Ben Eunson: Course Notes

 About Ben Eunson

Ben Eunson is a prominent guitar voice in the New York City music scene. He has played alongside a wide variety of artists, including Terri Lyne Carrington, Queen Latifah, Valerie Simpson, Dave Liebman, David Weiss, Myron Walden, Questlove, Marcus Strickland, Lalah Hathaway, Lizz Wright, Raymond Angry and Dave Chappelle. He has toured extensively throughout the US and worldwide, performing at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Detroit Jazz Festival, and The Hollywood Bowl, as well as performing in London, Iceland, Switzerland, Morocco, Turkey, Hong Kong and Australia. Eunson released his debut recording “Autumn” in 2015. He currently resides in New York City.

PickUp | An Introduction to Modern Jazz Guitar by Ben Eunson

Master Class Outline

Welcome to Ben Eunson's master class, An Introduction to Modern Jazz Guitar . Use is handbook alongside the videos in your online master class. If you’re an advanced player, look out for bonus material, under the Go Deeper headings. The course is divided up into three sections: Part 1 is Technique & Ideas. In this section, we'll discuss some basic concepts relating to scales, arpeggios and intervals. You'll be able to take these ideas and implement them in your own playing style right away. In Part 2, Harmonic Concepts, we're going to delve into some more complex concepts relating to Cadences, Harmonic Superimposition and Tonal Centers. All of which you'll be able to  practically apply to your own playing style over time. Part 3 is Songs and Studies – a collection of compositions Ben wrote that will combine elements of everything covered in the course. The videos for these lessons are broken into bite size chunks – you'll be able to progress through them quickly but we encourage you to take your time to absorb and apply the concepts on your guitar.  Ben Says, “Before we start, I want to encourage you to take this material, and find your own use for it. We all naturally have our own musical ideas, and at the end of the day, no matter how much you may try to sound like someone else, you will (for the most part) still sound like yourself. So the best thing to do is to have fun with this material – figure out which parts of the course resonate best with you and your own personal vision, and then try to make it your own.”

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Warming Up with 2-String Arpeggios This exercise will enable you to fluently play any 7 th Chord (4-note) arpeggio over 3 octaves,  played in the legato style that I use. Let's start with the G Major 7 arpeggio, for which the 4 notes are G, B, D and F#. Let's begin by trying an example that comfortably fits the shape of your hand without a lot of stretching.

Wider stretches in 2-Note Arpeggios As there are 4 notes in this arpeggio, there are 4 potential starting points on the low E string. Out of the notes G, B, D and F#, we started with an arpeggio pattern that began on the note F#, as it presents a pattern that is quite comfortable for the left hand. However, if we start on the root note G instead, we cover a broader range of the guitar neck, and simultaneously create a great left hand stretch exercise in the process.

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Go Deeper: Additional Arpeggios Since we have four possible starting points from the Low E String, we have seen two different  patterns which have started from the notes F# and G (respectively) so far. Let’s look at a third pattern, this time starting from the note B, on the 7th fret on the low E string.

 Now let’s look at the fourth and final pattern for the arpeggio G major 7, this time starting from the note D, on the 10th fret of the low E string. This also functions as a great left-hand stretch exercise.

This covers all possible 2-string arpeggio fingerings for the G major 7 arpeggio. As the notes of the fretboard begin to repeat themselves up one octave from the 12th fret onward, you can of course repeat the same fingerings up the octave, for as far as your fretboard extends. This concept works with any 4-note arpeggio, in any key. So far, we’ve looked at the G major 7 arpeggio. However, this exact concept could be applied to any Dominant 7, Minor 7, Half-Diminished, or Diminished 7 arpeggio, to name a few. For example, the notes in a G minor 7 Arpeggio are: G, Bb, D, and F.  Further Examples

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To give you an example of how this concept works for a different type of arpeggio, here are four places you can play a G minor 7 arpeggio below the 12th fret. ● ● ● ●

The first fingering will begin on the note F The second fingering will begin on the note G The third fingering will begin on the note Bb The fourth fingering will begin on the note D

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Scales in Intervals –3rds Intervals are a very important part of music. The arpeggios that we just played are comprised of intervals. A melody that you might sing or play is also built on intervals. One way that you can  begin knowing intervals better is by breaking up scales that you already know into interval  patterns. You can break up a scale into literally any pattern of intervals. We're going to begin by playing 3rds in a major scale. Let's stay in the key of G Major.

Scales in Intervals – 4ths You can expand upon this concept in your practice by breaking a major scale up into 4ths, 5ths, 6ths or 7ths as well. For example, here is a G Major Scale broken up into 4ths:

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Wider Intervals Speaking of 4th intervals, something that Ben likes to do while soloing is to incorporate wider intervals such as 4ths and 5ths. Exploring these intervals can create a striking sound, and can open your up playing to some intervallic possibilities that are not frequently heard on the guitar. Here's an exercise that provides a basic foundation for applying 4th-based intervallic ideas over a major chord. This exercise spans 2 octaves, starting on the note B on the Low E String. It will  be played over a G Major chord.

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The V Chord & Altered Tensions Over the V chord, there is a series of notes that are typically referred to as “Altered Tensions”. These are notes that provide an initial gateway to “playing outside”. Over the chord G7 (which serves as the V chord to the I chord C Major), we're going to play these notes: ● ● ● ●

Db – Known as the Flat 5 D# – Known as the Sharp 5 Ab – Known as the Flat 9 A# – Known as the Sharp 9

We're going to add the note F natural to this series of notes, which is the flat 7 degree of G7. This note is not considered to be an altered tension, but is very important to the chord G7. This will make a total of 5 notes, which will result in a Bb Minor Pentatonic scale. Let's play 2 octaves of Bb Minor Pentatonic over G7 to get a sense of these altered tensions.

The Altered Scale The Altered Scale is a scale that is derived from the Melodic Minor Scale. Over G7, we're going to play the G Altered Scale, which is derived specifically from Ab Melodic Minor. The notes in Ab Melodic Minor are: Ab, Bb, Cb (or B), Db, Eb, F, G. If we start the Ab Melodic Minor scale from the 7th note of the scale (G), we get this PickUp | An Introduction to Modern Jazz Guitar by Ben Eunson

combination of notes: G, Ab, Bb, Cb (or B), Db, Eb, F. These notes make up the G Altered Scale. The notes Ab, Bb, Db and Eb contained within the scale reflect the altered tensions we previously discussed. Simply by starting the Ab Melodic Minor scale from the seventh and final note of the scale (G), Ab Melodic Minor is re-named G Altered Scale. By starting from the note G, we are presented with an order of notes that works very well over Dominant 7 Chords (including all four altered tensions) – in this case G7. Let's play 2 octaves of this scale:

Soloing with the Altered Scale There are many ways that you can use the Altered Scale in a solo. One thing you can do is to  break the scale down into arpeggios and/or intervals that occur within the scale, and then come up with lines that are built from these arpeggios/intervals. Here is an example of this, occurring over a G7 chord (V Chord), then resolving to a C Major 7 Chord (I Chord):

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Go Deeper: More Altered Scale Examples

 Basic Superimposition A great way to get started with basic Harmonic Superimposition is to take a line that works over the V chord, and play it over the I chord only. Let's take the line from the previous altered scale exercise (featuring altered lines heard over a G7 chord) and play it only over a C major 7 chord.

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Go Deeper: Harmonic Superimposition In order to get started with basic Harmonic Superimposition, we will take a line that works over the V chord, and play it over the I chord only. This exemplifies the basic principle of harmonic superimposition - taking a line that implies the harmony of another chord (in this case, the V chord G7), and playing that line on top of another chord (in this case, the I chord C Major 7). This creates an effect of tension (the tension is then released when we explicitly land on one of the chord tones of the I Chord – for example, landing on the note E natural over a C Major Chord). In this case, the V chord itself (G7) is not being played – however, a line that would theoretically work over G7 is being played. Instead, the line is being played on top of a C Major 7 Chord – hence the superimposition. Let's take the line from the previous altered scale exercise (featuring altered lines heard over a G7 chord) and play the lines only over a C major 7 chord.

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Wrapping Up – From Ben All of the concepts and exercises that we've discussed so far are ideas that I've come up with to help you practically apply new ideas to your playing. Rather than existing solely as exercises, everything we've discussed is material that I've worked through myself to help cultivate my own style of playing. I would encourage you to take these ideas, experiment with them, and see what new ideas you can come up with. Good luck!

PickUp | An Introduction to Modern Jazz Guitar by Ben Eunson