Since we're playing a tune that was influenced by BB King, obviously,
I'm going to talk about integrating some of
his soloing techniques and some of the things that he tended to do when he sold.
One element of BB style that is undeniable,
is the fact that he played very vocally.
He be singing a song and then he's just going to continue
those lyrics as he solos on guitar.
I read a number of interviews with him where he talked about that being
something that was an objective as he sold basically to play conversationally.
Let's look at some techniques for playing conversationally.
Call and response is a big one where
you make a statement and then you reply to that statement,
and then you reply maybe one more time to that.
If you do that in about four bar statements,
and I'm speaking very roughly because blues players don't just exactly plan for bars,
but three times four [inaudible] that's a 12 bar course.
You make a statement that first four bars,
you reply to it in the next four bars,
and then you cap off that idea in the last four bars.
Now, BB King, and many of us might start that opening phrase in that first four bars.
You might start it in front of bar lines,
you don't have to compartmentalize your phrases to exactly four bars.
But call and response really what it means is you just plain phrases to
connect with each other and it gives people something to listen to.
You're not just playing a cool lick over every isolated different chord changes,
you're trying to create a thread that sounds like a conversation.
There's a number of ways you can do that.
You can take a rhythmic pattern and repeat a motive as you're playing along.
You could play [MUSIC].
You might come back to that a little bit later.
[MUSIC] Wherever you want to play it [MUSIC].
Now you might not play it exactly the same way.
When you do a two, you can change it a little bit,
but maybe you're hitting a certain note like an A [MUSIC] and
you sewn along [MUSIC] coming back to that A in another place.
Then maybe later, [MUSIC] you're going to hit that X.
You can just reference a pitch it doesn't have to be exactly the same rhythm.
There's a lot of room to do that.
Just repeated motives is one thing.
Another thing that's very effective is varying your range.
Maybe you start low [MUSIC].
Now, [MUSIC] move that phrase
[MUSIC] so move that phrase around,
play that in different regions of the neck and I'm
just totally improvising with a theme that's similar.
I wasn't even exactly trying to play the same notes there.
You could set up a conversation between two people where one person speaks in a low voice
[MUSIC]
and there's an answer
in a higher voice like that,
you could actually have a dialogue between two people that are having some relationship,
maybe a little battle at the moment where they're having an altercation or they're
having a conversation so you can vary your range between low and high.
That's always interesting to mix things up a little bit,
especially if you're using column response.
Again, it gives a listener something to listen to.
You could start simple,
really phrases maybe with a lot of [MUSIC] lot of
sustained notes and then as the solo progresses [MUSIC].
So faster phrases you could actually start slow and just paste your soul
into more activity as you go and that's a good way to build.
Again, there's a lot of right answers for solos when you're playing.
The only answer that I don't think it's
exactly right answer you would need to be to play exactly at one level.
One of the projects as we work on this tune for this assignment, one of my goals,
they have people start a little simple with their phrasing and sparse
and develop into a little bit more activity as the solo progresses,
I'm going to try to create a conversation
here and do some dialogue and place some sustain notes,
play some faster things,
mix up my conversation a little bit.
But still try to use call and response so that the phrases fit together.
They may be four bars,
they may be shorter units that are within that four bars.
But again, I'm just going to try to create a lyric or conversations through
the form over two courses so let's
give that a shot
[MUSIC].