Learning From the Different World of Horn Solos

Guitarist and educator Dave Frackenpohl transcribes a Miles Davis solo from ‘Bongo Bop’.

Bob Bakert, Editor: I am always intrigued by the horns of Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins… well you get the idea.  Horn players and guitar players have the same 12 notes but the approach, especially for guitarists coming from rock, blues, and country is so different.  There are “guitar” idiosyncratic riffs and lines that just lend themselves to the physical layout of the guitar.  Horn players have a different physical world to navigate.  So therefore their lines have their own characteristics which us guitar players can learn something from.  Transcribing is the mantra in jazz schools all over the world.  When transcribing a horn solo and applying it to the guitar the first time you either have an epiphany or a stroke.  We want you to have the former.

I asked my friend and Georgia State University professor Dave Frackenpohl to address the guitar playing horn lines … Go get your guitar and run through this and his subsequent lessons, I know it will be new ground for a lot of you and certainly worth the time of the seasoned players.

Miles Davis Chorus on ‘Bongo Bop’

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