Formed in denton, texas, in 2004 and now centered in brooklyn, new york, Snarky Puppy is a musical collective of nearly 40 musicians who shot to acclaim with a unique brand of engaging instrumental funk. The group includes the great keyboardists Cory Henry, Shaun Martin, and Bill Laurance. This month, let’s take a closer look at some of the keyboard techniques used by members of the band. Ex. 1 looks at the style of Snarky keyboardist Cory Henry. Henry was originally a gospel organist, so this example delves into his Hammond work. Set your drawbars to 888000006 on the top manual and to 808 on the bottom. Note that in most gospel organ playing, the bass part comes from the organ’s pedals and that many organists play two-handed chords on the bottom manual. Here in bar 1, we have diatonic chords from the key of Bb with a moving bass line that creates nice inversions of the chords. At the end of bar 1 we have a few notes from the Bb major pentatonic scale (Bb, C, D, F, G, Bb). In bar 2 we see the useful device of alternating Bb major and C minor triads that move down in inversions.

At the end of the bar, hold the Bb and switch your Leslie speed to fast. Bar 3 repeats the first chordal motive. In bar 4, we add some bluesy Db minor triads built from notes of the Bb blues scale (Bb, Db, Eb, E, F, Ab, Bb). Ex. 2 illustrates another color you will hear in Snarky Puppy’s music; a synth patch playing repetitive chords with a slowly evolving filter that opens and closes to add resonance to the sound. Cheers to keyboardists Shaun Martin and Bill Laurance who play everything manually. To simulate their playing in our example, I cheat a little and use an arpeggiator. Notice how in this example, the right hand holds “open sounding” fourth shapes that, when played at the third or seventh scale degree, form nice major 13th voicings. Make sure when playing live to have a click output for your drummer so he can lock to your tempo. These fourth “shells” are also great if you detune an oscillator to a fifth above the fundamental. Snarky’s Cory Henry is also great on mono lead synths, as seen in Ex. 3.

The key to great mono leads (besides having a great sounding synth patch) is clever and subtle manipulation of the pitch and mod wheels. The first two bars of this example are centered loosely in E minor and the last two bars are based in C minor. But once we start moving our wheels, we kind of throw tonality out the window. In bar 1, we slowly slide all the way up with the pitch wheel (usually the one on the left), coming gently back down in key. In bar 2, we play notes from the E minor pentatonic scale (E, G, A, B, D, E). heythrop curtainsOn beat 2, we move the mod wheel all the way up to get some vibrato. the curtain lady & son lowestoft(On most instruments, wheels can be assigned to do just about anything you want them to.) bhq curtains ltd contact

The bar ends with another pitch wheel manipulation. In Bar 3, we switch to some fourth shapes again, this time as arpeggios and in triplets. In the second half of the bar, we push up the pitch wheel and keep playing our line normally. The line has now been pitched up and out of the key for cool sounding “out” lines. Ex. 4 is inspired by Cory Henry’s signature work on the Rhodes electric piano, complete with delay and use of the classic MXR Phase 90 phaser. umbra® zig-zag grommet-top curtain panelIn the first two bars of our example, a fat, root position Dmaj9 voicing sustains while the left hand plays a melody emphasizing the #11 from the D Lydian Scale (D, E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D). levolor curtain rods walmartIn bar 3, the left hand continues to outline an Abdim7 chord while the right hand plays a dissonant diminished cluster. motorized curtain rod lowes

When you want a crunchy diminished voicing, just take one note of the root position chord and raise it up a step. Cory Henry is a masterful soloist on acoustic instruments as well, as seen in Ex. 5, which is inspired by his solo on John Coltrane’s classic jazz composition Giant Steps. Henry’s piano solo is based around a repeating left-hand ostinato figure in 7/4. For this example, our bass line features an inner moving line that “rubs” between the flatted sixth and fifth scale degree. canopy bed curtains 4-poster fantasy palace netOur improvisation happens over the bass line in C, so we keep our chord changes in the right hand as triadic arpeggios that have been notated over the passage. After our twisty line ends in the fourth bar, we insert a dissonant dominant chord. “Snarky Puppy’s keyboardists are constantly manipulating the drawbars and settings on their various instruments, so don’t be afraid to experiment with yours!” says keyboardist and composer Brian Charette, who has performed and recorded with artists such as Joni Mitchell, Michael Buble and Rufus Wainwright in addition to leading his own jazz groups.

Charette won Downbeat Magazine’s “Rising Star Organ” award in 2014 and recently released the album Alphabet City. He also has a new book out entitled 101 Hammond B-3 Tips: Stuff All the Pros Know and Use. Join the 463,168 guitarists who have experienced JamPlay™ 5,329 Guitar Lessons in HD Beginner to advanced, heavy metal to country; we have the lessons you need to develop your playing. are filmed with multiple HD cameras and stream to any mobile device or computer. Learn to Play Songs Follow your dream and learn to play your favorite songs. Forget about tablature and random YouTube videos. are proven to help you learn songs fast, easy, and accurately. Signup today and get instant access to all video lessons from all instructors! You will also enjoy live guitar lessons for up to 8 hours each day, and access to all teaching tools, libraries, and community features. In the market for a new acoustic or electric guitar? Looking at guitars online make your head spin?

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