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Post by wiz on Feb 15, 2015 17:07:04 GMT -6
I , like most guitar players I assume, improvise.
There might be a hook or two that are always played, but 95% of the time, I make it up as I go along, and the better night I am having the further ahead in my mind I am... e.g.
on a crap night, I am in the moment, on a great night, I can see bars and bars ahead...
I just watched this video from July of Last year of my band covering Chris Isaaks "Wicked Game".
I really like this guitar solo... apart from the bendy bit in the intro, everything else was improvised...
I played this song again, this weekend on fri and sat nights, and I don't think I got close to this version...
I am tempted to sit down and memorise what I played.. 8)...
Also, from an audio engineer perspective whats interesting is I had two stereo audio capture points, a zoom Q2 HD sitting on a vending machine stage left.. and a Canon HFS20 sitting stage right, the main view.
When I put them in FCPX (Final cut pro x) I synced em via the audio, cause I was going to use two camera views.. and I just realised the audio is a blend of both...
Amazing technology..
cheers
Wiz
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Post by tonycamphd on Feb 15, 2015 17:30:58 GMT -6
Nice Wiz,
you guys have dingo's in the clubs down there? the end lol
Anyway, i say let it fly man, the more danger there is, the more exciting things are, no one wants to leave their desk job on a friday night, go to a club and watch someone do a desk job on stage, rehearsed to perfection is boring, danger=excitement as a player and a listener. JMO, YMMV
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Post by kcatthedog on Feb 15, 2015 18:19:17 GMT -6
Thx wiz a favourite tune and I understand the dllemma, i'd say trust yourself, we are not perfect or robotic and I don't think audiences truely want that but they do want to feel that you care about the music your making !
play as much as possible the tunes you admire and that move you: people will feel that and I believe you will play your best, not all the time but you won't become robotic that way !
Nice tone and phrasing but grounded in the original melody: well done !
Sweet rosewood strat with some glass too, nice !
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Post by wiz on Feb 15, 2015 18:42:09 GMT -6
Thx wiz a favourite tune and I understand the dllemma, i'd say trust yourself, we are not perfect or robotic and I don't think audiences truely want that but they do want to feel that you care about the music your making ! play as much as possible the tunes you admire and that move you: people will feel that and I believe you will play your best, not all the time but you won't become robotic that way ! Nice tone and phrasing but grounded in the original melody: well done ! Sweet rosewood strat with some glass too, nice ! I love that Strat...I have had that since 89, bought it new.. done thousands of gigs on it.. looks brand-new.... I really saved and saved and got that. I used to sniff the fender catalogue .. guess all us guitar players did that. I just love it. 8) cheers Wiz |
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Post by cowboycoalminer on Feb 15, 2015 19:55:39 GMT -6
I work with a guitar picker sometimes who is all improvise. That is to say he CANNOT play the same licks twice in row for two takes. But he plays so damn fast I can understand why. It's just intuitive to him. Paisely is the same way. Guys like that move both hands and their fingers land on the right notes. It just flows out of them. I'm the polar opposite. I can't improvise for shit. I have to run everything I do several times to find what I want. Then I'll spend a few minutes practicing it before recording. I'm convinced it's just the way some peoples brains are wired. No right or wrong, just the way it is.
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 15,940 
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Post by ericn on Feb 15, 2015 20:18:03 GMT -6
You can learn it , but as long as you think about it you won't equal it. I agree the same solo gets boring, just do what you do and enjoy playing and the crowd.
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Post by donr on Feb 15, 2015 23:09:56 GMT -6
Nice playing, Peter. You've got one of those great voices, too.
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Post by wiz on Feb 15, 2015 23:30:11 GMT -6
Nice playing, Peter. You've got one of those great voices, too. Thanks donr ... coming from you bud, one of the nicest compliments I have ever gotten... suitably humbled. If you guys ever get to Oz, I would love the chance to say hi... take care Wiz |
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Post by Randge on Feb 16, 2015 9:12:44 GMT -6
Here is some sage advice someone gave me way back that I use when learning a show. Start your solo the same or very similar each night and let it blossom into something of its own. That way, the band knows you are starting the solo and even on a huge stage, there is confidence to follow through with a new idea. Once you have consistency in the solo, then take the training wheels off and play something totally different right from the get go.
R
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Post by kevinnyc on Feb 17, 2015 8:08:19 GMT -6
I've always wanted to do an interview series interviewing improvisers about what is going on in their brains when soloing...
Used to work with a guitar player who was incredibly inventive....playing things you wouldn't expect but sounded amazingly cool.....much of the time..
Then there were the times he'd start a song a half step off the rest of the band.....AND NOT HEAR IT!
I'd love to know what was going on in his brain!
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Post by wiz on Feb 17, 2015 16:48:38 GMT -6
I often ask guitar players, and keyboard players, how they visualise the fretboard and keyboard when soloing... its always interesting...
I play changes, I see the chords under my fingers... I learned to know where all the 1,3,5's were and then using those, I know where every other note is... I still see pentatonic etc.. its a gumbo! 8)
But basically, I play the changes...
I learned this from a great player, Kirk Lorange, killer slide player...
I also play slide in standard tuning...
cheers
Wiz
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Post by jimwilliams on Feb 17, 2015 18:19:01 GMT -6
I got trained by a jazz player back in the early 1960's. I got a much different background than most rock players, even though my thing is blues guitar. I got some great tips that overcame some physical limitations many rock or self taught players have.
One early exercize was finger walking, you place each down in a row, up and down and then work across to the next string. My jazz teacher stopped me from developing one bad habit I constantly see others do, the curling of the pinky finger. It should always be extended and ready for use. Watch Brad Paisley and others and you will see pinky extension and use. Many guitarists that curl the pinky are essentially 3 finger players, using the ring finger to play notes on the fourth fret. That fret is there for the fourth finger.
I got some wonderful lessons and tips from Mahavishnu John McLaughlin back in the 1970's when I was building the Rex Bogue custom doubleneck guitar he used at that time with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. I wired in custom circuits into his Gibson doubleneck before the Rex Bogue was finished. That can be heard on the Birds of Fire album. Between Nothing and Eternity and the Lost Trident Sessions CD featured the Bogue doubleneck.
John made his own guitar picks, he left some with us at the shop. They were cut from 1/8" thick plastic in a small triangular shape and then filed down to a narrow point. There was absolutely no give or flex. he would beat the crap out of the strings with those things, I never got used to them and prefer some flex to impart tonal variations onto the strings.
The best trick John taught me was fingering. He said, to master the fretboard and your hand, you must be flexible and adaptive. He said, practice like you had no index finger, drop it off to the side and convert the ^avatar^ finger to the ring finger's use. Learn to play all the patterns, chords and positions with the last 3 fingers, opposite what many rock players do with 3 fingers. Instead of using fingers 1,2 and 3, use 2, 3 and 4. Yes, it's very hard to do at first!
After playing for 50+ years I see the fingerboard as a highway. Like a race car driver, I don't think in concepts like gears, braking, etc, it's all about the automatic subconscience response. Hear music, let it flow out. If I start to think about it I usually miss the mark. It took quite a while to get to that point.
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Post by kevinnyc on Feb 17, 2015 18:39:07 GMT -6
Great post Jim.
I started like many with the minor pentatonic, then discovering sharp and flat 2nds, 5ths and 9ths...and have come to the conclusion that all the cool lines I like are usually some form of symmetrical diminished over dominant chords...
Still haven't figured out how to play THROUGH changes by continuing a line into the next chord, without having to re-set the fretboard in my mind...
I find it fascinating when one's facility is such that in real time they're understanding the scale degree of the note they're playing relative to the chord they're on and the next one coming up....at speed...
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