Review: Alex Skolnick's Jazz Guitar: Breaking the Traditional Barriers

For a rock and metal guitar player like myself approaching jazz guitar can be a daunting task. The chords, scales and rhythms can seem overwhelming and can be so intimidating that many guitarists simply give up before getting a handle on this music. So when The Rock House Method www.rockhousemethod.com asked me to review this new DVD set I was pretty excited.

Alex Skolnick is a great metal and rock guitarist best known for his playing in Testament. Alex has branched out musically though to study jazz guitar and head his own jazz trio " The Alex Skolnick Trio". He has even arranged metal classics for Jazz guitar. One example included on this DVD is the Scorpions tune "Still Loving You" which features a lesson as well as a live performance.

You can read more about the details of the DVD on the rock house site but you get a 3 DVD set which includes a printable PDF tab e-book with all the musical examples ( over 50 pages). You also get some great online extras that Rock House is known for inlcuding downloadable backing tracks, extra lessons and free lifetime membership to their members only website. For those of you on the go the set includes ipod ready video.

What I loved about this video was the quality and clarity of the instruction. Alex is really a great teacher. He clearly explains each concept and presents the material in a logical order that allows you to steadily build on prior lessons. He begins with some blues progressions and expands into standard jazz progressions like the ii-V-I and traditional jazz changes. He breaks down the basics of triads and modes and show you the fundamentals of using these in a jazz context.  The examples build in complexity and introduce concepts like chromaticism and targeting chord tones and playing over changes. Many examples on the DVD include a trio playing  the examples first with Alex and again with no guitar so you can practice over them.

Then he breaks down a classic Jazz Standard "Autumn Leaves" with a look at both the chord changes and a solo. The arrangement is explained very clearly and Alex demonstrates how and why the chords and solos are arranged. The DVD also touches on other Jazz Rhythms and how Alex arranges.

My only criticism of the DVD was that the tab did not include standard notation. I think especially with the more complex examples it would have helped to learn the phrasing quicker. In fairness though more complex examples are broken down slowly and Alex explains the phrasing well.

I would recommend this DVD to any rock and metal players who want to branch into Jazz guitar and are not quite sure where to start. I think this is suitable for beginner/intermediate to intermediate level guitarists. Alex clearly has some Jazz chops as the live performances attest to. I hope his schedule allows for a Jazz Guitar II that can continue where this leaves off.

On a side note I've been caught up in world cup fever so the regular guitar licks have gotten a bit delayed. Six hours of football daily can definitely eat up the free time. Thanks for being patient.

DADGAD Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Lick #5

Our final DADGAD acoustic guitar lick is made up of a simple fingerstyle pattern using lots of out available open strings. It ends with a little pull off lick. In the video I resolve this to a A note which is not in the guitar
tab notation.

DADGAD Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Lick #4

Our fourth DADGAD acoustic guitar lick this week is a short little lick that may be useful for an intro to a song. It uses some hammer on and pull offs to add a little bit of speed to the lick. Pretty basic but I enjoy this type of sound on acoustic.

DADGAD Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Lick #3

Our third DADGAD acoustic guitar lick is based on a lick I came up with from a voicing of the Dadd9 chord. I am a big fan of Guitar Techniques magazine and Stuart Ryan has a current column called "Celtic Guitar". I'm in Canada so I am always a few issues behind but in the latest issue I have he uses a cool  voicing of a Dadd9 chord in an arrangement of a Turlough O'Carolan song. I liked the sound of this voicing so I started my guitar lick of with this chord played in single notes. After that I tried to come up with a celtic flavored sound that was basic yet sounded interesting.

DADGAD Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Lick #2

Our second DADGAD acoustic guitar lick again utilizes the open string possibilites this tuning prvoides. This is a basic fingerstyle lick that uses some double stops and hammer on and slides.

DADGAD Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Lick #1

It's DADGAD tuning acoustic fingerstyle guitar licks for this week. Our first guitar lick is a triplet based pattern that takes advantage of the open strings this tuning allows. DADGAD tuning is a popular acoustic guitar tuning where the high and low E strings are down tuned to a D and the second string is dropped from a B to and A note.

DADGAD Acoustic Guitar Lick

Next week were are going to look at acoustic guitar licks using DADGAD tuning.DADGAD tuning is a popular acoustic guitar tuning where the high and low E strings are down tuned to a D and the second string is dropped from a B to and A note. I came up with an interesting cross picking guitar lick that  I thought sounded cool. When you are playing this note that the fretting hand index finger is reserved to play the F# on the high D string. The licks for next week are all played fingerstyle in contrast to this one that is played with a pick.

Tremolo Picking Guitar Lick

Today's guitar lick uses tremolo picking. We are still using the E minor scale and the backing track we have been looking at all week. Tremolo picking involves rapidly picking the same note. The best  example I can think of to demonstrate true mastery of this guitar technique is Eddie Van Halen's tremolo picking run in "Eruption" from Van Halen's first album.



If you are interested here is a guitar improv I did using some of the licks we have looked at this week over the backing track:

Have a great weekend!

E Minor Scale Guitar Lick#3

Another guitar lick based around the E Minor scale played over the same backing track we've been looking at all week. Drums courtesy of Sonoma Wireworks Riffworks Instant Drummer.

E Minor Scale Guitar Lick#2

Today's guitar lick is again based around the E Minor scale. It is played over the same backing track we have been looking at this week which is a repeating bassline using E Minor. The drums are courtesy of Sonoma Wireworks Riffworks Instant Drummer. I based this lick around a 16th note pattern but notice in the video I alter the speed a little bit so it floats over the beat near the end of the lick.

E Minor Pentatonic Scale Guitar Lick

Today's guitar lick is played over the same backing track as yesterday which is a repeating bass pattern using the E Minor Scale. Drums are courtesy of Sonoma Woreworks Riffworks Instant Drummer. A pretty basic guitar lick using the main pattern of the Minor Pentatonic scale and adding notes from the minor scale esp the F#.