Phrases & the bag of dusty licks

[SuperSwede]

When I sit down to play I often find myself playing the same old phrases over and over again. As a example, in a jazz solo I often tend to use all of my bag of licks, but very seldom new phrases. I have even thought about getting a cheap left hand guitar to force myself to think/play in new ways.
Anyone else that got the same problem?

[Robert****]

Transcribe, man!

[Katastrophe]

There are a number of ways to increase your phrase vocabulary... Here's what I do:

1) Switch genres of music - Gone country recently, and learning all the chicken pickin' stuff is gonna be a bear for me. It's a challenge, and certainly a lot of good frustrating fun.

2) Jam, Jam, Jam! Every time I get with other musicians I learn something new, and don't ever hesitate to ask. Our other guitar player (who doesn't solo a whole lot) comes up with some weird, off time stuff that gives me fits, but its diverse and fun to learn.

3) Dust off the scale patterns and pick portions of the scale at random. You can come up with some creative stuff that way.

4) I read a looooooong time ago in a guitar magazine that Steve Vai, in his 10 hour practice regimen, would try for a period of time to make his guitar lines sound like speech patterns and vocal lines. Speak a sentence, then try to emulate the sounds with your guitar. That works, too.

Not that I'm an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but it helps to step outside the comfort zone every once in a while !

[SuperSwede]

Well, I know of awful lot of phrases (especially when it comes to jazz) and that is probably the "problem". I have a hard time "breaking" free of them and play more "free form".
Perhaps time to start to transcribe again, I think you are right Robert...

[Tim]

When I sit down to play I often find myself playing the same old phrases over and over again. As a example, in a jazz solo I often tend to use all of my bag of licks, but very seldom new phrases. I have even thought about getting a cheap left hand guitar to force myself to think/play in new ways.
Anyone else that got the same problem?

I find this interesting that SuperSwede brought this topic up. I was thinking a simular post myself least night. I have a few jam CDs that I play along with. I too fine myself playing the same phrase (I only know about three). I am learning that you can play different scales on top of chord progressions I.E. Major, Major Pentatonic, Minor Pentatonic and Blues on top of the same chord progression. But like SS, I seem to play the same thing over and over.

Transcribe, man!

I am not sure what Robert means by “Transcribe”? Does this mean moving to a different fret as in fret one, sixth string (key of F) up to fret 8, 5th string (key of F)?

There are a number of ways to increase your phrase vocabulary... Here's what I do:

1) Switch genres of music - Gone country recently, and learning all the chicken pickin' stuff is gonna be a bear for me. It's a challenge, and certainly a lot of good frustrating fun.

2) Jam, Jam, Jam! Every time I get with other musicians I learn something new, and don't ever hesitate to ask. Our other guitar player (who doesn't solo a whole lot) comes up with some weird, off time stuff that gives me fits, but its diverse and fun to learn.

3) Dust off the scale patterns and pick portions of the scale at random. You can come up with some creative stuff that way.

4) I read a looooooong time ago in a guitar magazine that Steve Vai, in his 10 hour practice regimen, would try for a period of time to make his guitar lines sound like speech patterns and vocal lines. Speak a sentence, then try to emulate the sounds with your guitar. That works, too.

Not that I'm an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but it helps to step outside the comfort zone every once in a while !

If I was ever asked to jam with other guitar players, I would most likely stand there in total confusion. I would not know where to begin. Sorry Warren! Presently my ear would not tell me when to change chords or to which cords to go to. Soling would most likely be the same phrase over and over.

This is why I am in a dire search for a local, well seasoned player to practice with. There is a folk guitar festival this weekend in town. I will be attending, not to sock up the music but to find some to play guitar with.

[jpfeifer]

Hi,

Transcribing means to learn a solo note-for-note off of a recording. This is usually a lot of work, but the benefits of doing this are huge.

I like to think of soloing, or improvisation in general, as analogous to speaking. Think of the individual notes in the various scales in the same way that you would consider words in a dictionary. Think of individual licks and phrases as short sentences.

Each soloist has a certain style - the way that they like to phrase, which phrases they use, the way they like to accent cerain notes (words), etc.

When you transcribe another artist's solo you get a lot insight into the phrases they use, how they put together their solo to go from one idea to the next, and so on. You're essentially learning how to speak in the same musical accent as the soloist that you are transcribing. This is a lot better than practicing scales alone, because you begin to understand how to use the scales to make certain phrases. Scales by themselves don't really make music. It's what you do with those scales that makes the music.

Recently I had to transcribe Eric Clapton's solo in "Sunshine of Your Love" for one of my guitar students. I wasn't all that excited about doing this task at first but as I got into it I found alot of great stuff to be learned out of Eric Clapton's solo. Most of it had to do with his phrasing and the notes he chose to bend versus slide, etc. I wish that I had more time to do this .... transcribing can be time consuming. But, if you're in a rut it's a great way to push yourself into learning some new stuff.

If you're interested in trying do so some transcribing, one helpful tool to have is a software program to slow down the audio so that you can piece together the notes more easily. There is a program called ASD "Amazing Slow Downer" that you can buy off the internet pretty cheap. It also helps to find some soloists that are easier to transcribe at first just to get your feet wet. BB King is a good one for that because his ideas are very clear and he doesn't play too fast. Santana is another great one for transcribing too because his phrasing is so distinct - I love the way that he plays.

-- Jim

[Tim]

Jim,

Thanks for the input on transcribing. Is there anyway to explain how this process works? So I obtain the slow down program. Then what do I (we) do with it?

Do we just try and play along or do we write things down? I am one of those methodical kind of guys. You can’t just tell me. You have to either show me (which is impossible) or explain it to me.

How does one begin to transcribe songs? I am sure I speak for other Fretters when I ask.

[jpfeifer]

Hi Tim,

The transcribing method is pretty simple, although it can be a little tedious. Here is how I do it.

1) First, find a solo that you really want to learn. Make sure that you like it, becuase you will become intimate with every detail of it when you transcribe it, and probably become sick of it by the end of this process. :-)

2) Once you have identified the solo that want to go after, capture it with your ASD software from either a CD or .mp3. You can capture only the solo section to make it easier to isolate.

3) Find the solo section of the song and start at the beginning of it.

4) Play back only the first few notes of the solo - then stop the playback

5) Pickup your guitar and try to play these first few notes exactly as they sound on the recording. You may have several choices of fingerings to use. Try different ones and see which ones feel the most natural.

6) If you are writing the solo down then you will need to put these notes on paper (tab or standard notation). However, you don't necessarily have to actually write down the solo. The important thing is to have it memorized as you go. Start with a very short part of the solo first, just the first few notes.

7) Next, go onto the very next section of notes in the solo and only learn a few notes at a time.

Repeat steps 5 thru 7. If you're having trouble learning the notes, try slowing down the passage with your ASD software. Just go through these steps until you have learned the whole solo. Depending on how complex the solo is, it may take several sessions to sit down and learn the whole thing. By the end of the process you will know the solo inside and out. Sometimes I learn all the notes and phrasing but I can't play it back at the full tempo until I have practiced it for a while. That's o.k. Its better to learn the solo slower and work it up to tempo than it is to play it too fast and sloppy.

-- Jim

[jpfeifer]

Hi Tim,

In the days before CD's, .mp3 files, and slow-down software, I used to go through this process with a record player.

I used to wear out all of my favorite vinyl albums from dropping the needle onto the track over-and-over again to try to learn licks. This is the reason that my Steely Dan "Aja" album and all of my Santana records were finally un-playable. I was thrilled the first time I did this with a CD player.

Wow, I must be an old geezer ... I sound like some old guy recalling the days before television or something. :-)

-- Jim

[Tim]

Thanks Jim,

You made it sound absolutely as easy as pie. I am now asking why I could not come up with that simple scenario myself.

I guess maybe I too am an old geezer. Also hard headed. Sometimes I think my frustration over rides my drive to learn to play the guitar.

I now have another tool in my bottomless bag of learning techniques.

Thanks again.