Improvising on a nylon string...part 3

So here I am again.

Sometime around a month ago, I realized that I really really suck at improvising over fast chord changes. I try to go too fast at times and end up with twisted fingers....other times I just don't get the groove right i.e.- my timing sucks. So I've been practicing for a while...playing on just 2 or 4 chords changing every beat (or two).

I think I've got some headway in terms of melodies and groove in the last few practices so one fine evening(namely today) I decided to record one of my practices. It's not exactly one shot in the sense that I took 3 or 4 trial runs on this minute long clip but the only thing I retained from there was the Dm-G7 arpeggio combo. Another thing I've really been practicing is playing Octaves. I still suck badly at them and am making virtually no progress in that area. Oh well....and another thing I've been working on is running down in patterns and stopping at a great note. I've tried that right at the end before the chords stop.


That was my turn...now it's yours. This isn't a showcase of any sort for me. I'm trying to do different things in these excercises and I'm pretty open to suggestions related to the way I'm playing and what I'm doing wrong. I also virtually feed of praise. Now you tell me a) whether you liked what I'm playing (b) What I could do to make you like my playing better (c) What I can work on in terms of technique (d) Some other tricks that I can use

Another thing I'd really appreciate would be if someone could give me tips and tricks they use to improvise over fast rythms in general. Also, If other people would improvise on these chords and post recordings so that I can shamelessly mooch ideas off you, I would greatly appreciate it.



Edit: I was about to upload the file on geocities but I'm on dialup and yahoo is being a bitch so I'll lower the bitrate and add it as an attachment on IGT.

 

Disturbed here on scene with a layman's point of view. Very very well done. I love catchy playing, very good work!! Well synchronized too, i couldnt find any specific error that i want to point out.

 

good one..!!
i liked the part from 1.00-1.20..that was really good..
it sounded a bit like R.D burman kinda thing..in the begining.

i find the part 2 of the same better...

 

ok..i liked it its quiet nice....something i wud dance too
quite spanish....mexican rather in its feel........
dunno if am qualified to answer ur abcde's but....i guess at times the timing kinda went off, and at some places the chords were kinda accentuated more than mebbe shud've been....me being an amateur , i do that a lot...A LOT......
liked the lead tho..nice
all in all, thumbs up

 

aha.. cool stuff once agn frm my guitar guru..

sry.. cant provide u wid ny suggestions am way too underqualified . hehe :grin:

so u hav 2 do wid the praise only. :

but mebe at d end thr was a weeeee bit timin prblm. jus a weeee bit

am kind busy nowadays. as soon as i'm free.. wud pounce on u 4 my lessns
cya.

 

yes, my timing does go off during the octaves a couple of times. The main excercise here is thinking on your feet and thinking quickly and I'm awful at that...the timing(usually) goes off when I'm concentrating too hard on thinking ahead as to what to play next.

and that's a very good point about perhaps accentuating chords more than I should...I'd like more opinions on this.



Yarr, Thanks a lot for listening, mateys. Drinks on the house.



ansh- The sounding like R.D.Burman part....is that a good thing or a bad thing?

 

gud thing i guess. hehe

 

:

hah, of course. Thank you.

 

its good ofcourse..

 

oh, okay. I thought perhaps you meant that it sounded familiar or ripped off. Thank you.

 

@bjr...
1:00 to 1:15...something is off (may be timing)
1:16 to 1:20...awesome!

rest ok!

p.s. my comments are not as a guy who know how to play guitar but more from the guy who just love music.

 

Sounded good indeed. Timing was off in some places but not any major mistakes from my point of view. I guess if you keep practising you'll get better but then again improvosation is'nt something you can practice. I guess you'll have to keep looking at new ways to look at a scale and how they relate to chords just like i'll be doing and keep working on it.

 

The 1 to 1:15 is where I try octaves and still suck at them :'( The 1:16 to 1:20 is the downward run I was trying and I think I've done well there so yay!

and I don't need people to look at this like a "guitarist". Music was always for music lovers. Thank you for commenting.

I'm still having problems thinking "on my feet". By the time I know what I want to do, the chord has pretty much gone past me. What do you do when you're practicing on fast chord changes?

 

thatz gr6 dude can't find any probs coz i'm not even close to ur playin bro

 

I generally create a map of the scale and how i'm gonna go through it before hand so that i go to the right places at the right time (hope you getwhat i meant)

 

The way you started the solo sounded killer. I loved the backing Rhythm a lot but it sounded vaguely familiar.

 

Thank you. As for the backing rythm....it's just a Dm-G7 groove. The 2/5 chord thing is probably present in every pop/jazz song in history in some way or the other so I won't be taking and points for originality there....as for the rythm, It might be a lot like something the ventures would've played. It's just a groove.


sridhar- yeah, I understand what you mean.


slash- thanks a lot man....if it helps you feel better, I couldn't possibly do the harmonic thing that you recorded:

 

i don't always play harmonics that was just an xperiment,jus for fun.4 solos i feel octaves r better than just arpeggios.

 

My point was that you are not miles behind me in playing...

 

nice work m8!! loved the soloing
i think the rhythm is drowning out the solo in parts - mebbe u cud tone that down - also tho the rhythm by itself is fine & the solo by itself is gr8 u cud get them to complement each other better - the sweet melody over a somewhat aggressive rhythm seems a bit mismatched
but overall gr8 piece!