New Orleans Guitar
BY DOUG WAMBLE
Since moving to New York City, Doug Wamble
has performed and recorded with Wynton
Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, Branford Marsalis,
Bill Frisell, and Charlie Hunter. He has composed
and performed original works for the Lincoln
Center Jazz Orchestra and Chamber Music
America, and created film soundtracks for
acclaimed documentarian Ken Burns. His new
album is due later this year. For more informa-
tion, visit dougwamble.com
CHOPS: Intermediate
THEORY: Intermediate
LESSON OVERVIEW:
• Understand the basics of the
New Orleans piano tradition.
• Develop bass lines using the
rumba rhythm.
• Create phrases inspired by both
the left- and right-hand tech-
niques of Professor Longhair.
to the great players from New Orleans, particularly Professor Longhair.
In performing situations where there
isn’t a piano player, especially in duos with
singers or horn players, it’s fun to pull out
a technique like this to spice things up and
escape the tried-and-true methods of being
an accompanist or solo guitarist. But even if
you’re playing with a bassist, drummer, and
piano player, try out some of this stuff on
the next gig—you might like the results.
Now, back to the Professor. “Fess”, as he
was known, was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana,
in 1918 and became a major influence on
everyone from James Booker to Fats Domino
to Dr. John. He played with a raucous blues
feel that often used a rumba groove for the
bass line, shown in Fig. 1. Often, the bass
would double it for extra kick.
I’ve taken some ideas from Longhair’s
style of playing and put it into a 12-bar
blues in C. This isn’t an exact transcription
of his work, but it does give the flavor of it
by using a reverse-rolling fingerpicking pat-
tern to get the Big Easy vibe. (Note: While
it’s possible to use sweep picking to execute
these examples, I highly recommend that
you at least try it fingerstyle.) Fig. 2 starts
with the bass line from Fig. 1 and adds
some C7 chord tones, just to get the feel.
To get the proper sound, it’s important to
lay in heavily on the bass line while keeping
the chords lighter. Once you feel comfort-
able with that, we can add the fancy breaks.
Click here to hear
sound clips of
hese examples.
Fig. 1
44 &
C7
oe™
Fig. 1
oe bj oe n
oe
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oe bj oe n
oe
As a guitar player, I’m always interested in finding ways to apply techniques
to my instrument that come from places
other than the guitar. Anyone who gets into
playing jazz listens to—and hopefully transcribes—the solos of great horn players like
Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, and Louis
Armstrong. And sometimes guitarists will
learn the right-hand lines of great pianists
like Bud Powell or Wynton Kelly.
This is all great stuff. Learning to play
single lines is a useful skill, and lots of fun
too. But equally as fun is trying to assimilate piano techniques that emulate the left
hand as well as the right. In my previous
Premier Guitar lesson [“Exploring Stride
Guitar,” May 2011], I talked about the
stride piano tradition and how to apply
that sound to the guitar. This time I want
to stay with the piano, but turn our focus
1/2
1/2
˙
5
5
6
6
8
8
Fig. 2 Fig. 2
44 &
C7
oe
oeoeb oeb oen
oe
oe
oeoeb oeb oen
oe
1/2
1/2
˙
8
9
5
8
9
5
6
6
8
