Here's a cool artifact-- Willie Nelson sings Bob Wills's "My Window Faces the South" with the Texas Troubadours. That's about as Texas as you can get. Check out Leon Rhodes burning throughout--- lots of fast eighth-note runs and nice chord stabs behind the vocal, then a real workout of a solo. Another great opportunity to watch the technique of a master.
I have this solo transcribed below-- click on "MORE" to get to it, and you can click on the music to enlarge.
Most of the time with Ernest Tubb you get Leon's version of the Billy Byrd style. Tubb was very generous in giving space to his sidemen to stretch out, though, and here's a fascinating example of Leon in a lickety-split western swing setting. He starts down in an open G position, with Jimmy Bryant-esque fiddle-tune runs (throwing in a cool whole-tone lick!) and works his way up three octaves. "Window" is a great tune for improvising, because you get eight bars of G before the chords start moving into "rhythm changes" territory. When this happens, the chords move mighty fast, and Leon shifts into arpeggio mode. This is a common technique in this kind of music.
Check the tablature carefully-- some of these position choices had me scratching my head at first, but I watched the video and tried to play the notes exactly where Leon did, and eventually it made sense. In fact, in several cases, Leon's choice of fingerings and positions made it easier to play these lines.
IMPORTANT TIP ABOUT PLAYING FAST! Whenever I study the work of fast players, I almost always find interesting fingerings, use of positions, shifting techniques, etc. I think most fast players have spent a lot of time finding out efficient ways to move around the fingerboard. Players trying to play faster often focus too much on the right hand, not realizing that you have to plan out your left-hand moves on the fingerboard so that you know where you can go. If you're burning down the road in your hot rod, you can't pull over to ask directions.
Check Leon's right hand picking angle too-- keeping wrist relaxed, and experimenting with the angle of pick to string is important, but it won't help you if you don't know where the notes are. Good luck!
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2 comments:
His pick hand is amazing. Relaxed, precise, great sound. I cannot figure out how he does it, how the pick grip, hand and arm all tie up so well. - anthonyjaycorman@sbcglobal.net
the trick is to practice relaxing, or to put it another way, do not practice unless relaxed. it's easy to advise people to do this, and much harder to do this, but it isn't magic-- it's just counterintuitive. it takes a lot of work, because the natural thing to do when trying something hard (such as playing like Leon Rhodes) is to tense up.
I'm not claiming I can play like Leon, by the way! But I can approach his kind of playing for brief periods, on a good day, and with work it's not impossible. step one is to stop scratching your head about how amazing and mysterious it is-- instead, focus on relaxing at all times, and learn short passages slowly. I agree Leon is amazing-- but let your subconscious do the amazing part. You need to focus on the mundane part. If you keep thinking about how amazing it is, you'll tense up.
hope that helps!
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