Thanks for the articulate desciption of guide tones.
At 03:55 PM 12/9/96 -0500, you wrote:
<<snip>>
>As a guitar player, I often use guide tones as a counterpoint to the melody
>or solo to accompany myself and strengthen the ensemble's harmonic base when
>I am working with a bassist and no pianist. This practice can be heard quite
>frequently on recordings by Jim Hall, Mike Stern, John Scofield, John
>Abercrombie, Jimmy Bruno, John Stowell, and other guitarists who work without
>piano players in trio and duo situations.
>
I'm curious about this.
How do you know that these players are doing this?
I'm excluding the situation where they are just playing 3,7 as a shell
chord voicing because guide tones has to do with some part of an
improvised line.
Someone playing a counter melody does not mean that guide tones
are involved.
In the process of say transcribing Jim Hall, did you notice that
he was playing guide tones?
Why don't you pick a Jim Hall recording of a standard where he
is using guide tones in this way.
Hopefully it's on some album I have. For example, how about on one of the
Jim Hall/Ron Carter duo albums.
You name the track and where you think he's doing that and when I
have some time I'm going to transcribe what he is playing because
I have yet to see in any transcription I've done any evidence that
guide tones are even remotely on the mind of any player I listen to.
If I can see it in a transcription I'm going to rethink my opinion
on this subject.
reed