DI MEOLA AL, MUSIC, WORD, PICTURES. SHEET MUSIC BOOK wirh GUITAR TABLATURE .
LIBRO DI MUSICA LATIN JAZZ FUSION .
SPARTITI PER BASSO E CHITARRA .
ACCORDI E PENTAGRAMMA.
Series: Transcribed
Artist: Al Di Meola
A collection of Al's greatest, complete with biography, discography, and complete description of Al's special techniques. 144 pages.
AL DI MEOLA
EDITORIAL NOTES
The music in this book contains transcriptions taken directly from scores and recordings of Al Di Meola. The transcriptions include the guitar lines, bass lines, and chord progressions. The tunes were chosen by Al himself, and although he would have wished to have included more music, this was impossible due to space limitation. Unfortunately, it does not contain all of AI's lengthly solo breaks written out again due to space limitation. Each tune consists of the main thematic sections fully written out, with the solo break sections being indicated by showing the basic background" riff," with repeats included.
The order of the music, as it appears in this book, has nothing to do with the level of difficulty of the music, but rather the ordet shows the chronological progression of AI's music from his first solo album to his most recent one.
Al plays most of his music very up tempo, and it sounds incredibly hard to play. But one very important discovery I made while we worked on transcribing the music to print was that once you see the music written out, it is not very hard to read. Just work on the following practice suggestions, as well as those Al gives in the section of this book entitled "Technical Talk". An added help would be to use "AI Di Meola's Picking Techniques" book available.
As everyone knows, the main elements in AI's guitar playing are speed and accuracy. Al suggests that anyone attempting to play his music practice it slowly with accuracy in both the left and right hands, and you will in time be able to play his music. In addition, the main musical element in AI's writing is the use of scales in both his thematic and solo break structures. AI's suggestion is to study the scales in all positions as an aid. Addressing yourself to these above mentioned elements of AI's playing and writing styles will help you tremendously not only in playing AI's music, but also in the writing and playing of your own music, as the elements of speed, accuracy, and scale work will broaden your musical creativity.
It is important to note that the playing positions and fingerings contained in these transcriptions are the choosing of the editor, and are not necessarily those that Al uses himself. They are those that seem most comfortable to me.
You should feel free to play the music in any position you feel comfortable with. As Al has stated many times, you should know your fretboard so well that you can play the given music in any position feasible. But for those of you who don't know your fretboard well, I felt it necessary to include one way you could play these tunes.
You should also note that the bass lines contain no fingerings or position markings, since I felt it better to leave it up to the player. Of course, keyboard players can use both lines, or play the chord changes along with the guitar line.
I do hope that you get many things from this book, but most of all I hope you have fun and enjoy it.
Music Editor
... Do you have any suggestions for how to learn these things?
I would recommend books that show the positions and ways to play them. Check out Berklee's books (Berklee Press Publications), because I know their advanced stuff to be very good; it's probably the same with their beginning books, too. I would suggest starting your scale education with the major and minor scales, and,after that, diminished, augmented, and whole-tone. Then, depending on what kind of music you ant to play, the modes should be learned. My theory about this kind of thing is that you should never stop learning.
Once you've got it you can play whatever you want, and your playing will sound more advanced, thus achieving a better understanding of the instrument.
How does this apply to the way you play now?
ell, now I know where to play on the instrument and what to do to get the sound I want. And because it comes o easily, I can play more in terms of feelings. You can spend a lifetime playing with the "thinking" process of hat scale to put against what chord. If you were to analyze my playing, you would find elements of the phrygian, dorian, mixolydian, and locrian modes etc.
Would you describe your left-hand technique?
My left.hand position is one from which all four fingers have easy access to the fingerboard. It doesn't vary much from that, because it is natural for me to use all four fingers to play my ideas. I really find it frustrating to see so man rock players using just the first and third fingers. It isn't necessarily wrong, but it is impossible for almost an one to play any kind of scale with and fluidity.
What about your picking style?
It is just normal alternating picking. Because I was taught that way from the beginning, it is very natural for me, and I really don't think about it. Sometimes I have my wrist on the bridge, and sometimes it is free-floating. And although my pick hits the string flat most of the time, it will change, depending on what sound I want.
How do you come up with the rhythms in your playing?
I guess they come from a love of drumming and Latin music. My involvement with Return To Forever also helped. Unlike a lot of electric guitarists, who play mostly lagato, I tend toward playing rhythms like a drummer or percussionist would. I try to incorporate both rhythmic, percussive lines with the more legato phrasings. A lot of the trickiness of many of my scale runs is involved with the rhythms and where the accents fall.
How do you work on these tricky runs?
It depends, because sometimes one apparently tricky passage will flow really easily, while another passage will be alot more difficult. I'll then have to sit down and work out the fingering. I usually find it best to work on passages at a slow tempo with correct rhythm.
Is there a good way to work on alternate picking?
I would suggest picking three or four notes, and working on those. Too often, players who are trying to improve their right-hand dexterity get hung up by trying to play too many notes in the left hand. I hear a lot of players running whole scales from the sixth string to the first and playing them really sloppy. So, I say to make it very basic, ing only a few notes and play slowly with perfect rhythm in time. That, in itself, is a task.
Do you work on your own picking very much now?
ell, I want to get even better. There are a lot of lines in my music that are tricky for the right hand, and I only know that I've really got it when I don't have to think about it at all. I find that going over these runs before a performance serves as a good warm-up also. I practice tricky things with skips and jumps in them, but it's always omething that I am going to be playing in the music. One thing that makes some lines tricky is their rhythm. When I'm playing something very rhythmic, I use my left and right hands to enhance different parts of the passage. For example, I mute strings a lot.
How did muting become a part of your playing technique?
It was actually very natural. When I first started taking guitar lessons, I was very self-conscious in just playing around other people. I never really wanted anyone to hear what I was doing, because I was very conscious of their pace, too. I never wanted to have people say, "What's that noise?" In those days, electric guitar was not accepted like it is today. I was very shy, so I started muting the strings with my hand to cover up the volume. Years later, I ould mute the strings as a musical effect, but only then did I realize that it had become a part of my style. ...
TITOLI:
Al Di's Dream Theme FOR GUITAR AND BASS - SOLO IN PENTAGRAMMA, SENZA TABLATURE
Casino FOR GUITAR AND BASS - SOLO IN PENTAGRAMMA, SENZA TABLATURE
Dinner Music Of The Gods FOR GUITAR AND BASS - SOLO IN PENTAGRAMMA, SENZA TABLATURE
Egyptian Danza FOR GUITAR AND BASS - SOLO IN PENTAGRAMMA, SENZA TABLATURE
Electric Rendezvous FOR 2 GUITARS AND BASS - SOLO IN PENTAGRAMMA, SENZA TABLATURE
Elegant Gypsy Suite FOR GUITAR AND BASS - SOLO IN PENTAGRAMMA, SENZA TABLATURE
Lady Of Rome, Sister Of Brazil FOR 2 GUITARS - SOLO IN PENTAGRAMMA, SENZA TABLATURE
Land Of The Midnight Sun FOR GUITAR AND BASS - SOLO IN PENTAGRAMMA, SENZA TABLATURE
Midnight Tango FOR GUITAR AND BASS - SOLO IN PENTAGRAMMA, SENZA TABLATURE
Morning Fire FOR GUITAR AND BASS - SOLO IN PENTAGRAMMA, SENZA TABLATURE
Race W/Devil On Spanish Highway FOR GUITAR AND BASS - SOLO IN PENTAGRAMMA, SENZA TABLATURE
Ritmo De La Noche FOR GUITAR AND BASS - SOLO IN PENTAGRAMMA, SENZA TABLATURE
Passion, Grace & Fire, con 2 TABLATURE, della chitarra di PACO de LUCIA e di AL DI MEOLA
Italiano
English
