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GMC Forum _ PRACTICE ROOM _ If You Can Sing It, You Can Bend It
Posted by: Opossum Jul 19 2012, 07:23 PM
Singing scales. Bending strings to match the scale I sing. Backwards and forwards. Forward and backwards. Random jumps. Bending half step, half step, half step whole step. Hold the whole step... bend down a half step. Sing a major scale. Sing all the passing tones in the major scale. Sing a major scale backwards. Bend every note to pitch in a major scale. Or whatever scale.
Started doing this when I realized I could bend a whole tone up to pitch a lot better than a semi-tone bend to pitch.
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Jul 19 2012, 09:15 PM
Hey man 
I totally agree 
I love the idea in which you can use your voice to create melodies and articulate notes Works for me and I am using it daily!
Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 20 2012, 10:01 AM
Yeah it is a good idea. You can create more flowing, off the wall melodies with your voice so you can then try and replicate it with your guitar. You'll end up trying melody lines you would never attempt on the guitar normally
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Jul 20 2012, 11:11 AM
Precisely!
The whole idea is to try to be as original as possible when creating music. The guitar will not always provide a good environment, because you will be tempted to play what you already know, in many situations
I know that my first impulse is like that.
Posted by: Opossum Jul 20 2012, 03:07 PM
I remember the first time I saw a great jazz bass player named Carl Lindberg playing with his band Squat in Athens, Georgia. (He also plays in a Latin Jazz band called Grogus) He was scating over his bass solo lines with such ease and precision. Everything was in total sync. I thought, "wow, this guy's instrument is a total extension of his voice! He must practice all day, every day." Later a good friend of his told me that, "Carl said he never practices. He said he studied with great intensity for three to four years. Now he only plays when he gigs." While this may not be totally accurate I do believe that you can get to the point where the instrument is an complete extension of your voice. And I would bet big money that Carl sings to himself all day, every day.
Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 20 2012, 03:36 PM
That's a very cool thing to hear, I like that
I honestly believe that our emotional intensity in what we're doing recruits greater brain and bodily activity and can make us perform great tasks even though we don't practise them everyday.
Posted by: snackajacks Jul 22 2012, 07:36 PM
I totally agree I love the idea in which you can use your voice to create melodies and articulate notes Works for me and I am using it daily!When I saw this tread, I thought, this must be started by cosmin, because you always explain the
importance of hearing and singing and able to play it.
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Jul 22 2012, 08:07 PM
importance of hearing and singing and able to play it.
I am glad it wasn't started by me
That means more and more people like and promote the idea!
Posted by: Arpeggio Jul 23 2012, 09:47 PM
The fingers aren't evolved to have anything to do with our perception of sound, I'd say our voice is though, so if you sing while you play you are bridging the gap between the part of your brain responsible for perception of sound and your fingers.
Recognising all intervals from b2 to 14th is only the start. Being able to pick out the b5 within a Blues scale phrase in which the root is not played is quite different from recognising it on its own from the root, and more often than not when you play that kind of thing is the case. Sing up and down scales, the melodic minor is tricky when you get to the 6th and 7th.
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Jul 24 2012, 07:11 AM
Recognising all intervals from b2 to 14th is only the start. Being able to pick out the b5 within a Blues scale phrase in which the root is not played is quite different from recognising it on its own from the root, and more often than not when you play that kind of thing is the case. Sing up and down scales, the melodic minor is tricky when you get to the 6th and 7th.
I agree on the fact that ear training is a very important skill for EVERY musician out there. If you can sing things in your head and even more important, if you know what you are singing, it means you know where to place your hands on the guitar neck in order to instantly reproduce what your imagination has spawned
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