PLAY } JAZZ-ROCK BALLAD
Allen Hinds
We welcome the stunning US guitarist, Allen Hinds to demonstrate his sophisticated legato lead work over Jason Sidwell’s track, Glow To Grow. Jon Bishop is your guide.
VIDEO
VIDEO & AUDIO https://bit.ly/426nebY
This month’s star video features LA guitarist Allen Hinds who creates a solo over Jason Sidwell’s sophisticated slow groover, Glow To Grow. The first part of the process, as Allen explains, is to organise a chord chart road map. We have written out the full chord sheet for you to study, and this is included both in the magazine and shown on the screen in the video. The tempo is a laid-back 86bpm which inspired Allen’s overall melodic approach, and allowed for moments of faster legato phrases.
Glow To Grow is in the key of G Major for the most part but, as Allen reflects, there are always some unique chord changes in Jason’s tracks that keep him on his toes. Due to these, Allen provides a detailed run-through of the chord chart, and how he approached soloing over them.
The track starts in G Major and the scale of choice for the intro and the first part of the verse is the G Lydian mode (G-A-B-C#-D-E-F#) to cover the G and A chords (the Lydian’s C# note caters for A Major’s Major 3rd). For the observant, the fleeting G7 chord tilts the vibe a little, and G Lydian Dominant (G-A-B-C#-D-E-F) functions well here for both the G7 and A chords.
When the tonality changes to B Minor, Allen explains that he favours the Dorian mode over Minor tonalities. B Dorian mode (B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A) has a Major 6th and sounds smooth and works well. For the chorus section Allen favours the ‘key centre’ approach as all the chords up to the C/D are from the D Major scale (D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#). For the C/D, D/E and Em chords he goes for E Minor Pentatonic (E-G-A-B-D).
The second verse again uses G Lydian mode, but this time there is a change to B7 at the end. Here Allen uses the tritone substitution approach (play the F Major triad; a b5 away from B7), which outlines a B7b5 sound and resolves well to the E Minor chord at the start of the middle 8. Allen imparts sage advice when selecting scales. The first is to target notes from the chord (chord tones). The second is to sing over the track. This frees up the musical ear and removes the constraints of having to originate all your ideas on the guitar.
Allen uses plenty of legato phrasing (hammer-ons and pull-offs) in his solo, and to bring the melodies to life uses the whammy bar to add a vocal-esque vibrato. In addition, finger slides and vibrato are judiciously added where appropriate.
Hopefully there will be a new technique, lick or phrase
