He hovers around chord tunes for a couple bars and then hangs in the upper extensions of the chord. The dominant chord is almost always treated as altered, Bernstein loves the flat 9. There’s no hesitation.īars 9 through 12 of Monk’s “Played Twice” sit on an F7 chord, and each chorus is an adventure in Bernstein’s solo, how he lands there, or avoids the sense of weight and stagnancy by the lack of harmonic motion is brilliant. Clearly this tune, “Played Twice”, a difficult one, had been internalized prior to this recording. Its easy to get the beat turned around, with a strong emphasis on the 4 of measure 42. Measures 42 and 66 are both good examples of Bernstein marking the hits of the tune with the rhythm section. The rhythm section continues marking these throughout Bernstein’s solo, with Bernstein only at times joining with his phrasing, making for a solo that floats over the top of the tune. The tune’s structure, as dictated by the melody, is full of odd hits. The way he plays off the rhythm section, and the hit soy the tune throughout the 5 choruses or so he takes is brilliant. Its all feel and vibe here, something Bernstein always seems to exhibit whether playing original compositions and standards with the Goldings, Stewart organ trio or Monk tunes on this beautiful record, entitled “Monk”. It offers the tune a chance to catch its breath and honors its harmonic vibrancy before hitting the head out. Its not line after line, there is a story, a feel, and no rush to complete it.Ĭase in point, after the solo, Bernstein floats a kind of chordal chorus, harmony fragments, washing around with the drums and in between the bass. Bernstein’s dynamics make for incredibly lyrical phrases, again, even when harmonically dense. The large intervallic leaps, double stops, and the augmenting of his lines with chord fragments are all put to great use here, and offer something that is just incredibly musical to me. Monk tunes certainly offer plenty of harmonic content to color over, and Bernstein’s note choices, while also often typical of his playing, are never cliched nor lose their poignancy to repetition. He’s riding the tune as opposed to propelling it. He consistently lays back on the beat, not so much that he’s behind, but enough that there is a feel and groove to even the heaviest, most rapidly executed of lines he plays. This solo holds some trademark examples of guitarist Peter Bernstein’s style. Nothing takes precedence over feel, and its uniquely his own. Even with the wealth and density of harmonic and rhythmic concepts he employs, its all feel. Peter Bernstein plays jazz guitar the way I love to hear it played. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.ĭownload the PDF: Concert, Bb, Eb, Bass Clef May hope this project can benefit other players as well, if not, at least I could become a better player by doing this.Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. So this is the idea behind all this, why I transcribe solo guitar of Peter Bernstein. Then the idea just got bigger transcribing Peter Bernstein's whole solo guitar album, which is 'Solo Guitar Live At Smalls (2013),' and makes video footage of me playing them.

After a couple of years now, I started to copy Peter Bernstein on 'Ruby, My Dear (Thelonius Monk)' from his album 'Monk (2009).' It was successful.

In Michigan State University, Professor Randy Napoleon once suggested me to transcribe Peter Bernstein because he believed I could do it. However, it was troublesome that every time I wanted to revisit the tunes that I thought already have done. Whenever I transcribed tunes to learn how the masters approached the single line solo in a particular chord progression or melody relationship with chord arrangements, I always wanted to copy as a whole, not just a fragment.Īs time goes by my ability to play guitar and to hear the music has developed, the limit of what I want to transcribe has pushed to the edge: the chord solos, trade sections, solos on a tag, and even to the comping, which is, of course, an excellent sources to learn. This transcription is a beginning of a vast project.

Peter bernstein transcriptions