Originally Posted by
Mike Romkey
I have done a lot of thinking about this exact subject. I'm a transplanted R&R guitar player. In the guitar world, a solo works like this: blues progression in E minor, an eternity between the chord changes; play a G major scale (which works over E/A/B); find a grove; rely on sustain when you accidentally play a chord tone to make it appear you know where you are.
Fiddle music (which it what Old Time and Blue Grass, not to mention Irish/Celtic, all flow from), usually follow and A/B melody -- 8 bars of A, repeat; then 8 bars of B, repeat.
1. Learn the melody. Some prefer by ear. I prefer written music, having discovered the hard way I can miss a lot of nuances by thinking I'm hearing everything.
2. Learn the chord progression. This is incredibly important. As a guitarist turned fiddler turned mandolinist (I'm playing with two killer fiddlers and it was just embarrassing to try to compete ... though now the mandolin is my true love), I NEVER CARED ABOUT THE CHORDS. I just wanted to know how to play the "Red Haired Boy" melody REALLY FAST. And this got me pretty far as a semi pro/gigging amateur, but you can't begin to meaningfully solo in the acoustic idiom unless you STAY WITH THE CHORD CHANGES. (I'm not yelling. I'm using caps for emphasis.)
3. Do not start out trying to model your playing after genius virtuoso space alien trick soloists. You know who I'm talking about. It's anybody whose videos you watch playing "Red Haired Boy" (or some other tune you know and are trying to play), and you have NO IDEA what it is they are doing. Some of these folks (not all of them) I think of as Trick Players. They're not as interested in the tune as they are in conquering the universe with their AMAZING playing. And some that is fine. Even admirable. But, as somebody famous once said to me after I played an especially "impressive" solo, "You were doing pretty good there, till you forgot what song you were playing."
4. At least in the beginning pay close attention to tasteful players (that's my value judgement) who stick pretty close to the melody and chord changes. You know these folks because you can watch them on YouTube and say: "Hey! I know that song! It's 'Red Haired Boy'. And I can see what they're doing right there with the A section. Hey! I could flat that 3rd the way they are and make it sound bluesy!" Joe K. Walsh, video above, John Reishman (with emphasis) and about any of the teachers at Peghead Nation play this sort of way. (Note: You can play with control and restraint and still be an accomplished soloist.)
5. Slowly, deliberately, working in sections, work out some variations yourself. Write them down even in musical notation. Or just memorize them. For example: Decide you're going to take the first four bars of the A section of "Red Haired Boy," and come up with your own variation. You might used a lot of the same notes but put them in a different order. Or you might just decide to slow some of it down and play more quarter or half notes or something. The first measure is over the A, the second over the D. The second measure goes up and down and then back up to a D, resolving to the chord tone. Maybe you decide to start on the A note on the E string and come down the scale, one note after the next, to land on the D. (And you don't have to know what a flat 3rd or chord tone is, but that's just by way of illustration. All of this can be worked out by ear without any terminology.)
6. Preparation and practice -- that's where it starts. You hear somebody jamming or improvising and wonder how they're doing that on the fly. Maybe they are. Or maybe you're hearing what they worked out at practice. If they are improvising, what they're doing is using strategies they at some point worked out in practice, and their brain is now plugging it in. This stuff may seem like it comes out of nowhere. It doesn't. It comes out of practice.
7. Be happy with small results. You don't have be able to wail and shred your way through a tune you know. Start with figuring out how to make one little phrase your own, and play it that way every other time you get to it, or whatever.
8. Timing. OMG is this a big deal. I can play a ton of fiddle tunes really fast (I love working with a metronome.) But then I would hear somebody like Jake Workman playing a little bit of "Clinch Mountain Backstep," and it sounded like an infinitely better version. Why was that? Part of the reason is the blue notes (flatted 3rds and 7th) and little improv things he throws in. But also super important is he is NOT playing the song as written to the strict beat of a metronome. His phrasing breathes. It has life. I was playing everything with a rhythm that is as straight and lined up as a highly starched dress shirt. That might be the way somebody's 7th Grade violin teacher wants it, but it's not what most people want to hear (or play). Relaxing the rhythm and playing with the phrasing might not be what you think of as improvising (as in "a bunch of notes that sound impressive"), but it IS a variation from the music as strictly written, and it gives it life. Jake Workman:
9. Remember that it's really about the tune, meaning the melody, and the supporting aforementioned supporting chord changes. We listen in awe to virtuoso players, and they do some amazing things. But it's really about the song. Are you honoring the song? Are you adding your own little bit of heart and soul to it? Because that should be the point. Here's Bill Monroe playing a simple and very old tune, "Goin' Across the Sea." The variations are subtle and, I would argue, sublime. He never loses sight of the basic tune.
I know the original question was about a book. I'd start with McGann, which I haven't seen. I'm the sort of person who tends to think that a book or course or a few lessons from this or that person is the answer. All of that can be a help. I think, though, that ultimately it really comes down to sitting in the kitchen with a cup of coffee and doing the work, a phrase at a time, and being content to start out with small pieces of progress that over time build into something bigger.
Sorry if this is preachy but it's become my passion lately to pick the same lock you want to open.
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