Building a Solo from the Melody - Michael Daves

[BradKlein]

I thought I'd go ahead and make a home for this video here in the forum since I think it may be of help to some players. And I also think it stands alone quite well, even though we produced it to go with the feature article on Michael, which you can aways find >>HERE (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/content.php?260-Michael-Daves-on-Teaching-Bluegrass-Mandolin-Guitar-and-Vocals)<<.

Hope that it's helpful to some folks. Like I say in the video, we've all been told to 'keep the melody in mind' when crafting a solo - but at least for me, the real meaning of that was not obvious until I had a teacher to show me how.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIOTCubijZE

[Jon Hall]

A great lesson! This is the same principle that Joe Craven taught his Feeling the Blues class last year at the Swannanoa Mando / Banjo / Fiddle Week.

[BradKlein]

Here is a little postscript to the story that I link to in the original post about Michael. >>LINK HERE<< (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/content.php?260-Michael-Daves-on-Teaching-Bluegrass-Mandolin-Guitar-and-Vocals) ArtistWorks gave me access to the bluegrass vocal lessons for a few months beginning while I was working on the story. I didn't really have a chance to explore them until this week. I just wanted to let people know who are thinking about trying out the course, there is an enormous amount of guitar and mandolin content in the lessons. You could easily spend Many months just working out those parts to all the songs even if you had no interest in improving your vocal technique. But what really got to me today was the special feature interviews with Tom Rozum and Laurie Lewis. Not only did they have a lot to say, but they perform and Everly Brothers song, So Sad to Watch Good Love Go Bad that, while a surprising choice for a Bluegrass method, just captures everything most of us aspire to in singing and playing with others. Such a sweet job on it and their affection for the music and each other really shines through.

[s1m0n]

Thanks for the article, as well.

[Perilous Deep]

Thanks for the interview and for this video, Brad. Michael's focus on melody ornamentation is really helpful for thinking about how to get the sound and style of bluegrass to come through (or other genres for that matter). I've also signed up for the vocal classes and even though I've only dipped into the beginnings of them, have already learned a lot and expanded by ear from his approach.

[Relio]

Thanks for posting