Scott Henderson Discussion

[manolopez]

mister henderson..

i have been listening to song stratus for a long time now, first time i heard the song was on the tommy bolin with friends live record.maybe like 10/15 years a go or something

my question is about the solo on the song from the hbc record, it sounds to me like it's almost like a great story teller.like everything you say there is interesting. from the beginning till the end.was that something you intentionally did? or think about?.you know like i am going to tell a story with my guitar
i can also imagine that you heard the song or played it many times before ,or jammed over it ...and that maybe you where very comfortable on that track?

to me its the best recorded version of that song i like it more then the original on spectrum.not just guitar wise but also chambers/berlin is swinging like nothing a ever heard before.not that billy cobham can't swing he's great but you get the idea..

[Scott Henderson]

Thanks - I was playing that song with HBC on the road for a long time but honestly I never liked my solos on it. Those kind of "static grooves" with very little interaction are really difficult for me. I hated my solo in the studio so I overdubbed another one - the solo on the record is something like the 10th take... or maybe 20th?

Anyway, I like the solo but it's not like I could play a solo like that every day - I'm the world's most inconsistent guitarist. You're right though, it tells a story and that's the goal for every solo I play.

[manolopez]

Well inconsistent aren't we all humans.

i really like the static groove thing with the solo on top ,guess it really brings out the solo.you should do it more

also indirectly want to thank you for your views on diminished lines, had a lesson from and old student of yours richard hallebeek one of the beter legato players on this side of the ocean.even tho i was using diminished lines before it was very refreshing to see your "view" on it.

you know half step(slide), hole step and then string skip and so on...

have you heard any of his stuff?

[Scott Henderson]

I haven't heard much but I played on one of his albums - Richie and Antti "Generator".

[peter_heijnen]

[adzicar]

Hi Scott and other posters. I hope you are all well. I just joined the forums and saw this one which is coincidental as I was trying to transcribe parts of this solo. I don't often get them down accurately but it feeds me with ideas and I don't want to copy licks anyway.
Manolopez mentions liking the static groove and I agree, they can be fun to mess with especially if you can sneak some ideas in when you are playing for non-jazz audiences, like in a funk gig or even sometimes with a covers band that might do a few tunes which groove. (I know Scott - only enough not to get sacked ).
Stratus is ambiguous as the melody implies the minor 3rd a lot but when i transcribe bits of your solo Scott, I think I find Blues diminished all through there (or my ears are just not good enough). Bass line isn't giving much away either. Transcribing other stuff of yours in the past I feel like I've found the same - expecting one and finding the other.
When I go for it myself i find i can make ideas from both diminished and blues diminished work as if it didn't matter whether a m7 or dom7 chord was the intention. Am I on the right track or completely nuts? I've been wrestling this question for a while and now it's time to ask the expert so thanks in advance.
Cheers
Adam

[TaeKwonDonut]

Is it on the old dvd where you go into telling stories with playing.. it was something like Johnny goes to the store to buy bread.. then maybe you say it again Johnny goes to the store to buy bread.. then maybe this time Johnny buys milk AND bread.. I remember seeing it I just don't recall where it was from..

[dizzy]

And “Johnny has sex with his girlfriend”

Scott has also talked about hearing substitute changes over the vamp and playing on those. Like if it is an Am vamp playing over E7 /Am.

[Scott Henderson]

When I'm playing over a vamp, I'm sure there's diminished involved with other stuff like just moving up or down a half step or using pentatonic ideas in the wrong place. To be honest I'd have to transcribe the solo to tell you what I did because I don't remember, and at the time I played the solo I wasn't thinking about that stuff because I try not to think technically when I play. I just hear sounds and go for it - it's like talking and not thinking about the technical aspects of the language such as the use of verbs, nouns, etc. That's why we practice that stuff, so we can forget about it.

[manolopez]

I do like scott's other stuff as well you know the blues stuff and tribal tech ect..
when i heard tore down the house for the first time i was like this guy is a genius. you know its hard enough to be a good or great musician but to bend the boundaries of genre like blues you have to be from another category.

talking about (static) groove music I've been listing lately again to garry willis solo albums there some great composition there! but some guys don't like it because there is no guitar in it. great sax lines and keyboard solos ,really great stuff i think.

[adzicar]

Thanks to all for the replies. I just re bought that DVD yesterday from Alfred online as I had it many years ago. "And then Johnny really had sex with his girlfriend". Peed myself laughing first time I heard that and still do. I also avoid technical thinking as much as I can when playing and try practice this outside stuff enough that when I try it out in real time, it feels more familiar. We absorb diatonic sounds constantly cos it's all around us but players who go outside are few and far between and as it is fleeting usually, absorbing that and making it something you can use is a much harder job. It's like adopting rare words from the dictionary and trying to implant them into sentences. Scott does this with aplomb. There you go, there's an outside word for ya.

[larue nickelson]

A consistent thinker is a thoughtless person, because he conforms to a pattern; he repeats phrases and thinks in a groove.
Jiddu Krishnamurti

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
Oscar Wilde

Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.
Bernard Berenson

three quotes about consistency that i find interesting

[adzicar]

here here Larue