|
|
|||||||
| View Poll Results: what process mostly guides your riffing? | |||
| geometry: I have a fretboard pattern I follow, & use my ear |
   
|
23 | 60.53% |
| I know where the root, 3rd 4th, flatted 7th are (etc)..I use them |
  
|
3 | 7.89% |
| I know where the notes (C, E, G, etc,) are, I use them |
  
|
3 | 7.89% |
| other (please share) |
  
|
9 | 23.68% |
| Voters: 38. You may not vote on this poll | |||
 |
|
|
Thread Tools |
|
#1
08-29-2002, 01:35 PM
|
|||
|
|||
what is your lead pattern/riff thought process?
What mental technique/training are you using when you play a riff...especially if your improvising?
__________________
-Roy '00 310kce '01 355ce '01 Fender Strat Deluxe '90 Alvarez 5040 '76 Yamaha FG300 How hard can music be? There's only 12 notes. 
|
|
#3
08-29-2002, 01:59 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
..oops...sorry...I should have put this thread under "Playing and Technique"
__________________
-Roy '00 310kce '01 355ce '01 Fender Strat Deluxe '90 Alvarez 5040 '76 Yamaha FG300 How hard can music be? There's only 12 notes.
|
|
#4
08-29-2002, 02:03 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Left brain: What key am I in? What are the third and seventh of each chord that is going by? Am I too loud?
Right brain: Melody,melody,melody, space, space,space,emote,emote,emote... ________ BestMature cam Last edited by min7b5; 09-03-2011 at 03:59 AM.
|
|
#5
08-29-2002, 02:16 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
__________________
-Roy '00 310kce '01 355ce '01 Fender Strat Deluxe '90 Alvarez 5040 '76 Yamaha FG300 How hard can music be? There's only 12 notes.
|
|
#6
08-29-2002, 02:18 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I'll give this a shot.
Think of your basic pentatonic blues scale in its easiest position/fingering. If you are familiar enough with that one scale in one position on the neck of the guitar, you should be able to close your eyes and play some simple blues from your heart without thinking much about theory. Now add to that as many other scales, modes, arpeggios, chord voicings, etc. that you can ingraft into your brain and fingers. Get as comfortable with these as you are with that simple pentatonic scale. Now to the thought process while soloing.... Lets say you are playing over the following changes: G C Cm F D G For the G and C chords I'd probably doodle around in the G major scale - but staying conscious of the chords and working around their spelling (e.g. not sustaining a C note over the G chord unless I was resolving it up to D or down to B). For the next two chords (Cm and F) you have some choices. You could play out of a Bb major scale and it would work over both chords, or you could use a C Melodic Minor scale and get a bit of a different vibe. For the last two chords (D and G) I'd probably go back to the G major scale. Its kind of hard to explain, but while I'm soloing, I'm always conscious of what chord is going by at that moment. I will also keep in mind where that chord fits against the key of the song (in the chord changes above the six chords would be analyzed like this... G C [Key of G: I IV] Cm F [Key of Bb: ii V] D G [Key of G: V I] Apart from the theory, I try to do the following.... 1. Play with emotion 2. Use dynamics 3. Play singable melodies 4. Play when I exhale and stop playing while I inhale (like a horn player). This keeps you from bomabarding the listener with non-stop jamming and seems to add more to the solo that it detracts. 5. Think deep and hard about theory while you are practicing, but when you are PLAYING don't give theory much thought, just allow what has been absorbed in practice to flow out without effort. 6. LISTEN to the other instruments and compliment what they are doing. 7. Play fewer notes than you think you need to play. I spend most of my practice time doing all these scales, modes, and arpeggios but I use them very sparsely when performing and tend to get more out of sparse tasty solos. 8. Work, experiment, work to get good tone. Two notes with great tone will sound alot more musical that the greatest lick with cheap tone. Peace. Last edited by 815C; 08-30-2002 at 09:12 AM.
|
|
#7
08-29-2002, 02:35 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
An addendum to my previous post....
It helps me alot in soloing to know the diatonic chords of the different keys. For instance in the key of G the diatonic chords would be Triads: I - G ii - Am iii - Bm IV - C V - D vi - Em vii - F#m(b5) Sevenths: Gmaj7 Am7 Bm7 Cmaj7 D7 Em7 F#m7b5 For Harmonic minor, the diatonic 7th chords in G would be... Gm7(maj7) [spelled G, Bb, D, F#] Am7b5 Bbmaj7(#5) Cm7 D7 Ebmag7 F#dimished For Melodic minor, the diatonic 7th chords in G would be... Gm7(maj7) Am7 Bbmaj7(#5) C7 D7 Emin7b5 F#m7b5 ============================== If you remember those in each key, then you can just grab the appropriate major, harmonic minor, or melodic minor scale and play over the chords. It will add alot of interest and depth to your solos. Peace.
|
|
#8
08-29-2002, 02:42 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Thought process while soloing:
(Bandleader nods to me):...uh oh, my turn?...oh sh** what key are we in??...ok I got it......sounds pretty good so far...woops I meant Bb not B...nobody's listening anyway...wow, cute girl in third row...how did I ever get this far up the neck??...dynamics, dynamics, leave some space...not THAT much space...is my fly open? I just felt a breeze...coming to the bridge (nod back to bandleader)...you take it you take it!!! HELP!!! 
|
|
#9
08-29-2002, 02:46 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Oops - should proof read.
For playing over a [Cm F] chord change, you'd want to use a C melodic minor, not the harmonic minor. Sorry. *** I've gone back and edited/corrected the previous post *** Last edited by 815C; 08-30-2002 at 09:13 AM.
|
|
#11
08-29-2002, 04:35 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Great post(s), 815C! Just fyi, you can go back in and edit what's already out there...
Even though I rarely play piano, I'm much much better at soloing on a keyboard than a fretboard, the structure is just much more intuitive. On guitar, I play rhythym and accompaniment almost exclusively, and my thought process has been to avoid improvising in public. When I must solo, I absolutely compose what I'm going to do in advance, and then play it by rote until I get sick of it. Fortunately I have been making much progress of late, though.
|
|
#12
08-30-2002, 01:12 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
815c, I wish I understood what you're talking about. I really do, and hope to learn that kind of theory one day. When I'm occasionally playing with other musicians and do a solo, I have a fundamental sense of where to go, but it's entirely by feel. I can't explain much of what I'm doing. I admit that I can get through a solo if the song being played is within my style and is one that I like. I do have a hard time trying to figuring out chord changes in a jam setting where a song is new to me. I'm sure knowing the theory would really help. I tend to get lost easy and alot of the time the musicians are better than me and do not seem to recognize my frustration in not being able to keep up (or they don't care and play on without really trying to help me. That really bothers me.
Tom
|
|
#13
08-30-2002, 01:35 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Tayloresque:
This is partly why I started this thread. The more accomplished musicians tend to have a better understanding of the underlying theory, and I wanted to get a feeling for what diffferent guitarists have found to be helpful on the way to becoming a better musician. After 30 years of playing guitar (off and on), I finally started to take guitar lessons about 6 weeks ago, and the teacher (a Nashville studio player) is really emphasizing the theory (he has yet to pick up a guitar). It's helping, but the process is slow. 815C suggested to me to just learn a new little piece of theory each day, and it slowly builds up.
__________________
-Roy '00 310kce '01 355ce '01 Fender Strat Deluxe '90 Alvarez 5040 '76 Yamaha FG300 How hard can music be? There's only 12 notes.
|
|
#14
09-02-2002, 12:26 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
This is a brilliant thread! I have been playing for over 15 years and I read 815c's post over and over again.. and I can not seem to learn that on my guitar neck. I need to learn it but get nowhere. I play with an excellent musician who is very well versed in music theory and he constantly points out things that I am doing when I play lead as if I have any clue what he is talking about.
I find little patterns on the neck.. I make little maps of where I need to be based on the sound.. I have a happy pattern, a dark pattern, a blues pattern etc. I have a little map of the feeling I want and then just follow the sound and choose the correct pattern.when the chord changes in the tune.. I just seem to go where I am supposed to be.. I just know where to go. But I can not learn what the notes are.. where is the 3rd, the 7th... I can not even name what key I am in!! Is that insane or what? I can play leads for hours and I have no idea what I am doing.. That leads me to my next scariest problem... I think I am buying a new guitar and the dots are going to be gone.. which then would change the visual pattern. I think I am buying an 1994 910 which has that inlay instead of the dots. My biggest fear that that I will lose my little patterns and actualy have to learn the neck of my guitar. That is why I am going to print 815c's post and try to learn this correctly, would be a shame to not get a really nice guitar just because the inlay pattern on the neck is different. Kalinka
|
|
#15
09-02-2002, 09:38 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
Boy does that sound familiar! Seems to be the way I learn, too - play it until something sounds good. My wife is a semi-professional woodwinds player (flute and bassoon), and she often doesn't understand my playing either. I learn by ear and trial-and-error, and she's lost without a sheet of music in front of her. Different strokes... 
__________________
PeaVine
|
