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Big win this week
My win this week was a big improvement in my grasp of a tune I’ve been working on. It’s a fingerstyle blues piece by Steve James. At first I was going bar-by-bar, getting the notes in my memory. About a month and a half ago, I started getting it in terms of chords and shapes. Thursday, I played through it pretty well. After I played my turnaround, I went back to the pickup phrase that starts it and played through it chordally with just the most dramatic licks worked in. I strummed with my fingers and pinched when it made sense. Third time through, I played the melody but did it with what in hindsight were (mostly) extra chord tones, some of which were in the original arrangement but a fair number just felt right. I played through a forth time in much the same way, but this time I used two of the E7 voicings in the opposite order than the original arrangement but still got the essential melody. I also played a totally different turnaround in the same key (E) that I often play on the electric. It almost worked. I stopped and played with a way of getting the melody into the turnaround. I couldn’t quite pull it off. But I found myself thinking about it in a creative, experimental way that made me think in terms of intervals and which notes were flattened and why. I felt like this was a breakthrough.
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2 Replies
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That experimental approach is a great learning tool. Good win. And a way to apply your theory to make it practical. Thanks for sharing.
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Definitely pretty cool, especially because you explained it so well that I was able to visualize what you did. Creativity being born. 🙂
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