Random jazzy improv wanking
- Thread starter GuitarStv
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cream123
JustAskinologist
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
try smoothing out the sound. Less attack on each note. Might just be your setup. Whenever I play jazz, I use my thumb to smooth out attack. almost a nice santana vibe to it. Take that how you want it...I like Santana but some might not.
EDIT 2: also if you are going for a true jazz styling...don't bend. But if its a blues/jazz thing....sounded great!
try smoothing out the sound. Less attack on each note. Might just be your setup. Whenever I play jazz, I use my thumb to smooth out attack. almost a nice santana vibe to it. Take that how you want it...I like Santana but some might not.
EDIT 2: also if you are going for a true jazz styling...don't bend. But if its a blues/jazz thing....sounded great!
GuitarStv
Sock Market Trader
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
Thanks for your comments . . . Yeah, was really going for more of a jazz/blues thing than jazz straight up. Really was just an attempt to improv while follow the changes better and not just sounding like I'm throwing scales out there over and over again.
I played that on an HH superstrat with a floyd (split neck pickup) . . . so I wasn't really going for traditional jazz tone. Listening to it again a couple times though I think that you're right . . . I should have either thrown a compressor on or used some gain to smooth things out. (The no bending rule sucks. It's something that I've never liked about jazz. Kinda robbing yourself of one of the most expressive aspects of playing guitar . . .)
Thanks for your comments . . . Yeah, was really going for more of a jazz/blues thing than jazz straight up. Really was just an attempt to improv while follow the changes better and not just sounding like I'm throwing scales out there over and over again.
I played that on an HH superstrat with a floyd (split neck pickup) . . . so I wasn't really going for traditional jazz tone. Listening to it again a couple times though I think that you're right . . . I should have either thrown a compressor on or used some gain to smooth things out. (The no bending rule sucks. It's something that I've never liked about jazz. Kinda robbing yourself of one of the most expressive aspects of playing guitar . . .)
drew_half_empty
Looking for Real Life
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
K, a little jazz 101
Bending is a hard thing to rid yourself of, but so is sliding once you get the hang of it. You've been working on arpeggios so that's good, gets you familiar with chord tones. Try sliding into the fifth, or doing that little blue note #4/b5 thing up in the higher registers. You can also slide into the root and 3rd, any other chord tones like 7th, 9th, etc take a little more finesse to pull off so don't worry about them right now.
Also, since you've been studying arpeggios, try practicing ONLY soloing with chord tones. Of course don't just run the patterns up and down but try to only use notes in the chord you're on. It's good practice, and once you get it down an easy way to make something that sounds "right"
Last thing--even more than notes and clean tones, jazz is about rhythms. If you listen to any good jazz solo it seems (to me, at least) the notes are almost secondary to the rhythms. I mean yeah note choice matters, but changing rhythms with similar notes sounds way better than changing notes with the same rhythm--I mean you want some repetition in there sometimes if you come up on a good riff, or wanna make something stand out, but other than that rhythm is where it's at. So yeah, more varying rhythms, aaand practice swing, a lot. Being perfectly on the beat all the time is for music made by white dudes, not jazz
K, a little jazz 101
Bending is a hard thing to rid yourself of, but so is sliding once you get the hang of it. You've been working on arpeggios so that's good, gets you familiar with chord tones. Try sliding into the fifth, or doing that little blue note #4/b5 thing up in the higher registers. You can also slide into the root and 3rd, any other chord tones like 7th, 9th, etc take a little more finesse to pull off so don't worry about them right now.
Also, since you've been studying arpeggios, try practicing ONLY soloing with chord tones. Of course don't just run the patterns up and down but try to only use notes in the chord you're on. It's good practice, and once you get it down an easy way to make something that sounds "right"
Last thing--even more than notes and clean tones, jazz is about rhythms. If you listen to any good jazz solo it seems (to me, at least) the notes are almost secondary to the rhythms. I mean yeah note choice matters, but changing rhythms with similar notes sounds way better than changing notes with the same rhythm--I mean you want some repetition in there sometimes if you come up on a good riff, or wanna make something stand out, but other than that rhythm is where it's at. So yeah, more varying rhythms, aaand practice swing, a lot. Being perfectly on the beat all the time is for music made by white dudes, not jazz
J
Jay 77
Guest
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
I like the double stops the best. They always add so much punch and emphasis.
I like the double stops the best. They always add so much punch and emphasis.
GuitarStv
Sock Market Trader
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
**** . . . you know, you're completely right, especially about the swing. Any particular practice suggestions for developing less predictable rhythmic patterns? I do tend to keep the rhythm of my solos fairly predictable.
**** . . . you know, you're completely right, especially about the swing. Any particular practice suggestions for developing less predictable rhythmic patterns? I do tend to keep the rhythm of my solos fairly predictable.
TheLivingDead
Dawn Of The Shred
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
Cool stuff dude. Unique licks a plenty!
Cool stuff dude. Unique licks a plenty!
drew_half_empty
Looking for Real Life
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
it's kind of hard to "practice rhythms" on guitar. I used to (and still do sometimes) do this exercise where I'd improvise something, play something else with the same rhythm, play something ELSE with the same rhythm expanded a little bit, and then go onto another one
What you REALLY need to do though is get started on some transcriptions--not finding a tab and learning them, but doing by-ear transcriptions. Anything early Miles Davis would be a good place to start, then work your way up to guys like Wes.
As far as swing, it's gonna take a long time for you to get a good sense of it, I still don't feel like I do. It's not the dotted eighth-sixteenth-dotted eighth-sixteenth thing everyone thinks it is, it's more like... the melodic/rhythmic equivalent of bein *****ed out by a black chick. Again, just listen to a bunch of black people and take note of things that they do. A lot of it is in pick attack too--which notes you slur, which ones you accent, etc. Varying pick attack would also be a good thing for you to work on, try to only accentuate notes that should be accentuated
it's kind of hard to "practice rhythms" on guitar. I used to (and still do sometimes) do this exercise where I'd improvise something, play something else with the same rhythm, play something ELSE with the same rhythm expanded a little bit, and then go onto another one
What you REALLY need to do though is get started on some transcriptions--not finding a tab and learning them, but doing by-ear transcriptions. Anything early Miles Davis would be a good place to start, then work your way up to guys like Wes.
As far as swing, it's gonna take a long time for you to get a good sense of it, I still don't feel like I do. It's not the dotted eighth-sixteenth-dotted eighth-sixteenth thing everyone thinks it is, it's more like... the melodic/rhythmic equivalent of bein *****ed out by a black chick. Again, just listen to a bunch of black people and take note of things that they do. A lot of it is in pick attack too--which notes you slur, which ones you accent, etc. Varying pick attack would also be a good thing for you to work on, try to only accentuate notes that should be accentuated
J
Jay 77
Guest
drew_half_empty
Looking for Real Life
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
No, like this
No, like this
J
Jay 77
Guest
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
I know what you were getting at. My point was to get you to read what you posted, and consider a better way to frame it. In the improper context it would read as mildly inflammatory, derogative, and a touch racist. Will the recent tightening of rules, it may be wise to be mindful of these things so an otherwise helpful post doesn't get caught in the wrong light.
I know what you were getting at. My point was to get you to read what you posted, and consider a better way to frame it. In the improper context it would read as mildly inflammatory, derogative, and a touch racist. Will the recent tightening of rules, it may be wise to be mindful of these things so an otherwise helpful post doesn't get caught in the wrong light.
GuitarStv
Sock Market Trader
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
Thank you! While I appreciate Drew's advice, I was kind of wondering if I should say something about this myself . . . I'd just chalked his comments up to the fact that he's from Kansas and he talks like someone who has never met a person who wasn't white.
Thank you! While I appreciate Drew's advice, I was kind of wondering if I should say something about this myself . . . I'd just chalked his comments up to the fact that he's from Kansas and he talks like someone who has never met a person who wasn't white.
J
Jay 77
Guest
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
Yeah I don't get the impression that it was out of any malice. Good thing too, because if you took the advice and wandered around Jane & Finch some night looking for jazz tips I think you could be in some trouble...
Yeah I don't get the impression that it was out of any malice. Good thing too, because if you took the advice and wandered around Jane & Finch some night looking for jazz tips I think you could be in some trouble...
GuitarStv
Sock Market Trader
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
lol . . . Real jazzmen would learn to play to the staccato rhythms of the nightly gunfire at J&F.
lol . . . Real jazzmen would learn to play to the staccato rhythms of the nightly gunfire at J&F.
J
Jay 77
Guest
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
Good point. Or you could play to the klinking of used needles in Regent Park... or the smooth shuffle of $100 bills in Forest Hill....
Good point. Or you could play to the klinking of used needles in Regent Park... or the smooth shuffle of $100 bills in Forest Hill....
drew_half_empty
Looking for Real Life
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
LOL, kansas isn't as redneck as you think--actually the elementary school I went to I was one of only 12 white kids. The phrasing of the advice actually comes from this old black jazz dude that teaches at a college in town named Sterling Gray--one day about a year ago he told me my jazz playing was "too white"
And back in the jazz days there WAS a difference. You weren't really supposed to swing too hard if you were white--it wasn't socially acceptable
Anyways, it's 2010, and people from my generation and younger aren't nearly as concerned with racism as past ones--we all know racism is stupid, it's not an argument anymore, it's just something left over as kind of a novelty from past generations
LOL, kansas isn't as redneck as you think--actually the elementary school I went to I was one of only 12 white kids. The phrasing of the advice actually comes from this old black jazz dude that teaches at a college in town named Sterling Gray--one day about a year ago he told me my jazz playing was "too white"
And back in the jazz days there WAS a difference. You weren't really supposed to swing too hard if you were white--it wasn't socially acceptable
Anyways, it's 2010, and people from my generation and younger aren't nearly as concerned with racism as past ones--we all know racism is stupid, it's not an argument anymore, it's just something left over as kind of a novelty from past generations
GuitarStv
Sock Market Trader
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
I don't think Kansas is redneck (nor did I say so), and please don't try to prove your 'black cred' to me any more. I don't care.
I took a course in Jazz history in university too. Where are you going with this?
Really?
Dude, I'm 6 years older than you. You really think there's a generational gap?
. . . sure seems like your 'generation' is over stereotyping by race.
I don't think Kansas is redneck (nor did I say so), and please don't try to prove your 'black cred' to me any more. I don't care.
I took a course in Jazz history in university too. Where are you going with this?
Really?
Dude, I'm 6 years older than you. You really think there's a generational gap?
. . . sure seems like your 'generation' is over stereotyping by race.
drew_half_empty
Looking for Real Life
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
Ha my bad, 2011. Anyways, the comments were sort of tongue-in-cheek, overly stereotyping to prove a point, and you can't argue the point is valid. Sometimes, I'll agree, I forget some people are more sensitive about stereotypes than others, and in the future I'll try to be a little more PC with my phrasing.
Also
Just sayin...
Ha my bad, 2011. Anyways, the comments were sort of tongue-in-cheek, overly stereotyping to prove a point, and you can't argue the point is valid. Sometimes, I'll agree, I forget some people are more sensitive about stereotypes than others, and in the future I'll try to be a little more PC with my phrasing.
Also
Just sayin...
Last edited:
RobSoundtrack
New member
Re: Random jazzy improv wanking
Racism still exists dude. Not really your place to say it doesnt
Racism still exists dude. Not really your place to say it doesnt
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