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    How To Play Bossa Nova Guitar

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    Óscar
    This document provides instructions for playing bossa nova guitar. It discusses keeping a steady rhythm like in funk music using repetitive 16th note patterns. It teaches a common bossa nova rhythm and recommends practicing it without the guitar first. It also covers adding chords and a simple bass line that moves from the root to the fifth below. The document advises using fingers or a pick-and-finger technique, playing bass notes with the thumb and chord notes with the fingers. It emphasizes keeping the bass line steady over complex chords.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    How To Play Bossa Nova Guitar

    Uploaded by

    Óscar
    240 views3 pages
    This document provides instructions for playing bossa nova guitar. It discusses keeping a steady rhythm like in funk music using repetitive 16th note patterns. It teaches a common bossa nova rhythm and recommends practicing it without the guitar first. It also covers adding chords and a simple bass line that moves from the root to the fifth below. The document advises using fingers or a pick-and-finger technique, playing bass notes with the thumb and chord notes with the fingers. It emphasizes keeping the bass line steady over complex chords.

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    How to Play Bossa Nova Guitar

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    This document provides instructions for playing bossa nova guitar. It discusses keeping a steady rhythm like in funk music using repetitive 16th note patterns. It teaches a common bossa nova rhythm and recommends practicing it without the guitar first. It also covers adding chords and a simple bass line that moves from the root to the fifth below. The document advises using fingers or a pick-and-finger technique, playing bass notes with the thumb and chord notes with the fingers. It emphasizes keeping the bass line steady over complex chords.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    240 views3 pages

    How To Play Bossa Nova Guitar

    Uploaded by

    Óscar
    This document provides instructions for playing bossa nova guitar. It discusses keeping a steady rhythm like in funk music using repetitive 16th note patterns. It teaches a common bossa nova rhythm and recommends practicing it without the guitar first. It also covers adding chords and a simple bass line that moves from the root to the fifth below. The document advises using fingers or a pick-and-finger technique, playing bass notes with the thumb and chord notes with the fingers. It emphasizes keeping the bass line steady over complex chords.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
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    The key takeaways are that bossa nova guitar involves keeping a solid rhythm and groove throughout the song using repetitive 16th note patterns, and learning a basic bossa nova rhythm and chord progression to apply the techniques.

    Some common bossa tunes mentioned are 'Blue Bossa', 'How Insensitive', 'Black Orpheus', 'Girl From Ipanema' and 'Wave'.

    The basic bossa nova rhythm involves tapping or clapping a rhythm on the four beats, with the second bar starting on an offbeat, until it feels comfortable to play both bars together.

    How to Play Bossa Nova Guitar

    In today’s instalment of 30 days to Better Jazz Guitar Comping I am going to be


    showing you how to play bossa nova guitar. Bossa tunes are great fun to play on guitar
    as the comping techniques fit nicely on the instrument and are fairly easy to play.

    Bossa tunes are great fun to play on guitar as the comping techniques fit nicely on the
    instrument and are fairly easy to play.

    Some common bossa tunes you can apply the techniques from this lesson to are ‘Blue
    Bossa’, ‘How Insensitive’, ‘Black Orpheus’, ‘Girl From Ipanema’ and ‘Wave’.

    Bossa Nova guitar, like other jazz styles is about keeping a groove the audience can tap
    their foot to which means that we need to keep a solid rhythm throughout the piece.

    Think of it like playing a funk tune where you keep playing the same 16th note type
    rhythms throughout the song over and over again. Even though there’s a lot of
    repetition, some funk tunes only consistent of one or two chords and no one ever gets
    bored of it because the music has a strong and catchy groove.

    The first step is playing bossa nova guitar is learning a common bossa nova rhythm that
    the chords to a tune can be applied to.

    When I have taught this rhythm to my student’s they sometimes find it hard to play on
    guitar straight away so I recommend putting the guitar down first, and either tapping
    your foot on four or putting a metronome on all 4 beats, then clapping the rhythm until
    it feels comfortable.

    This rhythm should be memorized so it’s integrated within you playing so you know
    what you’re playing.

    Usually the second bar is a trickier because it starts on the off beat so isolate it and
    keeping looping it and when you feel comfortable play both bars together.

     
    Once you feel comfortable with this rhythm the next step is to add some chords. In this
    exercise I’ve used the same rhythms from the first example and added a C-9 chord for
    you to play the rhythms with.

    Once you feel comfortable with the chords, the next step is to add a bass line.

    Bossa Nova bass lines are quite simple and are usually just on beats one and three of the
    bar. Harmonically the notes tend to be a root descending to a fifth below, almost like a
    country bass line.

    This bass line might sound simple by itself but provides a solid foundation when mixed
    with the more syncopated comping patterns.

     
     

    Practice on one chord for as long it takes for the rhythm to feel completely solid then
    start to apply these rhythms, chords and bass lines to a full bossa nova progression.

    Bossa Nova Guitar Right Hand Technique

    Every guitarist has their own right hand techniqiues, but most play bossa nova with their
    fingers or pick and fingers. The good news is that you don’t have to be a master finger
    style player to use your fingers for bossa nova comping.

    To use your fingers, play the bass notes with your thumb and hit the three chord notes
    with your three fingers. I hit the ‘D’ string with my first finger, ‘G’ string with the 2nd
    finger and ‘B’ string with the 3rd.

    You will also find that you sometimes need to make big jumps across the neck to keep
    bass lines going.

    Keeping a solid bass line is more important than smooth voice leading. For example it’s
    more important to keep a bass line constantly going using simple chords rather than
    trying to find the hippest chords you know

    Purchase the “30 Days to Better Jazz Guitar Comping Ebook” with 20 pages of extra
    material, lessons and audio examples!

    Return to the 30 Days to Better Jazz Guitar Comping Homepage

    Did you find this lesson on Bossa Nova comping useful? Share your comments in the
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