Murphey's New Panhandle Rag, 1950

Guy Cundell · From: More idle ramblings from South Australia

Here's a solo that passed my way lately courtesy of Nick Fryer whose transcription this is and to which I have added some tab.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha55ChADzMU

It is great to see an appreciation of Murphey from a straight ahead jazz guy!

Matthew Dawson · From: Portland Oregon, USA

Nice! Thanks as always.

Joe Breeden · From: Virginia, USA

What would be the name for this tuning? Thanks Joe

Guy Cundell · From: More idle ramblings from South Australia

Just a regular 8 string C6, Joe. (with a third of the chord on top, the E). He only used 6 strings so I could have put it on 6 string tab. CEGACE

Here is a link to Nick Fryer's transcription blog. There is a whole range of interesting material there.
https://jazztranscriptions.wordpress.com/

Gary Rue · From: Maryland, USA

Thank you Guy. I'm all over this. Can't Imagine a better way to present a great solo.

J Fletcher · From: London,Ont,Canada

Thanks for that. Some really sweet playing there. Appreciate the work on everybody's part.

Einar Baldursson · From: Stockholm, Sweden

Very nice! Nick has transcribed Vance Terry and Jules Ah See as well, great initiative .

Guy Cundell · From: More idle ramblings from South Australia

Cheers, gentlemen. I will forward your appreciation to Nick in the form of a link to this page.

Nick Fryer · From: Ohio, USA

Thanks Guy for posting this and adding the tab.

A couple of comments on the things that I love about this solo break.......

# 1 the phrasing! Like all the greats JM has a beautiful way of starting a phrase and ending it across the bar lines that blurs the lines of the harmonic rhythm. Ex mm#5-10...he starts the new phrase on the +1 of bar 5 leading in to the C7 chord then goes all the way through until the middle of the bar 10 (the beginning of what would be the second A). His ability to play really beautifully and inventive on static harmony is amazing and difficult. This type of phrasing style makes the lines flow in a less boxey kind of way.

#2 - his use of Aug 5 in mm# 7 is great and it lays so well on the C6 tuning. C7 home base is 12th fret mm#6 then down a whole step to fret 10 for the second half of mm#6 then down another whole step to fret 8 to hit that Aug 5 resolution to F in mm# 8 (So Logical!)

#3 the super hip whole tone lick over the IV chord in mm#11 (I think maybe Monk was a JM fan secretly!) Then last but not least

#4 the repeat of the whole tone lick in mm# 11 in mm#12 starting on beat two down an octave just using single notes.

One more thing.... the diminished arpeggio in mm#13 that implies a VI7 making it a I VI ii V7 in mm#13-15 but instead of playing the ii-7 in mm#14 they go to V7...

I totally nerded out on that but this process not only helps me learn the language but it also really helps me learn the fretboard and where all the notes are.

A few thoughts on transcribing:

This process comes in many forms. It can mean learning something note for note or simply listening to something so many times that one learns to sing and hear the ideas in one's head. I don't write everything out that I transcribe but when I do it really forces me to know and understand the rhythm deeply and also forces me to process the note choices and learn the guitar better. I purposely don't tab out my solos as I try and learn the phrases in as many ways as possible. The interesting thing to me is that most of these lines lay right in all the obvious "main positions" that we all know and love to play out of. So the question is how does Joaquin make it sound so good? what makes his different? My answer to that is....the rhythm! Notes are notes and they are finite. Rhythm is infinite and deeply personal. So for me, what I get out of this process above and beyond all of the many things I learn from it, is learning the rhythmic phrasing of these masters. It's the difference between learning Spanish from a text book and learning Spanish by going to Spain and for that matter if you learned Spanish in Mexico you sound way different than if you learned it in Barcelona...you dig ! ?

Tim Whitlock · From: Colorado, USA

Nick Fryer · From: Ohio, USA

Tim : There are definite easy, methodical ways to burn new rhythms into your muscle memory. Rhythm is a language that can be developed and practiced in the same way that we can train the ear to hear major, minor, diminished etc.

Here's the 10cent version of how one can develop new rhythmic language.

#1 - Think of a rhythmic phrase as a sound......what does the sound of 8 consecutive eight notes sound like? What does starting on the "and of one" and playing 7 eighth notes sound like? etc. Learn these sounds, just like we learn to hear chords. Sing them and play them. Play a solo over changes using only one of these rhythms. I could write out a ton of variations and example but for now I will keep it conceptual.

#2 - Take a rhythmic phrase from the Joaquin solo. Analyze it, what beat does it start on, where does it end etc. Take that rhythm and sing it. Sing it over and over. Play through changes using only the phrase you have selected.

Slowly over time one will develop new rhythmic material, gain freedom to manipulate those rhythms on the spot as well as free up the hand from just being on autopilot.

There is so much more that I could write and will, I might make a video. I didn't come up with any of this stuff. I have been lucky to have been around a lot of musicians who were graceful enough to pass on this knowledge to me. The thing that sets musical styles apart from one another is the rhythm. Honky Tonk, Western Swing, and other styles important to the Steel were heavily influenced by Jazz. Part of the reason why I am so drawn to these styles. Within jazz there are some basic rhythmic concepts that are important to understand and study. One big one is the triplet. Swing is a triplet based feel and it evolved from the West African drum tradition that goes back hundreds of years. Within that music the 3:2 polyrhythm was at the core of the pulse. Knowing this and learning how to feel this is essential to swing. Along with this concept of "Swing Feel", there are specific rhythms that make up the "rhythmic language of jazz", one that comes to mind is "The Charleston". Checking these out of practicing them is how one develops of rhythmic vocabulary. I recommend searching out video on Youtube from the great Jazz Trumpeter Clark Terry. Clark, along with being one of the greats on trumpet, was also one of Jazz's great teachers. He has a beautiful method for teaching Jazz Rhythm.

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