Mason Razavi is a San Francisco Bay Area jazz guitarist who’s been creating interesting jazz guitar educational material. This one is the fifth one he’s released, although this is the first one that I’m checking out.
One particular piece of trivia: both of us studied both at Berklee College of Music & San Jose State University. In fact, we were both at San Jose State around the same time, although we didn’t get to play much together.
Anyway, back to the bundle… the bundle includes:
- PDF with notation and tab
- A nearly 60-minute performance and lesson video
- The bass track to play along with
- The performance audio track with both the bass and guitar
The video & lesson is well thought out and organized. Mason explains that this video is designed to help you:
- Grow Your Chord Vocabulary by taking note of which voicings most interest you and applying them to other tunes
- Balancing Chords against single note lines as well as bringing out the top notes of voicings
- Developing a solo by observing how dynamics, use of different registers, and active rhythms create a story arc over the course of a nearly 5-minute solo
(Those are his words by the way!)
As I watched the video, I appreciated his explanation of the voicings, lines & how/why he chose certain fingerings and shapes. As with any solo guitar arrangement or study, there’s a lot to digest & it helps when the composer/educator explains his thought process directly.
The video is probably the most high value part of this bundle! I could picture myself rewatching it mostly when I have questions about fingerings.
For someone new to this kind of playing, I imagine watching Mason explain note by note, bar by bar to be helpful.
However, do note that Mason assumes that you do have the needed theory knowledge to understand what he’s doing. So this video is not for complete beginners or anyone without any theory knowledge at all.
Here’s the full performance of what you will learn from Mason:
All in all, this study & arrangement delivers on what it promises!
If you enjoyed what Mason played in the video, this bundle guides you to play the study & also helps you understand what he does so you can use it in your own solos, arrangements & improvisations.
Pros: Good well written study, video explains everything that Mason does in the arrangement.
Cons: Video file size is 8.52 GB for this 56 minute video, make sure you have enough hard drive space if you’re planning to download the video. Alternatively, you can also stream the video from the Gumroad platform or app.
TLDR: If you’re interested to understand how to create interesting jazz guitar solo that are supported by chord voicings, this video might be helpful.
Get this video here: https://masonrazavi.gumroad.com/l/nwrjz
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