Philosophy

Randy Johnston is a great musician with extremely musical, beautiful and virtuosic ideas. The best thing about his approach to teaching jazz guitar is that he has summarised his years of experience into elegant concepts into this Triste Masterclass. I worked on this Triste Masterclass video after recently studying (and reviewing) his earlier video called Simplifying Jazz Guitar video.

In Triste Masterclass by Randy Johnston, you basically get a 1-hour private lesson with Randy breaking down his approach to Triste. It’s great because unlike a one-off private lesson, you’ll be able to revisit the video as many times as you want to really master the material. It’s difficult to pick favorite parts of the video as Randy shares really musical examples that are practically all worth transcribing.

In addition to multiple performances of the song, you get to learn a solo chord melody version of Triste, motivic soloing over the changes of the tune and also how to use tetrachords to improvise on the song. This is a great extension of his previous Simplifying Jazz Guitar video that I recently reviewed.

For the solo guitar version, Randy highlights the importance of creating a coherent arrangement that flows. It’s not just about the pretty voicings (although there are plenty of those in the video!)

In short, if you like the song or Randy’s playing – this is a great video to invest in. Lots of stuff to learn and Randy’s easygoing vibe helps make it fun to go through the video.

Pros: Includes a beautiful chord melody version of Triste and a great motivic soloing lesson over the changes of the tune.
Cons: No notated transcription of the arrangement. However, a PDF with the lead sheet & chord diagrams + step by step breakdown of the arrangement are amazing. So, you should be able to learn the arrangement even better by copying all the nuances of Randy’s tasteful playing guided by the PDF.
TLDR: If you like the song Triste, this is a great video to help you play even better on this beautiful composition. If you’ve never learned this tune before, this is a great way to learn it.

Get your copy here:
https://mikesmasterclasses.com/course/triste/

[Read more Reviews]

Review #28

Book Review: 21 Insights for 21st Century Creatives by Mark McGuinness

Review #27

Video Review: Simplifying Jazz Guitar by Randy Johnston

Review #26

Book Review: Triad Pairs – The First Step by Tony Greaves

Review #25

Book Review: Four Etudes for the Right Hand by Gyan Riley

Review #24

Book Review: Beyond Chord Melody by Martin Taylor MBE

Review #23

Book Review: Daniel Donato – The New Master Of The Telecaster: Pathways To Dynamic Solos

Review #22

Course Review: Understanding & Applying the Chromatic Scale by Frank Vignola

Review #21

Book Review: Movable Shapes – Concepts for Reharmonizing ii-V-I’s by Sheryl Bailey

Review #20

Video Review: Accompanying A Vocalist by David Cook

Review #19

Book Review: Developing Bebop Lines by Jeff Ellwood

Review #18

Book Review: The Acoustic Jazz Guitarist by Sean McGowan

Review #17

Video Review: Essential Percussive Guitar Riffs with Jon Gomm

Review #16

Video Review: Minor Line Concepts by Jay Umble

Review #15

Video Review: 8 Sets of Jazz Blues Changes by Randy Johnston

Review #14

Book Review: The Thesaurus of Scale Tone Chords by Alex Rogowski

Review #13

Video Review: Bebop Flow – Connecting Harmonic Concepts with the Family of 4 by Sheryl Bailey

Review #12

Book Review: Improvising Without Scales – The Intervallic Guitar System of Carl Verheyen

Review #11

Course Review: Liquid Fire Legato by Nick Layton

Review #10

Video Review: Dave Hill – Motif Development (Jazz Guitar Society)

Review #09

Book Review: A Guide to Developing a Chromatic Approach to Improvisation by Tony Greaves

Review #08

Course Review: Fundamentals of Picking by Fretboard Anatomy

Review #07

Book Review: Principles of Music by Bryan Baker

Review #06

Book Review: The Tao of Badass Guitar by Ben Higgins

Review #05

Book Review: Bach Scales by Jon De Lucia

Review #04

Book Review: Extended Scale Playing for Guitar by Joe Puma

Review #03

Book Review: Between the Voicings by Hristo Vitchev

Review #02

Book Review: Voicing Modes – A Chord Voicing Approach to Hearing and Practicing Modes by Noel Johnston

Review #01

Book Review: The Outside Sounds and Substitutions of Modern Saxophonists for Jazz Guitar by Kevin Miller

[Submissions for Review Consideration]

• Are you an author who wrote a jazz, guitar or music book?
• Have you created a DVD or an online video course or subscription based website?
• Would you like me to review your book/course?

Please send me a message at azsamad2 at gmail.com with:

For courses: a link to the course/video/product + access info etc.
For books: a link to the book (Dropbox) or PDF attachment (if it’s small) for review consideration.

Depending on whether I dig the book/course, I’ll let you know if I do plan to review it!

I cannot guarantee a review for every submission & if I’m not too into it, I may opt not to review it. I mean, it’s better to get a good review that for me to write a bad review just because it’s not a match for the kind of stuff I dig right? :p

NOTE: All reviews reflect my honest personal opinion so be aware that I will point out both cool Pros and Cons that I see in the work. You dig? 🙂