In this lesson, we’re going to learn a 12 bar blues solo over our backing track in the key of C that incorporates string bends, vibrato, slides, the major third and a turnaround.
Our solo features conversational phrasing with plenty of space. In the blues and in any form of improvised music, the spaces you leave are as important and effective as the notes you play.
In this video, we will also learn valuable tips on improvisation. One concept is to think of improvisation as a musical conversation we haven’t had before, containing vocabulary we already know.
We can treat improvisation in much the same way as we approach spoken or written conversation. When we communicate, we arrange and re-arrange words and phrases we’ve already learned to create entirely new sentences and conversations.
Improvisation is effectively on-the-spot rearranging of musical ideas and phrases we already know. When we listen to most soloists, we should be aware that they are only pulling their ideas out of thin air around 30% of the time. The rest of the time, they are fluidly connecting pre-existing phrases. This is why learning other players’ solos is such an important aspect of creating our own voice on our instrument.
As we progress through this course, learning the solos and trying out our own ideas over the backing tracks, our improvisation skills should improve naturally.