painfully slow for me in the beginning too. I just sat down with a notation program that could translate notes into TAB and then started out trying different options until I found one that I liked for both my right hand and left hand and started practicing that one lick like crazy. So in the end it really does not matter if figuring out fingerings and picking patterns goes slow, I kind of started enjoying the process of sitting down with a cup of coffee and come to a solution.
Now of course it goes much, much because I already have many patterns in my fingers and my technique has improved 100 fold in the past 7 years!
but I don't want to be patronising but your thinking is maybe one straight line to your goal making musi but about those fingerings is still nothing new....drastically new....but it is nice that you have totally your own way to to describe why and how you came up with it..This makes you still the Genius of your system we call that an Exoert System, if it has got a ratio to it...It is not that easy you have realy to check what the realy differences are....I would call it Horizontal merely with vilolin fingering and musical use of the positions(a new aspect) Iyour dim scale is the vertical subject that I noticed I don''t know how much more you do may be a lot You are pretty advanced player...But that is only my surface look I have to go deeper and will try to explore more a bout your way because I want to learn from you...(I come from the Tchechian guitar teaching for classical guitar but there are violin even piano aspects in those techniques...it is actually the universal approach of playing guitar, but I transposed part of those idea's to fingerings for vertical playing...I can play for instance Blue bossa with just one chord shape C m7 shell voicing C Bb(4th string) Eb(3rd) for Dbmaj7 I use Fm7 and for Cm6(NR) I use Am7 and for Ab7 I use Cm7 shape this is the easiest way for a beginner to almost at once play a jazz standard withj just one shape...I studied ideomacy versus pure music(than we a problem with the guitar because it isn't a piano!!! and ergonomy(not on University, but just as aspects I bass my susytem on it a lot built upon the fingering bass of baroque and also lots of jazz manierism of intervallic approach I use...this system is calle magical octave and it made possible to improvise in 1998 for about 1000 people fuges on guitar (Frechen-Colone Festival) because I am not that focused on making money per se I caried on and concentrated also on other things in my life Now I am Back for Jazz and piano to use my knowledge of guitar technique and look how fast I would be able to master the devices known in opaino style(of course there is alo t impossible on guityar and so guitarost know some of them... but what about Voicings guitar will not be in the advantge side of the chord(LOL)...!
and made a system for classical impriovisation that;s why
Like the way you think
Thanks!
We all have our own way of seeing the fretboard. I like mine the best ;-)
Very interesting system Christiaan. There comes a point where you just can't explain this creative process. That's the nature of improv. That's a nice starting point though.
Thanks!
You're like the Bruce Lee of guitar teaching. Screw all the conventional bull. You teach what is useful for the real guitar world. No kommercial koreographed karate Krap!
Haha thanks man, that's awesome!
Christiaan, Great video as usual. As a trained Violinist, I’m sure you learned all your scales and arpeggios on that instrument. It’s interesting how you approach the guitar; most of the guitarists I know don’t think in terms of positions as you do which I’m pretty sure comes from your violin expertise?
Oh yeah don't be afraid, my Vertical playing isn;t that good..I am still figuring out the holy Grale I gues that Alan Holdsworth plays like that...but that is also different that is way beyond my comprehension I hear that he base everything on maths I like it but that's still light years beyond....Great Inspiration it is!!!!!
In my first few years of playing guitar, I used something that you might call the "ACE" system.
How does that work?
Yeah, a lot of us skip the G and D shape a fair bit
Django definitely used arpeggios in his solos mixed with lines!
I would see that as "arpeggios are part of the lines" but the fact that there are arpeggios in the lines doesn't mean one needs to practice arpeggios in isolation!
Christiaan van Hemert Perhaps. I know the Sinti don’t think as such now, but Django had a deep grasp of harmony and chose chords very carefully. I personally hear him being a very harmonic and arpeggio oriented player. He adored Bach, who certainly wrote many arpeggios. I’m willing to be wrong, but I just feel such a harmonic/lyrical draw from him. The followers I don’t hear as much.
What is the van Hermert system again? 😨
"van Hemert system" Having 3 or 4 positions per chord type and develop lines in those positions. Check my "loops" videos for examples of this (links in the description).
Thanks I'll give it a go
You're welcome!
How can you ever create new lines on your own, or even really improvise, if you've been using the same Django lines for decades? I'm not criticizing, just asking.
Good question, I should have addressed that in this video but I do talk about that in plenty of other videos! I have many, many different sources from many different styles. If you browse around my channel you can see videos in which I discuss lines from Bud Powell to Django to Guthrie Trapp to etc. etc. The unique combination of these sources will give me a unique sound because after a while all these lines start to combine in subtle ways! Also you start to alter and embellish the lines which will make them feel like your lines; again this will happen automatically after playing them for 100s of times!
Christiaan hasn't been playing Django lines for decades. I think he started learning guitar less than a decade ago.. so his systems must be pretty effective becaus his playing is great! I understand the point that learning lines in a copy/paste fashion can get in the way of creating fresh, vibrant improvisations. In my experience improvisations only really work when I follow my ears and heart, lines are a last resort, but learning other people's phrases is one of the best ways to develop your playing. It's a case of allowing all these things to absorb into your vocabulary and making them your own.
still chord style but in a different way of thinking
"They both suck!!!" Lmao!!!
:D
I think its called "inversion", not "van hemert" lol
Tabs
There's a metric ton of TABS available on my Patreon. Link in the description of this video!
@@ChristiaanvanHemert A metric ton! There's definitely a lot there!
I would like to have your pragmatism.
Just go for it! The rule is: only practice something if it has DIRECT application in your lead playing!
I think teachers overcomplicate things and students practice some things because they think they should do this or that, instead of playing music.
Yes, like I wrote elsewhere in the comments: "...The whole fretboard system/modes/chord-scale thing seem to me like devices to keep teachers busy!...".
Irrefutable steps to guitar greatness 1. get a good guitar 2. get a good teacher. 3. get the best books. 4. get a metronome or drum machine etc..5. get the recordings, and listen listen listen and transcribe 6. sit your ass down and practice..record yourself, and perform.. a lot... for a long long time with focus and clarity on the specific areas of your playing that represent your style of music and then you will get better. no system is absolute the mathematics and geometry of the guitar and music are nearly infinite it comes down to the willingness to do the hard work with passion and attentiveness to detail and form ... Good vid though....
Thanks and I mostly agree, however I started playing guitar late 2011 so you could go faster by skipping "get the best books" and sometimes even "get a good teacher" if you know where to find good technique exercises (there are many on my channel ;)
To understand the lines you need to know the scales and arpegios!
I don't know the arpeggios and scales and play the lines all the time. I don't have to understand them, I just have to know what they sound like and which chord progression they fit over!
@@ChristiaanvanHemert Aren t you a good violín player? It helps! Think about real jazz beginners it is really harder for them to hear like you.
Perhaps but realize that people like Bireli, Stochelo and Angelo also don't know any scales and/or arpeggios. Listening to and practicing good lines over and over will train your ears to great levels!
@@ChristiaanvanHemert They both started at 5 years old in a gypsy jazz environment and they re both genius'!
A little unfair!? No?
Anyway i really apreciate your vídeos i just dont understand why you deny some efficients tools! It s not bad to learn scales and arpegios it can be useful when you re not bireli!
Because I think it's useless, but agree to disagree!