Western Swing Rhythm Guitar Pt 1 with Leon Grizzard

[PowerTwang]

Another great lesson. These will keep me busy.

[ljgaustin]

That's Obscure. Just keep at it; you'll get there.

[obscurebandfan]

You're an amazing guitarist, it's a dream of mine to play like guys like you.

[breakingthe4thwall]

This is so awesome, thanks!

[Lindenbergstudio]

Hi Leon, thank you very much for this great lesson!! greetings from Holland

[ljgaustin]

No, it does not. Who dat?

[girliedog]

Leon, does the name Loyld Hassebaker ring a bell for you?

Taught me guitar years ago.

BTW, nice demonstration of Western Swing RG

[TheOAWplayer]

Thanks for the lesson. This is a new style of playing to me.

[ljgaustin]

@TheOAWplayer

I'm glad you like it. Those moving bass line chords work great for other styles of music also when you just play them as block chords, like I show in my Crazy lessons.

[fiddleboy57]

Nice job and very useful. Keep it up.

[TheMemphisSlim]

I like the suit and tie.. you don't see that on YouTube too often.. nice fellow.. thanks for the tips.

[cEdwards57]

This is one of the most welcome sets of lessons I've encountered on YouTube, Thank you so much.

[symbol32003]

O_O we have a capitalist-man-guitar-player

[clean3]

@symbol32003 Do you know why there was a record label for people like Bob Wills to record for? Because of capitalists...no capitalists, no Okeh or Columbia.

[fretsrus]

A fellow Texan with some good stuff. Thanks!!

[lespaulsoundwave]

I really enjoy your videos though, I'm a young aspiring Western Swing/Country/Gypsy Jazz guitar player from South Carolina, had some great opportunities to learn moving chords and such from great Guitar players, Plectrum Banjo Players, and Tenor Banjoists. I'm a big fan of Les Paul, Django Reinhardt, Jimmy Bryant, and Scotty Anderson. I learn something new everyday. Good videos, I teach, so I'll definitely share these with my students, nice Gretsch, but I'm spoiled with my Les Paul Recording.

[eighteen98]

Thank you so much for taking your time to post this series!

BTW, Leon Grizzard is one of the most Western Swing correct names I've ever heard.

[haywoodjabuzzoff]

Thats the cleanest Guitar I've ever seen

[ljgaustin]

32251 - I agree with you. I don't think a C with a B in the bass should be called a CM7 either, but you see it sometimes, and it makes the progressions seem more complicated than they are.

[lespaulsoundwave]

C/B is really just an inversion of CMaj7. It's all subjective really, it all depends on where the lead guitar player is playing. I LOVE those moving chords, sounds a lot like the way I play moving chords, those 'tenor banjo' chords he spoke of. I get really tired of these Jazz guitar players who think that just because they play jazz means they can play Dixieland, which is all Western Swing is, its just done with strings. Western Swing has a lot more taste than traditional jazz.

[32251]

Dixieland is jazz. Western swing is country with the players usually playing a very watered down jazz and thinking they are playing something that equates with real jazz.

Taste has nothing to do with anything. It is your opinion. The informed musical world has already placed Armstrong and Teagarden and dozens more of the traditional jazzers light years ahead of Bob Wills.

[lespaulsoundwave]

Bob Wills is a terrible example of a western swing musician. He HELD a fiddle.

Dixieland Jazz and Western Swing(2 type of music that equate to the same thing) are light years more difficult and tastier than any standard jazz you can throw at me. This 'Real Jazz' you speak of is nothing but stagnant notes being played that mathematically works. Western Swing is MORE difficult than 'Real Jazz' as it uses the same types of chord movements, but actually has a REAL melody behind it.

[lespaulsoundwave]

All they are is inversions, sometimes its more correct to call it a 1/7 but who's really counting here? Any competent musician will be able to pick out the moving chord with his ear, it's such a simple movement, it's not like we're playing Augmented chords.

[32251]

I disagree with you about what you call the chords. The chord would be written out as C/B NOT Cmaj7 as well as C/A and not C6.. The major 7 and the 6th would need to be in the upper part of the chord for it to be a maj 7 or a 6th. You are just moving bass notes, not changing the upper voicing of the chord. If I saw a Cmaj7 on a piece of music, I would never voice that with the B natural in the bass!

[lespaulsoundwave]

That's really just your opinion. I play with a guitar who plays a lot of chord lead than moving chords, so his chord inversions are much different than mine, but they still work in the same places.

[32251]

C/B would NEVER be written on a chart by a legit arranger as Cmaj7.

[lespaulsoundwave]

Legit Arranger? Just those terms make me think that you are a musical snob that relies more on a staff of music than he does on his ear. That's completely fine though, I'm sure you're located North of the Mason-Dixon line to where you're schooled about how you are right, and no one else could possibly be. C/B time and time again can and is written on a chart as Cmaj7. Wait... No, the charts that real musicians read are more like this: 1/7 or 1maj7....

[lespaulsoundwave]

I keep forgetting that Yanks don't understand the Nashville Number System...

[32251]

@lespaulsoundwave

I am from Alabama and you are an idiot.

I have played jazz with Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Lionel Hampton and many others. I have backed up Nashville artists from Chet Atkins to Johnny Cash. I just finished concerts with the Atlanta Symphony and the Alabama Symphony. I have read dozens of Broadway shows and to date have done 5000+ recording sessions. I worked with "legit" arranger Mancini....I could go on..C/B is NOT CMaj7. You don't play music for a living do you?

[lespaulsoundwave]

1/7 is INDEED a Cmaj7. I bet you that I've played more chords than you've played jobs. I indeed play and teach music for a living. I'm an idiot? You sir are the idiot. I dont like to turn music into a competition or even argue about it, but when it comes to the likes of scumbags and snobs like you, you need to be de-cocked. I won't even go on from here, go ahead, enjoy your stagnant jazz, and I'll enjoy my Western and Gypsy Swing. Happy Trails, Forrest Gump.

[slopbucket74]

Great lessons, Mr. Grizzard. Thank you for posting.

[WolfmanJack63]

Great!

Really waited for something like this, allthoug it's very fast teaching, gonna do all the lessons!

Thanx a lot from Germany!

[ljgaustin]

Thank you.

I've learned how to use the annotations feature, and I will be putting text boxes that show the chords. I am almost done putting them in Crazy, and will move on to the Western Swing lessons soon.

[airdancr1]

I'm glad someone posted up some lessons like these up here. They've been helping out my playing alot. Thanks for posting em' up.

- Jon

P.S. I'm lovin' the Gretsch you've got there. What is it, a pro jet? The one with the Filtertrons?

[ljgaustin]

Sorry I didn't respond sooner. I'm new at this and haven't been checking for comments like a good poster. It is a Country Gentleman, 6122. I've been a Tele player for a long time, but seems like it's the Gretsch that stays out these days.