Top 10 Frank Zappa Guitar Solos: A countdown of 10 of Frank Zappa's greatest guitar solos.
What's Going On In The Adventures?: A short analysis of Zappa's masterpiece "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" from the 1978 album Studio Tan. In this video I look at some of the melodic and harmonic structures and illustrate references from other pieces of Zappa's music.
Frank Zappa Conductor Score and Musical Problems: A look at the conductor score for Frank Zappa's "Bob in Dacron" and "Sad Jane" and some of the perceived musical problems.
How To Analyse Zappa's "Ugly" Melodies: A look at two common four-note cells that are recursive in Frank Zappa's non-tonal melodies.
Zappa's Alien Orifice Guitar Interlude - with Steve Vai: In this video I take a look at the difficult guitar interlude as played by Steve Vai from Frank Zappa's "Alien Orifice". I show how to approach the rhythms and guitar techniques in order to play the interlude as effectively as possible. I also go over the section that follows the interlude and reveal a compositional process whereby one bar melodic phrases are modified and transformed throughout.
Steve Vai's Talking Guitar And Insane Tuplets!: In this video I take a look at Steve Vai's transcriptions of Zappa's "Jazz Discharge Party Hats" and "The Dangerous Kitchen". The pieces showcase Zappa's use of the Sprechstimme technique which is a vocal performance that is half spoken and half sung.
Steve Vai's Impossible Guitar Parts - Zappa's Moggio: A presentation on how to play Steve Vai's "impossible" guitar parts from Frank Zappa's Moggio.
Building Chords in Zappa's Moggio: This is a continuation from last week's video of my rendition of Zappa's Moggio. Here I discuss the process of reharmonisation, performing melody, chords and bass lines simultaneously, as well as the challenge of filling in the harmonic gaps in the piece.
How Did Frank Zappa Keep Time?: A look at how Zappa conceptualised time and music.
Frank Zappa's Pedro's Dowry: Dissonant Clatter or Well-Crafted Design?: An analysis of Frank Zappa's "Pedro's Dowry".
Frank Zappa's Chord Bible: An overview of Zappa's method of constructing chords in his orchestral and non-orchestral music.
Intervallic Sequencing In The Music Of Frank Zappa: An analysis of Frank Zappa's non-diatonic melodies. A look at intervallic sequencing in the orchestral music and the pitch intervals used to construct melodic forms in the more difficult to analyse pieces.