Are there any exercises to help choose tasty notes when soloing. Building licks...et

[TheAxeMan]

Kind of an obscure question. But my soloing, especially over jazz tunes is nasty rather than tasty. I can't just sit on one note and make it sound good, also, it's hard for me to choose the right notes. I usually end up playing way too too much. And it almost turns into noodling. How or what can I practice or play to get me out of this rut.

 

Also, how do jazz musicians come up with those long nice runs(i know how to improvise but I want to make it more tastier)? One guy I like is Larry Carlton(more jazz-rock). I was listening to his solo album and playing Room 335. He plays some long drawn out lines and it pisses me off that none of thats stuff shows up in my playing. Is it just a matter of sitting down and working out some stuff? Or practicing different arpeggios? Arpeggios is prolly a good place to start rather than running up and down scales which is what usually happens to me.

 

When I practice I usually just run up and down scales. I've probably formed some bad habbits. Just running up and down scales, trying to build speed. Playing chromatic {censored} that gets me nowhere. I know the major scale modes, petatonic scale, diminished(half-whole), harmonic minor, jazz minor. What now:mad:

 

EDIT: Also, I can play Wes Montgomerys solo to Four on Six, and Charlie Christian's: i found a new baby. Play George Bensons, Take Five and C-smooth playing, and the like. I can't get that stuff into my playing. How do I do it?

[Poparad]

Originally posted by TheAxeMan Is it just a matter of sitting down and working out some stuff? Or practicing different arpeggios?

 

 

For the most part, yes. The answer to how to get better at anything in music is always "just do it and do it a lot."

 

The best place to look for ideas are in the recordings you listen to. You mentioned that you dug that Carlton lick, so try figuring it out. Even if it takes a long time getting it off the record, it will be worth it (and it does get much quicker the more you do it). You will be training your ears, as well as taking something you hear and translating it to the fingerboard (the same skill used when you just 'play what you hear').

 

Arpeggios is prolly a good place to start rather than running up and down scales which is what usually happens to me.

 

 

Arpeggios are good, but in a broader sense of things, try to learn the sound of each note over a chord. What does the root sound like? What does the 3rd? 5th? 9th? 11th? #11th? 13? b7? etc.

 

Each note has a different sound and feel to it, and understanding and knowing each of these sounds is paramount to knowing what the tasty notes are to use.

 

Try playing over a backing track of just one chord type and learn what each sound like. I like to use Aebersold volume 24, "Major and Minor," which is just that: a track for each major and minor chord in all keys.

 

Also, learn what different kinds of arpeggios sound like over a chord. What does a triad sound like? A 7th chord? A 9th chord? A 7th chord from the third (9th without the root)? etc.

[TheAxeMan]

Cool, thanks a lot Poparad. That's definately what I've been looking for. That ear training is hard for me, so I hate it and I don't do it. I guess I've just got woodshed through that stuff. I never thought about getting a backing track and playing notes over it and listening to what they sound like. Thanks for the help.

[lazaraga]

trancribe solos
analyze written solos
analyze chord changes- look at the voice leading, common tones, melodic high points, etc.

also, just stop on random notes and hold them. listen.

ear training is absolutely essential.

learn to play another instrument. try a reed or brass instrument.
playing with your breath forces you to pay alot more attention to phrasing.

peace

[Sputnik]

You want to target you lines to end (resolve to chord tones) on the 1 and 3 beats of a measure. So your lines END at the 1 or 3 not start there.

An exercise:

You can start with a standard progression and write out, the basic chord voicing,
You play a chord tone at the 1 and 3 as half notes to learn the progression and get it in your ear

Then you can precede each tone by a half step (remember for the 1 beat you would place that approach note on the + of 4 from the previous measure)
Then try preceding a beat before with a whole step above, half step below
Then try, well, whatever the heck you want, as long you resolve you are going to hear the progression going by. Try you favorite licks resolving them to these tones

for example a ii V I
| Dmi7 G7 | Cma7 |

Write out the chord tones (in music notation preferably)
| D G | C
| F B | E
| A D | G
| C F | B

So examples of the guide tone lines (half beat a tone)
| A D | C E |

| F B | C E |

Try somethings like this
Dmi7 G7 Cma7
+ | 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + | 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +|
Db | C A Bb B F D#| E


When you use substitute chords you will resolve to those tones

Also you can create harmoonic motion by anticipating the chord change, forexample in a Charleston Rhythm the G7 chord is anticipated on the + of 2 so that can be your target point.

edited ti add: sorry I can't get the beat numbers and tones to line up properly, I hope you get the idea

[TheAxeMan]

just a quick question, whered u get the guide tones from? I always thought you wanted to focus on the 3rd and 7th qualities of each chord. Good stuff, thanks btw

Also do you start on the Db over dmin7?
I just want to make sure I fully understand
Thanks for the help

[Sputnik]

Originally posted by TheAxeMan just a quick question, whered u get the guide tones from? I always thought you wanted to focus on the 3rd and 7th qualities of each chord. Good stuff, thanks btw Also do you start on the Db over dmin7? I just want to make sure I fully understand Thanks for the help

 

 

I used the term guide tones to mean the note I was targeting, you are correct I think people generally use the term guide tone referring to the 3 and 7. I guess "goal note" may be the preferred term.

 

The tones I am aiming for are the chord tones from the chord I am going to resolve the line to.

 

The Db in my example is not over the Dmi7 it is going towards the Dmi7 I am targeting the C (b7) of the Dmi7, that Db was supposed to be lined up with the + of 4 in the measure before the Dmi7.

[nylon rock]

Pop's replies are usually the best, and so it is difficult to improve on his suggestions. And he knows his theory seemingly so much better than I know theory.

Tasty solos come from having done more rudimentary solos for so long that you're bored with them, and so you twist them a little to create interest. To the uninitiated, the solos sound tasty because they are no longer obvious paths that would be typically explored by all the millions of aspiring guitarists.

Other than that, carry out the real work of woodshedding your heroes. (and we all have our heroes)

Some day, years hence, the little things that you know from every angle, will synergize a little.

Those are the moments when you have to realize things are coming together, and then you have to ratchet up your attention to learn, or else those opportunities may pass you by, perhaps never to present themselves again.

[TornadoShaunUK]

Im going to sound entirely unprofessional here saying this but when it comes to music I generally just wing it =/ do something that i think sounds good, and if something soundsa a bit off, change it til it doesnt. Obviously you end up picking up your favourite bends and things. At the moment though alot of my soloing is very bluesy as Ive grown overly attached to the blues scales =/ LoL, I guess when I know more scale patterns I can start to mix and match and experiment a bit more with it all but at the moment I only know about 4 scale patterns so my soloing isnt great..

[Poparad]

Originally posted by TornadoShaunUK Im going to sound entirely unprofessional here saying this but when it comes to music I generally just wing it =/ do something that i think sounds

 

 

 

Knowing how each note will sound over a chord doesn't change the way you go about soloing. I still improvise and make everything up on the spot, the only difference is that I know how the notes will sound ahead of time, so I can avoid playing bad sounding notes and I can more frequently play what I'm hearing in my head because I know what that is on the guitar.