With my sincere apologies for such a long delay here are the comments on your takes:
Alex Lewis (00:00 - 00:38);
This is one awesome take. You have shown a great sense of composing solos, great tone in your hands, very cool phrasing, nice licks, and very accurate playing. But, there is one thing I think you could do better at - shuffle phrases. This means that though your phrasing was great, but for this kind of backing it could be more groovy. There is no easy way of explaining this, so best would be to listen to some examples. Phrasing is like a musical vocabulary, ability to create phrases, interesting sentences with notes. That's like when speaking, a casual conversation with your best friend is different than an argument with a police officer that just gave you a speeding ticket. So, the point is to make right sentences in the right conversation, and in the right time. To work on this you need to build up your vocabulary to meet this kind of 'conversation'. First of all, start listening to some funk players, or fusion players, or similar. Then try to 'imitate' the way they 'talk'. Something like when a little kid starts learning to speak, imitating his parents and other people around him. First he says something that resembles words, but has no meaning, then he learns some words, after that he combines these words in order to express himself more effectively. And in the end he starts using full sentences. By doing the same thing in music, we work on our musical vocabulary, learning various ways of expressing our self, depending on the situation we're in at the moment. So, groove up your vocabulary
Artemus (00:38 - 01:17);
Now that's what I was talkin' about! Very cool, Art! Great concept, nice structure, awesome ideas, and very original! You've also shown that your phrasing is at a higher level. There are a few things I would like to talk about, like dynamics rhythmical accuracy and tone. I think you can do better at that. It wouldn't hurt to work on your right hand precision. In some moments, your tone sounds a little bit insecure. You can easily improve that by practicing along a
metronome. Anyway, no big deal, better to have a style developed with good taste than being accurate like a machine, but with no creativity. Keep on the good work, on your style, but also on playing clarity. Anyway, here's an exercise that could help you alot: play four notes per string, ascending, starting with the 6th note, but with control over dynamics, like this - four notes on 6th string loud without muting, 4 notes on 5th string with least volume, barely hitting
it and muting, then 4th string loud, etc. But when practicing, start with lowest speed you can play, like 50 BPM, or 60, then gradually increase it. Also when you practice, concentrate on relaxing your hands, thats very important. If you have some tracks you've recorded, it would be great to share them, cause I'd like to hear more from you
Dexxter (01:17 - 01:54);
Wow Dexxter, this is a great take. You have a great tone, very good control, and interesting ideas. But as every other player, you also could work on some aspect of your playing. I think, you could work on expanding your style, learn some fresh new patterns, licks, tricks, etc. I think the best way to do that would be to learn some solos, nothing specific, anything you like. Give your self a challenge, and go a little beyond your limits. And don't worry about ending up sounding like the player who's solo are you trying to learn, just be as various as you can in your selection, to listen to more players, better than just one, that way your style will become better, because you will get more different ideas. And, who said that you can only learn from guitar players?? Why not clarinet players, sax players, piano, keyboard, trumpet, etc? It's most important that you manage to maintain good spirit, and not to be frustrated if you can't play
something. Just be patient.
Ognyen-san (01:55 - 02:34);
As expected you did a fine job, young padawan. Your style shows a great variety of playing skills, licks, you have a great taste in phrasing and superb accuracy, especially rhythmical, a tone heavy as a sumo wrestler. I think we all can learn a lot from you.
Kaznie (02:36 - 03:14);
Well, this one doesn't seem too lack in anything
- there is a style, a tone, an idea, phrasing, precision, everything I wanted to hear in this collab. Any advice that I've given to other participants goes for you too, since you are more-less a beginner, as I can assume. So if you want to improve your playing, my advice would be to practice various exercises, for warming up, for picking, legato, practice scales, read some theory, work on your tone, all that, and also learn from other players, depending on your musical taste, but I think Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, B.B King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Carlos Santana or something similar would be best for your age and playing level. All in all you did great, but with time and effort you will do better and better.
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Aleksander Sukovic Groove Phrasing Collaboration May 13 2009, 01:13 PM
