Re: Soloing Without Scales-Solo 1 Funk Blues In G

[MikeS]

Here's a need thing to remember with SWS. The backing track (at least for this Solo, is WAAAAAY longer than the actual solo, so once you have the solo down, take the next 5 minutes of backing track and improvise within the four notes! I don't know if that was Griff's intent, but It will be great for enforcing  what  you have learned.

 

[Cyberthrasher_706]

Maybe you're just playing it too fast?  :
Ok, I admit 5 minutes is a bit extreme to play it too fast and still have that much left over.

 

[IrishRover]

That fits the way I was reading it too.  I thought the 'solo' that Griff gave us just "ended" but sounded like it should continue - it sounded incomplete.  Remember the video that was posted at the music conference where the audience just knew where the next note was supposed to be when the performer (Bobby McFarrin) was jumping around on the stage?  Maybe that's what we're supposed to do - continue the solo with where we think it should go.

 

[Griff]

That's the idea. In most of the solos, the backing tracks were really long and would have made the solos tedious. So I just ended after a couple of chorus' and you're supposed to just fill in the rest with your own noodling.

If you run out of memorized solo - KEEP GOING! I call it "force feeding you experience" but you can call it whatever you like

Griff

 

[Cyberthrasher_706]

Great idea Griff. Do you mention that anywhere in the coursework? I don't recall it, but I haven't looked at it real hard yet either.

 

[Griff]

You know I really didn't, but that's kind of on purpose. I've found that if I leave that part out and don't mention that it's "supposed" to happen that way, it tends to work better because my students don't feel pressure to do it. They feel like it's more their own thing that way. I really believe it works better, and it's been my experience over the years.

What's cool is that after the fact they can come here and find out that it's "supposed" to work that way

Griff

 

[luckylarry]

If I might add as a beginner. I have found that Griffs courses have always left the door open to experiment. I have tried to use every lesson in the BBG to try different things. Some work and I go WOW and some don't. What Griff gives us is the start of the path and from there we find our own voice, what ever that may be.

 

[Cyberthrasher_706]

You know I really didn't, but that's kind of on purpose. I've found that if I leave that part out and don't mention that it's "supposed" to happen that way, it tends to work better because my students don't feel pressure to do it. They feel like it's more their own thing that way. I really believe it works better, and it's been my experience over the years.

What's cool is that after the fact they can come here and find out that it's "supposed" to work that way

Griff

That's great. I think that would work the best for most folks. There's no better motivator than the feeling of figuring something out on your own.

 

[jhagan421]

I feel like I have learned alot more than whats in the twelve bars of music, on many of the BBG lessons. 

There are subtle things there to be mastered and there seems to always be a way to simply change direction and within the same feel of the lesson make the next twelve bars something different.

But more than that while Griff is always saying that he is NOT teaching theory or reading music, or this or that other technical thing, it is there, and after a while you HAVE learned some theory, or something about reading music.  That is the true beauty of the method.

Hey griff, go ahead and use any of that you eant in your ads

 

[kgarkie]

Noodling is the really fun part.  You get to cut and paste, rearrange, change things around, etc and do it on the fly and it will never sound the same twice.  And you get to figure out what works and what doesn't.  If it sounds good, it works, if it doesn't sound good then it doesn't work.  I've always been a big noodler--even as a kid playing the tuba.  My mind tends to wander anyway, might as well let my playing do the same. 

And the really cool thing is when other people tell you that it sounds decent or even good.