What makes you sound unique?

[Thumpalumpacus]

It's so dependent on the band, the player, the studio, the producer, the song. Also, artists are not always reliable sources of information about their own creative process (i.e. when two band members have different accounts of how a song was created).

Right, the best way to tell is to listen to different iterations of the song and get a grasp on the band's commitment to note-for-note versus improvisation ... and yes, it's a continuum.

 

[Clint 55]

Pretty sure plenty of players improvise solo's in the studio. It does'nt mean you can't recreate them (or something along those lines) live.

I know sir. I was responding to Mincer disparaging guitarists for using patterns they already know. When it's literally the standard for produced music to have the solo either composed or worked out, even tho just free flowing exists. It's not implied that all solos are completely improvised using nothing planned or learned, it's literally the standard to not do that.

 

[Mincer]

Hey, I am cool with some solos being worked out, but those aren't improvisations...those are compositions. The problem is calling something improvisation when it is made up of small compositions (rockin' licks) that are just re-arranged in a different order every time. It is more like a collage than an improvisation. Great improvisers don't really need to do that if they understand the changes they are playing over, and have a good sense of What Could Be Done. Every player is guilty of reverting to stuff they either played before (or heard someone else do) at some point in their musical life.

 

[Clint 55]

I agree with you that composing a solo is by definition not improv. That was my point. Most solos in produced music are not improvised, they're composed note for note or outlined. While some free flow improv is also part of recorded music.

I disagree with the premise you're making that if you use vocabulary to solo then it's not improv. That isn't true in music the same as it isn't true in language. If you use vocabulary when speaking it's still improvised. Same thing in music.

I'd agree that if someone plays on the fly canned pent lick 1, canned pent lick 2, canned pent lick 3, canned pent lick 4, and that's it, then that's more of just a collage, but I rarely hear that.

 

[Chistopher]

Also there are two types of songs. Some songs its weird if you play it the same way twice, some songs it's weird if you take a single liberty.

As for me, I love playing a song from a hazy memory. "Hey man, let's do Midnight Special in D" A song that easy, maybe I get it right the first go around, maybe I make a mistake that sounds cool.

But I also appreciate virtuoso pieces. "Hey Joe" is not a hard song, but if you want to sit down and sound as close as possible to the record, its a rough time.

 

[Mincer]

I'd agree that if someone plays on the fly canned pent lick 1, canned pent lick 2, canned pent lick 3, canned pent lick 4, and that's it, then that's more of just a collage, but I rarely hear that.

At many classic rock gigs and blues gigs, you would.

 

[Clint 55]

There's that haha.

Being a jazzer I'm more on the side of it's still improv even if vocab is used over other structure. But I see what you mean with some rock just being put together with basic pieces.

 

[GuitarStv]

Expectations play a part here.

There are parts of songs and solos where you expect to hear things being faithfully reproduced, and parts where I expect to hear a slightly different take each time. Like, if you're listening to Gilmour playing Comfortably Numb, that solo is so iconic that you're humming along with it the whole way through. It would be weird if he broke into some different improve half way in. By the same token, if you're listening to Buddy Guy play a solo over some blues, it would be weird to hear the same solo note for note several concerts in a row.

Then there are many instances where I just don't hear the song enough to even know if the guy is improvising or not. In these cases, I'm happy if it just sounds good.

 

[weepingminotaur]

I'd agree that if someone plays on the fly canned pent lick 1, canned pent lick 2, canned pent lick 3, canned pent lick 4, and that's it, then that's more of just a collage, but I rarely hear that.

Dave Mustaine has essentially been doing the same canned solo with variations for decades now. They're fun to listen to, but if you've heard one Mustaine solo, you've likely heard them all. (I say this as a big Megadeth fan so no hate.)

 

[Securb]

When I saw The Doors, Robby would play the solo from the LP, then on some songs he would take a second pass and do something completely different. The stuff he was doing on the second pass had my jaw dropping. I would imagine playing the same solo for Roadhouse Blues every night for 50 years gets pretty boring but he knows the fans want to hear it.

 

[jeremy]

using picks like these!

 

[Chistopher]

using picks like these!

View attachment 6327145

Stubby picks make pinch harmonic easier if you ask me

 

[GuitarStv]

using picks like these!

View attachment 6327145

There's no point left! When my picks look like that I toss 'em. : P

 

[NotDemanic]

If you're listening to Dream Theater live, they could literally break into any other song at any given moment, play a few bars, then go right back into the previous song that they were playing.
Or, they could just play "Octavarium".