ECLECTIC GUITAR
PAT SMITH
Lenny Breau 101
Lenny Breau was a unique and amazing
guitarist. He grew up the son of country &
western singing parents and started playing
on stage when he was very young. His first
hero was country legend Chet Atkins, and
by the time Breau was 15 he was recording
dead-on versions of Chet’s tunes (check out
the CD Boy Wonder). Sometime in his teenage years he started hearing jazz, as played
by guitarists like Tal Farlow and Barney
Kessel, and eventually he heard jazz pianist
Bill Evans. Bill Evans had a way of comping when he played using what are called
shell voicings. You play a shell voicing by
leaving out some notes while still implying
a chord. The two most important notes in
a chord are the third, which tells you if the
chord is major or minor, and the seventh.
You can add other notes in as you feel the
need, but generally the root and the fifth
are left out in a shell voicing. As you probably know playing chords on the guitar can
be a matter of making note choices since
we only have six strings, so Breau built a
comping style based on using (mostly) two
note chords over which he could then play
melody or improvise.
Example 1 shows the idea; start with the
A7 and D7 and you can figure out how to
play E7, and from there you can try some
basic blues ideas.
Example 3 Another interesting thing about
these two-note chords is that if you flip the
third and seventh you get another chord.
A7 flips to Eb7.
Listen
Buddhist teacher Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
said “The more and more you listen, the
more and more you hear, the more and
more you hear, the deeper and deeper your
understanding.” This is so true, not just of
listening to Lenny Breau, but in playing any
style. If you want to play in a style, listen to
it—a lot! And listen to lots of styles, even
if you are concentrating on one. Listen to
other instruments and see what you can
use on yours. Let me suggest a couple
Lenny Breau CDs to hear. The Velvet touch
of Lenny Breau—Live! is one of LB’s fist
recordings. Notice the way Breau can make
his melodies stand above the chords he
plays, at times sounding like two players.
Then give a listen to Live at Bourbon St.,
a duo recording with Bassist Dave Young.
With those two you get either end of
Breau’s recording career.
your third or fourth finger (whichever you
find more comfortable—FYI Breau plucked
with his fourth, I use my third), pluck the
open D (4th) string. Then move over one
set and do the harmonic on the fifth string,
and pluck the open G (3rd) string. Then
move over again, harmonic on the fourth,
plucked note on the B (2nd) string. And
again, harmonic on the G string followed
by the open E (1st) string.
You can, of course, reverse and go back
the other way, and you can play the note
and harmonic either way (harmonic first
then note, or note first then harmonic). You
can also play them at the same time, which
Chet Atkins did, which is where Breau got
the idea. Try this technique with different
chords and start to find things that you
like. Playing guitar is all about the hunt for
sounds, so don’t be shy, jump on in.
There are three terrific books about Lenny
Breau and his music: One Long Tune: The Life
and Music of Lenny Breau by Ron Forbes-Roberts; Lenny Breau Fingerstyle Jazz by
Lenny Breau & John Knowles; and Visions: A
personal tribute to jazz guitarist Lenny Breau
by Stephen D. Anderson and Ronald Cid.
Click here to watch a
video demonstration
of Lenny Harmonics
by Pat Smith
Example 2 adds the chord root (tonic) on
top of the chord. With this you can really
start to hear what Breau heard. Try this and
then try some other notes above the chord
and see what you get.
The Harmonics Thing
Lenny is, perhaps, best known for his use
of harmonics with his chords (sometimes
called artificial harmonics). If you have
never played a harmonic, start by lightly
touching your right index finger (if you are
right handed) to the 12th fret on the low
E string, and with your thumb pluck the
string. Breau’s technique uses this to play
a chord one note at a time and alternating a note with a harmonic. The effect is
a cascade of notes that gives the illusion
of being all harmonics, and it sounds real
pretty. You can do this on any chord, but
it works best on chords that don’t have
redundant notes. So let’s try just using all
open strings. As before, do the harmonic
on the 6th string at the 12th fret, then with
Pat Smith
Pat Smith founded the Penguin Jazz Quartet and played
Brazilian music with Nossa Bossa. He studied guitar
construction with Richard Schneider, Tom Ribbecke
and Bob Benedetto, and pickin’ with Lenny Breau, Ted
Greene, Guy Van Duser and others. Pat lives in Iowa
with his cats Emmy and Squeeky, and plays in a duo
with bassist Rich Wagor.
