Does anybody know how to improvise?
I was going to write this to David, because I was embarrassed to share it with the group, but improvising is hard to face, so I thought maybe others would relate to this. Do other people go through this:
If only I had more time to give to the harmonica. Work can be so demanding, I'm too tired to do the hard stuff when I get home. Now that I'm settled into my new place, I hope I can give it more time. So, today too many chores (finishing settling in), so opted out of Lindy Hop practice. (I'll dance and socialize tomorrow.)
I'm well rested today, so no issue, right? Now I can face improvising. Where do I start? I look at one set of focus notes David wrote: 1 2" 2 3 4 5 6+. I put on a slow blues jam track. (I warmed up with My Blues.) David says we don't really invent anything new. I don't think I know any licks that start on 1 or 3 or 4 ....... OK. Let me go try this other set of notes he gave me for V IV Is. I can use the I (1, 2, 3, 4, 6+) and IV (1+, 2+, 3+, 3", 3', 4+...) for the beginning. I picked one of the V IV Is I'm learning in the V-IV-I lick of the month club. It didn't sound right for slow blues, but I figured, ok, just for the practice of putting them in with other measures. But still hurting my ear. OK. If I'm staying home the whole evening, I have time to look at the Improvising book. I start from the beginning of the book. Good reminder. (I notice that playing questions and answers is something I subconsciously try to do--not well but try.) So, David's suggestion is to read 20 minutes and practice 2 hours. I read the first section and see the assignment:
1. Write four licks...... lost me here. Write FOUR licks! I can't even write one. How do I write one? ....that are questions. OK. I could start from the root and end on anything that isn't the root. and so it goes..........
All David's hard work, but I can't find the door in..... I know there is a way. It's like being at a brick wall and knowing that pushing on some combination of the bricks will make the wall open, but none that I've tried so far do anything.
I can read the book for 20 minutes, but I don't know how to do the part where I'm supposed to practice for 2 hours. Does anybody know how to do that?
Thanks,
Annamarie
That's a great suggestion, Rob. I think I'm at a level where I would be just able to start doing that. Sometimes just figuring out the key can be an achievement for me, so I'm tuckered out and don't go on to actually playing much, but I'm getting better at it. I think I need to circle around: My plan is to 1) follow another of David's suggestions and watch Joe Tartaglia's videos as he learns to improvise, and 2) take the time to mark all my song titles with their key (harmonicamasterclass.com has a list of artist songs and their keys), so I can move on more quickly to improvising with them as you suggest. Then I think I might be able to circle back and forth through David's improvising lessons and add those concepts to my improvising.
Wouldn't it be great to learn the old way, by playing on the front porch with your grandfather or neighbor as a kid and not think twice about it. That's how I learned to dance and it was so easy. I do have faith that I 'll get to the other side. Recording how we are getting there will be useful for those who come after us or are struggling as I am.
Best,
Annamarie
Again, Rob,......thank you! thank you! that got me started again. I used a combination of Dave's suggestions, yours, and tips from Joe Tartaglia's videos to get me unstuck. I have complete faith that one day I will get over the hump and not stall like this. Looking forward to it.
Hum the lick. Wether I'm listening to my favorite song and have picked out a lick or I'm bebopping in the truck I'm humming the same lick over and over. Once I have that in my head I pick up a harp and try to pick out the notes. I always seem to get fairly close. Then comes the variations. I pick licks that start with low notes or on the high end of the harmonica. It's amazing how well I can improvise when I hum.
2. Play licks from the songs you're learning. And plug them into the chorus forms. I really work hard at copping licks. Big Walter is my focus right now and I use all the BW licks I can.
I suffered from similiar problem, and still do but something that helped was first told to me by Ronnie Shellist and then I heard the same thing from one of Dave's videos with Gary Smith "Masking the harp". Dave and Gary's video gets very involved and takes it to a complete level for developing other skills. The main thing that they all talked about that helped me was only using like the 2 hole draw and not to move off it until you can make that sound musical with a BT. It's sounds too simple but its very effective, of coarse being able to bend is necessary.
For me the core problem was making things too complicated and this type of excersise allows me to only focus on music and not all the technical stuff, it stopped me from thinking. Hope this helps!
More good tips, thanks. Jon, I like the humming thing. Yes, funny. On the rare occasion that I don't have a harp with me in the car, I do that sometimes, and I think that at least I'm getting a rhythm connection between my mouth and brain.
Staying on same hole....I forgot about that one. Thanks for the reminder. I think these are good ideas to loosen me up, especially when I've been focusing on learning songs and not improvising much.
Just spent half the morning going through the artist comments about improvising in the interviews. Always good to be reminded of their different opinions and ideas and relate them to your own playing. Also echo spl20's remarks about the "masking the harp" videos- excellent improv exercise forcing you to experiment with focus on certain notes!
hey Annamarie, thanks for pitching the question up. sounds very like my experience. so really good to read this thread and all the strong ideas. thanks everyone. love those Big W songs too. We are working on Have a Good Time in the band at the moment...i am gradually getting it down, the "...with Carey Bell" version, one chorus at a time. Using David B's book to help. some great V IV I licks for the shuffle bag.
again, thanks all
Dave
I find that I play outstanding, groundbreakingly awesome bluesy licks when I'm playing along with one of the masters on a CD in my car (no, I can't prove it, because it never, ever happens if there is a recorder on). But when it's time to play all by myself with a jam track, everything comes out sounding more like "Happy Birthday" or "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star" than the new Juke.
I think one of my problems (and I'll bet it's shared by many on the site) is not doing what David says to do. I refer specifically to the part about putting what you are learning into context. He has repeatedly stressed the importance of taking a lick (picking one from one of his tunes, or any other lick you like) and playing it over and over in all of the chorus forms to drive it into your memory. Well, that's boring. Really boring. It's much more fun to try to learn a whole solo, and I tend to listen and copy until I figure out how to play a lick or a solo, but then I move on, instead of concentrating on specific licks and REALLY learning them.
But I'll bet that if we really did it, like David says, those licks would become part of our recallable (?) vocabulary, and they really will come out when you need them.
I'm really, really going to try harder to do that more. Really....right after I figure out Evans' Shuffle.....
'nother good one. Thanks.
This is a bit off topic, and a bit of a hoot, but search for Walter Tore on Youtube. He "improvises" complete songs every time he sings, including the words and accompaniment which he plays by himself while he creates! He often improves a new CD worth of content in a day. You can hear the latest 200 streaming from his myspace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/71994638
Keith
Another approach is to restrict yourself to just two notes, either in the same hole or in neighboring holes. Just play those two notes in varying rhythms over a backing track.
For instance you could use:
Draw 3 and Blow 3
Draw 3 and Blow 4
Draw 3 and Draw 4
Draw 4 and BLow 4
Draw 4 and Blow 5.
Commit to working with each note pair for at least ten minutes, even if it doesn't seem very promising. Two things will happen eventually. Near the end of the ten minutes (or longer if you choose) the ideas may start to flow. Even if they don't, your background processors will go to work and the next time, you may find new ideas have sprouted.
For rhythms, think of short spoken phrases, such as "that's cool," or "Oooh, that's nice," or "What the ****!" or something else that suggests a tone, a rhythm, and an attack.
Record yourself while you try out ideas using these guidelines. Listening back, you'll hear some things that are worth remembering, and maybe developing.
Also, listen for similar short, vocal-sounding nuggets on recordings by great players. But do that AFTER you've tried this procedure.
Thanks, Winslow, I'm having fun seeing a growing compendium of the possible approaches to get started--and trying them. I've known about many of them from David, but I forget or don't have the right angle on it yet, so good to see in one place.
I swing dance, and I notice that the words potato, tomato, and banana are popular in swing songs--they're really syncopated words--fun to carry out the rhythmic connections in all kinds of other words and phrases too.
But these comments are especially helpful to someone new to this: "even if it doesn't seem very promising. Two things will happen eventually. Near the end of the ten minutes (or longer if you choose) the ideas may start to flow. Even if they don't, your background processors will go to work and the next time, you may find new ideas have sprouted." Newbies need to make it through the "No, don't do that again" to get to the "Yes!"s.
And it's a long weekend! I have time to play with this as much as want today and tomorrow!
Took up the book Blues Harmonica Jam Tracks and Soloing Concepts #1. It's a little kinder start for my level than the improvisation book, and it led me in more gently to some of the exercises that are in the Improvisation book. Just wanted to add this possibility to this nice list.
I find that a great way to develop my improvising is to put on a blues album (anything, with or without harp), grab the relevant key of harp and just play along, either copying the harp licks as I hear them or just doing my own thing. Outside of formal harp study, 20 minutes reading/ 2 hours playing or whatever else, I find it's a great way to put what you know into practice. I often "lose myself" in the groove of a song and probably couldn't actually recreate what i've played again but then isn't that the whole point of improvising? I work on the website lessons regularly and the material therein is invaluable but, for me, playing along to records is equally so. I don't know if this would work for everyone but I get a tangible feeling for the music and a connection with the artist/ song when I do it. It might be the case that you need to have achieved a certain level of playing to be able to do it to good effect and with self satisfaction; perhaps having attained intermediate knowledge and already having a decent bank of licks/ riffs hardwired in your musical brain. I'm going by personal experience here so I'm not sure- maybe David could tell you more about that. What I do know is that as time has gone by I've developed the confidence to improvise publicly, on stage or at a jam, knowing that the licks will just come out as I get in the song's groove. After reading your post and giving it some thought I'm convinced that this theory is right and, without previously identifying it, has been an important element in developing my playing. And at the same time of course I'm listening to my favourite music- double whammy bonus!
I guess what I am saying, in short, is that an obvious way to develop your skill at improvising is... to improvise! I would recommend incorporating this idea into your practice routine and see if it helps you through that door!