Me improvising over Tom Quayles Minor Blues #5

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    • March 26, 2009 at 4:39 am
    billmeedog
    Member

    Hey Guys, šŸ™‚

    So I finally got around to recording and uploading a snippet of me playing some Infinite Guitar Tutorial material! Tom was nice enough (upon requests from Enrico and me) to make his Minor Blues (Part 5) Backing Track available to us here at IG. (Thanks Tom!) šŸ˜‰

    This was quite an “eye-opener!” I don’t do nearly enough of this type of “off-the-cuff” type of playing (and the results show! – LOL!) Anyways, here it is: :rolleyes:

    http://www.4shared.com/account/file/95031726/3d8b7a7e/TQ_BM_Am_Improv.html

    I’d love to hear some feedback! It’s OK, I’m a big boy, so I can take the abuse! (That being said, go easy on me Lundmark!!! – LOL!) šŸ˜®

    Thanks for your time guys! šŸ˜Ž

    ~Bill Meehan~ šŸ˜€

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Replies
    • March 26, 2009 at 8:51 am
    Sean Conklin
    Sean Conklin
    Member

    Awesome take Bill! Great to hear you jammin over some IG material. šŸ™‚ I liked how you started off a bit mellow and gradually built up more attitude towards the mid-section and the end. Some great bluesy note choices in there as well.

    Looking forward to your next recording!
    Sean

    • March 26, 2009 at 10:19 am
    Tom Quayle
    Tom Quayle
    Member

    Thanks so much for posting this Bill! It’s great to finally hear you play. What a great take! You have a great sense of melody and a really nice time feel – in other words your phrasing is really great to listen to.

    One thing I would say is that the tension and release idea of the A7alt chord is kind of lost in your solo simply because you didn’t seem to outline that chord when it came around. One really easy thing you can do to get the essence of this chord change is to play the b9 going to the 3rd on the A7alt chord. In other words you’d play Bb going down to a C# – John Scofield uses this particular phrase all the time and it really gets the sound of the chord out and works great in that 4th bar. Alternatively, if you’re not used to soloing using melodic minor modes (one should really use a superlocrian scale over this chord) try using a Cm pentatonic scale instead. This will give you the #9, b5, #5, b7 and b9 over the A7alt chord – should sound very sophisticated and modern plus you can use all your standard pentatonic licks too! COOL!

    Did you make a concious effort to outline the F9 chord? You played some cool licks over it each time it came round – were you thinking anything in particular or just going for it?

    Other than that awesome take mate. As I said – great to hear you play – we need more now!!

    All the best

    Tom

    • March 26, 2009 at 10:52 am
    Rick Graham
    Rick Graham
    Member

    Bill, great to hear you playing man! I can finally put a playing personality to the face(usually it’s the other way around lol).

    Some really nice and tasty phrases in there, great job!
    On particular thing that struck me is that, with the exception of the first twelve bars, there are virtually no breathing spaces in between phrases. Sometimes that can work, especially if the rhythmic element of the phrases are varied enough, however a lot of your phrases were rhythmically similar to one another and at times it had a bit of a meandering feel to it due to that, but there were some really nice moments in there nonetheless.

    Again, really enjoyed it man, POST MORE! šŸ˜‰

    • March 26, 2009 at 5:24 pm
    billmeedog
    Member

    Hello Guys, šŸ™‚

    Thanks so much for the encouragement, the compliments, (and most of all) the constructive-criticism! Really, that’s the type of feedback I wanted and expected, so thank you. In particular:

    Sean, thanks for the encouragement! šŸ˜‰

    Tom. GREAT advice on the A7alt.–>Dm change! I totally neglected that (consciously I mean) and instead, relied on instincts (with varied/mixed results…some NOT so good! -LOL!) I’m gonna try a few of your specific suggestions for sure. Just know this Tom: You are a HUGE inspiration to my playing AND my teaching these days mate! Also, you are SO RIGHT about the fact that I have ZERO experience using melodic-minor (as I think I had told you a few weeks back after your AWESOME MelodicMinor Tutorial!) It’s gonna take a while for some of those concepts to sink in and become (naturally) integrated! Also, yes I did make a conscious effort to outline the bVI–>V–>Im change, which in a couple of spots worked OK, but a few of them sounded SO CONTRIVED and STIFF! (Ouch!) Again, the more I expose myself to these moments, the better I’ll become (I hope!!!) All in all Tom, I was happy with some of my phrasing/feel, but (as I’ll comment on in the forthcoming paragraph addressed to Rick) I was mostly DISGUSTED with my rambling/lack-of-space/breath AND my lack of rhythmic variety!!! (Lundmark will crucify me on this!!! – LOL!) šŸ˜‰ šŸ˜Ž

    Ah Rick! You hit the nail-on-the-head my friend! Your assessment is IDENTICAL to my own self-assessment! The first and second criticisms I had were EXACTLY what you pointed out, which was the lack of musical space/breath AND the lack of rhythmic variety! Ya know, I was tempted to try another take (FYI: This was a “third-take.” I did two (2) takes late on Monday night, and then this one was my “first-take” on Tuesday morning.) However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the best way to expose my weaknesses (and thus develop a blueprint for improvement) would be to post my improvisation as it would’ve been heard live, for better and for worse/etc. That way, I wouldn’t get into that whole “re-work to perfection” frame-of-mind! For one thing that’s NOT improvising! Secondly, I don’t think I would’ve drawn as much valuable suggestions/costructive-criticism from you guys if I had kept re-working it. Agreed? You know the old saying: “Excuses are like A-Holes…Everyone has one!” So here is mine! You are what you eat, and I play in two bands (at the moment): A Tool-Tribute band (as I’ve posted a few things from) and a generic classic-current (A.O.R.) cover band. The Tool thing speaks for itself. Note-for-note every night, and rhythmic execution/precision and tones are at a premium! The cover-rock thing I’ve done for a long time, and with the exception of a few classic/blues rock numbers (by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, etc.) I have little room to improvise freely (without raising eyebrows in the band of course – LOL!) I get my 8 or 16 bars, I’m in and I’m out! So in a professional setting, I don’t do enough of this. However, that means that I need to do more on my own, because I do love improvising, and I love the whole excitement/challenge/freedom that’s associated with it! So, besides my overall CHOPS, I also want to improve my improvisational abilities, and tutorials and backing-tracks like that which Tom provided (and I have many others at my disposal too) will be the (IMO) the best way to make those strides! All I can say is BINGO! I agree with you and Tom 100%! Oh well…I know what I need to work on, right?!? šŸ˜® šŸ˜‰ šŸ˜Ž

    Thanks again guys for your time, your honesty, and your suggestions! They mean a lot to me, and I plan on incorporating much of them in an attempt to improve my craft! šŸ˜‰

    TTYS! šŸ™‚

    ~Bill Meehan~ šŸ˜€

    • March 26, 2009 at 7:58 pm
    arc_of_descent
    Member

    This was awesome Bill! All I can say is there was some very smart playing in there to keep the listener hooked on to the music. Great Job!

    —
    Rohan

    • March 27, 2009 at 12:21 am
    billmeedog
    Member

    @arc_of_descent 6865 wrote:

    This was awesome Bill! All I can say is there was some very smart playing in there to keep the listener hooked on to the music. Great Job!

    —
    Rohan

    Hi Rohan, šŸ™‚

    Thanks bro! I really approeciate that, because I know that you’re an honest dude, so you must’ve really dug it, so I’m flattered! šŸ˜® I know I was pretty self-critical, (and that was sincere!) but it’s just that I really want to get better, and I TOTALLY agreed with Tom & Rick’s assessments. They were “spot-on!” (I can’t believe how identical my own critique was to Rick’s? Frightening! šŸ˜® šŸ˜‰

    Thanks for the encouragement Ro. I can’t wait to work on my next IG project! šŸ˜Ž

    TTYS! šŸ˜‰

    ~Bill Meehan~ šŸ˜€

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