Just took a lesson from Rusty Cooley!
- Thread starter dargormudshark
- Start date
aiwass said:
Creativity is an idea, it comes with the more you know just like improvisation. It develops within the musician it isn't just something you can practice. The same goes for writing you can't take writing lessons you are either good at it or you are not. Of course you can grow as a writer but you can't start out with total crap and eventually go down in history for being the greatest writer ever, atleast I have never seen it happen.
get michael romeo's video The Guitar Chapter
its very cool
only problem - i no longer have a vcr. i'm thinking of taking it to a place to get it made into a DVD
anyway there's some good 'sequences' in it...hahahaa
its very cool
only problem - i no longer have a vcr. i'm thinking of taking it to a place to get it made into a DVD
anyway there's some good 'sequences' in it...hahahaa
It's obvious that the lessons that he is taking are focused on technique. It's possible that Rusty wants him to develop his technique so he can than focus on why certin notes are better than others etc.
Creativity and musical note choice is what it's about, but having the technique to be able to play what you hear in your head without though is also important. They go hand and hand-you can't discount the lessons he is getting. Maybe he will take lessons with Rusty for a year or so, develop great technique, then study with a talented Jazz player on the art of improvisation.
Or in otherwords..chill out people! Every step foward has a value, and this might be his technique step.
Creativity and musical note choice is what it's about, but having the technique to be able to play what you hear in your head without though is also important. They go hand and hand-you can't discount the lessons he is getting. Maybe he will take lessons with Rusty for a year or so, develop great technique, then study with a talented Jazz player on the art of improvisation.
Or in otherwords..chill out people! Every step foward has a value, and this might be his technique step.
dargormudshark said:
Wow.... you just don't get it, do you?
Oh, and to whomever said improvisational creativity can't be practiced: Sure as hell it can! Jam regularly, and you'll quickly see that your ear for developing themes, as well as your ability to translate the ideas in your head to lines on the guitar, will improve greatly.
I'm not looking to condescend, patronize or lecture - I'm only trying to give useful advice. All this stuff is fine for technique, and you should keep doing it for that purpose if you wish to do so, but when it comes to becoming a better improviser, patterns is not where it's at. Allan Holdsworth, possibly the greatest improviser to ever play guitar, makes it a point never to play the same lick twice. This is impossible to do if you base your playing on rehashing patterns, since there simply aren't enough hours in the day to practice enough patterns to be able to play something new every time. Besides - would you really want to spend that much time on that anyway, when practicing jamming instead would give you much better results while consuming far less time?
Improv is from the ears, not the fingers.
I use to practice phrases, sweep-progressions, chromatics etc for an hour or two before I take a big break for some hours. Then I usually end up my day with some hours of improvising, jamming with the band or playing some SymX, DT or anyband and try to do some cool fills and other extras in the song, not just playing along. Anyhow, just improvising may feel like standing still if you don't do any advances and aswell, only practice technique and licks written by others is IMO like learning the alphabet without knowing how to form words, sentences and chapters.
Guitardeth said:
Your analogy isn't totally waterproof.
Music theory is the alphabet, and the sentences and chapters can be whatever you play. Licks written by others, however, are the improvisational equivalent of clichés, something a good writer -any English major will tell you- avoids like the plague.
aiwass said:
Well, I would rather say that theory is the gramma. Of course, you must not know the theory, but it'll help you alot when you play with other musicians, and it'll help you understand what you play (I mean, you understand the mathematical of it, but the feeling and expression can you understand allthough you don't know gramma, even if you aren't a musician yourself). I would like to call scales played diatonicly for alphabet. It doesn't really tell you anything, but it's the pieces you build you sentences with. I mean, let's say you have an A minor pentatonic. Once you start to mess around with it you'll find that the alphabet is rolling around and before you know it you have a word or maybe even a sentence. Of course, sometimes the diatonicly works, i.e. when you want to dive into fast a solo and that's because the alphabet fits very well in that case.
By the way, a good advice if you want to improvise is to think of something like: A rainy day in september, the sounds of water against the windows. How could you express that feeling on a guitar? Or just play the feeling of being in love, or maybe the thoughts you have on a funeral. Some musicians have an extrordinary gift to play the right thing at the right moment. Take John Petrucci's outro-solo in Good Night Kiss on 6 degrees of inner turbulence. It's filled with dread, anxiety and sorrow. You almost can't listen to it without being touched..
ABQShredHead
©1970
Absolutely nothing wrong with using sequences as a building block. Improvisation's importance is mostly related to stepping out in a solo - even still, many players write their solos as they would a song. Improv is essential to a jazz musician, but a metal guitar player can get by without it. That said, I'm viewing improv as being in a live music setting requiring immediate ideas to match the music played. In this scenario, I would want several patterns to fall back on, like a quickie whole-tone idea over a V7alt chord in a jazz setting.
Most riffs are based on sequence ideas though. Absolutely nothing wrong with sequences. The sequence I added above is a warm-up idea though, but the concept can be taken to form a musical idea to fit a song, no doubt.
Theory is nothing but theory. Licks are your vocabulary - without organized licks, any "speech" will be mumbo-jumbo and mindless note playing.
My best advice to learn how to solo is to learn and memorize target notes within a scale and where and when to hit them. For instance, what note(s) in the Dorian scale played over a i-min7 chord is best to hit when the progression changes to a v-min7? These target notes will give you direction in your solos and ensure what you are playing doesn't drive your audience out the doors before the bar closes.
Most riffs are based on sequence ideas though. Absolutely nothing wrong with sequences. The sequence I added above is a warm-up idea though, but the concept can be taken to form a musical idea to fit a song, no doubt.
Theory is nothing but theory. Licks are your vocabulary - without organized licks, any "speech" will be mumbo-jumbo and mindless note playing.
My best advice to learn how to solo is to learn and memorize target notes within a scale and where and when to hit them. For instance, what note(s) in the Dorian scale played over a i-min7 chord is best to hit when the progression changes to a v-min7? These target notes will give you direction in your solos and ensure what you are playing doesn't drive your audience out the doors before the bar closes.
Well, in the end it's totally up to yourself how you wanna do it. I think it's cooler though when someone slides to a note that fits in a chord-change rather then someone who always are one note before in his mind. But, that's just my taste..
Granskog said:
Read what I wrote. Jam regularly, and focus not only on coming up with melodies in your head, but also on making the melodies in your head come out correctly on the guitar. Learn to connect your creativity with your ears and your fingers.
ABQShredHead
©1970
I cannot stress the importance of working on connecting your headspace to your fingers. Technique is easy to work on - getting the sounds from your head to your amp is the most essential aspect of becoming a true musician. Had I adopted this same strategy 20 years ago, I would be much less frustrated than I am today. And I'd probably have more hair.aiwass said:
Granskog said:
Not for too long. You want to practice IMPROVISING, not just that specific progression. Practice jamming over new, unfamiliar stuff all the time - it will yield results.
Make sure to vary between different keys, too.
ABQShredHead
©1970
It's ok to use the same progression over time since you will undoubtedly have different ideas on different days. I would recommend recording your "jam sessions" for later play back. It's cool to hear how your playing evolves.
But aiwass is correct - you want to play over new stuff as well. The point of improvising is to be able to get into any given situation and be comfortable playing. To that end, I would highly recommend getting into different genres - record some jazz, country, and blues progressions as well as your rock 'n roll rubbish. Each genre will open your ears to something new - country concentrates on major, "happy" chords, blues is dominant 7th based, and jazz will keep you on your toes.
There are also several "bands on tape" offerings out there you can buy. These recordings typically have the backing tracks of rhythm guitar, bass, and drums to allow you to jam over the top.
But aiwass is correct - you want to play over new stuff as well. The point of improvising is to be able to get into any given situation and be comfortable playing. To that end, I would highly recommend getting into different genres - record some jazz, country, and blues progressions as well as your rock 'n roll rubbish. Each genre will open your ears to something new - country concentrates on major, "happy" chords, blues is dominant 7th based, and jazz will keep you on your toes.
There are also several "bands on tape" offerings out there you can buy. These recordings typically have the backing tracks of rhythm guitar, bass, and drums to allow you to jam over the top.
i tried it out this morning. while i was to lazy to record anything, i looked in my record collection and took some very melodic power metal. i jammed of some hours and i realized that i should make it a habbit. i think its a pretty good idea to jam along with cds. that way you dont have to spend any time on preparations. you also probably take a different cd everytime so it becomes pretty alternating. i recomend it.
