Yeah I don’t know why I subtitled it like that, sometimes it just comes out 😉
I’ve not had quite as much time as I was hoping to work tonight but I still managed a reasonable amount. I figured I may as well go back to that Guitar Noize / Bluesjamtracks backing track called Smoky (there you go, that’s the subtitle for you) and analyse it a little. I may be wrong, but we seem to have a i/iv7/v7 chord progression, which is reasonably simple to follow. Still I’m finding spots which are part of the C minor scale which are a little dissonant with the whole feel of the track. So I’ve been trying to come up with licks that sound good on their own but which are more likely to work in this configuration.
After playing along the track a couple of times, I got a little tired of the occasional rising bend as a phrase. I thought it might be an idea to experiment with double stops. What it turns out is that it’s much better to be very sparse with those as they differ in volume and intensity from the general rhythm. So an occasional one for some kind of emphasis works well, preferably along a 1/b3/5/b7 kind of framework, so the trick is to find the right spots to hit. Another bit which I found really brings out the feel of the music is descending bends, the longer the wail, the better the effect. Finally, vibrato is another thing I could work on but for some reason it’s harder for me at this slower speed to find the right space for vibrato. Still, I can keep experimenting and hopefully I’ll have something decent to present before too long.
Oh yeah, and arpeggios, I do need to do something with those, either use them as an opening or a space to cycle through for a specific effect.
I’m not sure why I’m being so analytical, but it helps me 🙂
Addendum: How odd, if I add a major 7th to the scale, it gives me a flavour I really like. I guess there’s a specific scale that does just that but it’s always nice to figure these things out on your own 🙂