This is a unique masterclass from the great Stephane Wrembel. This particular session was originally a Zoom video meeting on 13 January 2024. Since then, it’s been available for replay exclusively as part of Chase’s Guitar Academy.
Stephane begins with a discussion of the four things in music: melody, harmony, improvisation, and interpretation.
One of the most impactful things that Stephane said was, “avoid numbers at all cost, stay in the geometry”. This seems simple but might be counterintuitive to some. My take on it was by using the visual shape of the chord, you tap more on the intuitive nature of sound and relate to the melody more than if you were thinking about this intellectually.
This is really deep stuff.
I’ve been a fan of Stephane’s Mel Bay book, Getting into Gypsy Jazz Guitar for years, but for me hearing him talk about this stuff really opened up my understanding of his take on this topic, even after only 13 minutes into the masterclass.
The thing about how Stephane approaches this stuff is to keep it as physical as possible. That means he teaches to not overthink and get too much of the theory side involved. By using simple “shapes” and even to the extent of avoiding terminology such as calling certain shapes “triads” but instead trying to stay in the intuitive as much as possible.
Within this masterclass, Stephane goes through how he takes an improvised solo and how he navigates around the song “All of Me”.
He plays so many examples throughout and it’s a real treat to hear him improvise and talk about how he views the fretboard, especially using simple shapes to navigate visually.
If you enjoy transcribing, you will have a lot of ideas that you can get from Stephane’s playing in this video.
All in all, this is a great masterclass especially for intermediate and more advanced players. If you feel that you’ve been stuck thinking of music in a a more rigid music theory kind of way, this might help you get out of that. I certainly got a lot out of this masterclass… and to be honest this video helped me understand Stephane’s approach that I read and studied in his book years ago in a deeper way. If you have his book, I would recommend watching this video to understand his playing even more.
Pros: This is a seriously deep masterclass! Hearing all that he said, coming from an experienced performer, this is a real opportunity to hear someone at his caliber, explain how he improvises melody and how he connects to it at an intuitive level.
Cons: For beginners, this might be too much to digest. Some parts of this masterclass would probably be a better match for intermediate/advanced players who are more familiar with the fretboard. Also, there is no accompanying PDF with any transcribed examples, so you have to get the ideas directly from the video. That being said, the video does come with timestamps so you can find certain sections again for review.
TLDR: For anyone interested to connect with a more intuitive shaped based approach to improvisation, or if you’re interested in how Stephane creates strong melodies, this masterclass might be one that you want to watch (and rewatch again and again).
This video is part of the materials at Chase’s Guitar Academy. You can sign up for a 7-day free trial to watch this video and much more at Chase’s Guitar Academy here (affiliate link).
Thanks to Chase Maddox for inviting me to experience Chase’s Guitar Academy. Although I received complimentary access to the community, my reviews reflects my personal honest experience of the material.
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