Josh Meader from Sydney, Australia is a guitarist with a penchant for wild fusion lines and modern jazz note choices. After studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Josh has gone on to cement a name for himself as one of the most exciting names on the electric guitar scene, with admirers including Tosin Abasi, Andy Timmons and Rick Beato.
Drawing on influences ranging from bebop to hip-hop, he creates compositions that channel odd time signatures and textural variations, while his effortless improvisational style covers jazz, fusion and rock, and regularly seems to transcend the normal restrictions of the fretboard.
The three excerpts below are from the JTC Guitar package, 10 Levels of Jazz, where Josh demonstrates his improvisational approach through a series of lessons, exercises, licks and solos. Our backing runs through two II-V-I progressions in the related keys of G major and E minor.
The II-V-I progression is a fundamental part of jazz harmony, and it’s essential to be able to solo smoothly over it. In the following examples you’ll see how Josh Meader approaches these chord changes, starting very simply, and gradually adding more notes. Good luck!
Example 1
Jazz doesn’t have to be complicated! Whole books have been written about the II-V-I progression, but here Josh almost exclusively uses G major pentatonic (G-A B-D-E) which then functions as E minor pentatonic in the second half of the lick.
Example 2
Now opening up to the full E minor scale (E-F#-G-A-B-C-D), notice how Josh builds his lines around target notes from the underlying chords. For example, check out the sustained B and F# notes over Gmaj7 or the big Am9 arpeggio in bar 1. Notice the use of E harmonic minor (E-F#-G-A-B-C-D#) in bars 6 and 7 over B7-Em7.
Example 3
Finally, Josh adds chromatic notes, an important part of jazz improvisation. These are usually ‘approach notes’ leading into a target note (G# or Bb leading to A) or ‘passing notes’ connecting two scale notes, for example G-G#-A. You don’t usually rest on these notes for long as they sound too uncomfortable or tense.
- Josh Meader's Jam Track Central video packages include 21st Century Jazz-Fusion Concepts, Modern Jazz Masterclass, and his latest series, Ten Levels of Jazz. For more details, head over to JTC Guitar.
