One of the topics on forum inspired me to create this.
I want to know
How effectively increase our music vocabulary???
What you know about
“… creative and improvisational techniques musicians use for
style, phrasing, solo development, and motivic improvisation”.
Always an interesting topic.
One thing that severely limited my creativity… and kinda ‘boxed me into certain phrases’ was my limited picking skills. Without knowing it… I was constantly repeating the same patterns because those patterns were in my comfort zone. And the only way to break free of those patterns was to shift to another position on the neck… but that also started to become sorta repetitive.
So CTC actually helped with this quite a bit. Picking things that I had previously avoided started to really open things up… my improvising sounds much more ‘improvised now’… and I feel like I can really create things ‘on the spot’
I find learning licks from other players and adapting them and making them my own. Thinking about question and answer in phrasing when I’m playing.
I pick players who I think have exceptional phrasing, say Hendrix, Beck, SRV. Then I pick one of their solos, say Hendrix’s Little Wing or Watchtower. I try to play along, until I sort of have the same feel they have. Then I put on the backing track of the solo and start improvising with the same feel and phrasing. I continue doing this until I have something I like and sounds like myself and not Hendrix anymore. This works 10/10 times for me.
I think to get great phrasing you really need to be able to feel the pulse of the music and play off it. I think it is important to be able to tap your foot to the pulse and to never lose that foot tap no matter what you are playing over it. I think being able to play either in the cracks of the beat or on the beat with a sense of control is where you will find that freedom to play with great phrasing. I think for me that is where the most fun is, that being able just have everything flow and never rush anything. I find having the feel of the pulse at all times really helps you relax when playing faster things and keeps everything really tight together as far as both hands being synced up at all times. That is how I think of phrasing…having control of the pulse and time.
Here is something I will do when I’m working on a phrase. I will come up with a small motif or phrase that has a center note that I will concentrate on and I will do call and response type of phrasing with variation on the original motif or phrase always accenting and emphasized importance on the note I originally chose as the “main character” of my story. This usually yields a pretty cool result with some cool moments that I might capture if I’m recording the improv. I call this Target Practice
man that’s a hard question to answer. I like to kind of analyze iconic phrases of other musicians not necessarily guitarists, and see how it relates to the chord tones. Also try to come up with ideas that specifically resolved in the third and work around one chorus like that and the other chorus resolving on the root, and then try to add more color to the phrase here is an abstract explanation by Guthrie
Here is another one from Gilad I’m still working my way to this one.
I also find very helpful to work on basic call and response. For more freedom while playing I’m starting to work on the linear expressions by Pat Martino it is really helpful and interesting, and lastly I’ll add superimposing triads but man I’m still trying to figure out how to make them work effectively
Always ask yourself:
“Can I sing what I just played?”
Probably the simplest way to start seriously thinking about your phrasing. Was like a splash of cold water in the face the first time a teacher asked me that in college.
I’m not sure if this is the right trail,right path and correct answer
because can you sing Bumblebee?
Or this speed runs (and chords)?
or this
…simple, great advice!
Hmm, I think that misses the point. First of all, for example, when practicing Bumblebee, I will sing component phrases to internalize them. And second of all, music involves larger forms, and without a most basic understanding of conversational phrasing, the chances of mastering larger forms are few. The tension in Bumblebee plays on the phrasing we’re more accustomed to.
p.s. The Art Tatum examples… Listen to the top voice of the chords for an example of what to sing. We’re really talking about overlaying phrases, but one can still break it down and learn something!
I’m not sure if this is the right trail,right path and correct answer
because can you sing Bumblebee?
Or this speed runs (and chords)?
Sure you could. Or at least, you could approximate it and fill in the gaps as needed. Those examples are fast, but they are still lyrical and have some sort of rhythmic accent pattern that could be vocalized. Same goes for the death metal example you posted–I’ve been at many a jam session where someone in the band says “you know, the riff that goes 'BUH, BUH, BUH-duh-duh-DUH”.
Anyways the point isn’t to sing everything you play or to make everything you play sound like Dora The Explorer or some shit, it’s more about drawing your attention away from burned-in technical habits and trying to approach your playing more lyrically.
Most people repeat the same sentence “sing it before You play it”
and I wonder what kind of thought process was held in Cecil’s Taylor head
17:03 Modern Black Metal & Jazz they both follow one path of expression
Aptorian Demon - Libertus
Bestia Arcana - Holókauston
Fluisteraars - Luwte
Urfaust - Empty Space Meditation
and even Throaat - Reflections in Darkness (harmony of classical music and BM)
Are we talking pedagogy or curating examples of interesting phrasing? Are you disagreeing or sharing? I can’t tell.
Folks are sharing good suggestions towards developing one’s concept, not suggesting rules. Do you say every word before you type it? We were all children once and started somewhere. And we all have lungs and have to breath occasionally.
Mick Goodrick, The Advancing Guitarist…practice on only one string or on two non adjacent strings…make musical sense. Listen to horn players. Thinking of the feeling/emotion you wish to express or bring out in the listener, and play to that feeling/emotion. Vibrato.
I wanted to get Almanac of Guitar Voice Leading Vol 1,2,3 or Extreme Voice Leading
and Creative Chordal Harmony for Guitar Using Generic Modality Compression - Mick Goodrick & Tim Miller, but it’s impossible :((
Maybe someone has these books and would like to share with me??
that sax solo 1:56
Check https://www.scribd.com/. There’s at least one of the Goodrick/Miller books on there for download.
You must log in and pay for this if You want download…
Money from copies is piracy(free copies is not).
It’s not a pirate site. Many of the books you can only read. Others are available for download. However, it is NOT a pirate site. It’s legit.
To counteract the uploading of unauthorized content, Scribd created BookID, an automated copyright protection system that helps authors and publishers identify unauthorized use of their works on Scribd.[81] This proprietary technology works by analyzing documents for semantic data, meta data, images, and other elements and creates an encoded “fingerprint” of the copyrighted work.[82] BookID is available for free for authors and publishers whether or not they choose to make their content available through the Scribd platform.[83]
Apologies for late addition to this thread - newbie CtC member here…
@nasierszyca: Thanks for a great question!
Re: exercises to help improvisation and music vocabulary , I recently learned a very simple but effective exercise from Gypsy jazz violinist / guitarist Tcha Limberger which might be of interest.
Basically, you restrict yourself to improvising and playing a melody over a backing chordal accompaniment track or loop using just one string, and only using notes from a palette of just 6 consecutive chromatic notes in the range b3 to #5.
eg. Over a C major scale you’d only play notes in the range Eb to Ab, and play these all on the B string using 4th to 9th frets inclusive .
(If you’re struggling with this, then you can relax the constraints a bit and try using 7 notes in the range b3 to 6).
Being confined to one string, and not being able to use the root note pushed me outside of my comfort zone.
It really made me listen to what I was playing rather than falling back on set finger patterns and phrases. Having to start and end phrases on notes other than the root made me more aware of intervals and how to use them.
It also made me more aware of the need to try to say something meaningful in my playing by experimenting with the rhythms in each line, and by structuring each line in a “Question and Answer” or call and response, rather than just ripping up and down scales, arpeggios and licks.
Trying to squeeze more music out of a limited range of notes also made me think about articulation of each note: vibrato, sliding, bending etc.
It might not work for everyone, but I found this a really useful exercise.
It was great for getting out of a rut in my approaches to improvisation; but also for my general musicianship.
I guess Tcha’s exercise has some parallels with Mick Goodrick’s exercise of learning notes by playing up and down a single string; and could maybe combined with this to help learn the fretboard too…
Hope this helps
Best wishes