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(Image credit: Erika Goldring/Getty Images)
Jimmy Herring is one of the most versatile and well-respected guitar players playing today, with a style that encapsulates the harmonic sophistication of jazz and fusion and balances this with the raw energy and dynamic delivery of classic rock and blues.
Add to this the improvisational flair of a jam band master and a little bluegrass and country, all delivered with phenomenal technique, and we’re in the right ballpark.
As you might expect, Jimmy’s career credits are just as impressive as his playing, with collaborations with other notable guitar heavyweights such as Derek Trucks, John Scofield, Warren Haynes, Wayne Krantz and many more, along with a successful career as a solo artist and bandleader.
Herring also served his apprenticeship as a member of Bruce Hampton’s Aquarium Rescue Unit, Phil Lesh and Friends and The Allman Brothers, and is currently the lead guitar player for Widespread Panic, a band that holds the record for the most sold-out performances at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.
A graduate of The Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood, Herring also attended Berklee College of Music. Crucially, Jimmy balances the intellectual and studied side of his playing with an intuitive, dynamic and feel-based delivery that clearly indicates he has paid his dues, both on the bandstand and by listening to a world of music. When either performing or discussing his playing, Herring’s enthusiasm, energy and sheer enjoyment comes across, loud and clear.
John McLaughlin was a huge influence on Herring, being exposed to Mahavishnu’s The Inner Mountain Flame by his elder brothers when just a teenager. This prompted Jimmy to develop his technique and improvisational facility and also opened his eyes and ears to the potential of purely instrumental music.
In 2017, Herring and McLaughlin played 25 dates across America and this was captured on the album Live In San Francisco.
The following examples explore three crucial areas of Jimmy’s playing. First, you’ll need considerable alternate picking accuracy and coordination to achieve anything close to Herring’s delivery.
You can treat any of these examples as a picking and technique workout, so don’t worry if you need to slow things down and build up speed over time. Secondly, we explore his use of chromatic decoration to create colour and melodic interest.
Lastly, we highlight his ability to negotiate the changes. If you play any of these lines without accompaniment, you can still hear the harmonic landscape over which they sit. We’ll also look at how some of these ideas might be found in the playing of Jimmy’s peers, specifically Grant Green, Clint Strong and Biréli Lagrène.
Get the tone
Amp Settings: Gain 4, Bass 5, Middle 4, Treble 5, Reverb 4
Jimmy switches between PRS and modified Fender guitars, so something with humbuckers will get you closest . For the clean examples use your neck pickup with the tone wide open.
He also likes to blend bridge and neck pickup, so for the overdriven solo try the same. The above settings are for the clean examples, so use an overdrive pedal for the dirtier sections.
Technique Focus
When developing your improv vocabulary, it’s common to isolate your focus onto one specific topic, concept or idea at a time.
While this has its place, allowing you to immerse yourself in a given concept or harmonic/melodic device, you’ll notice experienced improvisers such as Jimmy are expert at developing and maintaining multiple approaches at the same time, switching midstream between scales, arpeggios and pentatonic options, while employing mixed rhythmic ideas and phrasing. One Herring-endorsed approach is to switch between Dorian (R-2-b3-4-5-6-b7) and melodic minor (R-2-b3-4-5-6-7).
You’ll notice there is only one note separating these two, with either minor or major 7th, so Jimmy creates an eight-note ‘super-scale’ that contains both. A ninth note can be created by adding the bluesy b5th, and don’t forget that the remaining three chromatic notes can be utilised as passing tones to connect the remaining tone gaps (R-2-b3-4, 5-6).
The minor 6th arpeggio is a powerful tool here also, as this provides a neutral common-tone link between these two scale options. Explore these ideas for yourself.
Example 1. Clean-toned jazz lines
We begin with a collection of lines based around a 12-bar blues in the key of B minor, although for the sake of analysis we’ve divided each example into four-bar sections.
Naturally, you could always join these lines together to create a cohesive chorus, as well as mixing and matching between the alternating Herring idea and an echoing line from other jazz players featured, specifically Grant Green, Clint Strong and Biréli Lagrène.
Examples 1a) and 1b) define static Im7 lines in B minor, featuring tons of chromatic decoration in both instances. For examples 1c) and 1d) we’re looking at the move between Em7 and Bm7, the IVm7-Im7, and we round this section of in examples 1e) and 1f) with a pair of harmonically compelling lines that articulate the turnaround, specifically in this case negotiating bVI7 (G7), to V7alt (F#7alt), resolving to Im7 (Bm7). Remember to take these slowly at first.
This example defines a selection of useful melody tools that you can use to articulate the harmony found in a typical minor jazz-blues, again in the key of B minor. In Ex2a) we define one potential scale choice for each of the four different chords that we need to address this specific progression, while naturally you can augment these options with alternative or combined choices.
In 2b) we define a pentatonic option for each chord, although for variety here, we’ve chosen a different fretboard location. We conclude this section by outlining a Minor 6th arpeggio option for each of the four changes derived either directly or superimposed from the parental scale option, so we see Bm6 for B minor, Em6 for E minor, with Dm6 juxtaposed against G7 (derived from D melodic minor) and Gm6 against F#7alt (coming from G melodic minor). Always aim to understand the correlation between lines and their underlying harmony.
Example 3. Full solo with overdrive
We conclude with a cohesive solo, again based around a double time feel blues in the key of B Minor. While undoubtedly the notes are densely packed, there are also specific applications of space and syncopation throughout.
Much of the harmonic and melodic material reflects the devices we have outlined and utilised in examples 1 and 2, although Jimmy’s pentatonic superimposition prowess is reflected in bars 7 and 8, with three minor pentatonics all found within B Dorian (B-C#D-E-F#-G#-A) expressed over two bars (B minor pentatonic: B-D-E-F#-A, C# minor pentatonic: C#-E-F#-G#-B, and F# minor pentatonic: F#-A-B-C#-E).
In complete contrast to all this harmonic and melodic sophistication, there’s nothing wrong with simple too, so we finish up with a gutsy B minor phrase straight out of the pentatonic blues lickbook. I’m sure you’ll find much great inspiration here that you can apply in your own solos.
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John is Head of Guitar at BIMM London and a visiting lecturer for the University of West London (London College of Music) and Chester University. He’s performed with artists including Billy Cobham (Miles Davis), John Williams, Frank Gambale (Chick Corea) and Carl Verheyen (Supertramp), and toured the world with John Jorgenson and Carl Palmer.
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