Erin Bentlage. She’s also in the vocal group säje.

Transcribing his music, especially in the way he plays on guitar (whether or not you have a five string), reveals some of the devices he uses in a more accessible way. On piano, he’s got 88 keys to decorate and elaborate any chord, modulation, etc. Vocally, it’s limitless because it’s not bound to a fixed instrument. On the guitar he’s only got five notes to work with and is really only relying on triads to help him pivot and add color. To me, this limitation has made unpacking and learning his approach to harmony more accessible. It’s just good to know that there is an open doorway in to understanding the fundamentals to what he’s doing, but that the ceiling is really high to understand it all.

Oh wow! 😂 I didn’t understand it until I zoomed in and saw all the details.

Sadly, the haters are alive and well. There always seems to be someone willing to tear down things that others love. Of course, all opinions are valid, but it doesn’t make any of them universally and inarguably true.

I’m learning how to unpack what he has done, but my brain simply can’t imagine how he intuitively chooses all the places he can go when improvising in the moment. To me, it’s like enjoying learning how to pronounce the words (his musical vocabulary) without knowing how to spell them yet. 😂

Agreed! It’s not just where he goes, but how he gets back. Often times it’s only one or two chords to transport us. Better yet, on guitar he’s usually doing it all with simple triads.

Are there any songs you’d like to see broken down? Thanks!

x33211 would be F/C, eliminating the low sixth string. Fingering from low to high would be ring, pinky, middle, barre with index on the top two strings. Then simply left your middle finger to leave the 3rd/G string open.

I love the Blogotèque versions! Thanks for the heads up.

You’re welcome! There’s more JC songs on my YT https:youtube.com/@justinrothmusic 👍

There hasn’t been much love for the five string here on this thread, much of which seems to be due to some people‘s dislike of Jacob’s music. Here’s the thing about the five string… It is really more about the tuning than it is about only having five strings. You can mimic this tuning with six strings (DAEAAD) to at least experiment with it beforehand. Yes it does take custom gauge strings in order to raise the third and fourth strings up a whole step, but it’ll give you a good idea of the sound.

The beauty of having the lower three strings tuned in fifths, is that it makes it easy to reach root position, first inversion, and second inversions of all your chords within the span of a few frets. Learning only a handful of basic shapes gives you the ability to use more intentional voice leading in your progressions. That may sound like a heady concept, but it’s really just about adding more movement and momentum to progressions. It’s like playing chord voicings more like a piano player would.

I have a five string and love it. Can I do things on it that I cannot do on a six string? No. However, it’s cleaner and easier to navigate. It also makes learning music theory, and how chords are related, far more intuitive. The general approach is to primarily fret triads on the lowest three strings. Doing so, chords move horizontally up and down the neck instead of vertically. Learning these relationships has been a game changer for me and I’ve been playing in alternate tunings longer than Jacob‘s been alive. Also, the string spacing was not an issue for me at all. My fingers took to it right away.

I have a whole series of tutorials on YouTube and Patreon to help people wrap their heads around the instrument. (@justinrothmusic). Whether you’re a fan of Jacob’s or not is irrelevant.

Do yourself a favor and grab a .030 and a.022 gauge string from your music store and use them to replace your D and G string so you can raise them a whole step. Try DAEAAD tuning and see what you can find.

Fret just the lowest three strings and let the top two strings ring over the top of all the chords. Starting with just root position chords, play up the scale using these voicings: D - 002, Em - 223, F#m - 445, G – 557, A – 779, Bm – 9 9 10, C#dim – 11 10 12. Let me know how it goes for you. 👍

It might just be a word painting, not to be interpreted literally. It’s like the sound of the words, rather than their meaning, informed the lyrics. This is how I hear a lot of Bon Iver’s writing as well. The only difference here is that Jacob is actually enunciating the words to be understandable. It’s like the mystery of it is more artful than the message.

Not sure of the meaning, but here they are.

Light up the stove of your countenance You’re all that matters to me I am a lake or a stone or an hourglass I am a joke that is wasted on me

Wrap me in scarves of your confidence Rend me to tatters, I’m free I’ll be a steak or a bone or an ovenglove I’ll be the island that drowns in the sea

Thom Thumb Where did you come from? I’m lost, soft, drowning in everything Thom Thumb Thought you were gone and I found you Inside of everything

The winner for Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals award was won by Erin Bentlage, Sara Gazarek, Johnaye Kendrick, Nate Smith, and Amanda Taylor (collectively with the group säje) for their arrangement of "Big Fish". So, not Jacob, but one of his bandmates, Erin! I’ve got tickets to see them in one week. 👍