Adrian Holovaty
@adrian · Guitar · Amsterdam
Gypsy-jazz guitarist and Soundslice developer. I post musical ideas and lick transcriptions here.
Awesome way to end a song here, from Johnny Smith! Super dissonant, then super straightforward/melodic. This is the ending for “It Could Happen To You” from Johnny’s 1955 album “Plays Jimmy Van Heusen.” More…
I love George Barnes’ sound — swinging, treble-heavy and unapologetically happy and humorful. This particular lick comes from “The Opener” on his 1973 album “Swing, Guitar!” More…
Here’s a small but nice lick from Gwen Cahue. It’s over “Blues en mineur” (G minor blues) from his new album “Memories of Paris.” More…
One of my favorite Adrien videos — finally transcribed! It took me a while to do, but it’s worth it for the many nice moments. More…
I’ve started recording my own gigs, to evaluate my own playing and try to remember some of the improvisations. Generally I’m not happy with my playing, but this particular “Nuages” solo actually turned… More…
Here’s an idea I came up with for “Nuages,” during bars 21-24, when it goes to C major. It’s a nice little counterpointy walkup thing. :-) More…
This Rick Beato instructional video is really great. He shows many beautiful guitar voicings, along with the “raw materials” on how you can figure them out for yourself by harmonizing the scale.… More…
So beautiful. Django outlines a substitute alt chord going from Eb to Eb7 into the bridge of “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons,” from 1947. More…
Rounding out my recent Boulou transcriptions, here’s a nice short idea over the changes of “What Is This Thing Called Love.” From a performance of “Subconscious Lee” on the live album “Nuages.” More…
This is one of those licks that’s purely guitaristic. No real music theory behind it, as far as I can tell — just a repeated pattern down the strings.… More…
Are your fingers properly stretched? They’d better be, if you want to play these beautiful, lush chord voicings from Johnny Smith. This comes from his classic Moonlight In Vermont album with Stan Getz.… More…
This little motif by Boulou brings a huge smile to my face. It’s just so dissonant-but-beautiful in that Django way. From now on, I shall always play this during that moment of Nuages. :-) More…
Here’s a nice chordal walkdown lick from Chet’s 1978 album “Reflections” with Doc Watson. The tune is “Dill Pickle Rag.”… More…
Here’s my arrangement of the Beatles’ Honey Pie, from a YouTube video I made in 2011. So many people have requested the tab over the years that I had to Soundslice it. More…
Nice and exotic sounding outro here, despite only using two chord voicings. More…
Here’s my own fingerstyle arrangement of the lovely jazz standard by Jimmy Van Heusen. More…
Here’s an exercise I learned from somebody at Django In June a few years ago (I forget from whom).… More…
Super-fast and “outside” intro here from Jonathan. I could definitely see using this in a gypsy-jazz setting. More…
Here’s a soul-jazz solo I discovered by a guitarist who’s unfortunately uncredited on the recording. It’s from the 1967 album “Honky Tonk Organ” by Bill Doggett. It might be Billy Butler, but that’s just… More…
A couple of nice substitutions in this one. From the 1969 Jack McDuff LP “Steppin’ Out.” More…
Happy new year! Appropriately, here’s one of the very first things I ever Soundsliced; I just realized I hadn’t yet posted it to my channel. Make sure to toggle the rhythm backing vs. lead guitar if you’d… More…
This tasteful guitar interlude comes from Jo Stafford’s 1945 recording with Paul Weston And His Orchestra. I needed to do some Internet sleuthing to confirm who the guitarist was...the great George Van… More…
A very nice intro here from Adrien’s 2007 recordings with the singer Lemmy Constantine. The album is “Meeting Sinatra & Django.” I left in the first few words of Lemmy’s (highly questionable) singing for… More…
Here’s a beautiful intro by Antoine from the first track of his album “Sita.” More…
@LyleBrewerMusic has been posting some nice guitar etudes and challenging people to do Soundslice covers. Here's the only one I've managed to get under my fingers so far. :) More…