Brett Garsed	Website:	www.BrettGarsed.com
	Genre(s):	Progressive Jazz Fusion
	Instrument(s):	Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
	Trademark(s):	World class guitarist, melodic with outside harmonization, speed on command, carefully phrased
	Album(s):	Big Sky Rock Guitar Improvisation
	Collaborations:
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Australian guitarist Brett Garsed is widely known in the progressive music culture as a fretboard wiz for his collaborations (mainly with TJ Helmerich) and contributions to various albums. But, now Garsed has compiled a collection of ten tracks for his first solo effort that puts him squarely in the spotlight with backup from fusion veterans Ric Fierabracci and Toss Panos.

Having listened to Big Sky about ten times, it became apparent that this album is a music reviewer's nightmare. A nightmare, not because the music is bad or anything of the sort, but because the music is so unique and undefineable stylistically that it is difficult to describe. As much as this stylistic uniqueness might jokingly be a reviewer's nightmare, it is a progressive music fan's dream because it brings a refreshingly new musical perspective that is found in Garsed's instrumental compositions. Though the styles are not really similar, the distinctiveness and uniqueness of Garsed's style on this album is analogous to Joel Hoekstra's accomplishments in achieving uniqueness on his ground breaking release, The Moon Is Falling.

So, despite the admitted futility in trying to categorize Garsed's style on Big Sky, I will attempt to give some depiction of it by describing some of the stylistic elements that are defineable. The compositions are definitely strictly instrumental, complex, and very progressive. I would hesitate to describe the sound as fusion because it seems closer to progressive instrumental rock in sound and feel (sort of like Eric Johnson), but the level of complexity and sophistication involved is more in line with what is more commonly found in world class fusion. This is not to say that there are no fusion influences or elements of fusion to be found in this album, but the character of the album might better be described as progressive rather than to set expectations differently for listeners who might expect a more Gambale variety of fusion.

The sound has some semblance of influence to Eric Johnson in that it deploys very clean toned voicings of a mixture of speedy and soulful guitar lines, and some of the tonality seems influenced by Johnson as well, as does some of the compositional structuring. Specifically, it seems that some of the arpeggiation of chords that involved leading fourth and fifth intervals seemed traceable to Eric Johnson. The intricate complexities of the composition and musicality seem to have a Joel Hoekstra-ish depth and feel to them, though the persona projected is quite different from Hoekstra. The same being true for the character projected by Garsed's use of the Johnson-sounding arpeggios. These arpeggios (for example, from the first track "Undoing"), though noticeably similar in technique to Johnson, seemed to take on an entirely different character in the manner that Garsed applied them and seems in no way derivative or clonish of Johnson.

Garsed's selection and matching of guitar effects and tones to the passages he applied them to was nothing less than perfect and nothing short of breathtaking. His ability to use clean tones that clearly articulate his advanced and speedy technique while maintaining the integrity of a pure and unpolluted guitar sound are truly mesmerizing. There is no use of overdrive or distortion to mask any imperfections in precision to be found on this album. This is one of the more impressive aspects of Garsed's playing. The manner in which these voicings articulated his flowing runs is very artistic and expressionistic. Garsed uses a wide variety of voicings for his musical ideas, including some very tactful applications of speedy legato, arpeggiated sweeps, fluid scales, and well-felt slide.

Using this clean-toned sound that deploys carefully crafted effects to project some character into his musical phrasings, Garsed constructs a number of soulful compositions that balance intensive development of intricate musical ideas with fluid feeling direction. The seamless transition of his musical ideas from one to the next give them a natural accessibility to the listener that overcomes the complexities involved in the composition and his guitar technique. The resulting musicality of Garsed's arrangements is such that the musical vision that is projected dominates the listeners' comprehension of any of the complicated mechanics involved, though an educated ear will definitely appreciate the complexities involved. There is so much emotional content, feeling, and musicality that is conveyed through the music that the compositions just continue to become more enjoyable with each successive listening.

Not only does the album reach great heights in the artistic achievements that it accomplishes, the consistency of quality in the music runs true from start to finish. The entire album is just phenomenal. It is impressive from a technical perspective and it is enjoyable from musicality perspective. Fans of progressive, instrumental guitar are going to feast their ears on this album, as do I suspect fans of fusion will, as well. Brett Garsed has put together an amazing solo release on Big Sky that is without a doubt of world class caliber.

On the scale of "into it", I give Big Sky a "very into it" and two thumbs up. Instrumental efforts of this caliber, musicality, accessibility, and that have soul-appealing enjoyability are few and far between. I can't imagine any fan of instrumental, progressive, guitar-centric music that would be disappointed with this release from Brett Garsed.

Brett Garsed's instructional video DVD for Rock Guitar Improvisation is a pragmatic approach that spans fundamental and advanced topics in guitar techniques and training. Brett's signature style has been integral to his success as an instrumental guitarist. In this video, Brett reveals a number of the techniques and approaches that he has applied to his guitar playing that contribute to his style and signature sound.

The instructional section of the video starts out with a tuning segment to allow the player to get in tune with Brett. This is followed by an informative dialog discussing the differences between perfect pitch and relative pitch, and the critical role that relative pitch plays in improvisation. Brett demonstrates a system for developing relative pitch by self-training to identify relative intervals. Furthermore, Brett discusses the common pitfalls guitarists fall into relying on fretboard pattern-based approaches rather than having a real feel for relative pitch to base their improvisation.

Garsed next covers his hybrid picking technique in depth. Brett explains the origins of this technique in classical guitar and the widespread use in country and jazz guitar. Shown are some useful exercises for developing the muscular control over the mechanics required for players to develop fluidity with this hybrid picking technique.

Next discussed are Garsed's unique legato techniques that apply a combination of picking with hammer ons and pull offs in a manner that allows Brett to move freely across the fretboard. From there, he demonstrates some advanced topics applying legato to string skipping and position shifting techniques with some examples that incorporate tasteful harmonization with useful melodic patterns. Breaking out of the common pitfalls of box patterns on the guitar is next addressed with Brett's revelation of his philosophical approach to harmonic relationships and the tonal layout of the guitar fretboard. This aspect of the discussion was interesting because it offers guitarists new ways of thinking about the instrument itself to break them out of patterns they often may feel trapped in.

Garsed next discusses improvisation in rock and the important role improvisation serves as a fundamental aspect of jazz music. Brett distinguishes between rock and jazz improvisation and provides an explanation of this distinction, as he is a self-proclaimed rock improvisationalist, though admittedly influenced by principles of jazz improvisation. He then gives a demonstration of improvising over simple chord changes applying some of the techniques he has already covered in the instructional video. Here the viewer gets to watch Brett improvising in a distilled environment of clean toned accompaniment that allows the listener to get a clear perception what Brett is doing.

Garsed's slide playing is perhaps one of the most signature aspects of the sound of his playing and is definitely an integral dimension to the soulful aspects of his music. Brett covers slide guitar technique from the fundamental basics to more advanced techniques that he applies in his slide playing.

All in all, Garsed's instructional video is very practical and he presents the materials in an easily understandable and uninvasive manner that stresses free thinking on the guitarist's part. I found this aspect of Garsed's philosophy to be one of the more important points that he touched upon because many of the great musicians of the past century expanded music to many innovative new territories with precisely this type of thinking. Clearly this balance of technical pragmatism with artistic license has been an essential component of Garsed's great success.

In addition to the instructional segment of the DVD, there is live footage of Garsed & company playing a number of the tracks from Big Sky. The footage includes many closeups of Brett's fine fretwork where the viewer can clearly see him applying the techniques discussed in the instructional segment within the Big Sky arrangements. Besides the instructional aspect of the live footage, the viewer gets a front row seat to watch one of the premiere guitarists in instrumental rock blaze through his lyrical stylisms within the great music composed on Big Sky. Garsed is accompanied by his bandmates, Craig Newman on bass, Angus Burchal on drums, and Stuart Frasier on guitar that all deliver a superb performance on the video. Though the instructional segment of the video is informative and useful for the practicing guitarist, the live footage is undoubtedly the most entertaining portion of the DVD. Watching Garsed traverse the fretboard to articulate the arrangements from Big Sky clears the air of some of the mystique behind Garsed's guitar technique and philosophy, though the well-conceived changes and Garsed's improvisational capabilities still hold their magic.

As if that weren't enough, there is a bonus section that shows live concert footage of Garsed from various periods of his career. Apparently, Brett, being the great guy he is, wanted you to feel like you were getting much more than your money's worth on this DVD!

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