[YYZ2112]

My solo strategy:

Place the whammy bar firmly in hand and begin to execute movement of said whammy bar with hand while picking numerous notes with no key in mind.

No seriously, I really try to not think about it too much. I find as I lock in on a melody I'm able to build off that with actual solo ideas. Sometimes it works and other times (like most times) I fail and decide the song I'm working on sucks at which I put the guitar down and get a beer.

[Bound]

Originally Posted by stubhead

I don't want to repeat, so I'll try to keep to a few short points.

1) If you're tapping and sweeping away, there's an extremely high likelihood you're not actually thinking about a melody and then playing it. Can you sing your taps? Can your (potential) groupies hum along? Yeah right, you only want to play for other shredders anyway....

2) Many, many great guitarists are good drummers too and think rhythmically. Paul Gilbert, Eddie Van Halen, John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck, Steve Vai, they're all capable of employment as a professional drummer. In his videos Gilbert especially talks about approaching a solo like a drummer, and his method of alternating a few bars of rhythm with a few bars of a fill is a good way in. Instead of another guitar get a $40 Ebay drum machine and learn how to program it; play scratch rhythms, get a digital delay/modeler that gives you a few seconds looping time and set up a looper. It's as easy as splitting your signal into two lines: one into a delay, and one into another channel. A $4 Radio Shack Y-adapter.... kill the signal going to the delay (with a volume pedal, another stompbox set to send no signal etc.) then play over your scratch rhythm loop.

3) Listen to how infrequently great guitarists are actually playing flowing, legato lines - 30%? Certainly not half the time.... It's a nice effect, but if your playing is just drooling on, and on, and on, all the time, try hocking up a nice big solid goober and see just how fun it is to splatter!

$) Write a fucking song, O.K.? The actual career opportunities for wanking in front of a webcam are maybe not quite as good as they look.

I think I love you....



































Seriously though, I love all of Gilberts Ideas about 'percussive' guitar playing. Top notch stuff.

[stubhead]

I edited/added a little:

Instead of another guitar get a $40 Ebay drum machine and learn how to program it; learn what a "Mersey beat" is, learn what a "train beat" is, learn what a samba is and where the beats are, then play them on your guitar. It usually works to play the bass drum on a low string, snare in the middle, and hihat beats on an upper string.

: : The Drummer's Bible : : <-great book, here.

To play scratch rhythms, get a digital delay/modeler that gives you a few seconds looping time and set up a looper. It's as easy as splitting your signal into two lines: one into a delay, and one into another channel. A $4 Radio Shack Y-adapter.... Record a rhythm into your loop, then kill the signal going to the delay (with a volume pedal, another stompbox set to send no signal etc.) then play over your scratch rhythm loop.

[Vision]

Originally Posted by Drew

I know this is a month old, give or take, but there's a dangerous hangup right there.

Don't think of it as "improvising in the blues minor," or "improvising in the harmonic minor," or whatever. Instead, learn to think of it as "improvising over such-and-such a set of chord changes." There's no reason you have to stay in the same scale for an entire solo, or an entire passage, or even an entire phrase, and arguably half the battle of improvising is learning how to artfully add tones outside the obvious scale choice too the mix and still make it work.

so, learn your scales cold, learn to play them across the entire neck without even having to think about them, and then forget them. ditto with arpeggios, not just sweep arpeggio shapes, but the actual series of chord tones. And then when you come to a solo section, throw whatever works at it - a particular scale, a couple passing tones from another scale that also works, a couple chromatic passing notes if they fit, maybe an arpeggio based lick or two, whatever. Don't think of them as rigidly defined scales, think of them as all part of the same collection of notes that may or may not be appropriate in a context.

I'd really be curious to hear a clip of your improv playing.

Funny you say all that... my guitar teacher had me learn all the scales, but he made me use white-out on the names of the scales. He told me that it was important to know the patterns, but don't get focused on the names of them because I will get locked into it. He said "ANY" pattern I play can be considered "ANY" scale "ANYWHERE" on the neck - just learn the patterns and I will be fine.

[ArchAngel1024]

Originally Posted by Drew

I know this is a month old, give or take, but there's a dangerous hangup right there.

Don't think of it as "improvising in the blues minor," or "improvising in the harmonic minor," or whatever. Instead, learn to think of it as "improvising over such-and-such a set of chord changes." There's no reason you have to stay in the same scale for an entire solo, or an entire passage, or even an entire phrase, and arguably half the battle of improvising is learning how to artfully add tones outside the obvious scale choice too the mix and still make it work.

so, learn your scales cold, learn to play them across the entire neck without even having to think about them, and then forget them. ditto with arpeggios, not just sweep arpeggio shapes, but the actual series of chord tones. And then when you come to a solo section, throw whatever works at it - a particular scale, a couple passing tones from another scale that also works, a couple chromatic passing notes if they fit, maybe an arpeggio based lick or two, whatever. Don't think of them as rigidly defined scales, think of them as all part of the same collection of notes that may or may not be appropriate in a context.

I'd really be curious to hear a clip of your improv playing.

On my band's myspace there's 2 acoustic tracks with me on lead MySpace.com - Liar Orpheus [SHOW JUNE 14] - CADYVILLE, New York - Progressive / Alternative / Metal - www.myspace.com/liarorpheus the last 2 tracks on the player. They were after almost 4 hours of playing previously though, so it isn't my best by far. But there are still some cool ideas in them.

If you want to hear me (and a friends) non improv work listen to the stuff we have Here minus the solo section on Dots on Lines, which I have to rewrite.

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Vision

Funny you say all that... my guitar teacher had me learn all the scales, but he made me use white-out on the names of the scales. He told me that it was important to know the patterns, but don't get focused on the names of them because I will get locked into it. He said "ANY" pattern I play can be considered "ANY" scale "ANYWHERE" on the neck - just learn the patterns and I will be fine.

Hmm. I think you're either misunderstanding me, or I'm misunderstanding you.

what your guitar teacher is getting at is that all the diatonic scales are effectively the same seven notes, in the same order. What distinguishes all of the modes from each other is not the pattern, but what note you treat as the tonic. So, while you can use the same pattern of notes to play Dorian, Mixolydian, or Locrean, what ditinguishes them is what note you treat as the starting point. D Dorian and C major share the exact same notes, it's just one you resolve to D while the other you resolve to C.

So, what do you need to take away from this? That yes, all of the diatonic scales (more on that in a bit) rely on the same patterns, but what differentiates them is how they relate to what's going on underneith. I.e, that G Mixolydian has the sound it does because over a progression in G it creates the sound of a major scale with a minor 7th, while G Ionian (major) sounds different because, even though it uses the same pattern of notes, it starts from a different point and the net result is that the 7th is major. Same patterns, sure, but they create different atmospheres against that same G chord.

So, try this. Record a minute or two worth of strumming a simple G major chord, open position, in a fixed rhythm. Now, go back and improvise over the top, playing in G major. Next, play over the chord again in G Lydian. Next try G Pentatonic Major. Then try G Mixolydian. Then, try G pentatonic minor. All of these scales should sound fairly musical over the chord, the first four because they all contain a G major triad (G, B, D), and the fifth because a pentatonic minor scale against a major harmony is such a fixture of traditional blues that your ear will accept it readily.

Now, for kicks, try some weirder stuff - G Locrean, for instance. Technically, this is about as "wrong" a scale as you could get, as the 3rd and 5th are flat. However, if you're careful, you should be able to do something here that works. Say, use the 3rd and 5th as passing tones, and spend more time on the root and 4th, which should sound more consonant. If need be, try playing predominantly locrean lines, but resolving to sustained chord tones even though they're outside the scale. It'll sound pretty odd, but if you're careful, you CAN make it work.

So, where am I going here? That each of the aforementioned scales in that first paragraph is a perfectly viable option for soloing over a G chord, since they contain the appropriate chord tones. What makes them different, then? The non-chord tone notes, which provide the "color" too the scale.

The Locrean is arguably NOT appropriate, but trying to make it work anyway could be a valuable excersize in resolution, and sometimes that "way out there, but intentionally so" vibe might be just what the climax of a particularly fucked up solo needs to push it over the top.

Also, this is kind of implicit here, but there's absolutely no reason you have to limit yourself to just one scale, while improvising - trading bars of G major and G pentatonic minor might sound pretty righteous.

[Luan]

Originally Posted by distressed_romeo

Agree 100%. The best part of studying jazz is that it gets you out of the thing a lot of shredders do where each part of the solo is just a showcase for a particular technique rather than a musical phrase, like they think 'tapping bit-fast picking bit, sweeping bit, blues lick, whammy bar bit...' and just string together a bunch of exercises they've practiced to death, rather than thinking in terms of developing motifs.

People then wonder why I hate so much Cooley's playing

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Luan

People then wonder why I hate so much Cooley's playing

Actually, the man really plays some interesting lines. He just does them so fucking fast it's tough to pick them out.

[Drew]

Originally Posted by ArchAngel1024

On my band's myspace there's 2 acoustic tracks with me on lead MySpace.com - Liar Orpheus [SHOW JUNE 14] - CADYVILLE, New York - Progressive / Alternative / Metal - www.myspace.com/liarorpheus the last 2 tracks on the player. They were after almost 4 hours of playing previously though, so it isn't my best by far. But there are still some cool ideas in them.

If you want to hear me (and a friends) non improv work listen to the stuff we have Here minus the solo section on Dots on Lines, which I have to rewrite.

Ok, 2:45 into the first song. You know what I said about Gilmour? Doubly true. Your melodic sense isn't actually too bad, especially if you haven't been wrong, but there's no rhythmic development, it's all constant.

Remember (and I'm guilty of this a lot myself too, so I'm speaking as a fellow perpetrator and not an authority), every note you play is a proactive choice, taking over what could have been space between notes. Don't play they mecause you have no reason not to - do so because you have a reason TO. Likewise, explore different rhythmic groupings- practice going back betwen quarter notes, quarter triplets (3 against 2, for the previous duration), 8th notes, 8th triplets, 8th notes, etc.

Also, grab a copy of George Lynch's first solo on Tony Macalpine's "Tears of Sahara" If you want to talk about rhythmic variety... Man.

On the plus side, I'm hearing what I think is the begining of a hell of a good "touch" on the guitar- you're either lucking out left and right on dynamic control or the way you're "shaping" notes, or you've got a handle on varying up your attack, and that's half the battle to having awesome phrasing. It's totally carrying your playing here, which in itself is yet another reason to listen to a ton of Floyd so you can better appreciate what you're already doing right.

[ArchAngel1024]

Originally Posted by Drew

Ok, 2:45 into the first song. You know what I said about Gilmour? Doubly true. Your melodic sense isn't actually too bad, especially if you haven't been wrong, but there's no rhythmic development, it's all constant.

Remember (and I'm guilty of this a lot myself too, so I'm speaking as a fellow perpetrator and not an authority), every note you play is a proactive choice, taking over what could have been space between notes. Don't play they mecause you have no reason not to - do so because you have a reason TO. Likewise, explore different rhythmic groupings- practice going back betwen quarter notes, quarter triplets (3 against 2, for the previous duration), 8th notes, 8th triplets, 8th notes, etc.

Also, grab a copy of George Lynch's first solo on Tony Macalpine's "Tears of Sahara" If you want to talk about rhythmic variety... Man.

On the plus side, I'm hearing what I think is the begining of a hell of a good "touch" on the guitar- you're either lucking out left and right on dynamic control or the way you're "shaping" notes, or you've got a handle on varying up your attack, and that's half the battle to having awesome phrasing. It's totally carrying your playing here, which in itself is yet another reason to listen to a ton of Floyd so you can better appreciate what you're already doing right.

Thanks for the tips, we have another track from tuesday I think where we did an acoustic jam on a chord progression I yelled jokingly. Being into prog, Austin switched keys all over, and had to tell me what we were playing in. As soon as I get the track, I'll post it for you. It's got a very Spanish feel to it.

I think part of my playing style evolved from reading theory guides during classes for a month or two, and even though I don't do it knowingly, I use weird tricks in my playing (Playing in D over a G progression that goes into D) without doing it on purpose. It shows up in some of my improv stuff, and I'm usually surprised by what exactly I did in certain parts. It's probbably also because of my love of Tool (I have a 10,000 days shirt on now )

Part of the issue with those tracks is (again) it was after hours of playing, and I wasn't thinking about what I was doing before hand, it was all the immediate emotion of the week.

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "Touch" and "Dynamic Control" though.