BRETT GARSED SOLOS OVER... Grind
Brett is shredding a tasty fusion legato solo over Jason’s upbeat, rock style-backing track Grind. Jon Bishop is your guide.
Brett Garsed concludes with another monster solo, this time over Jason’s track Grind. Huge thanks to Brett for this most amazing series!
Difficulty level is stretched to the max this month as Brett gives us a broadside of his favourite licks and tricks, in the final video of this incredible series with the Aussie prog-rock legato genius.
The backing track starts with a riff that outlines E minor 11 tonality so Brett’s home scale choice for the verse sections is E Dorian mode (E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D). To this scale various chromatic notes are added which brings tension and an outside, fusion type sound. For the transcription we’ve used the key signature of E minor so you can see where all the alterations and chromatic tones are, including the major Dorian flavour tone of C# (6th). Brett also adds the rather moody sounding major 7th (D#): this note is also the 7th degree of E Melodic Minor scale (E-F#-GA-B-C#-D#). Fusion guitarists often move between Dorian and Melodic Minor as they both work well over the m7 tonality.
As Brett explains, the groove is busy so is a challenge to lock into. He tackles it in the early stages by playing long notes and fairly simple motifs. This adds space and allows the track and groove to do much of the work.
The chorus features some chord changes from outside the key so make a note of which target tones Brett uses to navigate this section. Many of the chords are from D Major, so our E Dorian mode fingering will still work; however, Brett’s approach is to play between the chord stabs and to react to the changes as a response. This ‘call and response’ style phrasing is very musical and a bona fide improvisational technique used most notably in blues and jazz styles.
Brett mainly uses the legato and hybrid-picking technique for which he is famed, to articulate the lines here. Be sure to check out the video to see his exact articulations - using a ‘slow downer’ feature might be most useful for this one.
As ever, Brett’s solo is both rhythmically and harmonically advanced and will take some time and effort to digest. But this work will be well worth it, even if you only extract a few solitary ideas for now.
Overall the combination of sophisticated phrasing, clever note choices and a modern sounding, overdriven tone makes this final video another must-study piece. The backing track and chord chart are included for reference, in addition to a full transcription of Brett’s performance from the video. Once you have mastered some of the concepts in Brett’s solo, why not try creating one of your own over the same backing track?
In the meantime we’d like to offer huge thanks to Brett for his generosity in recording these superb pieces. Hopefully he’ll be back!