Tony’s Acoustic Challenge – The New Way to Learn Guitar › Family Forums › Play for Us! › Wallflower – A minor improv.
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Wallflower – A minor improv.
Posted by DavidScoggins on May 5, 2021 at 7:23 amA very rough take, no external mic, just wanted to get some of my ideas down after a couple of earlier takes. My focus was on melody rather than technique, hopefully some ideas come through. Let me know what you think, in particular are there are sections which stand out? Thanks for listening. 🙂
DavidScoggins replied 3 years, 8 months ago 16 Members · 25 Replies -
25 Replies
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In general, I think you did a masterful job of staying solidly within the Am scale, using tasteful bends and giving the solo some breathing space. Pauses seemed well-timed; the rests really enhanced the notes you played. (I call that “playing the rests.” Ya gots to play the rests, man!)
I love the blue notes (Eb – tritones) you worked into a few spots, notably around 1:21 and 1:31. They came in very good places with respect to the BT. In terms of the flow integration, I liked the outflow from the one at 1:21 a bit better than what followed 1:31, but that’s being picky.
Specific enough?
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Hi David. I liked your slow and broody approach to this one. The melody lines are clean and strong. The bends were a nice embellishment also. Leaving some space was also a good aspect of your playing for this BT. Nice going! Thanks for posting! 🎶👍
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Great job of playing within the cord changes! Lovely bends, with plenty of breathing. All in all this was really well put together @DavidScoggins 👋👋
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What you played from around 1:20 – 1:40 stood out, IMHO. To me, it was a sound that something dark or ominous is coming through your note selection. It was an original run of notes to my ear.
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I thought your improv was really good. Enjoyed it very much!
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Thank you, everyone. My improvisations are still in the very early stages, and I’m currently trying to get past sounding like I’m playing a scale over the backing track. Using more than one position for the scale and the occasional non-diatonic note, like the Eb from the A minor blues scale which @dr_dave mentioned, helps with that.
A couple of you had mentioned about the use of space and I couldn’t agree more with you; was it Mozart who said ‘music is the space between the notes’. Thanks for listening and commenting.
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For those who are interested this is the typical approach I take to the Wednesday improv. lessons.
1. Look at what key the lesson is in and play this from memory (usually with the root note being on the low E string).
2. Watch the video and get a feel for the scale, particularly if it covers more than one position.
3. Practice a few times with the tab but without the backing track.
4. Play the scale along to the backing track and really focus on solid timing.
5. Listen to the backing track, usually just once or twice.
6. Play the scale verbatim over the backing track, again just once or twice, and listen out for which notes in particular sound better than others. Ones which don’t sound as good will probably be used as passing notes rather than staying or ending on them.
7. Start improvising, probably three or four attempts, focusing on variety to the timing, e.g. not all 8th notes, leaving space etc. and listening out any melodies which are catchy. At some point during this record a few takes on my phone.
Something to note here is that at this point in time, improvisation is the journey and the destination. I’m not aiming to write polished solos which I transcribe or can play note for note again on the next take, I’m aiming to develop my musicianship.
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Thank you for your explanation here. I am a flat out beginner at playing acoustic, but reading this explanation is food for thought for the future. I like to see how people approach their learning.
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One other thing I’ve stumbled across recently, although I don’t recall where, is playing the relative minor scale over major backing tracks. The 6th degree of any major key is it’s relative minor, so for C major, it’s A minor; which has the same notes as the C major scale, just in a different order. Give it a try and you might be pleasantly surprised.
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Nicely done @davidscoggins ! Enjoyed the space in the melody and all the flourishes you added. Loved the B&W video!
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Bravo Scoggers!!!!!! 👏👏👏 As you know, I love you’re time keeping ability, ok, maybe a bit jealous. Stellar as always! But here as far as the melodic bits, 1:01 – 1:15 are FANTASTIC
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This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by
RealKurt.
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I’ve been pushing myself to work with a metronome more often, in particular for playing songs and not only for practicing scales, so maybe that’s starting to show. Cheers, dude.
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keep on rocking, maybe I ought to use that silly metronome I bought LOL
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This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by
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Thank you @RealKurt , @Michelle-PSL , @Christopher_H for listening and commenting. I’d say that A minor is probably my favorite key. For one thing, there are no sharps so moving outside of scale patterns is fairly simply once you’re familiar with the fretboard; the scale along the A string and the descending pattern on the 10th and 12th frets are good examples in this take.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by
DavidScoggins.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by
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Nice one, Scoggers 👏
Awesome melodic flow, and I like your feedback on your approach to improvs.
I compared it the one you described back in February, and you have refined your technique 👍-
Thanks @Niels. Really pleased to hear that’s there’s a melodic flow to it! 🙂
Haha, we can always count on you to be wonderfully analytical, and in fact, that’s going to make me look back at my previous description. Much appreciated.
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Not got any technical input other than I liked it. Thanks for the insight of your approach some good tips in there I can use, cheers David.
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