Re: guide tones/analysis
Lawson G. Stone ( (no email) )
Sat, 14 Dec 1996 13:47:07 -0500
Harry Avant wrote:
>
> (snip)
>
> >In fact If I hear a really good example and don't recognize the record,
> >it always turns out to be a new re-issue of a long out of print
> >album.
> >
> >I believe this is because people are learning improvisiation from
> >books or school and not taking the time to transcribe.
> >
> >40 years ago there were no books so everybody transcribed but now
> >people don't see why they have to.
> (snip)
> >In fact one of the things I've learned from transcribing is how
> >well thought out every note and phrase is, even if they are playing
> >very fast.
> >
> >reed
> >
> I don't know zip about transcribing or theory but I think there is a bit
> more to what you said above. 40 years ago solos where short and very
> effective. Each note was "well thought out". Today often people take
> 4,5,6, or more choruses and still don't say much. Maybe they don't have
> much to say or maybe they confuse verbosity with communication.
>
> I'm a wanna be guitar player (been wanting to be for almost 40 years). I
> listen to Oscar Moore's solos with the Nat King Cole Trio and turn green
> with envy. Nothing unnecessary added and nothing essential left out. Barney
> in the 50's and early 60's was the same way as was Hall.
>
> Now the question for me is how do I do that? Do I need guide tones, shells,
> or altered-altereds? When I try to learn licks, phrases or what ever from
> the CDs and tapes I can often apply them, perhaps with minor changes, to my
> own improv but I sure can't generate them like the masters before me did.
>
I'm not the best person to answer Harry's question, since my "wanna be
guitarist" status is probably no better than his. Still, I have found
one thing that helps me with learning "licks" from books and records.
Rather than learn a lick and try to use it everywhere, I start out with
a single tune and a specific spot I want to use the phrase. My solo sort
of works toward that phrase and then away from it. This is a practise
technique, mind you, not advice for performance. For now, I keep licks
"housed" in certain songs, so that to solo over a different tune I have
to learn another phrase. This keeps all my solos from using the same few
phrases. Then when I actually play, either in performance or just for
fun, I find the phrases pop up in musically analogous situations in
other tunes.
This is something I just see a bit darkly now, but I've learned that
music for me is like language. I'm needing structure for mastering
basics. As I posted elsewhere, composing solos for specific tunes is a
fun and rewarding way to incorporate learned phrases into solos.
Take what I say with a grain of salt, because I am not yet satisfied
with my soloing, though I'm happy with the progress I am making.
--
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Lawson G. Stone-Asbury Theological Seminary-Wilmore, KY
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Prediction is very difficult, especially of the future.
--Niels Bohr