I gotta say that coming from a heavy metal background that this I such a big factor when it comes to connecting to the listener. For so long the rule was… speed, speed, speed.. the faster you play the better shredder you are. Shredding without melody is nothing but musical Rambling on like an auctioneer!! I’ve come to appreciate the importance of phrasing and creating vocal melody lines through soloing and this is what impacts people’s memories. A flurry of notes may WOW and amaze people like a show but rarely impacts their soul. Just like listening to well thought eloquent messages, playing soulfully and using melodic phrasing impacts the heart and soul! I’ve been playing for 45+ years and I don’t want to play as fast as I can anymore. I want to be much more melodic and phrase much better!!
Excellent focus on musical expressiveness. There’s always discussion about the unique language of guitar legends. But each of us have the ability to develop our own language, too. Thanks for the great vid.
Solid teaching, Jamey! In the same vein of wisdom, I once heard Pat Metheny share some fun info about keeping solos interesting - he suggested considering the song Happy Birthday, it's a motif that goes through a couple of iterations, but ultimately ends on the point of the motif. If you can do that with your solos, they become much more pleasant for the listener. It's not so much being repetitious, as much as being consistent. I got a lot of mileage out of that comment. And your info here takes it another step further. I like the limiting exercise. Forcing you to think as creatively as possible using just a couple of notes, etc. I got my homework for the week. 😁👍
Yes your lesson is very helpful and inspiring. Thank you very much Chief. I laughed when you said: "No, no, no, no!" While actually one "No" Is enough. Cheers from Indonesia.
Thank you so much for putting these lessons out there! I'm still very much a beginner, but your video about hitting the chord changes and this one have massively expanded my understanding of how blues soloing works. You're making it easy to grasp by providing examples that are easy to follow, and it immediately inspires me to go ahead and try it myself. The trick of limiting yourself to a small number of notes so that you're forced to get more creative with them is brilliant!
Words of wisdom...! Loved the part where you speak at full speed like a robot with no dynamics 2:20 what a laugh! So typical of those who want to stick as many notes as possible/sec. Playing is not speed: it's feeling, expression, dynamics. At least, that's the way I try to do it. Cheers Jamey !
Well said! The key here is “ say more with fewer words “. That’s called eloquence, being able to get your point or message across without a long drawn out lecture that makes the listener fall asleep and forget what the heck he just heard..!! Lol
I just found your You Tube page a little while ago, and it's great, and I like the short and long lessons. This particular lesson reminds me of when I went to the David Bloom School of Jazz in Chicago back in the early 80's. I still have the lesson pages and chord book. We did a thing similar with phrasing taking a two chord progression in 2 keys, like Dmi7 and Fmi7 and playing phrases in timing, like whole notes, half, quarter, eighth, dotted eighths, triplets. Starting with basic whole notes. You had to find really interesting notes to make a whole note solo that's for sure!! Ha. Later on we could combine the timing phrases for interesting motifs.
I've been practicing this stuff a lot with chord tones. I'll pick a jazz standard to work with and solo with chord tones, connecting to the nearest chord tone. It is a pretty fun time, especially since I just got iReal pro to help out.
I have been struggling like a dying dog to learn something flashy...what am I supposed to do with just playing fast scales and arpeggios. My technical thinking or skills never increases
IMO, the best approach to using fast arpeggio runs/sweeps and fast scale runs is to use them as bridges connecting two solo phrases. Ex..1.play your first phrase idea 2. Play your fast run 3. Play your second phrase idea. Tony MacAlpine uses this idea alot and it sounds really tasteful! Listen to Tony MacAlpine “ Peruvian Power Layback” off the Madness album and you’ll get a good idea! Hope this helps!
"Organic" 😂 Nowadays a very popular word. This will cure you in 7 days. Learn guitar in just 5 days. Yeah. Come here sheeps, don't drink milk, don eat meat.
Here, we’re talking about an authentic way to improvise with an emphasis on rhythm and space versus predictable patterns and shapes. It certainly takes more than 5 days and actually takes years. Also, there is no mention of livestock or dietary restrictions here.
