Frank Gambale
Frank Gambale (gam-BAH-lee; born 22 December 1958) is an Australian jazz fusion guitarist. He has released twenty albums over a period of three decades, and is known for his use of the sweep picking and economy picking techniques.
Frank Gambale
Philippe Frenette-Roy · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Born
- 1958 · Canberra.
- Nationality
- Australia · United States
- Occupation
- guitarist · composer · musician
- Fields
- jazz · jazz fusion · instrumental rock · post-bop
- Education
- Musicians Institute
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Documentary connections
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
museum · 31461356-7fee-400b-ae2c-d965b2c3a06d · wikidata · Q950090 · wikipedia · Frank Gambale
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The documentary record
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Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Solo albums
Solo albums
Gambale graduated from the Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood with Student of the Year honours and taught there from 1984 to 1986.
Documentary record
Frank Gambale, recorded as a composer and musician, was born on 22 December 1958 in Canberra, Australia. The birth is recorded by the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Groups
Groups
With the Mark Varney Project, consisting of Allan Holdsworth, Brett Garsed, and Shawn Lane, he recorded two albums, Truth in Shredding (1990) and Centrifugal Funk (1991). Beginning in 1987, he spent six years as a member of the Chick Corea Elektric Band, playing with Eric Marienthal, John Patitucci, and Dave Weckl. With Corea's band he recorded five albums and shared two Grammy Award nominations. He spent twelve years as a member of Vital Information, led by Steve Smith. He reunited with the Elektric Band in 2002 and with Corea in 2011 when he joined Return to Forever IV with Stanley Clarke, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Lenny White.
As leader
As leader
1986 Brave New Guitar (Legato) 1987 A Present for the Future (Legato) 1989 Live! (Legato) 1990 Thunder from Down Under (JVC) 1991 Note Worker (JVC) 1993 The Great Explorers (JVC) 1994 Passages (JVC) 1995 Thinking Out Loud (JVC) 2000 Coming to Your Senses (Favored Nations) 2004 Raison D'être (ESC) 2004 Resident Alien - Live Bootlegs (Wombat) 2004 Resident Alien - Live Bootlegs Disc Two (Wombat) 2006 Natural High (Wombat) 2010 Natural Selection (Wombat) 2012 Frank Gambale Soulmine feat. Boca (Wombat) 2018 Salve
As co-leader/band member
As co-leader/band member
With Vital Information 1988 Fiafiaga 1991 Vital Live 1992 Easier Done Than Said 1996 Ray of Hope 1998 Where We Come From 2000 Live Around the World 2000 Live from Mars 2002 Show 'em Where You Live 2004 Come on In 2012 Live! One Great Night With Chick Corea Elektric Band 1987 Light Years 1988 Eye of the Beholder 1990 Inside Out 1991 Beneath the Mask 1996 The Songs of West Side Story 2004 To the Stars 2004 Chick Corea Elektric Band – Live at Montreux (DVD) With Return to Forever 2012 The Mothership Returns (2CD + DVD) With GHS (Gambale/Hamm/Smith) 1998 Show Me What You Can Do 2000 The Light Beyond 2002 GHS 3 With MVP (The Mark Varney Project) 1990 Truth in Shredding (with Allan Holdsworth) 1991 Centrifugal Funk (with Shawn Lane and Brett Garsed) With Donati & Fierabracci 2007 Made In Australia With Maurizio Colonna 2000 Imagery Suite (also known as Playgame) 2005 Live 2007 Bon Voyage With Maurizo Vercon 2008 For You Featuring Frank Gambale With GRP Super Live 1988 GRP Super Live – in Concert With School of the Arts featuring T Lavitz 2007 School of the Arts (Magnatude)
As featured artist
As featured artist
2023 Markus Venehsalo & Mavon Safia: Projekt 13 (feat. Frank Gambale) (Eclipse Music)
Instructional videos
Instructional videos
1988: Monster Licks & Speed Picking 1991: Modes: No More Mystery 1993: Chopbuilder: The Ultimate Guitar Workout 2003: Concert with Class 2007: Acoustic Improvisation
Technique
Gambale has become identified with sweep picking and economy picking. His interest grew out of a desire to transcend the physical limits of the guitar and borrow from other instruments, such as the piano and saxophone. One advantage of the technique is that it allows him to play faster. He can also approximate the way chords are played on piano by using his invented tuning, the Gambale Tuning, in which "the whole guitar is tuned up a fourth, but the top two strings are down an octave" (A, D, G, C, E, A, low to high). Gambale explained the tuning on Facebook: So, here is GAMBALE TUNING explained...and it only took me 40 years to invent this! ADGCEA. It's the same relative tuning as regular guitar but the lowest string is the 5th string A instead of the regular low E. Also, the 1st and 2nd strings are one octave lower. Here's the suggested string gauges. From low to high use strings from an electric 10 gauge standard set. Use only the A D G and B strings for the 6th, 5th, 4th and 3rd strings. The B string will be tuned up a half step to C. Then for the 1st and 2nd strings use a D and a G string from a standard 09 gauge set. These two strings are to be tuned up a whole step so the D will be tuned to E as the 2nd string wound, and the G will be tuned to A as the 1st string.
Instructional books
1985: Speed Picking (REH) 1994: The Frank Gambale Technique Book I 1994: The Frank Gambale Technique Book II 1997: Improvisation Made Easier 1997: The Best of Frank Gambale
Teaching
Gambale was the head of the guitar department at the Los Angeles Music Academy. He joined the Isina mentorship program as head of the guitar department in 2014. During the next year, he started an online guitar school.
Influence
Gambale has been featured on the covers of many guitar and jazz-oriented magazines worldwide, while having been cited as an influence by many notable guitarists including Synyster Gates, Dweezil Zappa, Greg Howe, and Pat Metheny. In a 1991 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, guitarist Jerry Garcia stated that Gambale was one of his favourite players at the time, stating, "My personal favorite lately is this guy Frank Gambale, who's been playing with Chick Corea for the past couple of years."
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- MusicBrainz artist record for Frank Gambale
Scholarly · MetaBrainz Foundation
reference work
- “Frank Gambale”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q950090: Frank Gambale
General reference · Wikidata
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Frank Gambale, revision 1346513709 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1."Biography ". frankgambale.com. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
- 2.Gilbert, Mark. The new Grove dictionary of jazz, vol. 2. Grove's Dictionaries Inc. 8–9. 2002. 1561592846.
- 3.Hallebeek, Richard. Richard Hallebeek. 20 October 2001.
- 4.Monk, Laurie. Mark Varney: Legato interview with Laurie Monk. Truth in Shredding. 13 June 2010.
- 5.Yanow, Scott. The Great Jazz Guitarists. Backbeat. 79. 2013. 978-1-61713-023-6.
- 6.Guitar Department. isina.com Dead link. January 2026.
- 7.Frank Gambale Online Guitar School. frankgambaleonlineguitarschool.com.
- 8.Fox, Darrin. Frank Gambale. Guitar Player. 1 April 2010.
- 9.Frank Gambale. GAMBALE TUNING. Facebook. 10 June 2014.
- 10.Michael Molenda. Avenged Sevenfold's Zacky Vengeance & Synyster Gates. GuitarPlayer. 23 August 2006.
- 11.Cheapelectricguitar.wordpress.com. Frank Gambale, Dweezil Zappa: Dweezil explains how Gambale advanced his technique | The Cheap Electric Guitar Blog. 4 June 2012.
- 12.All Out Guitar. Greg Howe Interview – Fusion Maestro | All Out Guitar | Magazine Archive. 29 August 2006.
- 13.Famous Quotes about Frank Gambale. frankgambale.com Dead link. January 2026.
- 14.Henke, James. Jerry Garcia: The Rolling Stone Interview. Rolling Stone. 31 October 1991.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
MusicBrainz artist record for Frank GambaleMetaBrainz Foundation
Institutional witnessreference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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