A Little Improv For Mom:

Inspector #20

Inspector #20

Ambassador of Tone
Fallen Star
Country flag
When I was growing up, I used to play along to records, often mimicking the vocal line in songs as if singing with the guitar...My Mom really loves that approach on songs and she has been asking me to do some kind of improv to the vocal line of a song for quite some time now.

I grew up just a few towns away from Steve Perry and we listened to a lot of Journey back then. Mom really loves the song "Faithfully," so I poked around and found a vocal backing track on You Tube and my Son made me a MP3 from the video.

Tonight, I plugged my 2016 Les Paul into my Blackstar - direct out and totally dry - with the same gain settings used to record "The Ocean," and busted this out in one take. It's not perfect by any means, but I wanted to try and capture an element of spontaneity in the playing.

All I did here was basically hum the vocals and try to "sing" with my Les Paul.

The guitar was recorded to two tracks simultaneously in Audacity. Delay was added to one channel and Reverb to the other, then they were panned out 50% right and left. Those two tracks were then"Ghosted" (electronically reproduced) and those two ghost tracks were panned out 100% left and right to give it a bigger sound.

I though the tone was actually pretty good, despite some technical errors...

You can hear why I got the nickname 'Sledge' from Buck Owens - because I just really don't play smoothly. I really have to concentrate to get a smooth feel on work projects, but when I am playing my own stuff I just go with it.

I've had to learn to embrace the caveman.

Enjoy!!!!

Faithfully (Instrumental)
 
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Don O said:
Another fine job there Robert !
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Thank you, my musical friend....aside for high concentration on studio efforts for others, I can't get the 'notchiness' out of my natural style of playing and for years I was self-conscious about it. Now, looking back at records I was given as a kid - Blind Lemon Jefferson, Sunnyland Slim, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Lead Belly, Howlin' Wolf, Blind Willie McTell, Robert Johnson, Son House, I can see why it is engrained in my natural style.

Listen to the typewriter style of playing on this rack by John Lee Hooker:

 
I decided to revive this post from January 11, 2019. There is always a lot of discussion about improvisation and matters of style and subjective discussions about tone and technique.

I did not revive this to receive accolades, but rather to showcase how sloppy my playing really is. My pick attack is very aggressive and my playing takes on a kind of 'typewriter' style which is not at all smooth. To me, it kinda reminds me of how a drunk person talks in a choppy, somewhat abbreviated manner.

My tone is not anything special or and this was recorded through a simple Blackstar 100 watt solid sate direct out into audacity.

I knew early on that my learning disabilities would keep me from ever achieving the fluidity of technique of Malmsteen, so the only thing I could do was become good enough to earn a living.

I would suggest that none of you ever despair over your perceived lack of technique. Keep playing and keep enjoying yourself.

Happy New Year....
 
We each have our own individual style. That's what I love about music. We are also most critical of our own work. I like your playing. It is distinctive. I like the way you are true to the melody yet put in embellishments to make it your own. I spent years trying to copy others. I finally gave up and became comfortable with who I am and how I play.
 
Hey man ive said this many times, you are great player. Its ok to aspire to het better and copy your fav players but at the end of the day you should just play and it should make you happy.

We all have challenges and different way of learning things..

today i almost gave up playing and i was cursing myself for being such crappy player that it takes me forever to learn something.
Specially this song im trying to learn there is this intro its 0 000 0 000 0 000 0000 type patrern and to get it up to speed makes me go in rage as i struggle, than i had this part my other guitarist wrote for band song. Its all clean parts and still cant hack it.....

maybe i have learning disability ??? Who knows, my point is you have to keep trying and eventually all be good...

cheers
 
Ramo said:
yngwie is fast but i dont like his music. Sounds like scales up and down fretboard but he is damn fast and accurate with precision picking.

i guess whatever floats your boat :)
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Agreed I respect his skill but much of his "shreds" get boring and ....scale like...

I do like a lot of the music/songs (minus the scales lol) on his albums from back in the 80's? /90's .......
 
eSGEe said:
Agreed I respect his skill but much of his "shreds" get boring and ....scale like...

I do like a lot of the music/songs (minus the scales lol) on his albums from back in the 80's? /90's .......
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Vinnie Moore can shred , he is fast but his music more appealing to me than Malmsteen with his diminished runs :)

but you know who is fadter than Malmsteen? Rusty Cooley , that guy is like vide games on guitar :)
 
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