Strictly Pentatonic?

[UKRuss]

I said in another thread I'd post a straight 12 bar blues, and restrict the lead playing to the Pentatonic scale only. I can't even rememember why...

Oh yes, because beginners and intermediate players alike, myself included, can get cracking with the pentatonic while absorbing and learning.

Also, I think it's easy for people to say they're "stuck in the box", and generally they mean they're stuck using pentatonics only. Why stuck? It's a great scale with a great flexability!

Now, I'm sure there is plenty written about which would be way better than me going into any great detail and also plenty of you guys who use the pents better than I do, so here's the plan!

Have a go and post your own pentatonic stuff and we can share and learn from each other and expand our Pentatonic vocabularly.

For me, there's no reason to feel stuck in the rut as there's plenty that can be done. Let's share some of our licks and tricks and see if we can't get everyone feeling ok with using this fine ol' scale!

My version below is essentially using just the E minor pent shapes occuring from fret 7 through 15, yes I do use some other E pent shapes in other fretboard areas, but I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible and minimise any accidentals, not messing with the vocabularly and staying strictly Pentatonic.

'Kay posted my version and the backing track only for you guys to download and have a crack at.

It's a straight 12 bar in E.

Enjoy.

[satch_master]

excellent russ!

[satch_master]

by the way you like my little avatar photo lol.

[satch_master]

how long did it take to upload those? cause mine just has the loading screen and it never uploads my ****.

[SeattleRuss]

Hey man, you cheated! LOL! :D

Sounds like the first note of the 2nd bar after the little intro, you hit a C# on the B string at the 14th fret and bent it up a half step to the D. - A classic move!
Couldn't help yourself, eh? :D

It's hard to stay completely pentatonic!

I think this is a good idea for a thread. I agree with you - I think that a lot of players who feel that they've got nowhere else to go with pentatonics need to realize that there's so much to be done with them.

[satch_master]

what how many russ's are there around here? who is this. is this u or what? ok im confusded, anyway. **** pentatonic i add passing tones when i play and otehr scales.

[SeattleRuss]

Hey Satch - no, I'm a different Russ, from a different country. I've been here for a while, I just become "absent" for periods of time.

satch_master wrote:

**** pentatonic i add passing tones when i play and otehr scales.

I know what you mean - I do too. I think the purpose of this thread is to show beginners and intermediates what can be done with *just* pents, that way, they don't have to separate the "other notes" and can concertrate on just the sound of the pentatonic - a nice idea.

[satch_master]

my crap version. im not that happy with it cause i can do better but thats all that came out of me at the moment, and **** tone and when i record my guitar in my pc i cant hear my guitar so it makes it harder. damn. i was in a blesy mood a couple of days ago, why not now! its fun to play blues but im more a fast pentatonics player and that doesnt help.

ill test to c if i can uplaod aswell

[satch_master]

strange, i upload the file button and choose the mp3 its 1.5 mb wait 20 mins and still not there. this is seriously ****ed.

[curiousgeorge]

I think it's kinda boring to stick strictly within the pentatonic scale. I think it's fun to add dorian, mixolydian, chromatic tones etc while still keeping it rocking and/or bluesy and without going too much outside as to alter the listeners perception of the song's tonality. (If that makes any sense! :confused: )

[satch_master]

yeah exactly im with you george

[SeattleRuss]

Here's something to think about:

Every note on the fretboard is contained in some pentatonic scale...

[loveguitar]

Cool Russ! Clean and well timed! And thanks for providing the backing track.

Though I have started learning electric guitar with pentatonic
skill, I must say my ability to hear and play it is still very raw.
Perhaps it's time for me to revisit these classic scales

[curiousgeorge]

Pentatonic scales do not necessarily have to be used for bluesy licks either. Check out the intro to Whispering A Prayer by Steve Vai. It's based on an E Major Pentatonic scale, but does not sound the least bit bluesy.

[wiechfreak]

TONS of classic rock solos r all pentatonic

[UKRuss]

Great stuff guys! SeattleRuss, yes, your right!!! I did stick a couple of extra notes in there after all....

It is very hard to stay strict as the classic tricks and the like are almost bursting to come out of the playing.

Curious: Your right too it is fun to get the modes working for you too but this was generally to see if we could encourage pentatonic understanding amongst players. I disagree that it's kind of boring though...theres plenmty of great players who can make the pents rock big time.

...as like your own example for Vai if you like.

I only stuck with a blues progression as it's one that everyone can easily follow. i./e. everyone knows the format and it's the easiest way to jam.

Whats the first thing that happens when you go into a studio with a bunch of guys for a jam? Someone says, "Blues in E anyone"?

I think Loveguitar's got the idea of this thread. It's not that we can't involve the modes and shred and tapping licks, as we've all demonstrated before, but lets just see what we can do if we try to stay Pent!

[mattblack850]

Nice one Russ,

PS I like the new avatar!!!!:D :D :D

[UKRuss]

Heh heh, thought you might like that....it's not for sale;) Even if it is only an 80s Tokai...

[Los Boleros]

Guys, Don't forget that a pentatonic scale is but merely 5/7 of a natural scale. You can stick with pentatonics if you like but it's good to know that there are other notes that sound good in the right places. I like to think that I am mostly using full scales but from time to time, i throw in a pentatonic riff. That's the musician in me that refuses to be a guitar player.

[satch_master]

yeah even the masters who use tons of modes and exotic scales still always fall back on the humble pentatonic for time to time. satch and malmsteen are a good example of this. i tend to overuse the pentatonic but thats just my style when i play a solo. if a play a solo on the spot or improvisng is usually pentatonic but when i wanna sweep pick, tapping , use and other modes scales i gotta sit down and make something and think a bit about it and look at the rhytm

[Barking Pumpkin]

Yeah, it's neat what some people, especially Steve Vai, can do with pentatonics. You hear something like the main part for "For The Love Of God," and then you find out it's just using the pentatonic scale.

I did a jam with it. I use the "blue notes" quite a bit when doing blues things, so I worked a bit just to use the five notes. You can probably hear some parts where I wanted to add a blue note....but couldn't. ^_^ There are some fast parts that don't sound quite as good, if I did it again I could work and just do slower things. But it sounded pretty nice to me.

...now I'm being thwarted by the 'add attachment' feature. I've never done this before. I go through the process....but I imagine there's some sort of script or something else I need to do. I'd love to post it....but I need help. Thanks.

[curiousgeorge]

I've been soloing a lot with Phrygian Dominant and Pentatonic scales lately. Staying within the Pentatonic scale just for the sake of doing it is a little ridiculous though...There are no rules in music. Play only what you want to play. :D

[JailHouseRock]

Nice Russ!
I think it's good to do it in strict Pentatonic. It's good for beginner/intermediate players like me to understand and hear how the Pentatonic is gonna sounds over some backing tracks. Perhaps you could post another mp3 and tab it out? I like the backing track. ;)

[TheJeffinator]

I think if it's what you hear in your head, it's what you should use. I'm not at all a pentatonic person myself - the way I see it, it's too small to be a scale and too big to be an arp, so I don't use it - but if it sounds good, it is good. Of course, I think guys like Zakk Wylde and Kirk Hammett would be a thousand times better if they did more than pentatonic and diminished (which is about all I hear from the two), but it's their playing, so it's not really my call. One question, though - if I were indeed to post something myself, would it be frowned upon to use passing tones? I just can't help myself...

Rock On,
The Jeffinator

[JailHouseRock]

Just post your stuff, Jeff..
But please don't make it too complicated, lol :D
Perhaps you could explain what scales/pattern you use, tabs, etc..
I'd love to hear and learn from it. ;)

[Barking Pumpkin]

I think the point is to see what you can do when restrictions are applied. In this case, it's small, just using five notes. The point is to show people what you can do with just those five notes. It would be interesting to do something like this with more restrictions, just for fun. Like only being able to use the first two strings or something...

I wish someone would help me with the attach function...

[UKRuss]

It looks like I've kicked off an interesting debate.

To reiterate what the reason behind this exercise is:

It's not restriction for restriction sake, it is to see how creative we can be when we are restricted. This, I believe encourages creativity and the ways which you need to be clever to still make it interesting. It's just an exercise not a suggestion to restrict your playing at all times.

Someone suggested using perhaps only two strings, excellent idea, thats where I'm coming from. How clever can we be and still make it interesting when restricted in that kind of way?

We could also restrict to say using just the root 3rd and 5th in a scale, any scale, but it would be interesting to see how creative and interesting peoples improv can be when they aren't allowed to run through three octave scale runs and extended arps with mental tappery going on.

The end game I'm getting at is that if you can be creative when restricted to five notes, or three or just two strings, then you will have a whole bag of clever tricks you can assimilate into your playing later when your using whatever scales and the like you normally use.

@Los B: In which case it would be a great exercise for you, and for us to hear you no? Try to restrict yourself and see what happens. Be as creative as you can with less tools at your diposal. Test the musician in side yourself and pass on some of your experience.

@Curious, I see your dead against it but hopefully you understand what I'm suggesting. It's not that you shouldn't use all your full modal colouring, but that I find a lot of players hide behind that knowledge at the expense of being truly creative and 9 time out of 10 they come up with something that is frankly not interesting to listen to. Force them to be more creative by restricting, merely as an exercise, and you'd be suprised what they come up with.

@Jailhouse: I'll try to tab it out if I get the time, but thats an area in which I am truly dismal...

@ The Jeffinator: You'll see I ended up using a few notes outside the rules of the exercise, couldn't help it habit I suppose.

@Barking: make sure your mp3 is less than 1.5mb, then it should attach fine.

Come on Guys, I wonder if we would be getting as much negative comment if it was an exercise I'd posted to test Super Locrian...

There's nothing wrong with the Pentatonic, let's see some posts!

[loveguitar]

I have one for that track but the notes are all over the place, maybe only 80% pentatonic. Can I post? :D

if not it will be another thread :)

[UKRuss]

Yeah, go for it.

It's hard to stay completely strict! I'm beginning to think impossible, i tried my hardest but you just can't help doing the usual tricks.

If anything it does demonstrate some of the passing tones and other tricks and things that can be adopted while basing your improv on pentatonic scales.

Looking forward to it!

[MalignantX]

Limiting yourself to the minor pentatonic can be very challenging. And it's a good indicator of musicianship, just how well you can put those 5 notes into use imo.

[UKRuss]

'xactly.

You know, I think with the riff I use over the main E...there may be room for some major pent in there too...I might give that a go later.

[mattblack850]

I think it was just before Christmas, but one of the magazines had a couple of lesson segments with Paul Gilbert, purely pentatonic stuff, but with some open string trickery and a bit of dexterity he was still shredding at top speed!!!! Awesome stuff!!

[UKRuss]

I think people are assuming it has to be bluesy because I made the backing track a strict 12 bar.

But I wanted to keep it simple...maybe I'll break out the Ibanez and post some speedier stuff too.

...though not quite Gilbert;)

[loveguitar]

hi all

my piece using the track from UKRuss

http://www.freewebs.com/amusicplace/guitar_files/loveguitar_blues_wah.mp3

I am not expert in wah effect but it really is challenging to
"wah" nicely. I hope my "wah" is ok :D

[MattW]

Another thought, using economic picking patterns in Min/Maj pentatonics can allow you to play faster lines than by using the old box shapes. Though of course it's much better if you actually want to play those notes and are not doing it just to play fast!

[Los Boleros]

Come on Guys, I wonder if we would be getting as much negative comment if it was an exercise I'd posted to test Super Locrian...

There's nothing wrong with the Pentatonic, let's see some posts!Sorry if my post sounded negative. It wasn't meant to be. I am just expressing my view, that's all. I tend to think of the pentatonic as an expanded arpegio. (a minor 7th or major seventh arpegio with one extra note). A minor pentatonic to me is like Aeolian and a major pentatonic is like Ionian and I tend to use them more so over the tonic chords.

[Barking Pumpkin]

Okay...that should fix it. I think I used only pentatonic, but I may have slipped once or twice. Maybe I'll try again later and smooth it out more.

[UKRuss]

Nice one Pumpkin! If I had one comment it would be, don't feel you have to play all the time. Get some breaks into your playing, create some phrasing and listen for the changes.

Los B, it's funny you should say that cos I suppose I should see them that way too, but I really don't. I tend to see them as very much on their own even though they clearly form part of larger scales. When using them with all the passing tones in I defintely pass through Dorian and Aeolian without a doubt, it's difficult not to.

Could you post a demo of what you mean and talk us through the scales and techniques your using?

[ashc]

I see the minor pent against the min7th arp that way, but I struggle with the maj pent to Maj7th arp a bit more as the major pent has the 6th (and no 7th). Anyone got a name for a major pent with the 6th raised to a flat 7th - now thats a dom7 arpeggio with added 2nd.. sounds like a blues tool to me..

AshC

[Maarten]

Major pent= maj6 sound, or actually 6/9 sound, I think los Boleros made a typo.
The dom7 arp with added 2nd is a dominant 9 arp.

[UKRuss]

Loveguitar: your link to your version causes my PC to totally freak out and throw me out of my browser. Anyone else having that problem?

I see the arp parallel, again reinforcing my thoughts that I have ignored the whole arpeggio scene for far tooooo long!

Must get practicing!

[Los Boleros]

Major pent= maj6 sound, or actually 6/9 sound, I think los Boleros made a typo.
The dom7 arp with added 2nd is a dominant 9 arp.You are right about that, it was a mistake but not a typo, a genuine brain fart is more like it. What I said about the minor pentatonic is true but the major pent is a major triad with the addition of the nine and the six.

[Moonchild]

Haha, this sounds like fun! I'll join the game :)

Totally improvised, and I've only been playing the guitar for 1 and a half years, so it's nothing fancy and 99.9% pentatonic. I seem to run out of ideas pretty quickly though. I don't really have a "blues-lick" vocabulary so I just play whatever notes I think might sound good.. needless to say, the result is a mixture...

[Los Boleros]

Ok,

I tried to keep it simple. I think I did that.
I tried to keep it pentatonic. I failed miserably. Could not help it.
Theres major and minor pentatonic, alittle Dominant seventh, some Dorian
and alittle Diminished (as usual) And oh yes, some mistakeolidian, (oh well):rolleyes:
This was done from my acoustic pick-up directly into the computer and the reverb over-cranked for fun.
I definately need to get a good microphone for the house.:)

LosBolerosBlues (http://www.losboleros.net/music/LosBolerosBlues.MP3)

[Los Boleros]

BTW Russ,

Nice thread, you got 43 hits in two days, that's alot of action!

[Barking Pumpkin]

I think it should be made clear that only using the pentatonic scale doesn't mean just staying in the basic pentatonic shape. As long as you keep the key it's in as the central tone, you can use the other pentatonic shapes to move all over the fretboard.

I played around with it a little more. The first one I focused on phrasing especially and using the "less is more" approach.

Then on the other two I tried adding some other restrictions, not practicing them beforehand, just trying them out. The first one just uses the pentatonic scale and only uses the first two strings on the guitar.

The third one is just using intervals on the first two strings. No singular notes. This probably gets kind of repetive....or it seemed like it did when I was improvising it.

So just to show what I was able to do adding some more restrictions. This was quite helpful and fun to try. You can think up lots of neat restrictions to try, and you'll probably find out new ways to play things and use new musical phrases.

[loveguitar]

UKRuss, for my link u got to right_click and save as......

there's quite some posts....will be back to listen.....

[Barking Pumpkin]

There's still something wrong with the file loveguitar, it appears. I download it, and it's only 100kbs. And it won't play....

[curiousgeorge]

Dagnabbit, alright! I'll do it...for a price. Mwahahhaha! OK, give me a progression to record and I'll try to only jam pentatonic style over it, ok? :D

[Barking Pumpkin]

The backing track was in the first post.

[satch_master]

los boleros i actually like urs alot, some really kool interesting blues licks that i have never heard b4 or even played. started abit slow.i think the part that made it ****ty was the acoustic tone , and it was 2 reverby or something. tone can make the differnece between something sounding good or lousy even if the player is a virtuiso. but some of those licks were really good.

[satch_master]

pumkin i didnt really like it. dont take offense or anything please , ive prob been playing alot longer than you and all but i gotta be bold , no point lying and saying oh yeah its great. watch your phrasing and your bending especially and give yourself some more breeathing space between notes. and learn some more blues licks from the masters to.


my fav version is UKRuss cause hes the blues man. my verision i made sucked balls aswell. so if i do get the upload working( ill try later) ill post a better verision.

and yeah dont take offense im just being honest and wanna help eeveryone as much as they help me.

why can everyone upload except me? i dont get it it has the upload screen and it has the loading signal to ulpoad and it never finishes. totally wierd.

[loveguitar]

why can everyone upload except me? i dont get it it has the upload screen and it has the loading signal to ulpoad and it never finishes. totally wierd.

There's an upload limit. Check your file size. And the bandwidth u are using, coz upload takes a long time if your bandwidth is low

[UKRuss]

Wow guys, I'm glad I managed to stimulate the interest!

Moonchild/Loveguitar/LosB/ Barking Pumpking et al..I'm looking forward to getting home this eve and having a good listen to all the new posts.

Thanks Los B. I think listening through yours will be a good learner for most guys, as you say the musician inside you lets you flit between the scales to create the different sounds. And you used Mistakeolidian!!! My favourite scale!:D Your experience is a valuable learning tool for the rest of us.

@CuriousG, the backing track is in my first post. It would be great if you have a bash too! The more the merrier.

@SatchMaster: ps I like the new avatar:D I can only suggest you make sure the post is less than 1.5MB and you have a speedy connection. It really should upload if those conditions are met.

[ashc]

@satch - if you were able to download the backing the upload should be OK unless you have unusually asymmetric internet access?

@moonchild - thought that was good for 1 1/2 years.

@pumpkin - second batch was a big jump from the first.

@maarten - Yeah, its a dom9 arp, I thought someone might have one of these crazy invented exotic scale names for it..

[UKRuss]

Hey Ash, hows it going.

Gonna have a bash?

[ashc]

Russ, Well I did have a quick go and man when I solo I suck..

I thought I'd try a sort of a Booker T and the MG's tune type thing rather than thrashing around up and down the scale. Listening to the result, I managed to go into mistakeolydian as well and I think I screwed all of the bends up way beyond the slightly out bluesy intentions.

But, nevertheless here it is - get the cotton wool ready and put the cat out.

[UKRuss]

...if the Boss makes himself scarce at lunch I shall blast all the posts out to have a good listen, if not I'll have to wait til this eve. Cheers Ash!

[ashc]

Ouch, keep it to headphones :D

[loveguitar]

Los Boleros: beautiful arppegios at ard 1:00, and nice ending too

moonchild: u really know how to develop further once u know u hit the nice notes :)
like some stacatto, repetitive run etc

pumpkin: I guess u made the most attempts in different ideas, and it is good coz can feel u try make it melodic. maybe some notes a bit off??

ashc: your idea is to try to bring the audience back to the same familiar tune?
that's great idea too!

[ashc]

loveguitar: you're too kind! but, yes that was my idea.

[UKRuss]

Boss went out!

Top stuff guys!

Ash, very nice my man I like the idea of that repeating theme. Los B adds some lovely Arp playing to the mix great stuff. Moonchild plays the penta blues just right! Barking P, nice versions and great ideas for exercises to learn licks and tricks and give yourself some ideas on improvisation. Already the first version of the second bunch is way improved from your original post! Which must mean that by doing this as an exercise your learning and progressing, which was the name of the game after all.

I've definitely learnt that arps play an important role and I neglect them at my peril. Such an important tool to have in the improv armoury, anyone else feel the same way I point them in the direction of David's article on the article page.

[UKRuss]

PS, Loveguitar, I didnt miss yours out. I just can't save it as I need to at work, will have to wait til i get home to listen!

[Sir Speedy]

That sounds real nice , alot of good bending , and phrasing ../


What program should i use to , track with ????

i know i can plug in to the Mic jack , and use the Volume controll . What is the

freeware prgram for tracking ?

[UKRuss]

Hey Speedy, yeah would be great to hear your stuff!

I'm not too sure about the PC recording. I always have to upload the MP3s onto my Boss recorder and then add my track and download back onto PC...

[mattblack850]

Loveguitar: your link to your version causes my PC to totally freak out and throw me out of my browser. Anyone else having that problem?


Me too:confused: :confused:

[mattblack850]

I'm not too sure about the PC recording. I always have to upload the MP3s onto my Boss recorder and then add my track and download back onto PC...
Me neither, I'm just getting :mad: that I know I could play some really nice Walter Trout/ Gary Moore pent stuff as that is what I do best!!!! I just don't have the technology to upload it:(
Any tips?? (I know this isn't strictly within the rules but heh..??)

[UKRuss]

I think there is a post from Los B somewhere maybe, "post your favourite riff" thread, which desribes recording direct onto the harddrive...

[UKRuss]

Loveguitar!! Nice wah and good pentatonic stuff. Different ideas in that one, I like some of the patterns your using through the scale. I enjoyed that!

[rmuscat]

i don't know why i'm doing this but i can't help not supporting you guys ;)

i'm 200% sure tomorrow i'll be sorry i posted this coz it will suck more to my ears than it does right now but anyway ... always happens.

here's my shot i believe it is in strict pentatonics just a couple of bends to move "out". A few jams before recording this take, i messed up big time at the end (i think i went into the noodling state).

out of the beat most of the time, now i'm off to buy a super-mega sized metronome and stick it up my (erm) nose :( and hide in the closet (unless the music polizei find me before that and beat me up)

sidenote:
AshC i heard your improvisation ... don't be so hard on yourself ... its good, i see your ideas for "theme development", something i'm working on too, good rhythmically in fact i got the initial feel for mine from your work. thumbs up!

[curiousgeorge]

OK guys, here's my offering! I tried to stay mostly pentatonic and for the most part I think I pulled it off. My tone kind of sucks because I can't adjust the EQ from the mic input on my computer. I used a Tascam CD-GT1 Guitar Trainer as a preamp to record with. Please forgive the sloppiness, I just got in and did this right after a 12 hour shift without warming up. I recorded this over UK Russ' backing track (hope you don't mind!). Haven't had a chance to listen to many others yet, but I'll post my comments soon. Had to cut 'er short, so there's a little extra going on at the end. I got carried away! BTW, thanks UK Russ for the backing track. Nice riffin' as well, bro! Thanks for listening.

[UKRuss]

No trouble using the backing track, that's what it's there for:D

I'll check those new posts out when I get home later.

Cheers, R.

[The Bash]

Here's somthing a posted a year or so ago that's 90% Pen
ok it don't exactly fit the rules but I fig as long as I'm listeing to your stuff
I may as well post something :)

BTW Nice job first cool idea and second I here a lotta development in the playing between what i'm hearing some of you do now as opposed to what i had heard previously. I also hear a lot of people actually focusing of melody first and ripping second. As it should be.

http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=640

[UKRuss]

Rob! nice trills and a great tone, like it!

Curious G, LOL! It was really hard for you to stay strictly penta, I could hear you straining to let loose in all sorts of ways!:D Nice job, particularly after a long shift!

I tell you what though, people who have ben listening to all the other posts where mainly people, barring the odd bluesy trick, have stuck penta will clearly hear some of the additional notes you've put in to create different flavours here and there.

In a way highlighting what else can be done when you want to embellish and move away from the pentatonic. I like that! It's a good comparison post to the previous bunch and something a bit different too!

Bash, like that Hendrixy tone you've got going on there my man, nice stuff!

[rmuscat]

i have learned two things the past two years ...

they are OBVIOUS ones i will tell nothing new here but still we do manage to forget them all the time (well ok i'm talking to myself now)

1. Groove
Its the single most important darn thing there is!! With one single note and a good groove you can easily go through a good number of bars and keep the listener interesting.

2. Intervals
Thinking in terms of intervals (and groups of them) instead of notes themselves with make the most diatonic notes sound "out". Sometimes i hear some solo with some cool notes put in, but when i try to figure out what's happening they are "normal" notes, just a good context.

well not that i'm any sort of expert on this but i think keeping those two things in mind helps.

[Los Boleros]

I tell you what though, people who have ben listening to all the other posts where mainly people, barring the odd bluesy trick, have stuck penta will clearly hear some of the additional notes you've put in to create different flavours here and there.

In a way highlighting what else can be done when you want to embellish and move away from the pentatonic. I like that! It's a good comparison post to the previous bunch and something a bit different too!Take a look at the progression you presented, a basic 12 bar I-IV-V Blues, all the chords are major chords and can be played as 7th chords as well.
When playing over the I, major pentatonic works well, So does the dominant blues scale. a minor pentatonic could also be used but the minor third would have to either be treated as a passing tone or a small bend could be applied to give the third a feeling of wanting to go to the major third. I also throw in some Dim7 arpegios starting on the b9.
over the IV, minor pentatonic works well since it includes 3 out of the 4 notes of the IV7 chord. The Dorian Minor would be considered the full scale for that segment. You could play a major pentatonic but only by changing the tonality to that of the chord being played. Also too, you can play Dim7 Arpegios starting on the b9.
over the V, the minor pentatonic still works well. So does the Dorian minor. Harmonic minor could be used as well as melodic minor. Dim7 arpegios again built from the b9.

As far as pentatonics go in this progression there are some Don't. The major pentatonic does not work over the IV or the V. If you are playing minor pentatonic over the I, watch out for the minor third, it clashes with the major third so you must treat it with care.

[UKRuss]

It helps so much to know the theory, I shall work on some of that! Particularly the arp stuff.

I play alot of blues with the guys I'm with at the moment and to be honest I find after a few hours in the studio of thrashing out minor pentatonics all night it can get a bit wearing! Although I do tend to employ mixolydian over the 7ths quite a bit.

It's strange because I don't feel as restricted when I'm playing over any other kind of progressions and freely go off into other scales to keep it interesting.

...I think I may be spending a bit of time with that backing track of mine in the coming weeks:D

It would be nice to do a similar post to demonstrate other modes or scales, I think for beginners, or intermediates like me trying to add more theory to their playing, it is a very useful exercise.

Plus we all get to have a blast and post some stuff and share some licks and tricks!

[Bande]

Hey, I think you already know I'm incredibly blunt.

Here's my question: How d'ye upload mp3? Cause I've just thought I'd make my version of impro over yer backing track, Russ, but hey.

[UKRuss]

Nice one Bande!

As your typing your reply, scroll down and you'll see under the main text box a little section thats says manage attachments. Open that then browse for your MP3 and hit upload.

It'll auto attach itself to your reply. But it must be less than 1.5MB otherwise it won't upload.

If it's succesful then you'll see the attached file appear at the top of the upload window before you shut iot down and hit post!

Looking forward to hjearing it.

I haven't heard Jeffs yet...this evening!

[Darren]

Hello all, i have just registered as i'm impressed by what i've read on this forum (and i've only read this one thread!) this topic is exactly the kind of thing i needed. well done to UKRuss for starting this thread! i like the backing track and your jam over it too. actually, i've listened to all the uploaded files and i've found a lot to inspire me. therefore, i thought it was only fair to let you all know that there's one more person out there that appreciates your playing (err... me).

also, i think one or two may have missed UKRuss' point - though the other scales/modes may sound better and more appropriate for this backing track, its purpose (i believe) is to see what you can do with just the pentatonic scale. barking pumpkin, i thought your track using just 2 strings was very cool! i'm gonna try that in a minute.

finally, (sorry, not sure how to quote like you all do)
"I've definitely learnt that arps play an important role and I neglect them at my peril. Such an important tool to have in the improv armoury, anyone else feel the same way I point them in the direction of David's article on the article page."
YES PLEASE!

[UKRuss]

Hey Darren, thanks for the kind words on the thread and everyones contribution to it.

Feel free to have a blast yourself and use the backing track at your convenience.

For the arpeggio element, just click on the articles tab at the top of your page here and you'll see David's article which is excellent.

There's also another thread I did somewhere, technique I think which asked for more stuff on arps and some of the guys here sent some great Powertabs for practicing...actually I'll attach them again here for you, they're great practice.

I was out in Germany for the Jemfest (Yeah guys I know I havent been going on about it enough...) and Eric V gave me some great tips for arp inclusion in your improv. He is hopefully going to post and powertab for us in thre Jemfest link in the cafe of what he went through with me. This will hopefully cover the strech pents and largew interval stuff too. Really useful stuff!! Keep your eyes peeled.

Nice one JeffN! Just got to start developing those melodic phrases and ideas now, but you definitely get the prize for sticking completely pentatonic, that was strict!

[Bande]

UKRuss, (or anybody else) again I need your help:

My sound recorder is presently f*ing with me. I tried to record my jam on your backing track, by opening it with Winamp, and the recording the track and my guitar jam together with the sound recorder. It went good, but for the first time I didn't like what I played so I reopened sound recorder. Then, when i opened winamp and WANTED TO START recording, windows gave me an error message that another application is currently recording audio, so you can kiss my a**, you little fool (of course, not literally). I tried everything, but I couldn't do anything about it, so now I'm unable to record a single note.

What I need from you, is either help me fix my sound recorder if you know what to do, or please give me a link of some audio recorder program, that I could download from the web (and I'd be happy if it'd cost nothing).

Oh, yes and please give me a link of a program that you use or like, and you're satisfied with, because I have seen so many SingSongAudioPlayerRecorderProEqualizer 1.0.9s, that I'm fed up with them.

So, if you don't mind me asking, please help me somehow. On the one hand because I'd really like to post a jam for that backing track, on the other because I WONT BE ABLE TO RECORD ANYTHING ANYMORE!!!! AAAARRRRRGGGHH!!!!!:mad: :(

Thanks Anyway!
Yesterday evening I was just about to smash my computer with a rake...

[UKRuss]

Whoaa, strange goings on,

I'm really sorry, i can't help. I don't use my pc for recording. I always upload and download form my digi recorder.

Sorry dude. Hope someone else can help!

[satch_master]

i use cool edit pro v 3.0.
thats is a great multi track digital recording porgram. so if u can "obtain" a copy ur laughing. and its easy 2 use for gimps like us.

[emils]

Hi Bande,
Your problem must be a result of windows' internal devices managing policy (I suppose you're using M$ Windows).
In fact, it seems that when you finished recording the first time, the recorder did not release the resource managed...prolly the file you were recording to... who knows it, really ? (even Mr.Gates doesn't, in my opinion...). One solution : find the process winamp.exe and the recorders' among the running ones (by pressing ctrl+alt+canc keys -> Task Manager -> Processes -> Terminate selected process ) and KILL EM ALL ( ;) ). Then, try to record again. If it doesn't work, it's a problem of resources releasing, as said above... and there's no perfect&simple&quick solution for that... Also, what PC config do you have (it matters too...)?

So, do not lean on it. Use a recording program, instead, as suggested above.
More stable and less frustrating (once learned how to use it, of course, once for all).

Actually, I use Magix Music Maker 2005 (I bought it!), you can find the demo version at www.magix.com. A program for 'tunz tunz' DJs, but reversely used as a HD recorder and a clever music making prg, is very good :-), with Drums tracks really fast built using Virtual drummer.
Yes, Cool Edit is a very good (and more intuitive) program too. Other programs good for audio recording could be, for example (the ones I have used), Samplitude by sekd, Cubase by Steinberg, Logic Audio... but all of them are not free... ...unless (for learning purposes...)...

Hope I helped you in some way and apologyze if I went Off Topic with this post 2 much.

Ah, btw, this is my first post on IBreatheMusic. Guys, I LOVE THIS FORUM! :D

[mattblack850]

I know it is neither my place,or my standing,to criticise anything that is/will happen within this thread, I also hope that no-one will take this as a direct criticism..........(please don't,everyone has done an amazing job):D:D

But why does no-one play using double-stops, twin string bends, chordal tones and various other very common blues techniques, but all multi tonal(?) but still built around the pentatonic scale instead of playing purely single note stuff?? Not to say any of it's bad or criticising in any way, but use of chordal tones within the scale can be as expressive, if not more so, especially by bending certain tones onto (or towards) others, like I say, I'm not trying to say who's right and who's wrong, but, listen to the the blues guys that literally only use pents and you might hear something that you didn't realise could happen only using those little 5 notes.

I know that I seem as though I being over critical but I truely am not, it's just that it's a technique that I learned from a good freind and I've used it in my playing since, it seems to me that it works more if you're trying to be a lead and rythym player in one ( just think SRV, Hendrix, et all)

I really hope this doesn't sound too condescending, especially as I can't post my own version, but I hope it might give you the option of playing 1/2 chords within you're pent. lead playing! Just think where the chord tones are, especially within the minor key!!

[curiousgeorge]

I know it is neither my place,or my standing,to criticise anything that is/will happen within this thread, I also hope that no-one will take this as a direct criticism..........(please don't,everyone has done an amazing job):D:D

But why does no-one play using double-stops, twin string bends, chordal tones and various other very common blues techniques, but all multi tonal(?) but still built around the pentatonic scale instead of playing purely single note stuff?? Not to say any of it's bad or criticising in any way, but use of chordal tones within the scale can be as expressive, if not more so, especially by bending certain tones onto (or towards) others, like I say, I'm not trying to say who's right and who's wrong, but, listen to the the blues guys that literally only use pents and you might hear something that you didn't realise could happen only using those little 5 notes.

I know that I seem as though I being over critical but I truely am not, it's just that it's a technique that I learned from a good freind and I've used it in my playing since, it seems to me that it works more if you're trying to be a lead and rythym player in one ( just think SRV, Hendrix, et all)

I really hope this doesn't sound too condescending, especially as I can't post my own version, but I hope it might give you the option of playing 1/2 chords within you're pent. lead playing! Just think where the chord tones are, especially within the minor key!!

I use several doublestops in my jam. Check it out again!

[UKRuss]

...and I think I used plenty of double string bends.:D

But, I guess your point is that there are many tricks to use when playing the blues which could have been demonstrated but weren't.

I think I did some as did a few others but to be fair I really wanted to try to demonstrate that using even the most basic scale in mainly one position with few tricks can still be interesting.

It was a mistake to use a 12 bar blues perhaps as the backing track when really I wanted to demonstrate pentatonic playing rather than using it as an example of blues playing as a whole.

And you are absolutely right of course, if I didn't think I still had a lot to learn from SRV and Hendrix I'd be fooling myself!

It's a shame you can't post some stuff for us as I get the feeling you'd show us a few licks and tricks which would be nice to learn.

You have a PC though, so the challenge this weekend is to get an onboard recorder sorted out!!! Come on! I wanna here those teles!

[The Bash]

Actually I don't find your 12 bar blues to be a mistake at all.
It's a great starting point.
The only real downside is a blues progression does yearn for somthing else to be tossed in and anytime your bending notes your in a sense tossing something else in even if it's just the milli second it take you to bend from one scale tone to the next.
But as an exercise that's actually a good thing.
It along the lines of playing on only one string with one finger using only diatonic notes with no bending of any kind allowed.
That's something Mick Goodrick talks about in his book.
He begins with all kinds of limitations and slowely incoperates more can do's.
So when your using your 12 bar blues track it's really up to u what u want to get out of it. Do u personally want to stay strictly pen what will u allow yourself to do. You're not necessarly trying to create the greatest solo ever, just the greatest solo you can within the given parementers.

[UKRuss]

yeah Bash, thats the one.

But I suppose it turned out to be a blues led pentatonic exercise which worked out OK in the end. Even when we're unable to stay strictly pentatonic...we're learnign somethign about the blues in this case. So double bonus really.

[mattblack850]

...and I think I used plenty of double string bends.:D

But, I guess your point is that there are many tricks to use when playing the blues which could have been demonstrated but weren't.


Yeah, that is more the point I was trying to make, I just didn't phrase myself too well:p (it was a long day!!!!)

[EricV]

I was out in Germany for the Jemfest (Yeah guys I know I havent been going on about it enough...) and Eric V gave me some great tips for arp inclusion in your improv. He is hopefully going to post and powertab for us in thre Jemfest link in the cafe of what he went through with me. This will hopefully cover the strech pents and largew interval stuff too. Really useful stuff!! Keep your eyes peeled.

Hey Russ

Oops, didnt see this until now. I fgured you´d go ahaead and post the hand-out and the lesson-ptb yourself... =)
Anyway, here we go...

The ptb is what we discussed in our lesson, I am not sure if this is gonna be helpful for anyone who wasn´t there to talk this through, but since you suggested that I post it, here we go. Might just be useful for some...
The pdf is the hand-out of my workshop. Most of the stuff has been explaiend ( more thoroughly ) in my Stretch-Pentatonics articles, but maybe this "quick run-through" might be justa s useful...
Eric

[UKRuss]

Thanks Eric!

Just haven't had the time to scan and post!

I've really built some of the stuff into my regular practice schedule. In the studio for rehearsal on Friday so hopeful that I'll be incorporating some of the new stuff into my playing!

[EricV]

Russ,

awesome. I hope they´ll be useful for you, and if you can, share some of the results with us =)
Eric

[UKRuss]

You can be sure of it!

In fact, this thread was quite popular in terms of people using the backing track for working on their pent stuff. I'm thinking of doing the same for demonstrating some modal stuff for beginners or how to expand the pentatonics using some of the stretch stuff you showed me.

Either way, I've just taken delivery of my new Boss digi delay and am aching to put some stuff together overlaying and harmonising some arps using the techniques you showed me and some crazy delay settings!

Cheers, R.

[Slaindude]

Hey there,

Here's my little impro on that strickly pentatonic backing track! Someone wanted some double strings bend well here are some! I always use them in those kinda blues/rock feel its always nice and it can add some feel to your runs. But damn it gets boring, always trying to stay in those kind of boxes, i felt like i played anything for 2 minutes, anyway tell me what you think :rolleyes:

[Mateo150]

I like the ideas, but the tone is bad, the bends aren't crisp. Maybe it was the recording gear, it almost sounds like you weren't in tune. Nothing wrong with the playing, ideas wise, but something was lacking, really a tone thing for me.

[UKRuss]

Whoa Mateo, a bit harsh!!! Don't forget that the idea on this one was to stay strickly pentatonic, a difficult thing to do (well most of us found it impossible) when playing a blues progression, cos the tricks are begging to be played.

Against that background, I think Slaindude's take was very pentatonic and a good take.. BUT the admission of boredom means a fail in the task!!

'Cos the idea was to see how creative and interesting you can be when your restrict yourself...and if you bored yourself then you must have failed LOL:D

Seriously though, Nice one Slainedude, good stuff!

[Slaindude]

Thx, but honestly, i lost :D heheh its pretty tough to always think of playing that pentatonic stuff and then think of something original to play.. thats quite a challenge... the pentatonic stuff is so common. Anyway, i'll be glad to hear from someone who wanna prove me im wrong!

[szulc]

Some questions/ideas:

Is the use of bends that land on notes outside the Root (I) Minor Pentatonic allowed?

Is it acceptable to use a different Pentatonic than the Minor pent over each chord of the progression? Or is the point to use only (EGABD E minor pent)?

I should think that the IV and V chords SCREAM for alterations namely C# and D# and the I chord would benefit from G#. Any improv that doesn't utilize these would not be "making the changes".

How about altering the E Minor pent by replacing G with G# for the I chord, D with C# for the IV and E with D# for the V chord?

Technically these are still Pentatonic scales just not the ones everybody is used to.

Most people are going to use these 3rds in their "strictly" pentatonic solos, anyway, using bends.

How about E Major, A Major and D Major pentatonics?

In general Blues progressions will accept the Major Pents in Cycle 4 starting on the root of I (E,A,D,G same as Emin).

[UKRuss]

Szulc, you are absolutely right of course. But I suspect most beginners have absolutely no idea what your talking about.

Perhaps it is time to jack this one up a bit though and release the shackles!!

As you rightly say without the alternatives we're not playing the changes and most people couldn't play it without including bends and the like anyway...myself included.

Maybe asking a bit much...but could you post some examples of what you mean so everyone can relate your post to the "sound" of what you mean.

[szulc]

It will be a while before I am near my guitars and recording gear, maybe in a couple of weeks.

[ink3]

This is probably madness, but these "strickly" threads are just so incredibly fun, I couldn´t resist. I´ve only been playing for about two months, bought the guitar as a christmas present for myself, and I still have grave difficulties getting my fingers to do what I want them to. Up until now all I´ve done is to try and learn the pentatonic scale, and getting my fingers to work.

I´ve listened to all of the tracks in the three "strickly"-threads and I´m deeply impressed with how good they all sound.

About the track. I think it´s pentatonic, I know it´s pretty simple and there are tons of different cool techniques I´m still unable to use but I´m still a bit pleased with it. Due to technical reasons I was unable to save it as an mp3 so I saved it as a windows media file (.wma) instead. I then discovered that I was unable to upload it. Being a bit impatient, I renamed it and uploaded it anyway. So, you have to download it and rename to .wma to listen to it.

This is my first guitar improv ever, and my first post here. Please be gentle:)

[Darren]

hey!

if you've only been playing a couple of months, then that is a REALLY good effort. you are obviously held back by your technique at the moment (even though you have come very far for such a short time!) but the best thing about it, from what i could hear, was that you have a feel for it. when your technique develops, your ear will too. i hope you keep at it.
also, just an idea... record yourself over this backing track every month and save each copy as you go, you'll be amazed at your progress, and hearing how far you've come is a great motivational tool. good luck!

[mattblack850]

hey!

if you've only been playing a couple of months, then that is a REALLY good effort. you are obviously held back by your technique at the moment (even though you have come very far for such a short time!) but the best thing about it, from what i could hear, was that you have a feel for it. when your technique develops, your ear will too. i hope you keep at it.
also, just an idea... record yourself over this backing track every month and save each copy as you go, you'll be amazed at your progress, and hearing how far you've come is a great motivational tool. good luck!
Not much more to add to this!!!!
Absolutely brilliant for such a short length of time playing!!!:D

[12bar]

"I still have grave difficulties getting my fingers to do what I want them to"
--ink3

ink3, when i start teaching someone how to play this is always thier first comment. usually followed by "i suck". which is not the case. i firmly believe that anyone can play any song. its all muscle memory. if you do a particular motion enough times your fingers will know where to go. it is always hard to gage talent in the begining. if you can tell when you screw up then you have at the very least a descent feel for music. there are alot of people running around that think they are gods gift to guitar, but can't do a damn thing. my advice to you, repitition repitition repitition. learn your scales and everything will start to make sense. personally as i learn more about the guitar, i realize how simply it is set up. also always try to play with people that are better than you are, not to good for the self esteem, but you will learn something every time you play.

[UKRuss]

Ink3, wow! You have a great guitar playing future ahead of you if you've only been playing a couple of months! Way to go!!

Great advice from tha chaps above as well so stick with it, I think you've got the touch!:cool:

Try running through your C major scale too and you can have a crack at the other backing tracks in the "Strickly" series.

Welcome aboard!!

[Sir Speedy]

Hey guys , i gave this one a try , too .

A couple of hours ago i thought i would get this in one take , then goto Kmart :cool: Yeah, wrong!!

The Freeware Program "Audicity" is a little tricky, if you want to lower your track on the mixdown , you must use the Amplify Effect , and Notch the floater to -3 Dbs . So it's a limiter as well , but, ofcourse, they don't tell you that, in the flimsey Help Manual.:eek: :mad: :( :cool:


This take , uses 3ed and 6th intervals , E minor blues (1 b3 4 b5 [nat] 5 b7)
and E Major Blues (1 2 b3 [nat] 3 5 6 )

[UKRuss]

Tasty riffs Sir Speedy, nice bluesin':D

[Sir Speedy]

Tasty riffs Sir Speedy, nice bluesin':D
Hey thanks Russ ,good backing track , it would be nice if something like this was "Officially" part of the Forum , it's good to hear everyone :cool:

[UKRuss]

MattBlack850's tasty bluesin' coming up!

Put that G&L to good use my man!!!

Enjoy!

[EricV]

I prolly should stop... but at least this shows how the chops decrease the more you drink =)
Anyway, this time we just loaded the backing track into the software, and I immediately went off on it without even listening to it, to see what would happen. What happened was that I didn´t exactly play "tasty", instead it sounds like the first attempt at blues by a metal-guitarist ( shame on me, I love playing bues usually )
Did I break the rules by throwing in the occasional F# during the tapping-licks ?
Anyway, as spontaneous as possible ( I did a punch in for the last chorus, since I stopped too early when I did that first take ):

[UKRuss]

Yes F# = fail. LOL!

Great techniques on display there Eric, once again many thanks.:cool:

[mattblack850]

Nice one Eric!!

[EricV]

Thanks again, guys

Since most people added comments about how they approached their soloing, I guess I should do the same...
Basically, I was simply playing some blues-y licks I like, but most of the fast parts ( which are not that bluesy, I guess ) are based on the "stretch pentatonic" ( I wrote 2 articles about that )
That´s one of the scales or "tools" I like to use a lot ( prolly overusing it sometimes ), and since I just did another workshop about it at the Jemfest in January, I figured I could use it here, since we were supposed to use pentatonics.
I´ll post some of the licks in a little while...
Eric

[Mateo150]

Yeah, post some licks, thats always cool... preferably the ones not super fast... so we can all partake

Anyway, I've been playing blues a bunch lately, came across this backing track a while and I played to it yesterday some. Today I recorded a little take. I guess some distortion would of helped, but the only pedal I have is a Boss brand "Blues Driver" (btw, I don't recommmend this pedal - as far as I can tell it adds a tiny tiny bit of distortion and makes it louder,,, I mean, Its basically a volume pedal...). I did use that. settings were treb = 4 bass = 4 gain = 5.5 reverb = 5.5... pedal settings are tone and gain a bit over 1/2 way on the dial (around one o'clock). Mix down was my usually, just noise reduction, compressor, equalizer (I use the pre-set settings .....wet/dry mix... "pre amp high end buffer matrix super cooper do diddly dadhicky..." etc...since I have no clue what any of that means).

Don't ask me what I did, I actually have no clue over a lot of parts what I played. Last 12 bars is maj. pentatonic mixed with minor pentanic (never said we had to use only one...:) )... everything before that is the blues scale I think.

P.S. - @ about 0:11 to 0:14 secs, I do some bends on the high e-string on the 15th fret, its sounds awful... sounds like Bojangles plucking a ukilaylee... anyone have suggestions on how to get a fatter sound that isn't so ... umm.. screechy.

Edit: added some engineering, playing still stinks though.

[mattblack850]

anyone have suggestions on how to get a fatter sound that isn't so ... umm.. screechy.
Use the neck pick-up and roll the tone control back a ways!!
Nice take though Mateo!!:D

[UKRuss]

Didn't sound too screechy to me at all, sounded like not a bad tone with the clean sound. I liked some of tthe ideas in there and if I had to be forced to pass any kind of critiscism at all it would be the ol' chestnut about bends. Juuuust lacking a little bit of confidence ni nailing the bends to exactly where they need to go.

imo this might be why you find the early bends screechy, not that the tone is wrong but that your not quite hitting the note and your ear is picking that up.

My only other comment would be don't forget to accentuate the turnarounds, it splits your soloing up nicely and after all kinda defines the 12 bar.

to be fair though it's a problem i suffer with too and i think Sulzc mentioend that perhaps the "strickly" aspect of this exercise is restricting people from playing with the changes but i think you got round that well and defintely mixed up your ideas to play the changes.

Niiiice!:cool:

[Mateo150]

yeah, took another listen, I'm 1/8 to 1/4 or so short on those bends.

BTW: how high do you guys keep your action on the high E-string, I can't do 1.5 bends on it cuz it touches the middle frets (cuz the guitar neck is convex in surface shape). I just changed it, seems I couldn't really get full bends either (on that string). Anyway, I read in a book that it should be about 1.5 mm, its at about 2mm now, whenever theres something like 1.5 or 2 bends, I tend to slide.

[mattblack850]

BTW: how high do you guys keep your action on the high E-string, I can't do 1.5 bends on it cuz it touches the middle frets (cuz the guitar neck is convex in surface shape). I just changed it, seems I couldn't really get full bends either (on that string). Anyway, I read in a book that it should be about 1.5 mm, its at about 2mm now, whenever theres something like 1.5 or 2 bends, I tend to slide.
I know it's a gear question, but:-
Yeah, the 'perfect' set-up is between 1.2 - 1.7, but don't forget that this also comes down to personal preferences, tone, string guage, tremelo and a few other outside factors, BUT, if the string is 'choking' out on the top frets then my thought is that it probably needs the frets dressing at top half of the neck,(from about the 12th fret anyway), usually, because that end of the neck just doesn't get nearly as much use as anywhere below the 9th!!!
If you've got a convex fingerboard then the saddle height should be set to compensate this, so in theory, the string height shouldn't be the problem, unless a 'butcher' has had a go at setting it up for the lowest action possible!!!;)

[ashc]

Depends on the neck radius - fender guitars have a smaller radius than gibsons and the metaller type axes.. but thats a gear thing....

[Mateo150]

If you've got a convex fingerboard then the saddle height should be set to compensate this, so in theory, the string height shouldn't be the problem, unless a 'butcher' has had a go at setting it up for the lowest action possible!!!;)Arggg.... I was that butcher.....:eek:
Looks like I'll see if I can put it back together right.... Its a telecaster so 2 strings per saddle...hmm.... well, thanks. I'll go dig up some info on this thing, Man I hate that guitar... mmm yummy
*dreaming of that perfect hollowed out quarter body with a raised bridge for easy palm muting... mmmm... and a good wood for fatt sound.... mmmm....no damn single coil crap, big old fat humbuckers...... can hear the warm clean tone now*

[ashc]

My point/question, which was not well elucidated, was that when the finger board is more convex (smaller radius) "a la fender" then you when you push/bend a string up the board it will tend to choke out against the frets vertically further up (SRV's No.1 was worn to a compound radius over the years i.e. the whole neck was worn flatter in the upper register). This effect is partly independent of the string height isn't it? Or is it case of having those frets dressed?

[UKRuss]

I'm lucky.

Have local luthier who does set ups on the cheap, never have to worry about it:D

[ashc]

Russ, very off topic, but where is he? (might be fairly local to me as well..)

I had my main guitar done once when I bought it, wasn't happy, took it back, he got closer, did it myself... I can do the basics but I wouldn't put a file anywhere near frets myself..

[UKRuss]

Hes in the back of Ritz Music, Leatherhead.

But while a basic set up is cheap...fret redressing is not.(a 3 figure sum for sure)

Sometimes I think, unless the guitar is a total classic or inherently expensive, you might be better off buying a new neck instead.

[mattblack850]

But while a basic set up is cheap...fret redressing is not.(a 3 figure sum for sure)

Sometimes I think, unless the guitar is a total classic or inherently expensive, you might be better off buying a new neck instead.
I do it for next to nothing for freinds!:D
Normal set-up about £25-30, fret dressing from £50.
Sometimes, (not always) buying a new neck is not the right thing to do, I have a freind who has an original 63 Strat, the neck got bust on tour and he could only find a 67 neck, bought it, replaced the bust one and then hated the feel of it!!:p Ok so his neck was broken, but if it's just a matter of fret wear then a complete re-fret is probably the answer!

[ashc]

Broke a strat neck! That'd take some doing if you didn't really mean it. I'm forever turning round and banging the headstock into something - thank god it's not a gibson. After all if you've seen Live at El Mocambo you know those strats can take the abuse.

[mattblack850]

A roadie left it on the front of the stage, laying flat whilst he went for the case...........Suddenly, as if from nowhere a Fu&^%$G great spotlight fell from the rig snapping the neck clean across the 10th fret area!! Bloody sparkies!!!!:p

Shouldn't use a file on the frets, use a Carborundum stone, the same as you'd use for sharpening chisels, knives etc.....

[mattfnk]

Great takes everyone. Can't wait to post mine. I will this weekend when I have time. Till then, heres a one take solo I did last weekend for a scratch demo for my band. We are trying to get our levels right. Anyway, there's a solo at about 2:20. The first third is strictly minor pentonic, the second third is major pentaonic (borrowing notes from the major at the end) and the last third is the Penta/dorion/blues/bepop scale thingy we have debated about. I didnt plan the solo out, I just played it. We are rerecording the whole thing, let me know what you think. I will post a strictly pentatonic solo this weekend.

the song is stored here
www.highwayten.com/justawaste.mov (http://www.highwayten.com/justawaste.mov)

MK

[satch_master]

sounds good.

[UKRuss]

cool bluesin Satch dude.:D

[RedBeret]

Hi, I saw this thread and I had to post my own improvisation =). I've been playing for 3 years or so. Lots of mistakes there.

[UKRuss]

Hey, that was nice redberet!

You've got those bluesy bends down nice for only having played a few years! nice stuff!:D

Mattfnk, couldnt get your link to work...:(

Cheers, Russ!

[Schmaus]

I attempted this. Ive been playing for two years and dont think it really shows :o oh well.

I used a wah pedal on this one and the tone couldve been a thousand times better. Sigh, PC mic. And it would've helped if I stayed in time the whole ...time.

I like the bend at 1:02 at least ;)

Your guy's takes sound great!

Edit: mattfnk, im listening to your guy's song right now, and it sounds awesome. Your singer sounds like Alice n Chain's, whatshisname.

[UKRuss]

I think you've got some great bluesy ideas ni there Schmaus.

Nicely done!:D

[Buebo]

Hey guys,
I finally took the plunge and got me a V-Amp 2. I don't know if this thread is dead since the stricly series has its own forum but I'll post this anyway.
Well, it is always kinda scary hearing yourself play and this is no exception for me. I haven't really tweaked the settings so the sound quality isn't marvelous (especially the low end) but it is do-able :) .
This is a quick improvisation I did, with way too many inaccuracies and timing mistakes. I didn't entirely stick to pentatonics (I'm sorry ! ! ) and some times used a bit of a hybrid blues scale.
Well I hope recording and listening carefully will improve my playing.

Suggestions are always welcome ofcourse.

Greets, Buebo.

[Factor]

Listening now!

Love the opening statements - you really manage to convey some blues right there.

I like how you leave space every once in a while, makes the song breathe and be a bit more organic.

I like the first bit ( -> 01:00) best! For an improvisation I would say this was very nice! I don't listen that much to straight rock blues but I think this was fairly rooted in the tradition! :P

[satch_master]

beuobo - nice solo mate and good investment in that Vamp. Same as what i use to record, love the effects on it 2.

[UKRuss]

Top stuff Buebo, some nice wide vibrato at the beginning there!

Welcome, with the Vamp I hope we'll be seenig some full on Strictlys involvement from now on:D

[forgottenking2]

Loved it man. I'm gonna steal some licks :D

[Buebo]

Thanks a LOT for these replies guys, I didn't know if this track would go down well. I hardly ever record myself (before I got the vamp) so it's quite a punch in the face so to speak. These stricly's series have been a HUGE addition to ibreathe (especially since the show and tell forum is gone) and it is only just beginning! I'm in the middle of a exams week so I don't have much time for the other stricly's right now but you can count on me in a couple of days :D .



Loved it man. I'm gonna steal some licks :D

Steal as much as you like I'm really honoured!
To help you out here is the pattern/scale I goofed around with a couple of times:
[code]
e------------------------------------------------12-14-15----
b--------------------------------------12-14-15--------------
g----------------------------12-14-15-------------------------
d-----------------12-13-14---------------------------------
a-------12-13-14--------------------------------------------
e 12-15------------------------------------------------------

Again thanks a lot your replies brightened up my (already pretty bright ;) ) day.

Greets, Buebo.

PS: @Satch: If you have some cool sound settings you wanna share I'd really like to know them. But it will have to go through PM, because thats a little bit too offtopic and too geary :P.

[steve0192]

Here my attempt.

It was tough just sticking to the pentatonic, but I think I made it..

Steve

[UKRuss]

Yep. Defintely made it!

Another aspect I've noticed about your style now is the tight and fast vibrato you employ, so tight i thought you had a slide on at the beginning of this piece.

Is that a deliberate inclusion in developing your sound?

Vibrato is always classed as being an area where you can really let some individuality shine through and personalise your sound.

[steve0192]

Yep. Defintely made it!

Another aspect I've noticed about your style now is the tight and fast vibrato you employ, so tight i thought you had a slide on at the beginning of this piece.

Is that a deliberate inclusion in developing your sound?

Vibrato is always classed as being an area where you can really let some individuality shine through and personalise your sound.

Hi Russ,

Definately. I think my technique originated from watching BB King playing. He has this huge amount of movement and rotation in his vibrato. I think it's as fantastic to watch as to listen to. :-)

I also spent some time listening to how singers phrase their notes, trying to get a similar lyicism in my playing. Learning tricks like bending a note and holding it still for a second or so before slowly adding the vibrato.

I think one last thing i discovered is, when playing live, especially when the acoustics of the room are bad, lost of fast intricate stuff can end up mixing together like so much porridge. A good, high, held note on the other hand, with bags of vibrato, can really cut through, stand out and make heads turn.

Steve

[UKRuss]

Good point!

It certainly shows that you've thought about it when you play.

:D

[mattblack850]

Nicely done, Steve!! I really enjoyed this take!!

[flathead]

Nicely done, Steve!! I really enjoyed this take!!


Ditto

[MattW]

I think I'll have a go at this one, it'll force me to change my style a fair bit as I rarely play just pentatonics. Argh, this'll be interesting!

[live]

Hi everyone!

This is my first take on a strictly-backing track (chose pentatonic because it's easy for beginning with such things!)... I'm always welcome for critics. I tried to stay Pentatonic but there may be some blue notes or even mistakes. It's not everything improvised I needed a few takes before I was so satisfied that I can load the track up. Playing over Background-Tracks and Programmed things is new for me but I've done it for a few days now (vacation is great -> 8hours a day guitar :-D + almost ever online @ibm) since I have to improve my playing for the audition with the big-band leaders (For those who don't know what I'm talking about, there's a thread about it and I'm always welcome for help: http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8667).
I play very much guitar every day but I have to make a practice schedule now (dunno what I shell put on it and how I should divide the time effective.-> In Abi von Reininghaus's book 'In Vivo Guitar' there's an example for a plan in which he wrote time periods of 3 minutes (followed by 1 minute of break) and I dunno if I can learn much in 3 mins... The 3:1 System is good but I'd like (for example) 21min practice and 7minutes break better) So if anyone knows help He can write in the other thread (sorry that I wrote off topic). Back to the theme: The Backing Track is great (12bar is nice to improve over it!) and I liked the version of Los Boleros and UKRuss most - needless to say that the other's have done a good job, too!!!

live

[satch_master]

Hi everyone!

This is my first take on a strictly-backing track (chose pentatonic because it's easy for beginning with such things!)... I'm always welcome for critics. I tried to stay Pentatonic but there may be some blue notes or even mistakes. It's not everything improvised I needed a few takes before I was so satisfied that I can load the track up. Playing over Background-Tracks and Programmed things is new for me but I've done it for a few days now (vacation is great -> 8hours a day guitar :-D + almost ever online @ibm) since I have to improve my playing for the audition with the big-band leaders (For those who don't know what I'm talking about, there's a thread about it and I'm always welcome for help: http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8667).
I play very much guitar every day but I have to make a practice schedule now (dunno what I shell put on it and how I should divide the time effective.-> In Abi von Reininghaus's book 'In Vivo Guitar' there's an example for a plan in which he wrote time periods of 3 minutes (followed by 1 minute of break) and I dunno if I can learn much in 3 mins... The 3:1 System is good but I'd like (for example) 21min practice and 7minutes break better) So if anyone knows help He can write in the other thread (sorry that I wrote off topic). Back to the theme: The Backing Track is great (12bar is nice to improve over it!) and I liked the version of Los Boleros and UKRuss most - needless to say that the other's have done a good job, too!!!

live

It is good to see you have spare time to play guitar, i have a bit myself at the moment as i am on holidays. It is also good to see you want to improve your playing and develop a rigid practise schedule. Hope to hear and see more of you around here in the future. And as for your solo, not bad at all, it was a reasonable effort. Just learn more licks to add to your vocab. and watch your phrasing and notes, listen when you play. How long you been playing for? Infact i had trouble getting a good take on this backing, it just wouldn't come for me.

Sure right, UKRuss and Los Boleros are good guitarists, they are experienced and have been playing for many years, they are almost like mentors to me :o

[live]

Hi!

I've been playing for about 4 years and I tried to avoid most of the licks I know because they often use the blues scale in place of the pentatonic and I didn't want to jump in the blues thing and stay as pentatonic as possible...
thank you for the tips! It's good you saw the breach I have - must learn more licks!!! phrasing needs a lot of time to improve - but I'll gonna be better ;-)
Sure you'll hear and see more of me around here as I'm online almost every day and in each time of day!


live

[Mateo150]

I've been playing for 4.5 years, and it seems that right at that 4 year mark, you seem to just understand what needs to be done more so than those first 4. For me anyway, I might just be a slow developer. I liked your last 12 bars the most, they had the most continuity and seemed to say something. Recording helps improvement as well, since I started recording, I've spotted nasty nuiances in my playing that I otherwise might not have. Try to fit those licks in all over the place, you won't learn them otherwise.

[satch_master]

I'm not really a blues player but this was fun and has some cool licks. I hit the b5th a few times, sorry Russ, lol, but i always hit that "blue note".

Time to start listening to the master, SRV!

The wah effect went real well. Infact the first half of the solo is better and more creative, i think anyways.

[live]

I've been playing for 4.5 years, and it seems that right at that 4 year mark, you seem to just understand what needs to be done more so than those first 4. For me anyway, I might just be a slow developer. I liked your last 12 bars the most, they had the most continuity and seemed to say something. Recording helps improvement as well, since I started recording, I've spotted nasty nuiances in my playing that I otherwise might not have. Try to fit those licks in all over the place, you won't learn them otherwise.

Yes, you're right Mateo! The famous 4 year mark... From now on I'm prepared to work on me...hard ;-)



The wah effect went real well. Infact the first half of the solo is better and more creative, i think anyways.



Great Job Satch! The effect rocks! The Bendings are not exact (the first one seems not to be sure where to go...) but you're thread about your will to get that better says it all... The second half of the thing sounds better to me because with the tapping there comes your real play through - that's YOU!!!(Not saying the first part is bad or something - don't get me wrong!)


live

[satch_master]

lIVE - yeh, i like off tone bends, well it sounds good in blues anyway cause if you do it cleverly you can add tension to the music, well not that i can anyways lol.
hahaha, what tapping?
ain't no tapping there ! for once lol. i try not to do too much 80s shred in a blues solo, although i have seen malmsteen do it many times and it can make me cringe at times.
What your hearing is probably fast, pointless penta wankerish hamerons, there easy, fun and sound good.

[live]

Ok, sorry - don't mind ;-) My ears wanted to tell me ****! But still it's a great take on the 12 bar! ( whether with mistaken or off tone bends :-) )
BTW: Hammer-Ons can also sound like tapping, can't they?!?!

[UKRuss]

Heres a second bash from me...

Enjoy!

Watch out for the nasty bend! think i get away with it...just;)

[satch_master]

Russ - nice sound, how did you get that? The solo was excellent aswell, your tone is instantly recognisable, it sounds like you, and thats a good thing, your own identity on the guitar. I really like the part around 1:20, some nice freddie king style licks there!
and then those crazy bends, nice, really made me laugh, i love that off tone, ****ed up ****. I can see you were really having fun and your trying to restrain yourself from overshredding. That is what blues is all about, the phrasing, not the speed and amount of notes you play. I thorougly enjoyed your take! nice work.

[UKRuss]

Cheers Satchdude, I loved your take too, the hammer on sections had some lovely timing going on, very nicely executed, good technique.

The sound I get there is difficult to recreate unless I'm recording for IBM as I don't go through an amp, just straight into the Boss recoder, so I can never emulate it exactly through an amp.

But it was my Santana SE through an overdrive, chorus and compression/sustainer pedals. The Boss recorder adds some reverb too.

The crazy bend (which didn't quite work) was based on a Clapton thing (listen to the John Mayalls' Blues Breakers Album with Clapton) On many of the solos he does these full tone bends and then goes another semi-tone, he does it as probably only Clapton can and of course it tests your strings and tuning but it adds some nice blues type tension.

I didn't quite stay pentatonic too, so a fail for me, but I know I threw the odd mixo lick in there and a stolen lick slowed down from Satriani's Raspberry Jam Delta V. (Which is a song I love! How does he nail those crossed over hand tapping segments???)

[live]

Hey Russ! That's really amazing and blows me away second time! After about 1:40 it's my favourite passage. There's everything in it ;-) Just can't get in those off-bendings but I will by time I think...

live

[UKRuss]

Thanks live.

Keep at it, try to steal some licks and ideas and you'll get the "feeling" for where your gonna put the bends in your playing.

[Mateo150]

hehe.. too much fun. Guidelines you say,,, rrrrrr, sure thing.
Took another play at it, I think I've improved a bit, happier with how I sound. Maybe I'll go through all the strictlies and see how I've developed in 7 months.

I was thinking Pentatonic, either major or minor except two spots where I used a lick, piecemeal.

[UKRuss]

Very nice, some lovely licks in there. It seems now it's just a question of finding ways of linking them together more seamlessly.

Bends could do with a little more refinement, sometimes i think it's almost like the bend has started before it needs to.i.e. you didn't let the starting note ring out clear enough to hook the listeners ear before starting the bend kind of thing.

All in all though id say your making some serious improvement and have obviously moved on in 7 months!

[UKRuss]

Live, I liked your take very much, nice control. one area which i think would just give you that little extra edge would be to develop a vibrato and use it plenty, otherwise everything can sound a bit static even when your ripping off some tasty licks.

great work for four years playing though! nice:D

[live]

Thank you UKRuss! That honors me :-) I'm working on vibrato -> even when I just play boring Licks I try to give them tone! I love holidays - I can practice a lot each day! One day looks like this:
1. I get up
2. eat a banana
3. go jogging (10km which are about 6,2miles)
4. play guitar for 4 hours or more

@Mateo: your effect is nice and your playing too - it's good you try to play more longer lines in between! This is (amongst lots of other stuff) what I cannot improvise yet that good...(hope this was good enough 'strictly english' ;-) )


OH, my bed asks for me to come in and have a great sleep :-D

live

[Mateo150]

always appreciate the honest feedback. Maybe you could PM some time clips where you spot this inconsistency (the bends). Sometimes its hard to spot our little unpleasent playing nuiances cuz its such a habit, I spot weak bends, but its nice to get a 2nd opinion. I never even noticed how harsh my slides sounded till the return of pent thingy.

I was fooling around a lot, that minor passage before the last 12 bars were 2 licks, and it sounds out of place, kinda funny though.

Edit: effect was a Fender twin reverb amp simulator, the Eq for it was set up fairly level with a slightly higher high shelf end, low reverb settings, high color, dampening, and dry mix signals; about a 50 on the wet. I did add a very slight compressor for it as well.

[mattblack850]

This was just put together very quickly this morning, more as a check to see that I'm using this new set-up correctly!!!

YAY!!! It worked!!!!!

[UKRuss]

S'nice Neil. Crystal clear recording too. Great bluesin'!

Live, i should take a leaf out of your book re the jog in the morning...but i think young men should probably eat more than just one banana for breakfast!

Mateo, were you referring to me re the time clips? if so let me know and I'll try to get some time to sort it out and PM/E-mail you some thoughts and examples.

[satch_master]

Mattblack - very impressive playing, i wish i could play proper blues like that. You got a nice tone and your vibato and bending is on par and some nice phrases indeed. I can really hear your experience in your playing. I think the secret to this backing is to not flood it with to much overdrive(like i do), just a nice clean sound is perfecto. Very refreshing to hear. I like thise crazy bends around 1:18 sounds, it really worked. I think sometimes when you play faster hammerons it kinda gets lost in the mix, but that is just a minor recording issue. Great playing overall!

[mattblack850]

Cheers guys,
Russ, I actually found getting a fairly decent tone wasn't too hard with this set-up and the recording levels are dead easy to get right! Makes a change from a lot of set-ups I've used in the past!!
I am well-impressed with this bit of kit!! (Thanks Steve et all for the help!!)
Except for the record track playback being either In or Out. See below for a fuller explanation!!

Satch, thanks man, as with all styles (more so with blues), a lot of emphasis can be placed on the notes you don't play as well as the notes you do!! Just listen to BB King for the greatest exponent of 'not' playing!!!!
As for that HO/PO part the problem I had whilst recording...... it wasn't so much the playing that lost it as I couldn't quite get the timing right due to the fact that there is a slight delay in what I could hear from my speakers whilst I'm playing, giving an almost 'echo' effect!!! If I turn the 'record' track off then the only thing from my guitar I can hear is the resonant noise from the guitar itself so the note accuracy suffered without me being able to monitor it, this made it fun trying to get a decent take!!!
I promise to do better next time!!!

PS. If anyone knows of a decent Downloadable Drum machine I'd be interested!! Maybe able to put a couple of Stricly backings together myself then!!! Perhaps a slow blues Gary Moore stlyed Minor/Harmonic Minor and a more BB King 'Lets leave some gaps' Major / Minor type thing!!

[live]

Live, i should take a leaf out of your book re the jog in the morning...but i think young men should probably eat more than just one banana for breakfast!


Haha :D After jogging I eat some cereals to be sure you don't worry ;-)

I'll hear mattblack's take later today and post if I have something to say about it!

See you later, alligator
live

[steve0192]

As for that HO/PO part the problem I had whilst recording...... it wasn't so much the playing that lost it as I couldn't quite get the timing right due to the fact that there is a slight delay in what I could hear from my speakers whilst I'm playing, giving an almost 'echo' effect!!! If I turn the 'record' track off then the only thing from my guitar I can hear is the resonant noise from the guitar itself so the note accuracy suffered without me being able to monitor it, this made it fun trying to get a decent take!!!


Hi Matt,

I suffered from this too. What I do is this, I've got my guitar set so I can hear it directly from my guitar amp as well as DA'd into the PC.

Then I set Audacity up to only play the backing track, not the track it's recording. So I can record in sync without hearing the "echo" you talk about.

When I play the recording back, my guitar is slightly delayed with respect to the backing track I used. The thing to do then is to. use one of the tools that lets you slip the tracks next to each other.

Have alook in the top left, you'll see a button with 2 arrowheads on it it looks a bit like this <->. Click on that then you'll be able to drag each track left and right. Use the Magnifying glass button to zoom in a get more accuracy.

That should be all you need. It's an amazingly powerful bit of software for the price! ;)

Regards

Steve

[mattblack850]

Hey Steve, good thinking with the 'track synch', hadn't thought of doing it that way!!! What I've got at the moment is the guitar running into my old Zoom 2020, DI'd to the computer and a set of cans from te 2020!!! One can on, one can off!!! It's working as is, but I think I might try the 'track synch' method...... if for no other reason than the comfort of having myself tied up in cables!!!:D

[live]

Listened to your take a minute ago and it's really good! It's nice you avoided using distortion for this because you can get a more bluesy/penta feeling and it's easier to get your 'message' ;-) seems like you had to get into the topic in the beginning but you were swimming in it very quick so there were no problems (without some uncleanly played parts at 1:28 and/or other parts but that's no prob - surely you can do this better) the ending is amazing, too!

live

[ashc]

About sync/monitoring .. and nice take by the way..

Monitoring through the program / PC adds noticeable latency unless you have a super super fast card. So, as discussed, we want to go around that. Most sound cards (including old SB live! cards) can loop the input mixed in a direct wired fashion onto the output and so this can be used for monitoring (all the processing, and delay, is missed out this way). Then normally the Audio SW has a feature in it's setup to disable monitoring through the program.

Then you need to keep that path separate from the input going to the PC to avoid a nasty loop! I do this with a cheap mixer that has "control room" and "mix" outputs and "tape" inputs. You can switch the "tape" inputs (from the PC in this case) in and out of the 2 output circuits. I use "control room" for PC + inputs and "mix" goes back to the PC with only the inputs going to the PC.

Then for "sync". Once you have a no latency monitoring setup there shouldnt be any delay between the backing and added tracks on playback as the card driver and the audio recording SW are supposed to take into account the cards latency. I had this problem with my setup with old WinME drivers and it went away completely when I went to XP.

[tucker97325]

Ok, since I got involved the thread discussing this thread, I suppose I need to post a take. Based on all of the discussion regarding the rules of this Strickly, I tried very hard to stick to a single pentatonic scale. I also tried to minimze slides, bends and passing tones. As far as I can tell, I succeeded. (Although there may be one flatted note.) Unfortunately without those things, I think I tend to sound a little robotic at times. I also chose to use a nylon string acoustic, so the sound is much different than most of what I've heard from the rest of you.

As always any constructive critisim is welcomed. Also, if you think I broke the rules, please point out where I did.

EDIT: The attachment didn't attach. I tried again.
EDIT: Sorry, the file is too large for some reason, and won't upload. (Probably wasn't worth the effort in any case.)
EDIT: Last try.

[Apple-Joe]

I tried to do a record this afternoon, but the results were not satisfying. I think it's too long since I've been playing. I'll warm up better, and maybe have another try later this evening. I don't understand this, if there's one thing I'm able to create music of, then it is the Pentatonic scale. I won't give up. I also think I'm still not used to my new set of 0.10-0.46 strings.


I'll listen to some of the records uploaded by people, and maybe my motivation will increase again.

[Los Boleros]

Nice Groove Tucker, some of your riffs remend me of ZZ Top. (Unplugged and without beards)

[Los Boleros]

MattBlack, nice to hear you play. You have some good ideas. I can hear you switching back and forth between major and minor. At times I think you may have been thinking too much about the red Record light. Pretend you are not recording. I know that even that takes practice but we all can admit that we seem to do better when it doesn't count.:D

thank you sir, may I have another.

[live]

great take, tucker! nice doublestops and it has a chill out flair :-)

[tucker97325]

great take, tucker! nice doublestops and it has a chill out flair :-)Thanks (I guess) What are double stops? and what is a "chill out flair"?

[live]

Hey tucker!

For the double stops have a look at this page:
http://www.betterguitar.com/Instruction/Technique/DoubleStops/DoubleStops.html

The "chill out flair" is just the way I got your take at first sight... There's no way to get this in words, it's no techniqe-thing or something but it's the first thought!

[tucker97325]

Hey tucker!

For the double stops have a look at this page:
http://www.betterguitar.com/Instruction/Technique/DoubleStops/DoubleStops.html

The "chill out flair" is just the way I got your take at first sight... There's no way to get this in words, it's no techniqe-thing or something but it's the first thought!
Hey Live, thanks for pointing me to that site. Simple explanation of something I do a lot, just never knew it had a name.

"First thought"?, or maybe "No thought" is closer:D . I was just concentrating really hard on not breaking the rules. It was a principle sort of thing. I really just ended up noodling around with the straight notes (tried to stay away from bends and things as much as I could, and still stay interested. The few slides I just couldn't avoid.)

[satch_master]

Very nice tucker! you are a bluesman aren't you?
your playing is on this is very nice, you keep it simple and play some nice bluesy licks and phrases without playing too many notes. It was simple but very, very effective playing. That's the first time iv'e heard you play, good job. You have nailed this one, lets see you have a shot at some of the other "strictlys".

[tucker97325]

Hey Satch, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was pretty disappointed in it to be honest. I've laid off playing for quite some time, and I'm having troubles getting my fingers to go where I want them to. Don't get me wrong, I was never a shredder, but I should at least be able to hit the notes I want without fumbling over them.

I did try a take on the "Strickly Melody". If you liked the pentatonic, you might like that one too.

I wish I could say I was a blues man, or a rock guy, or even a country dude. But I just don't know where I fit in. This is a little tune I put together and recorded a couple of years ago when I tried to get started with guitar again (probably the reason I didn't continue playing then.) Let me know if you like it. I don't really know what style it is, I thought it sounded just a little bit jazzy, but mostly corny.
(Normally I wouldn't post this here, but I think this thread is dying out. I don't think anyone will notice.)

[Apple-Joe]

Hey Satch, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was pretty disappointed in it to be honest. I've laid off playing for quite some time, and I'm having troubles getting my fingers to go where I want them to. Don't get me wrong, I was never a shredder, but I should at least be able to hit the notes I want without fumbling over them.

I did try a take on the "Strickly Melody". If you liked the pentatonic, you might like that one too.

I wish I could say I was a blues man, or a rock guy, or even a country dude. But I just don't know where I fit in. This is a little tune I put together and recorded a couple of years ago when I tried to get started with guitar again (probably the reason I didn't continue playing then.) Let me know if you like it. I don't really know what style it is, I thought it sounded just a little bit jazzy, but mostly corny.
(Normally I wouldn't post this here, but I think this thread is dying out. I don't think anyone will notice.)

Enjoyable listening. In this recording you're showing in a great way the sounds a guitar is able to produce. I wish I could play more pieces like that.

[tucker97325]

Here's some more bad blues. (and I do mean BAD not good or cool.:p) This is me trying to play harmonica. I gave it up after about 3 weeks. Listen to this, you'll see why. (Well, this and the "Blues Travelers".) One thing I don't understand is that I get this groove, but I had a very hard time getting into strictly pentatonic one. I don't know if this is strickly pentatonic, I doubt it.

[Los Boleros]

Here's some more bad blues. (and I do mean BAD not good or cool.:p) This is me trying to play harmonica. I gave it up after about 3 weeks. Listen to this, you'll see why. (Well, this and the "Blues Travelers".) One thing I don't understand is that I get this groove, but I had a very hard time getting into strictly pentatonic one. I don't know if this is strickly pentatonic, I doubt it.I absolutely love it. If you played the exact same thing on your guitar, it would be my favorite Strickly Pentatonic to date.

[Apple-Joe]

Just a suggestion; have a look at Schooligo's thread in the "Composition, Arranging and Analysis" forum. There he provides comments about most of the Pentatonic blues recordings, and now I have just finished a longer reply myself. I think I wrote a comment on each and every recording, none missed out.

Might be interestig for all of you who's participated.

EDIT: And tucker, about "My Harmonica", I threw it in my Winamp playlist and didn't think more about it. Then, as it started I realized how professional it sounded. It could just as well been which ever harmonica blues song by some professional blues player, not a "random take from a forum user". I hope you understand what I mean, I think you're too modest when describing your own recordings.

[Mateo150]

how about sharing the backing track tucker, I like that swing, real blues. Nice guitar take as well, like the slide phrasing a lot. The jazzy thing is excellent, thats 2 guitars right? It would be nice to hear it as a solo guitar arrangement, that would be cool.

[satch_master]

Tucker, you are a good player. That jazz thing is beautiful, i could never make something up like that. You are too modest bout your playing. I love the solos aswell.

[tucker97325]

Well shucks guys, thanks. You are all too kind. I'm sure I do judge my stuff harshly. I compare it against what I've played in the past, what I'd LIKE to be able to play (my ideal), and what the other folks here on IBM play. Most of you guys are awsome. Some of the stuff I hear blows me away to the point that every now and then I just put all my guitars up for sale. :D

Mateo,
which backing track did you want? I assume it's the harmonica one. Not that I think I have it anymore, but I think I could throw one back together pretty quickly. It was done on a Boss DR5. The jazzy thing is actually called "A walk in the park". It's probably my favorite of any of the original things I've done (but I still hear all the slightly missed, and unintended muted notes.:p Maybe one day I'll take another shot at it.) I've often thought it would be nice to do as a solo guitar piece, but that would have to be played by someone other than me.:p I just can't imagine how you could do it with one guitar.

Edit: Is that better Mateo?
Satch,
I'm sure you could make up something even better, using you're own style, if you really wanted to. Just put together a repeating chord pattern (hopefully something either of you're own design or obscure, but a standard would work too, if you can keep from hearing some existing song within it.) and improvise what you're feeling over the top of it. I think the key to coming up with something original is to play what you're feeling, and not try to play something you've heard someone else play.

[Mateo150]

enough reminising, your pissing me off...
but yeah, the harmonica backing if your up to it. But whatever you have time for. Also, maybe you could list the chord progression of your "walk in the park" song, maybe post it in the theory forum or something and have people take shots at solo guitar arrangements, Its something I'm trying to get better at myself.

EDit: hehe. I was joking Tucker. ;) I should of put that little guy in there.

[UKRuss]

I like the Tuckit blues!

Tasty playing, GREAT TIMING.

Agreed, you're too harsh on yourself. I thoroughly enjoyed that!:D

[tucker97325]

enough reminising, your pissing me off...
but yeah, the harmonica backing if your up to it.
EDit: hehe. I was joking Tucker. ;) I should of put that little guy in there.I thought you were serious. Oh well, it's gone now. (Heaven knows I don't want to piss anybody off.:rolleyes: I was just trying to give satch some tips on getting inspired to write his own stuff. Gee, thinking back on it now, I wish I had saved a copy before I deleted it. Of course I'd have to hide it from my wife. :D )

Here's something that's as close as I could get to that harmonica backtrack. The tempo may be a bit off, I had to guess at it. There is no ending, it just stops. Also, it's done in my preferred key for blues "G". If need be I suppose I could transposed it pretty simply into whatever key is your preference.

I'd like to hear what you do with this track. Although, I'm not sure this is the correct thread for any of this. I think we are breaking all sorts of protocols here. I'm glad no one has yelled at us yet.

The chords in the other song are... I don't know. I made them up as I went along. Not sure I would even call them full on chords. They're just triads using primarily the 5th, 3rd, and 2nd strings. I tried to figure them out once and got about this far before I realized I didn't fully understand what I was doing. (Which BTW, was what originally brought me to IBM.)

F#m7, B7, Em7, A7, DM7,D7, D, C#m7, F#7, Bm7,.......
(not ordered as in the song)

Since I'm unsure that information is correct, I've recorded them, sounding each note in each chord. Maybe one of the gurus can tells us what their names are? or maybe even which real chords should actually be played in place of these. In any case, you should be able to pick them up by ear.

[UKRuss]

Nice backing Friar.

now here I've gone and ruined it for ya.;)

Who said this thread was dying out? It ain't over til the pents run out.

and you just know you're gonna hear sustained feedback in everything i do from now on so apologies fo that in advance.

Enjoy!

[tucker97325]

Nice backing Friar.

now here I've gone and ruined it for ya.;)

Who said this thread was dying out? It ain't over til the pents run out.

and you just know you're gonna hear sustained feedback in everything i do from now on so apologies fo that in advance.

Enjoy!Nice? Pretty straight forward, common, standard bass line I could think of. One I'm sure everyone has heard at one time or another.

I don't think you ruined it at all. I like it, especially the sustained feedback at the end. LMAO!!! Although, it does seem a departure from your normally meticulous takes.

Sorry, "This thread dying out" was my way to justify my posting some of the unrelated cr*p here.:p

[UKRuss]

Heh hehhh, just having meself some fun now!

[live]

Yo Russ, your track sucks!

Ok... just joking... I couldn't get it even near to this great playing! - more practice ;-) !

[tucker97325]

I know this thread is about "Penatonic scales", and not about "The Blues". However, since Blues is referred to in almost every post, I thought I'd share some thoughts (these are not my original thoughts) regarding the blues.



This is an excerpt from an article I recently read. The entire short article, by Gregg Juke can be found here: http://gottheblues.com/archive_articles/integrity.phtml

I know the Blues is a deceptively simple musical style, the key phrase here being deceptively simple. As another famous musician once said, "the Blues is the simplest form of music to learn, and the most difficult to master." All of us (fans and musicians) are familiar with this fact. So what's the excuse for intentionally playing in a lame fashion? The aesthetic seems to be how repetitively, how simplistically (not simply) one can play. I've never heard of a legitimate musical style on the planet where the object was to play with as little life as possible. So where did this aversion to spark (dynamics, improvisation, energy), to spirit, come from? Technique does not equal quality, and lots of notes do not equal good music. I am the first person to tell young musicians about the virtues of "laying it down." But conversly, repetitive, feel-less uninspired rote playing does not equal soul. It smacks of what I like to call "lame-ality." Lameality disguised as authenticity.

[Apple-Joe]

That was one fascinating article. I got carried away. Thanks for the suggestion!

[mattblack850]

Another quick take, but quite a nice one I think!

[mattblack850]

Who said this thread was dying out? It ain't over til the pents run out.

Or the fat Pent sings?
Anyhoo, hows a virtual 'pen' gonna run out of ink??

[UKRuss]

Neil, I think that festival has put you in a laid back vibe! A Keith Richardsy sound going on there and nice work in the turnarounds.

I'd like to hear more sustained feedback, but that's just co it's all I do at the moment:D

Fun fun fun til my Mrs takes my wah-wah awayyyyyyyyy:(

[Apple-Joe]

Another quick take, but quite a nice one I think!

First thoughts: Very alive. Some 'dirty' sounding notes that I liked. You seemed to focus on rhythm - GREAT. I like the double stops. If there's one thing (and I seldom say this...), I actually think that your rhythm was great through the entire recording, that you could let yourself go wild in the end, play extremely fast for 5 seconds, for instance. Anyway, the recording is professional as it is!

[mattblack850]

Thanks guys!!

And now for something completely different!!! Thanks Tucker for the track!!
First take, no messing about, straight in! Not too happy with parts of it, it kind of came out a bit 'uneven' but hell, that's what improv's all about!!!
Had to drop the bit rate as well, so not sure about the quality!!
Just trying to mess about and get that kind of late 60's early 70's vibe from some small smokey blues club, NICE!!

[UKRuss]

I can feel the smoke and taste the whisky!!! Great 60s tone, almost Clapton's 355;) Tidy blues my man, very tidy.

[Apple-Joe]

Thanks guys!!

And now for something completely different!!! Thanks Tucker for the track!!
First take, no messing about, straight in! Not too happy with parts of it, it kind of came out a bit 'uneven' but hell, that's what improv's all about!!!
Had to drop the bit rate as well, so not sure about the quality!!
Just trying to mess about and get that kind of late 60's early 70's vibe from some small smokey blues club, NICE!!

That recording got a ... solid sound. It sounds like you were really inspired. Great tone, and joyful playing.

I also have to say that the backing track is very good. The bass line is a classic boogie if I'm not wrong. Sounds good!

[ink3]

I hope it´s late enough in the thread to post a little something I made a couple of days ago. Even though it´s not an improvisation based on the backing-track of this thread it´s really inspired by it, and all the other stricktlys. I´ve played for about 7 months now, and the stricktly-threads have been really, really good for me, as a beginner.

It started as a riff that kept appearing when I was practicing, and I finally thought I had to try and make a song with it. It´s pretty simple and I keep myself quite stricktly (except for some bends here and there) to A pentatonic.

This is my first guitarsong ever, and I hope you´ll like it. Any feedback is more than welcome.

As I still don't have a good way to create mp3´s it´s a .wma renamed to .mp3 to allow for upload. I also had to lower the bitrate more than I would have wanted to.

[UKRuss]

Cool Ink3, I'll check the soundclip out when I get home!

I just wanted to say I'm really glad you found inspiration in the strictlies, it's exactly what I hoped people would get from it!:D

[UKRuss]

As a first song, I think it's excellent!

It has three fundamental concepts which I think are the most important in the instrumental rock genre:

Resolution at the right points;
A recurring theme and melody;
Timing.

The melody reminds me very much of a Satch track (and we like Satch)...I'll dig the name out later.

Good stuff!:D

edit: I think the Satch track I'm thinking of is "Ceremony"

[JohnKline]

Ink3, that sounds cool man! I'm just getting into scales after about 8 months of playing chords, so that really motivated me to practice with these strictly threads. Keep it up!


John

[Schmaus]

Ink that song rocks! Especially for a first song. The lead guitar actually reminded me of Queens of the stonage at times :) .

[ink3]

Thanks for the kind words.

Well, up until about 6 months ago I, it pains me to admit, didn´t know Satch existed (I´ve been musically dead for about 20 years), and I still haven´t heard much at all. I´ll see if I can get hold of the song and listen to it.

One of the reasons for creating the track was that it needed to be done. The second was so that I could use it as a base for improvements together with my teacher (If you don´t have one get one as soon as possible. It rocks). There are all kinds of good stuff to be learned from a simple track such as this one. The minute my teacher had imported it into his recording software, he said "you should change key somewhere around here" and rattled of four improvised examples for the rythm guitar, which all sounded very good, and none of which I remember anything of. So that´s my homework until next time, that and a new improvisation.

I haven´t got a clue at the moment how I am going to do that, but that´s what makes it interesting.

Edit:

I downloaded and listened to "ceremony". Parts of it really are a bit similar, and I´ll buy the record next week. Looking forward to some more inspiration.

[BonzaiBob]

Hi,

This forum is great! It's really gonna give me a chance to practise my improv etc..

I thought i'd post here first, didn't want to delve into the mode threads just yet!!

I've been playing 4.5 years but only started lessons last month, learning theory, which i knew NOTHING of!!

I had to actually check my notes to make sure i knew the right scale to do this track:rolleyes:

Anyway, sorry if it's crap, i'm actually in a rush cos i have a lesson soon!!!! So my rhythm etc is probably crap cos i didn't listen to the backing track much..

Please give me some feedback on this, i need it!!!

Thanks:p VVVVV

CLICK HERE FOR THE TRACK (http://members.boards.ie/lundimardi/zip.zip)

[UKRuss]

Ahhhh, back to the strictlyness!:D

very nice Bob, and strictly strict. Well as mch as can be expectde with a blues. i thought you had all the right ingredients in there. nice tone. bends, double stops, some cheeky licks.

All in all a nice effort, I enjoyed. And for 4.5 years playing it's a great standard!

[BonzaiBob]

Cheers Russ!!

I have a lot to improve on methinks.. I feel i'm repeating myself somewhat so would like to improve my knowledge. Especially where scales are concerned, i'm lucky if i get to pick up a guitar once a day slow it's a slow process at the minute!

[UKRuss]

Well, i suppose it's a question of adopting a few more techniques and learning or working out some new chops, but we're all in that boat!

Hope to hear some more strictly stuff from you soon though.:D

[tucker97325]

I know, this is the strictly pentatonic thread. But since everyone keeps referring to blues, I wanted to throw my blues hat in the ring.

Right off the bat I'll admit I stole the intro from Lightnin' Hopkins "Gambler's Blues". I threw it in toward the end as well, to try and tie things together. I don't know where I might have picked up the rest of the licks. I'm sure at least one or two must be originals.:p

As usual, everything is done on my Washburn acoustic. I did add a little reverb, and maybe some chorus to the backing track post production. In order to get it below 150k mark, I did have to reduce the bit rate quite a bit. This caused a noticable loss of quality, but then we aren't talking about creating a marketable product here.

[Los Boleros]

Most of what I play has evolved from things I learned from others, Licks I stole and sounds I have heard that I try to reproduce. I think it's ok to admit that, because once you can get over that, and understand that it is normal and necessary, then we can all get back to what we want to do. That is making music. Even if we try to copy something, note for note, it will still come out with an original flavor. This flavor is our own unique stamp. It is made up of our own strengths, and yes, also too, our own weaknesses.

My speakers are not working right now but when I get a chance, I'll have a listen to that blues track of yours Tucker.:cool:

[tucker97325]

My speakers are not working right now but when I get a chance, I'll have a listen to that blues track of yours Tucker.:cool: Well, hurry up and get them fixed:rolleyes:. I respect your musical abilities, and opinions, and I want to know what you think of this one. Keep in mind both the backing track and the improv were each done in one take. So, what you see is what you get, no tricks.

[mattblack850]

Yo, Tucker, MY MAN!!!!!!
Awesome stuff, took me right back home!!!!!
Put the baking track up, I REALLY wanna RIP over this one!!!
Great stuff!!
I'm experiencing a coupla technical difficulties uploading stuff at the moment, but watch this space.... a strickly ballad/slow blues is on the way!!!!!

[tucker97325]

...Put the baking track up, I REALLY wanna RIP over this one!!!Ok, here it is, but you'd probably be better off doing your own backtrack. This one is very minimal, some times just thumping the strings a bit, no bass, no drum, done on my own clock so the rhythm could be way off. Not to mention, backtrack started out 21.4MB and is now 1.39 MB, so you might imagine what may have been lost in translation.

If it's the progression you like, it's pretty standard (8 bar???) blues in A ("A, D9, A, A7, D9, A, E9, D9", and the bridge is "A, A7, D9, Dmin, E9".)

[Mateo150]

Now thats what I call blues. Great stuff, really nice sound, enjoyed that a ton. Takes some mojo to do that.

P.S. - perhaps you could post a 2min backing track with a higher bitrate.

[tucker97325]

P.S. - perhaps you could post a 2min backing track with a higher bitrate.Well, at 21MB even 2 minutes would be around 10MB. So, I tried to fill it in with a little more strumming on the 12 string. It's fuller, but I think it's developed more of a beat than I would like. (I like my blues the way I like my women, and little loose and dirty.:D Unrehersed.)

Like I told Matt, you'd be much better off recording your own backtrack, and using your own "clock", and your own changes. In my humble opinion, blues should come from within you. I think that means playing to the song that's in YOUR heart, not someone elses. But then again, that's just my opinion.

EDIT: Added a bass line to the tracks.
EDIT 9/6. I removed the whimpy BT.

[mattblack850]

My mojo's working, but it sure don't work on you!!!!

That's almost the same type of thing I wanted to do for a 'Strickly Slow Blues'!!!
Don't worry about the 8 bar feel!!!
JLH sure as hell never worried about what was playing behind him,

"****, is this 12 or 14 or maybe 18 bars!!!"

[Mateo150]

I prefer that 24 bar feel...:p

I like playing along with the backing tracks others make here, It gives me a sense of jamming along with someone elses sense of music and communicating with that, and thats also what improvisational blues is about. I play with myself plenty, I mean my guitar.

[UKRuss]

Ahhhhhh! Back to the delta!

Very nice Blues Friar. A blues such as this is one to savour a long side a large JD.

I feel a visit from Kirk Lorange coming on..We need that slide sound! Where are you Kirk?

I shall sure surely be visiting this lil beauty myself. I shall proceed directly home this evening have an argument with the Mrs to get me in the right frame of mind, get down the train station late so I miss my train and then find I have a long walk home...in the rain...

That should do it.

Once question though? Why didnt you put it up as a strictly blues in it's own right?

[Apple-Joe]

Tucker - My Blues: Great, relaxing listening. Professional sound.

Mattblack - Harmonicarambajam: I think I prefer this one over Bad Blues. Very intense and rhythmically extremely interesting. My interest for the song increased the further in the song I got, except for the fast part just before 1:20 which was really something on its own. Very catchy.

[tucker97325]

...One question though? Why didnt you put it up as a strictly blues in it's own right?Two reasons; 1)This idea just sort of grew out of this pent thread, because everyone kept talking about blues. 2)I wasn't sure it was even worthy of putting up on this thread. I really just did a quick backtrack because I wanted to play some blues. (My dog died you know, along with several other things I'd rather not go into.) :( Anyway, it turned out half decent so I posted it. I'm surprised people like it.

[mattblack850]

This was straight in, no rehearsals, nothing!!

I quite like it, couple of dodgy parts, but on the whole a passable live take!!!

[mattblack850]

(I like my blues the way I like my women, a little loose and dirty.:D Unrehearsed.)

IS THERE ANY OTHER KIND THEN????

[tucker97325]

This was straight in, no rehearsals, nothing!!

I quite like it, couple of dodgy parts, but on the whole a passable live take!!!I think it's a great take, and I love the raunchy tone you get. I may have to break down and get an electric guitar and some effects so I can get a sound like that. As far as dodgy parts, I didn't really hear any, but in a 4 minute improv you gotta do something you aren't intending. Sometimes one of those happy "accidents" can end up being one of your favorite licks.

Russ says there should be a "Strictly Blues" thread, and I know you said you were planning one. So, when are you going to start it???:p

When you do, I hope it leads to some valid discussion regarding "What is Blues". That seems to be a raging debate with a lot of people (check the net). IMHO, there is a fine line between Blues and Rock and Roll. Take Stevie Ray Vaughan(w/Double Trouble) for example. Sure, he plays SOME Blues (and Jazz), but I would say a lot of what I've heard him play (perhaps the majority) I would consider to be Rock and Roll. So, where is line?

[mattblack850]

I think it's a great take, and I love the raunchy tone you get. I may have to break down and get an electric guitar and some effects so I can get a sound like that. As far as dodgy parts, I didn't really hear any, but in a 4 minute improv you gotta do something you aren't intending. Sometimes one of those happy "accidents" can end up being one of your favorite licks.

Russ says there should be a "Strictly Blues" thread, and I know you said you were planning one. So, when are you going to start it???:p

When you do, I hope it leads to some valid discussion regarding "What is Blues". That seems to be a raging debate with a lot of people (check the net). IMHO, there is a fine line between Blues and Rock and Roll. Take Stevie Ray Vaughan(w/Double Trouble) for example. Sure, he plays SOME Blues (and Jazz), but I would say a lot of what I've heard him play (perhaps the majority) I would consider to be Rock and Roll. So, where is line?

Actually, listening back to it there wasn't as many mistakes as I first thought when recording it!!! Glad you liked it!!!

The Strickly Blues is 'Under Construction', I've got the bass down and the rythym guitars, but I'm just not happy with the Drum track, I need to sort out some Over-dubs etc, hopefully finished and polished by the end of the week!!!

Hahaha, blues discussions, phew, where to start??? I mean there's so many sub-genres to take into consideration, I mean, from Delta Style through to Texas Shuffle and Swingbeat right on up to the Chicago Big Band stuff, it covers a whole gamut of stuff!! I totally agree, where's the line?? Is some blues actually jazz?? Is some jazz actually blues?? And as for the Rock 'n' Roll part, well it's all basically 12 bar and it was born from the Blues and Gospel, so is there a defining line between the two??? As for Stevie, he was a helluva Jazz player when the mood took him and so does this mean that he wasn't a Bluser when he was playing Jazz and the more upbeat stuff!!! Could turn into an interesting discussion!!!

[tucker97325]

The Strickly Blues is 'Under Construction', I've got the bass down and the rythym guitars, but I'm just not happy with the Drum track, I need to sort out some Over-dubs etc, hopefully finished and polished by the end of the week!!!LOL, I think I may suffer from the same problem. Notice there are NO drums in any of the blues things I posted. I've got a drum machine capable of creating them (Boss DR5), I just can't seem to get it the way I want it either. Probably because I'm unsure what I want, but it could be because blues drummers have to be vamping, to some extent, along with everyone else. So, when you try to encapsulate it, say with a machine, it gets lost.

Yeah, this whole "What is Blues" discussion could get a little out of hand. :D I don't think you could find two people who agree on the answer. And isn't that the problem with pigeon holes anyway?

EDIT: Here, check this guy out. He doesn't mind telling you what blues is, or isn't for that matter. http://thebluehighway.com/whatis.html (http://thebluehighway.com/whatis.html)

Edit2: Ok, I'm having a lot of fun with this one, I had to post another, but this is the last I PROMISE.

[mattblack850]

Nice one buddy!!!!!Loved that link as well. I think that should just about cover almost every possibility at a push!!!

[UKRuss]

Very nice as always Friar. I notice your not reaching into the higher registers when some of your phrases are aching for upwards resolution. I guess that's because your acoustic has no cutaways?

[tucker97325]

Very nice as always Friar. I notice your not reaching into the higher registers when some of your phrases are aching for upwards resolution. I guess that's because your acoustic has no cutaways?Well, it is cut away a little, but not enough to make it comfortable for me up in there. Also, the strings are heavy enough to make it difficult to do any heavy bends. I really need to pick up a nice electric, maybe something along the lines of a strat, and put some very light gauge strings on it.

EDIT: BTW, I'm still waiting for your take on this one Russ.

[Schmaus]

What about a hollow body Tucker?

[tucker97325]

What about a hollow body Tucker?Well, that was my thought, so I got a Washburn EA20SDL Festival edition. It is cutaway, and has the slim hollow body, but it just doesn't sound the same as a real electric. If I put really light strings on it, it just doesn't sound right for most of the stuff I use it for. Also, it always seems to have an acoustic sound to it. Although that could be because I don't usually run it through any effects. (I'm not good with effects. LOL)

Here's a closeup picture of one like it. (You can check the ibreathe photo album thread if you want to see a picture of mine and the rest of my guitars, but not as clearly.)

[UKRuss]

I'll be having a pop! I've been thinking about it really, I need to be in that proper bluesy frame of mind, but I'm thinking some vibrato style effect and some Ry Cooderish approach, no slide though, I'm no good with it.

[Mateo150]

I had to try to record with my new geetar. I like it, a few kinks I gotta iron out, gotta change the pickups, and I'm gonna have a new main guitar. Time to detune the tele....

[tucker97325]

Shades of Chuck Berry, that's some Rockin' blues there son!!! I like it a lot.

Nice axe too, but I couldn't quite make out the name. Is it "Dillion" or "Dittion"? Whatever it is, it looks awsome dude, and it has a pretty nice sound already.

[mattblack850]

Nice axe too, but I couldn't quite make out the name. Is it "Dillion" or "Dittion"? Whatever it is, it looks awsome dude, and it has a pretty nice sound already.

Dillion, very well-made guitars for a very reasonable price!!!
Built in Korea at the moment and soon to be built in Viet Nam. It's a subsiduary company from Tokai, so you know the quality will be good!!!

[schematics]

here's my "down and dirty" harmonica_backtrack version of the after a couple of beers...........it's a mad_track

[mi2tom]

I think pentatonic will stuck in you if you like rock music wether you don't like it or not it will come out naturally from you :)

[UKRuss]

LOL Schematics! I like that, very funny. but also some great passages in there too of course, I particularly liked the "Vai's attempt at the copying of the kid in crossroads' classical run" style over bends at about 1.55ish.

Very enjoyable:D

[Stratosaurus]

I've been reading this thread periodically all day. I tried to read and listen to everything but I got tired around page 11. I want to contribute but I might not have the time/privacy to do so until maybe Tuesday at the latest. Blues is my "forte", if you will... so maybe you guys will appreciate my stuff. Then again, maybe I'll force a sour-face wince out of you. We shall see.

[tucker97325]

I've been reading this thread periodically all day. I tried to read and listen to everything but I got tired around page 11. I want to contribute but I might not have the time/privacy to do so until maybe Tuesday at the latest. Blues is my "forte", if you will... so maybe you guys will appreciate my stuff. Then again, maybe I'll force a sour-face wince out of you. We shall see.Cool, I for one am looking forward to hearing some more Blues. But, before you do that, remember this is the "Strictly Pentatonic" thread. That fact has been the subject of some controversy over the past month or so. (Check these threads for more on that subject.) http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8623 (http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8623)
http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8745 (http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8745)

I think the consensus is that one should do a take as "Strictly" as possible, explaining in detail, and providing PowerTab examples of where the "Deviations from the Pent scale are". Once that is done, some of us are posting our "Primarily Pentatonic" takes.:D


PS: Where are you in Southern Oregon? I'm in Salem.