Sid Jacobs Tucson Workshop: Session I

Jazz guitarist Sid Jacobs teaches a live workshop on chord melody playing, recorded in Tucson. Rather than relying on memorized arrangements, block chords, and grip-based voicings, Sid deconstructs the basic elements of music — melody, thirds and sevenths, voice-leading — to show how to build strong arrangements of your own. As he puts it, chord melody is just music: the melody that always goes with the harmony.

What's covered

• Why playing by grips gives every melody note the same weight — and the melody-first alternative
• Shell voicings and harmonizing a melody with just thirds and sevenths, the approach Lenny Breau shared with Sid
• Guide tones, tension and resolution, and hearing the root without playing it
• Creating your own voicings, enharmonic voicings, and voice-leading
• Making etudes from the musical ideas that interest you
• The power of dynamics, plus Joe Pass chords and Ted Greene ideas
• Advanced concepts: fourths, the overtone series, triad pairs, and upper structure triads
• Stories from Sid's friendships and studies with Lenny Breau, Ted Greene, and Joe DiOrio — including what Wes Montgomery had to say about ii-V-I

Sid's humorous, lighthearted teaching style keeps the session enjoyable even as he goes deep. If you already own Sid's other masterclasses, this clinic previews many of the topics he covers elsewhere; if you're new to his teaching, it's a value-packed introduction. Full video is 2 hours and 7 minutes.