5 Things I Love About Charlie Christian’s Stardust Solo ✨

Added: 2026-05-04

[00:00:00]Now there's something you might not know about Charlie Christian's legendary Stardust solo. But what is surprising about it is not improvised. It's actually a composed solo. And there are multiple recordings of the Benny Goodman band. There's the studio recording and some live recordings as well, where Charlie plays this solo pretty much the same. And I think it was obviously something his boss, Benny Goodman, absolutely loved. And I did read that Charlie composed it in tribute to his mother. Either way, I think for us aspiring jazz guitar players, it's quite comforting that someone on Charlie's level was out there playing a composed solo. And doing just that, composing a solo, is something I did very early on in my jazz guitar journey. And I would recommend to this day to students, not as the only way, of course, but it's a chance to take away the pressure of time moving on in improvising and feeling getting lost in in chords and and form.

[00:00:51]If you compose a solo, you've got time to think about, you know, how you're going to create ideas across the harmony. And most importantly, how you're going to phrase and structure your solo. And of course, it's not the only thing you want to do. And if you went to a jam session and played your composed solo, and then someone said, "Right, I'll have another chorus." You'd be like, "Ah, I haven't got anything left." So, it's it's not the only way.

[00:01:10]It's just something you can do along the way to help you get to grips with soloing. In the case of Charlie Christian's Stardust solo, I think it became like a trademark part of the set, which put Charlie as the feature for that moment in the set. So, a wonderful thing for Charlie, given this is very early on in his time with Benny Goodman.

[00:01:28]The story of the solo aside, what makes it so special? I'm going to pick out five things that jumped out to me when I transcribed it.

[00:01:36]The first thing that struck me about this solo is the amount of chords in it.

[00:01:39]A lot of Charlie Christian solos, they feature double stops and so forth, but mainly just like single note.

[00:01:46]Because I think, you know, his prime influence is like horn players like Lester Young, hence mainly single note playing. But in this particular solo, there's lots of instances of chords. So, texturally, it's quite different to his other solos. And they're playing in the key of of D flat. This song's often also played Uh Now, just the opening is against an E flat minor 7 chord. And he's just doing this triad [music] and just approaching it.

[00:02:15]>> [music] >> And then walking up.

[00:02:18]Walking up to here, which is a G flat minor triad, which links to the the the C flat 9 at that point. It's the two of it. But just this the that aside, it's just very simple, taking a minor triad that fits the chord and approaching it semitone below. Something you could steal, you know, if the chord was A minor or A minor 6.

[00:02:39]>> [music] >> You know, move it around, steal it, it would work in other >> [music] >> It's a kind of swing language thing really happens a lot, but uh really nice to see it featured here by Charlie.

[00:02:53]Thing to steal there is the chromatic approach to the triad from underneath.

[00:02:56]>> [music] >> And just repeating it. Now whilst the solo opened with chromatic approach from below, he also does it from above as well.

[00:03:04]When we are in uh bit later on into the song, into the solo, sorry, on an E flat minor 7, he does this.

[00:03:12]>> [music] [music] >> Now what we've got going on here is interesting. The chord is E flat minor 7.

[00:03:28]>> [music] >> And you might recognize this D7 shape, right? This would be an A7.

[00:03:32]>> [music] >> This would be an A flat 7.

[00:03:35]And relationship, obviously the A flat 7's the target there, going down to it. The relationship between A flat 7 and E flat minor 7 is that A flat 7's the five. This is the two, the E flat minor. This is the five.

[00:03:49]>> [music] >> So, he's playing the five over the two.

[00:03:52]Cuz to me, it sounds like the band are playing E flat minor 7 in the background, not A flat 7 at this point.

[00:03:57]And then >> [music] >> it's like A7 to A flat 7. And without getting too bogged down, this could also be seen as E flat minor 6.

[00:04:06]Root, >> [music] >> flat three, six.

[00:04:09]And then to this uh triad shape here.

[00:04:13]What he's doing here, we've got E minor to E flat [music] minor. So, it's like A7 to A flat 7.

[00:04:20]Or you could look [music] at that as E minor 6 to E flat minor 6.

[00:04:24]And then E minor [music] to um E flat minor, so.

[00:04:35]>> [music] >> And approaches this uh C flat 7 or >> [music] >> B7 from above as well.

[00:04:46]And then the best bit, this such a surprise when I first heard this song, this >> [music] >> Um excuse a bit more cheap rattle there.

[00:04:53]He doesn't like that particular note. Um power chords.

[00:04:57]Where does this come from? And he hits it really hard as well. I was like He's really feeling it at that point. Just so unusual to see power chords used by anyone that's not playing like grunge or something or rock. Um so, >> [music] >> it's really interesting. Goes to show us, I suppose, obviously at this point in time, you know, the guitar is like the wild west. People are just formulating all these different ideas and experimenting.

[00:05:19]Um and to hear that in there to our ears today sounds really like, "Whoa, okay."

[00:05:23]And I think at the time to Benny Goodman, this this solo was like, "Whoa." Cuz he he mentions like Charlie was playing all these crazy chords, and maybe he was referring to that.

[00:05:31]So, first thing to take away is the use of chords, which is quite different to his other solos.

[00:05:38]As with a lot of his solos, another thing that stands out to me is harmonic clarity. He puts the right notes where it matters so that the harmony shines through. So, you know where he is in the form.

[00:05:52]Say little bits like this. He's just on this A flat 7 and gone and then he goes like this to imply this D flat chord [music] coming in.

[00:06:05]Landing on the third. He does it again.

[00:06:08]And then >> [music] >> And here he's ended on the flat 7 of the E flat. What's happening here is as the chords change, he's essentially targeting notes which are really pertinent to the chord, whether it be like the flat 7 there against the E flat or finishing his idea on the major third of the D flat chord. It really signifies the harmony. And as a result in his playing, you often see like chord shapes or, you know, just arpeggio shapes, obviously they're the one and the same really, aren't they? Um like say for instance on this B flat 7, >> [music] >> you got that B flat 9 without root shape coming here.

[00:06:47]Finishing on the third. Yeah, he's got a passing note before the end.

[00:06:51]>> [music] >> Just using the chord shape there to fit that B flat 9 sound over the B flat 7. Uh similarly, there's a beautiful bit on the D flat 6.

[00:07:02]Just the end of that bar there, where he plays just the up triad up with the root on the top again.

[00:07:09]And going to this beautiful B flat line.

[00:07:12]>> [music] >> And again, like finishes on a strong note for the chord. And I find this is what you get quite often. The shapes kind of jump out at you.

[00:07:21]But also, it's like at points of change or at the end of his phrases, there are strong notes that fit the chord. Something we can definitely take from his solos.

[00:07:31]Towards the end of the solo, I really hear him trying to be horn-like in his trying to imitate what's called a scoop on a sax, which on guitar he does with a slide.

[00:07:42]Now, in the context of like hearing it today, you just see them as slides, but thinking back to the time, I hear it as him trying to imitate someone like Lester Young and other sax players that he would have been surrounded by. And that scoop is where a sax player kind of slides up to a note from below. And so, say like in this bit.

[00:08:03]>> [music] [music] >> And so forth. There's all those slides in there are really effective for adding some more expression. They they make the note he goes to sound stronger as a result. Cuz if he just played without the slides, it'd be uh >> [music] >> It's okay. It's nothing wrong with it, but this the expression the slides provides just injects so much more feel.

[00:08:40]Something that would be remiss of me not to speak about is the double time feel, where he goes to these 16th note kind of phrases, and it feels like, you know, the temp- tempo is doubled up. And you get this in this phrase, uh you know, the where it just suddenly feels like, "Whoa, we've just slammed on the accelerator." And then in the Oh.

[00:09:06]If I can play it. And then later on with the You know, those all those kind of 16th note phrases, they jump out and they you know, go into that 16th note rhythm, it on on a ballad particularly creates that double time feel. And just suddenly comes out of nowhere. And it's quite surprising moments like that that have real impact. And I've always been a fan of people that use speed like that. Kind of an injection of it suddenly, and then back to kind of more typical, you know, eighth notes and triplets. It just jumps out and has real impact.

[00:09:41]Now the end of the solo is quite striking, cuz he goes very bluesy. Now Stardust, I feel that this song is very melancholy. It's about a song of longing for someone or a lost love. And it feels, you know, it's an intense song.

[00:09:53]Um and at the end, he goes bluesy on us, which he hasn't done too much of in this solo, but just listen to the last phrases.

[00:10:01]>> [music] >> Just that first phrase, hey, the triplets just um it's quite interesting here to finish it off. It makes it for a very strong ending. But he he does a bend the semitone up in the key of D flat. He bends up the second to the minor third. So that makes it sound bluesy.

[00:10:19]Then he does the um minor third to major third up a D flat major triad, bit like we spoke about earlier in in playing the chords.

[00:10:30]>> [music] >> Cuz the next chord is a a D flat.

[00:10:33]And then the final phrase, he does the bend up again to the minor third.

[00:10:37]And then up to the flat seven.

[00:10:40]And then we get minor third >> [music] >> to to one.

[00:10:46]And then flat seven >> [music] >> to six to five to one.

[00:10:52]Put that together.

[00:10:59]>> [music] >> Finishing on the root makes the sound of the yeah, makes it sound final. And I think those, you know, that injection of that minor third and the flat seven there at the end especially in the final bit on the on the one chord gives it that bluesy finish. Whereas I think a lot of people probably finish on a on a major chord.

[00:11:17]Here we're finishing on like a dominant sound, um which kind of maybe is about Charlie trying to really play into the melancholy and longing of the song.

[00:11:28]Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed that breakdown. There's obviously more we could pull out. It's a wonderful solo.

[00:11:33]Don't forget the transcription's on the lowest tier of my Patreon page, which will give you access to all of my Charlie Christian um solo um transcriptions. And there is the backing track that I played over.

[00:11:45]This is a wonderful solo to learn. I urge you to give it a go. Of course, there are some bits in it which are fiddly.

[00:11:51]Um the 16th notes, some of the cording, some of the timing. Uh as with anything like this, listen to it, slow it down.

[00:11:59]Um take your time with it, and it will give you some fresh ideas for your own solos. And don't forget what I said about the solo that it was composed. And if that's not something you've done yet in your jazz guitar journey, give it a go, um because it takes away the pressure of real-time improvisation, and enables you to work on skills in a different way, not in the heat of the moment of like being frazzled about by chord changes and so on, but what's coming next. So uh well, I'll just leave that with you. Don't forget jazz guitar lessons here every Monday. Till next time, you take care.