Grant Green's Solo on The Kicker (Lesson/Transcription)
The Kicker
Hey Guys!
Today I come to you with a great Grant Green solo from his record “Solid.” This ones called, The Kicker. One of the first things that people hear when listening to grant is his time feel. He plays right in the middle of the beat and when he lays back (or pushes) it really adds to the depth of his solo. So right of the bat when you learn a Grant Green solo, make sure and focus on the time!
There were a couple concepts that I would like to go over as well…
1) His use of up beats and down beats
Grant is really a drummer when he solos. His lines almost sound like drum solos! In this solo he uses a lot of up beats. When ever he does this it always creates tension, even if the notes don’t! That’s something we can take away from this: tension using up beats instead of notes. Take some of his lines, or make your own, using this concept. Note this: In example 3, he does the opposite and uses down beats. Though this doesn’t create tension, it does help move the line to its closure. Here are some examples:
2) His use of chromatic slurs.
As guitar players it is easy to play things that sound “guitary.” In jazz, we try to emulate a horn as much as possible. Grant has achieved this by using something that lay very well on guitar, but also sounds horn like. In the examples below you can see this “chromatic lick” that he uses and how to apply it. Make sure a use it as an accent to a line! Try mixing it in with your normal bebop language.
3) His use of Bebop/Blues Language
Grant is a master at using classic jazz and blues language. He can mix them both together to effortlessly! It all comes down to the ambiguity of the 3rd, 5th, and 7th. He will play a normal bebop line, then treat what ever he is on like a tonal center (while adding the blue notes). You can see this in my last example. He starts out the first two bars playing a normal minor ii-V. Then on the last two bars he is thinking F7b9 to Bb Blues even though the changes don’t say that! It works because of were it is going… Bb7.
I hoped you enjoy this free little lesson over Grant Green’s solo from The Kicker. Look over the solo yourself and take even more concepts from it! Happy shedding!
-Nathan Borton