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Archive for the ‘improvisation’ Category

Blues With Brains Journey Update

Posted in guitar gear, guitar gear reviews, guitar instruction, guitar lessons, guitarists, Guitars, improvisation, inspiration, instruction, learn guitar, Music, musicians, new song, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 16, 2009| Leave a Comment »

bwb
As I’ve mentioned in the past, I purchased Chuck D’Aloia’s “Blues with Brains” series. After a month, I still haven’t moved past Volume 1, but that’s only because I’m going slowly and methodically with the process. Besides, the one thing that I found is that Chuck throws A LOT of stuff at you in a very short period of time, and I’m one of those types of learners that has to let information soak in before I can move on.

There aren’t any step-by-step lessons in this series. It’s very free-form, which I find is totally cool. But as I mentioned above, there are several places where Chuck throws in lots of material in a short span of time, so I’ve found myself going back and forth and listening and practicing for a couple of days before moving on. This is a real change of approach for me because I’ve operated by this little saying for quite awhile: “If patience were a virtue, I’d be a slut.” 🙂 But this time ’round, I made a conscious decision to not move on until I could execute on what the teacher was talking about proficiently.

What about the fruits of my labor? Well… I know I’ve used this clip before, but it’s a good example of applying what I’ve learned:

Excuse the obvious mistakes, the song’s not really in a finished state (can’t decide what guitar/amp combo I want to use). But here’s what I’ve learned so far that I’ve applied to this song:

  • I now pay lots of attention to the current chord being played and playing notes that “fit.” I used to be a real pattern player – especially the minor pentatonic – but I’m learning to break free of those patterns.
  • I’ve lately put a lot of emphasis on learning various triad shapes up and down the neck. This not only helps with getting the proper fingering at a particular place, but it also helps in coloring.
  • I’m also learning to let my solos breathe. One thing that I haven’t heard Chuck mention yet – though he’ll probably share it – is taking some time to let my idea sink in, then playing to build on it. Yeah, that song is somewhat composed, but it came about through playing over the rhythm track underneath. The themes you hear are ideas that I came up with while just playing around!

Regarding that last point, that is probably the salient point that I’m getting out of the lessons thus far, and that is taking an idea, then developing it and building upon it. It’s incredibly freeing!

 

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Gettin’ In the Zone

Posted in amplifiers, amps, aracom amps, guitar, guitarists, Guitars, improvisation, inspiration, Music, musicians, performing, playing live, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 14, 2009| 1 Comment »

Steve Ray Vaughn
Ahhh… the venerable SRV in a classic guitarists pose. I used to think that was just something rock stars did for publicity shots, and that the poses were contrived. But then as I’ve delved more and more deeply into improvisation, I’ve realized it’s not contrived at all. That kind of pose or expression is all part of what can be called “gettin’ in the zone.” The Zen masters call the “the zone” the state of satori, where thought and action are one; where your consciousness is at a height where whatever enters your mind you do. From the perspective of playing guitar, the awareness of what your body is actually doing is lost. Your focus is entirely on expressing the music you’re playing.

For instance, have you ever been playing one day and just get into the groove of a song, close your eyes, and just let your fingers do the talking? You’re completely aware of the song, but that’s pretty much all you’re aware of; and when you play, it’s pure expression. I had recently had this experience. I was playing on top of a simple chord progression in D, and the song came to a part where I had a rather long lead break. A few years ago, I would’ve been terrified to do play such a long solo, but I’ve really started to get comfortable with my playing to handle something like this. Luckily for me, it was not a fast song. 🙂 But in any case, after the first few bars, I got into this groove where I didn’t worry about technique nor worry about how I was playing a phrase. I just played. It was pure expression.

After the gig, a few people came up to me and said that when I was playing, I had this look of pure rapture on my face. I replied, “Really? I thought I was just playing. Gawd, I hope I didn’t look like a poser weenie…” One of the folks was a guitarist and told me that it was genuine. He said, “Dude, you were in your own world.” I just chuckled because I was totally unaware of my posture or body language. I was completely focused on playing. I was really in the zone.

I think a lot of my latest inspiration is that I now have gear that gives me the tone that I’ve been after for awhile, and while I realize that 90% of your tone comes from your hands, having gear that facilitates your playing just adds to your inspiration. For me, I’m playing what I believe to be the absolutely perfect amp in my Aracom VRX22. The cleans are absolutely spectacular on any guitar I play with it, and that clean channel is the most pedal-friendly channel I’ve ever played. The drive channel on that just sings and sustains beautifully. I know, I know… I rave about this amp a lot, but I’ve searched high and low for an amp like this, and now that I’ve found it, it’s like I’ve died and gone to heaven!

I’d be interested in hearing your “in the zone” experiences. Feel free to share ’em!

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Epiphany in Modal Scale Theory

Posted in guitar instruction, guitar theory, Guitars, improvisation, inspiration, instruction, learn guitar, modes, music theory, scales, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 5, 2009| 16 Comments »

modesfig2

Note: This isn’t going to be an instructional piece… just a sharing piece… mostly…

I’ve been playing guitar for over 35 years, but it hasn’t been until the last couple of years – actually the last few months – that I’ve really started focusing on scales and modal theory. Chord theory I had down cold, but I really didn’t focus on the scales part of the equation. I figured that if I could get some lead patterns and tricks down, I’d be in pretty good shape; and for awhile, that worked just fine.

But then I realized that in many of my recordings, I was using the same patterns and tricks, albeit in different keys and in different combinations, but the same stuff nonetheless. This prompted me to rethink how I approached playing solos, so I started out by learning major and minor scale patterns. I got a couple of books to help me along, and I proceeded to practice them.

But in the back of my mind was this idea of modes. I’d heard them bandied about for years, and pretty much ignored them partially out of the thought that as a rhythm player, they weren’t too important; though that really masked an innate fear that modes were WAY beyond my ability to grasp. But during this past weekend’s study/practice session, I realized that modes are not difficult at all! The names of the modes just scared the livin’ crap out of me! 🙂

Think about it: The mode names are all in Greek: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian. From my previous life as a bio-sciences major, terminology in Greek or Latin would evoke feelings of anxiety similar to, “Oh shit! More frickin’ terms to memorize just to regurgitate later on.” 🙂 Such was the case when faced with modes.

I now feel a little foolish about my anxiety with modes. Once you understand what they represent, they’re totally easy to play!

Here’s my explanation in a nutshell, just in case you too have the same anxiety about modes as I did:

  1. Modes are simply starting points within the scale of a particular key.
  2. For instance, if you’re playing in the key of C and want to play in the Mixolydian mode, you’d start and end on the 5th degree of the C scale which is G.
  3. Now don’t get confused here: You don’t play a G scale. You merely start at G, and play the notes of the C scale, so: G A B C D E F G

So what’s the big deal? Lots of players don’t give a whit about this stuff. For me as a teacher, this stuff is pretty important. But from a player’s standpoint, it gives you a much deeper understanding of the fretboard, and also, playing in a mode gives you a different tonal center to play from, which actually has an effect on how a solo sounds and feels.

I found that a great example of this is to play the Lydian mode. The Lydian mode starts on the 4th degree of a scale. Going back to the C scale, this means that the Lydian will be F. If you’re familiar with chord theory, a chord with an added 4th is notated as Csus4. The sound of this particular chord connotes a feeling that the chord must be resolved – it’s not something you’d finish with; you’d typically use a “sus4” chord before either the major root chord or minor root chord. In our case of a C chord, we’d do something like: Csus4 – C. In playing in the Lydian mode, you’ll evoke a sense that you have to resolve your scale somehow. After all, starting and ending on the 4th creates a feeling that your phrase is unfinished. The point of all this is that where you start will have a huge effect on the general coloring of what you’re playing.

Note that this discussion only brushes the surface of modal theory. For a much deeper discussion, check out Guitar Noise or this excellent article that I found on Modes of the Major Scale.

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Insight: Playing Rhythm

Posted in guitar, guitar lifestyle, guitarists, Guitars, improvisation, inspiration, musicians, performing, playing live, rock star, style, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 14, 2008| 2 Comments »

playing inspiredIn last month’s issue of Guitar Player, Steve Cropper was spotlighted. Cropper was a great session guitarist for Stax records who wrote and played with the likes Otis Redding, and was arguably one of the great guitarists responsible for establishing the 60’s era soul sound. In the interview, he was asked what advice he’d give to aspiring rhythm guitarists. His reply was both amusing and incredibly insightful (I’m paraphrasing): “Pick the prettiest girl in the front row, look right at her, and play to her.”

On the surface, that may sound a little chauvinistic, but there’s an incredible amount of truth in that. As performers is to, well, perform. No matter how we perform, it’s always an outward facing activity. And from my standpoint, there’s nothing better at inspiring me to create on the than when I’m playing for someone, and shape my playing to describe what emotions are stirred by the thought of the person for whom I’m playing.

Mind you, it’s not a sexual thing. It’s about playing against the images that crop up when you look at someone. For instance, the restaurant that I play at every week is a nice, family-oriented restaurant. During my set, parents will bring their children to where I’m playing, to show their kids the “music man.” Seeing the smiles and faces full of wonderment is really inspiring to me, especially as I’m a father myself (of eight kids!), and I almost always change the way I’m playing when kids come to see me play. I’ll even do special kids songs just for them at times, and let them strum my guitar.

The point to all this is that when you’re playing inspired, you draw your audience in. As a performer, there’s nothing worse to me than being mechanical. The music comes out dry and worse yet, seemingly contrived. And people pick up on that. But play inspired, and you take your audience on your emotional journey.

So take Steve Cropper’s advice, and find someone in your audience who’ll inspire you. I guarantee you’ll like the results!

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Calling all Guitar Teachers and Students!!!

Posted in buying gear, gear reviews, guitar, guitar instruction, guitar lifestyle, guitarists, Guitars, improvisation, instruction, learn guitar, Music, musicians, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 26, 2008| 1 Comment »

teachwombat-banner

One of GuitarGear.org’s readers recently plugged his guitar instructional site, Teach Wombat, in one of my articles about moving into a new chapter of my guitar life. I normally don’t like random product plugs, but being a teacher, I’m always looking for teaching aids and resources, so I checked out the site, and it definitely showed promise. A little later after Ken left his comment, like a good businessman, he offered to let me review his material, so I did, and all I have to say is, “WOW!” This stuff is GREAT! Ken’s primary product, the Guitar Teacher’s Toolkit includes over 100 professionally produced handouts covering the C-A-G-E-D system and scalar modes, plus a bunch of other awesome diagrams.

As a new guitar teacher, producing my own handouts has been a very laborious and tedious task, but with the Guitar Teacher’s Toolkit, I’ve got pretty much everything I need for teaching. It even comes with blank neck diagrams for ad hoc instruction!

But I wouldn’t limit this just to teachers. Players of all levels and skill will find lots of value from the diagrams and can use them as quick references. Hey! For $12.00, you can’t miss! So do yourself a big favor and go to TeachWombat.com today and buy Ken’s Guitar Teacher’s Toolkit!

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Stumbling Upon Technique

Posted in guitar, guitarists, Guitars, improvisation, Music, musicians, recording, tagged , , , , , , on September 23, 2008| Leave a Comment »

I was reading several interesting threads about technique and improv the other day. I have to admit that I was quietly embarassed by the fact that I don’t have a large library of techniques that I can tap into while I read the posts and articles. There are so many things to learn with respect to technique out there that it’s daunting!

But after reading those articles, I realized that a lot of the technique I have developed – especially over the past couple of years – has come from stumbling upon how to play a certain phrase through experimentation. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a disciplined improv dude that can instantly tap into a library of patterns and apply them. I’ve never taken guitar to that intellectual level. My approach to soloing tends to be fairly experimental; primarily because I don’t have a lot of techniques on which to fall back. But that doesn’t mean the process of experimentation isn’t cool in an of itself.

In fact, that process, at least for me, has been absolutely rewarding, and after I’m done with an “experimentation” session and play back the different takes, I often say to myself, “Did I actually play that?” It’s mildly amusing, but it’s also a bit scary because I’ll eventually have to play that or at least something similar to that when I play the song live. But that gets me to practice the technique until I have it down.

For instance, early on when I started my experimentation, I stumbled upon the minor pentatonic scale just by playing what fit. At the time, I didn’t know that it was the minor pentatonic scale. I just know that what I played fit with the song. I’ve since learned the other patterns of the minor pentatonic, and it’s something I tap into regularly. In another instance a few years ago, I was playing a solo, and one of the other musicians in my band asked, “Hey man, did you just do that in Mixolydian mode?” I replied, “Mixo-what? I don’t know, I just thought that it would be cool to start the lead a fifth above the root and play within that relative area.” Mind you, I still don’t know all the modes by heart – I think I stick to Dorian and Mixolydian a lot, or often start playing a minor pentatonic in the relative minor of the root chord (if it’s a major chord).

The point is that I don’t go out to specifically learn and practice a technique or mode or scale. Admittedly, that has probably slowed my technical advancement to a large degree, and I’ll have to admit that for the more organized and discplined among us, that approach is probably unacceptable, but it works for me, and I’ve learned a lot of things that I was later able to identify as formal techniques.

I know that there thousands of guitar players who are a whole lot better than me, but here’s a glimpse into my experimentation process:

  • GarageBand or some other package where you can easily set up loops and record rhythm parts is kind of essential. Having this is akin to having a basic chemistry set to mix chemicals.
  • Once you come up with a loop, play it continuously and jam to it to see what falls out of your experimentation. Never mind trying to be intellectual – just let it flow.

I’ve literally spent hours at a time practicing using this method, and a lot of these progressions have turned into songs.

To get you started, here’s a Jam Track that you can use. It’s a simple, 3 minute track in the key of A. I laid it down because I wanted to practice chord soloing… er… actually to see if I could do it. 🙂 In any case, have a go!

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