Stanley Jordan

Stanley Jordan is a jazz/jazz fusion guitarist, best known for his development of the touch technique for playing guitar. He was born in Chicago on July 31, 1959.

Normally, a guitarist must use two hands to play each note. One hand will press down a guitar string at a specific fret to prepare the note, and the other hand will either pluck or strum the string to play that note. Jordan's touch technique is an advanced form of tapping, which allows a guitarist to produce a note using only one finger. Instead of carefully pressing the string against a specific fret, the guitarist quickly taps (or "hammers") his finger down behind that fret. The force of impact causes the string to vibrate enough to immediately sound the note. The note's volume can be controlled by varying the force of impact: tapping with greater force produces a louder note.

(A helpful analogy to visualize this technique is the distinction between a harpsichord and a piano. A harpsichord produces sound by plucking its strings, and a piano produces sound by striking its strings with tiny hammers.)

Jordan's touch technique employs two-handed tapping. Both hands are positioned over the fretboard to tap notes on multiple strings. This method allows the guitarist to play melody and chords simultaneously. It is also possible, as Jordan has demonstrated, to play simultaneously on two different guitars. The technique generally requires a guitar with lower action and lighter-gauge strings. It is very difficult to employ on a classical guitar, but possible on an acoustic. The technique is simliar to that employed by players of the Chapman stick.

Eddie Van Halen and Joe Satriani, and many acoustic guitarists have followed the lead of Michael Hedges and employed two-handed tapping to play rich, percussive pieces (Clive Carroll, Preston Reed are examples). Jordan is the only guitarist known to use two-handed tapping techniques predominantly, and has developed it to a remarkable degree.

Another feature of Jordan's playing is the tuning he uses: from bass to treble EADGCF (all in 4ths, compared with the standard EADGBE). So the patterns for chords are the same where-ever they are played on the fretboard.

Jordan was the first artist to be signed by Bruce Lundvall when the latter became president of Blue Note Records in 1985 and, consequently, Magic Touch was the first release (not reissue) of the rejuvenated label.

Discography

• Magic Touch (1985)
• Standards, Vol. 1 (1986)
• Flying Home (1988)
• Cornucopia (1990)
• Stolen Moments (1991)
• Bolero (1994)
• The Best of Stanley Jordan (1995)
• Stanley Jordan Live in New York (1998)
• Relaxing Music for Difficult Situations, I (2003)
• Ragas (2004)

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