I'd say you can put the root at the end rather than at the beginning of your
list... I've had many bass players new to improv, and they always want to
play the root first; unfortunately, yhis makes them sound like bass players,
not soloists! I usually say try to get away from the standard bass line
construction (root on the downbeat, mostly quarter motes, and always, or
nearly always *playing* on the downbeat...) to start sounding more like an
improvisor. We always called playing the root too much playing "hot tonic".
At 11:47 AM 12/10/96 -0800, you wrote:
>I have been taught that you should be able to "hear the changes" during
>a solo. To me this means that on the strong beats (1 &/or 3) you
>should be hitting a chord tone to help outline the changes. I was also
>taught that the chord tones to use (in diminishing order of impact) are
>root, third, seventh, fifth. This is the same thought process I use in
>building bass lines, so I really view soloing as an extension of the
>methods I employ in building walking lines, generaly adding in concepts
>from the melody. I am new at this soloing thing, but this is how I am
>approaching it currently.
>
>Mike
>
>
Tim Walters @j
walterstr@fau.campus.mci.net
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