the andreas style

dennis · January 2005

Hi andreas

since you have your own section, i think it'd be really great if you could answer a few questions about your incredible playing.

can you tell us how you learned to play bebop? did u transcribe a lot of other artists? what kind of stuff did you practice back then?

I still think there's a secret that the swedes keep hidden from the rest of the world... like a power drink or something for musicians... maybe the holy grail is actually somewhere in sweden and young kids drink from it to inherit incredible musical powers

thanks!
D

AndreasOberg · January 2005

Ok, I'll try to answer your question

My first guitar teacher really enjoyed late 80's/early 90's fusion like Lee Ritenour,Scott Henderson and Frank Gambale. Then, I also started to listen to that music but after a while (when I was 16) I started to listen to jazz/bebop guitarists like George Benson,Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery and also to some Swedes like Ulf Wakenius.

I learned that music-style quite fast from listening to records and concerts. One of my teachers also pointed out two very useful things about playing bop; first of course the importance of swing but also that you have to create melody lines that implies chords, bass etc. almost like in Baroque-music.
Personally I like both Bach and bebop and although the styles are very different from each other, there are many similarities. A good bebop-phrase and a written line by Bach have one important thing in common. When you here the melody only, you feel like you hear the bass, the chords and the progressions very clear (although it's not actually being played )because the melody-line is so strong!

When I teach other guitarists how to play bop I always let them improvise over the chord-changes with steady time (8th notes) without any chords and basslines. This always reveals if they got the ability of playing over chord-changes or if they are just cheating...often by trying to play "hip" outside notes :? This way I practice Django-style songs as well, trying to play a solo-line so clear that people can immediately tell what song I'm playing without hearing the chords or the "actual" melody.

I started playing gypsy swing in the autumn of 2001 when I bought a Selmer-copy and started to listen to Django and Bireli. After only a few months I sat in with Robin Nolan, who was really encouraging me!
Then Jon Larsen heard me and I got the chance to tour and record with Jimmy Rosenberg. By this time, I had never met or played with a gypsy and I was only guessing who to play the phrases correctly with the right hand. I never listen to those recordings anymore, but a learned a great deal from those experiences and next time I recorded (with Yorgui and Ritary) I had improved a lot

Jimmy always wanted me to show him bebop stuff because he wanted to play like that and didn't know how to do it...Me, on the other hand just wanted him to show me some Django-stuff and some of it might end up in this new book...
Regards Andreas

Craig Bumgarner · January 2005

Thanks for your post, very interesting. I was particularly struck by the paragraph that includes this.....

This way I practice Django-style songs as well, trying to play a solo-line so clear that people can immediately tell what song I'm playing without hearing the chords or the "actual" melody.

Could you expand on this? What to you mean by playing a "solo line so clear"?

Thanks!

CalebFSU · January 2005

Andreas, very cool post. I like what you said about inprovising. My guitar Porffessor says the same type thing although not exactley but same concepts.I have the great opportunity of being in a Jazz program where Marcus Roberts(who is a Pianist by the way. He is not my guitar proffessor

) is a proffessor. He will never let you get away with cheating the fisrt time I played in a combo at a rhythm section seminar he made evreyone slow downm and play quarter notes and really made us lock in with the drummer. It was one of the best Jazz learning experiences I have had. It really made me concentrate on what I was doing.

dennis · January 2005

Andreas thanks very much!

AndreasOberg wrote:

I started to listen to jazz/bebop guitarists like George Benson,Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery and also to some Swedes like Ulf Wakenius.

When you listen to them, do you transcribe solos or licks?

AndreasOberg wrote:

When I teach other guitarists how to play bop I always let them improvise over the chord-changes with steady time (8th notes) without any chords and basslines.

outlining the changes is not a big problem for me, however when i play without bass or chords, it is difficult to keep the form correctly ... for example adding or skipping a beat. How do you overcome that?

AndreasOberg · January 2005

Could you expand on this? What to you mean by playing a "solo line so clear"?

Craig, I'll try to explain if I can. If I for instance pick a song like "How High The Moon", I'll start to improvise over the chord-changes(without chords and bass). I'm not quoting the melody at all, but my solo-line should outline the changes so clear that listener could immediately tell that I'm playing "How High The Moon". I practice this concept in all styles with songs like Giant Steps and Inner Urge as well. When you get this concept right, you can start to play more outside notes over the changes but still have that genuin feel of the changes of song. I studied at the Royal Music Academy in Stockholm, so I know all the scales and theory, but I don't think of that when I play. You don't know it as long as you have to think about it..

I have the great opportunity of being in a Jazz program where
Marcus Roberts(who is a Pianist by the way

Caleb, you are very luck to study with him. He did some great stuff with the Marsalis-brothers back in the days. He's also very good at metric modulations and weird rhytmic variations..

When you listen to them, do you transcribe solos or licks?

Dennis, I've always learned phrases from records and videos but never full solos. It's better to get shorter musical phrases than learning never ending solos and then apply those small elements into your own playing.
I have this idea with my book..the licks I've written are not long monster-licks, they are more kind of short sentences and then I apply them in solos so people get an idea how to use them freely:idea:

outlining the changes is not a big problem for me, however when i play without bass or chords, it is difficult to keep the form correctly ... for example adding or skipping a beat. How do you overcome that?

I've never had a problem with that, but it might be good to practice with a metronome on off beat(2&4 instead of 1&3)

Best Regards
Andreas