Jabari Johnson, Gospel guitarist with serious chops!

Playing Technique
#1

I think this might be educational to some who are more into shred and less aware of these amazing gospel players! (check out the drummers, bass players, keyboard, they are all amazing!).

I’m too new to this site to pronounce myself on what kind of technique (Up, down, crosspicking and all that) is used here but I’d be interested in any the more knowledgeable opinions here, so please do chime in!

There’s an interesting bit also at 16:27 where he stumbles on a lick and then goes on repeating/practicing it a good dozens times in a row to get it right.

3 Likes
#2

Awesome player. Haven’t watched but a few moments of this, but this is clearly wrist motion so it could be anything - upstroke escape, downstroke escape or double.

If you transcribe any of this and you see lots of lines where you have an even number of notes per string and the final note on a string is always an upstroke, or always a downstroke, then you have your answer.

#3

Damn, he’s good. There’s another similar guy I like called Jairus Mozee who’s well worth checking out. . .

1 Like
#4

yup, once you start digging into the world of Gospel musicians, you discover some incredibly talented musicians!
Jairus Mozee is definitely one of the greats as is Isaiah Sharkey.
(notice have they all have these cool names too? :sunglasses:)

Here’s another, not so much for the picking (although there is a lot of that too of course) but more the amazing chordal stuff they can ‘improvise’ on the spot!

2 Likes
#5

Haha yeah true about their names. I saw that video a while ago and was predictably blown away.