Ideas to improve my blues/rock soloing?

[Johnny Mac]

I dunno, Johnny.  We've discussed it before (thanks again for the info), and I've spent a lot of time reading his website, but all the Third-Eye hippy-dippy gubbins and heavy emphasis on improvisation does put me off. 

I'd just like to be able to play meat-and-potatoes stuff, I'm never gonna be Uli Roth.  I don't look good in a kaftan.  :( 

Phil, Phil, Phil, come on man, he isn't some kind of LSD casualty from the Vietnam war! He will know straight away what you need to work on in a couple of minutes. That out of body experience third eye improvisation stuff is for players at his level or thereabouts. That is on a different level of conscientiousness and he won't teach you that unless you really want to know about it. I had a lecture on it, yeah it was mental but good too.
He really made a big difference to my playing but i was cane-ing it in the wood shed to get my moneys worth. Starting at 3:00am two hours before work, then 4-5 after but I really punched through all the things that were holding me back and once you get there you won't loose it. It just takes a few good workouts every so often.

[hamfist]

Great thread !    I feel much the same way as you Dave (TF). I'm a very comfortable and confident rhythm player, all the way up and down the neck, but always feel my soloing is stifled, uncreative and generally rather cr@p.  I don't think it's really down to a lack of technique. I just don't seem to be able to think of good stuff to play.

In a way that is strange because I used to play sax for years, and was a really quite accomplished improvisational soloist on that instrument. I just can't seem to translate what I use to do on the sax, back to the guitar.
  I think some of it is definately what Dave_mc was on about earlier in the thread about different ways to make one not interesting with bends and vibrato. I really don't feel I make the most of that at all.
  A lot of it also just comes down to effort. I get rather bored at widdling, soloing, playing scales, etc, anything like that, so I don't practice it much.
  This thread has inspired me to put a bit more effort in though !

[gwEm]

Phil, go and see Johnny Mizaroli for one of his courses, he'll sort you out, you'll love it you really will!
I know he comes over a bit trippy on his website but he can play anything and he'll show you how.

mmm, you think its worth the money johnny? i was thinking about a lesson or two lately, obviously i don't mind the 'hippy' angle...

did you take a course together with a few students or one-to-one lessons with him?

[AndyR]

I'll have to go and visit this bloke's website...

I was little under the influence of alcohol last night when I wrote my post, and I had to severely edit it to remove a lot of references/sentences that I thought might come across a bit "hippy-ish" :roll:

I'm not in the least hippy-ish really, but I can get a bit, shall we say "esoteric", when discussing guitar playing, song-writing, arrangements, music in general... maybe I won't agree with his choice of words etc, but it sounds like I'd get where he's coming from (ma-an) :lol:

[Fourth Feline]

personally I think you learn theory to break theory, I once read on some jazz theory site there are no bad notes, just bad resolutions

a good site for the basics that explains it well is www.musictheory.net

Thanks for posting the link JDC,  :)

 I was needing some clean, clear explaination of some theory ( i.e. Key Signatures & therefore naming notes 'on the fly' ) - and that site has a great sequencial 'powerpoint' type presentation on the whole thing AND no doubt a lot more that I will need. so Thanks !  :D

By the way Twinfan,  - if you ever want me to lend / post you my 4 CD-Rom / DVD interactive Larry Carlton tutorial set entitled  '335 Blues' ( details on Larry's '335 T.V,' Website )  - you are welcome to let it run through, and see if it breaks any ruts / triggers anything.  I know that before I went down the mainstream Jazz route, he certainly started to help me break some of my Blues / Rock 'ruts'.

Even the last disc ( which is purely a small DVD collection of gear details  - and snippets from  one of his London 'Master classes' ) gives a few ideas.

The whole thing is aimed at someone who already knows how to play / improv / solo - but gives you the inside story of how and why he makes it look so easy, yet surprisingly sophisticated. Basically how a seasoned artist and session man 'stalks' his prey.  A really chilled and down to earth presentation too.  :)

[Twinfan]

Thanks Derek - I may give that a try sometime  :)

I've put together a Guitarist magazine backing track CD compilation so the first step is to improvise over the top of that for a bit.....

[JDC]

one thing you could try but I dunno if it will help is to make a 1 bar lead and keep repeating it over a chord progression to see how it sounds on all the different chords

[Johnny Mac]

Phil, go and see Johnny Mizaroli for one of his courses, he'll sort you out, you'll love it you really will!
I know he comes over a bit trippy on his website but he can play anything and he'll show you how.

mmm, you think its worth the money johnny? i was thinking about a lesson or two lately, obviously i don't mind the 'hippy' angle...

did you take a course together with a few students or one-to-one lessons with him?

Well I did at the time and I paid him 430 for 16 hours one to one, but i did get a lot more time than that as we shared a few spliffs and we just got on well anyway.

To be honest gwEm, I reckon I could save you some money and you Philly Q by passing on what he passed to me. I mean why not, I'm off work for 6 weeks! It's only probably going to be technique at this stage. That though will lead on to other things. So what do you say? I'm not after your money and besides you would be able to show me things I don't know. I've still got all the bumpf and discs stored away. I hope he isn't reading this lol!!

[Johnny Mac]

Dave, remember this got posted last year?

Audley freed talking about exactly what you're after

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyQzzViczLM

I'm going to spend some time on this myself this week

[gwEm]

Well I did at the time and I paid him 430 for 16 hours one to one, but i did get a lot more time than that as we shared a few spliffs and we just got on well anyway.

To be honest gwEm, I reckon I could save you some money and you Philly Q by passing on what he passed to me. I mean why not, I'm off work for 6 weeks! It's only probably going to be technique at this stage. That though will lead on to other things. So what do you say? I'm not after your money and besides you would be able to show me things I don't know. I've still got all the bumpf and discs stored away. I hope he isn't reading this lol!!

I'm dead keen for that! I'm a moderately busy over the next six weeks - on a business trip in the US for 10 days, moving house maybe, a couple of gigs in the UK, and then a 10 day tour in the US. However I absolutely have the will and interest to make some time. Maybe we should discuss ith with Phil on the private message? Thanks alot for the suggestion! :)

[horsehead]

Dave, remember this got posted last year?

Audley freed talking about exactly what you're after

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyQzzViczLM

I'm going to spend some time on this myself this week

OH!
MY!
GOD!

Audley is a legend to me, how did I miss this!

[Johnny Mac]

Well I did at the time and I paid him 430 for 16 hours one to one, but i did get a lot more time than that as we shared a few spliffs and we just got on well anyway.

To be honest gwEm, I reckon I could save you some money and you Philly Q by passing on what he passed to me. I mean why not, I'm off work for 6 weeks! It's only probably going to be technique at this stage. That though will lead on to other things. So what do you say? I'm not after your money and besides you would be able to show me things I don't know. I've still got all the bumpf and discs stored away. I hope he isn't reading this lol!!

I'm dead keen for that! I'm a moderately busy over the next six weeks - on a business trip in the US for 10 days, moving house maybe, a couple of gigs in the UK, and then a 10 day tour in the US. However I absolutely have the will and interest to make some time. Maybe we should discuss ith with Phil on the private message? Thanks alot for the suggestion! :)

Nice one gwEm! Sounds like your're busy!

[PPPMAT]

Well my piece of advice is to listen to any cream era clapton - especially the live stuff. He is just on fire during this period. He has the stock phrases, the licks and the subtle aggression that he's never showed again (IMHO).

Its easy enough to work out what he's doing but its the note selection phrasing and vibrato that set it apart. BB king is another good one to listen to.

Blues playing is emotive stuff - if you get into the mood of it then it all comes naturally.

the best blues based solo in the world is the live version of crossroads - considering it is improvised it is brilliant

[Ian Price]

Dave, remember this got posted last year?

Audley freed talking about exactly what you're after

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyQzzViczLM

I'm going to spend some time on this myself this week

OH!
MY!
GOD!

Audley is a legend to me, how did I miss this!

Great stuff - I had completely forgot about Audley Freed. I think I may have even posted the link about it last year!

[dave_mc]

personally I think you learn theory to break theory

yeah, definitely. as i said, theory is a suggestion rather than a rule, but you kind of have to know the rules (suggestions? :? ) to break them...

i agree that recording is a good idea. it's hard to devote enough energy to listening to yourself objectively if you're trying to play something, as most of your mind will be on playing properly...

  I think some of it is definately what Dave_mc was on about earlier in the thread about different ways to make one not interesting with bends and vibrato.

thanks :) it's not just bends and vibrato, slides, legato versus picked, etc. etc. there are many different ways to play the same notes to make them sound subtly (or not so subtly) different...

Thanks Derek - I may give that a try sometime  :)

I've put together a Guitarist magazine backing track CD compilation so the first step is to improvise over the top of that for a bit.....

there are some websites where you can download (free) backing tracks too... :) though if you have a ton of guitarist ones, that's probably enough to be getting along with...