Bill W. Brazil Blog: Barney Kessel Blues Solo and Licks Study

Barney Kessel is one of the biggest names in jazz guitar history, but he doesn’t always get as much attention as Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, and others when it comes to studying the genre and instrument.

Though he may not be studied as often as some of his peers, Barney’s playing is full of classic licks, sophisticated vocabulary, and a strong sense of musicality.

In this lesson, you’ll break down Barney Kessel blues concepts, learning four licks and an entire solo along the way.

Have fun with this material, if it’s your first time studying Barney’s playing, welcome, and if you’re a fan, welcome back.

Barney Kessel Licks in This Study

Before you learn the solo as a whole, here are the four licks broken down one at a time.

This way you can learn the solo as well as the concepts behind each phrase in the solo.

When you’ve studied these licks, you can work them together in the full soloing study, or you can take them into your playing in other situations.

Have fun with these lines, they’re classic Barney phrases that will elevate your bebop soloing to the next level.

Barney Kessel Blues Lick 1

The first lick uses the bebop scale in the opening phrase, which is a Mixolydian scale with an added major 7^th passing note.

From there, Barney uses a b13 interval to create tension over the Bb7 chord before brining it back inside over Eb7.

Over the Eb7, you’ll see a Gm7 arpeggio used to create a bit of tension.

In this case, Barney is still thinking Bb7 over that bar, the first half, as Gm7 is the R-3-5-13 of Bb7.

By delaying the Bb7 chord over the Eb7 chord, Barney creates tension that’s released on the 13^th of Eb7, the C at the end of the bar.

When playing over any jazz changes, you can delay the chord you’re on over the next chord in the progression, as long as you eventually resolve that tension.

It’s a more advanced soloing technique than playing over every chord as they go by, but it’s one that’s worth exploring to expand your jazz soloing vocabulary.

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Barney Kessel Blues Lick 2

In this classic Barney phrase, you’ll use both lower neighbor and upper neighbor notes to create a tension and release sound over the first full bar of the phrase.

These neighbor tones lead into the next chord tones, the root and 3^rd respectively, by a half step.

Not only do they create tension and release in your solos, they’re an essential tool that every jazz guitarist should learn at some point in their development.

In the second bar of the phrase, you’ll see an Abmaj7 used over Bb7, to create a Bb13sus sound in the first half of the bar.

Playing a maj7 arpeggio a tone below a 7^th-chord is a common Barney sound, which you can find in Wes’ solos as well.

The last item is the tension created with the Baug triad sound at the end of the last bar, which is then resolved to Eb7 in the next bar of the full solo.

Moving up by a half step and using augmented sounds are both ways to create interest in your solos; as long as you resolve that tension correctly it’ll work out.

Experiment with these tension building sounds, just make sure to also work on resolving those sounds in your solos so they don’t get away from you on a gig.

Listen & Play

Barney Kessel Blues Lick 3

The next phrase is a straight-ahead blues phrase that Barney often used in his playing.

Though it’s not complicated, this phrase is a great example of how you can use solid blues vocabulary to grab the listener’s ears in your solos.

Often times players will get so focused on arpeggios, modes, chromatic notes, and licks, that they forget to play the blues over a blues tune.

This is a great lick that you can add to your soloing to make sure that your blues solos don’t lose their blues roots, even in a jazz setting.

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Barney Kessel Blues Lick 4

In typical fashion, you’ll find a lot of Charlie Parker influence in Barney’s playing, and this lick is no exception.

Using typical bebop techniques such as the 3-9 arpeggio, Ebmaj7 over Cm7, bebop scale, superimposed triads (Gm), and 7aug sounds, F7#5, this lick has it all.

If there’s one ii V I lick that you have in your blues playing, this is it.

Lastly, the lick uses an A natural over the G7 in the final bar of the phrase. This is a bit of an odd choice as that chord is usually G7b9.

In this case, Barney is outlining a G9 chord, not common but you can work it in, and at the end of the lick the A doesn’t sound out of place.

This is a case where the lick itself is so strong that an out of place note at the end sounds right, whereas that note on it’s own would sound wrong.

Be careful with these kinds of outside notes, if they’re part of a phrase they tend to work, if not, they can cause a clash that your audience may not be into.

Listen & Play