Thanks for sharing the link, Gordon. What a treat. I do love a performance on stage that is essentially campfire strum a dum dum. It demonstrates that good music doesnāt need to be flash and fast, full of effects, a glitz and glam show.
YT served me up Sugar Mountain next from that show, which is one of my favourites.
As for Willie, he looks a little about how I feel when playing with someone or trying to solo ā¦ a little like a rabbit caught in a bright light.
But that brings me back to the point youāve raised, with @mari joining in ā¦ improvising or playing a solo. My 2 (South African) cents ā¦
I think you can go a long way by accenting chord tones as you follow the harmony. If the notes that you end phrases on are chord tones I think it will sound good. If the notes played in a phrase also follow the melody then even better. And the timing and feel of the solo to be at one with the song. Note length and rests being something to be mindful of.
All easier said than done. I guess this is why transcribing is given so much importance by Justin (and others here in the Community). Training the ear to hear and be able to reproduce what you hear on the guitar, eventually to hear melody and harmony in your mind and produce that on the instrument. I went to have breakfast midway through Four Strong Winds, humming the melody (well I think so). The next step would be to sit with my guitar and transcribe that.
Your discussion here has reminded me of one of @Richard_close2u expositions that was created after @batwoman shared this lesson in improvisation taught by Chet Atkins. It was shared in stages with much discussion in between, as is the way of Richardās teaching, which led me to produce this consolidation. Perhaps worthwhile to go back to the lesson, refresh on the concepts, and maybe do something similar in the key of G?
Now I do love discussion, and am delighted that my Topic focused on my efforts to develop my bending and first foray into learning some basic blues licks, has led to a more general conversation. Iām now just wondering if it isnāt worth taking this conversation to itās own Topic focused on improvisation? May be something of more general interest to folk here that will be missed because it is hidden in this Topic which frankly may only be being read by people who know me and thus have some interest in what I am doing?
Difficult one David, weāve talked about this before. Getting the balance between too many Topics and too few.
Iām having difficulty keeping up with all thatās going on here and am currently only looking at AVoYP and posts from the people I know and whose progress/views interest me.
I agree with Gordon that there is a lot going on and itās difficult to keep up, but improvisation is a big interest for me so I will continue to follow this topic or will bookmark any topic it spins off into. You (we) might get more input in a separate topic. That said Iām back to work Monday after a lovely 3 weeks off so my free time and is about to plummet.
Four weeks since I shared the last practice video. Since then Iāve had to go back to work, which has had some impact on my practice, reducing frequency and duration of sessions.
But on the upside, I restrung my guitar with 9s.
I also picked up a fantastic tip from @Richard_close2u (one of our Mods, a fine musician, and guitar teacher in his own right) to use the Smoke on the Water riff to provide a more musical context to aid bending to pitch ā¦ or in my case, closer to pitch. It is astonishing how it changes how one hears the whole step bend from the second to the third note.
Now, does anybody else have some all time classic riffs or melodies that are deeply ingrained that could be used in a similar way?
Hereās a snapshot. Itās a little long so you may want to skip ahead and just sample this. Maybe you want to skip the whole thing
I so wish I didnāt stick my tongue out the way I do ā¦ this emoji is clearly mine
Apart from being a long way from being able to use this freely, still early days, I am wondering about my hand action, if maybe I am still pushing too much with the fingers, not relying enough on the rotating hand?
@TheMadman_tobyjenner this is not one Iād nudge anyone to watch but if you are suckered in, then check out 4ā20"
I would say yes. Check out two pics of Justin and two of yourself.
Check the plane of Jās hand and note the dropped outer edge of the palm (pointing away from the neck) plus the visible tip of his broken arrow tattoo.
Now note that rotation has lifted the outer edge of the palm and made the tattoo disappear from site. His hand is in an altered plane. The elbow is in the same place more or less.
The outer edge of your palm is parallel with the neck pre-bend here. The fingers are pointing at a decent angle in preparation.
Note that your elbow has pulled upwards taking your whole forearm with it, though in almost the exact same plane, the outer edge of your palm remains almost parallel to the neck indicating just a small amount of roatation and your fingers are flexed out though still at virtually the same angle.
You are pushing with fingers backed up by forearm raising rather than with fingers that are raised by a rotation of the wrist.
pics taken from this lesson
Hope it helps.
Richard
Youāve definitely got better David, the only things I would really point out is to make sure that you mute the string at the top of the bend unless it includes a let down, if you donāt it sounds like a donkey eeaw! Itās now down to practice and strengthening your hands to achieve whatās needed. If youāre not 100% about where the bend should go to maybe either use your tuner or possibly use a reference pitch from either your guitar or a keyboard, it all helps to develop your ear for pitch.
Keep going with it, youāre doing well!
no worries Richard. That said, I can handle it if you say your fulltone bend is still way way too flat or sharp to even get away with it in a blues context.
Noted on the muting at the top. Another tricky thing to time the mute right so you still get a note that rings rather than being strangled off.
I do try to use the tuner or pitch meter to help but the note shifts around a fair amount so it is better to use the ears. Just my ears are still in kindergarten
Appreciate the encouragement and affirmation of progress.
Re ānote that rings rather than being strangled offā thatās where vibrato comes in if the top note needs to ring out, itās quite difficult to hold pitch without it!
If you could convert the vibrato action around the 3 minute mark to a bend youād be on the money. That is the movement you are looking for. The early vibratos were similar to how you were bending as @Richard_close2u indicated. Which looked like you were pulling the elbow backwards. The palm / forearm rotation for vibrato is just quicker and faster. Watch that and try bending in the same manner, do it slow. Never would have thought of using SOTW but that looks like a fun exercise.
With regard to tone, as I said before hold the bend at the top and play the unison on the string below. Do micro adjustments to match the pitch. Check again and then look at where youāve bent to in relationship to the strings above. Then try bend back to that same visual reference using eyes and ears. In the real world you would not be string watching when bending but I have found it gives me a sense of how much movement is required and can get closer to the ball park more consistently. Notice the word closer, still WIP ! BTW if you can do that on an e string bend, let me know how you did it
On the muting that @DarrellW mentioned, try counting - bend 2 3 mute, bend 2 3 4 mute bend 2 mute and bend mute.
Hope that helps, amateur input as still learning myself.
No real input from me, David, although it does seem to me that the 5 licks part is improving, maybe even just for confidence. Using the Smoke on the Water riff is a great idea from Richard. I just recently made myself a playlist of songs with guitar riffs Iād like to learn, or relearn. If theyāre not focused around bends I could adapt them as you have, but I think Iāll start with Layla and work on the bends in that classic riff.
Iām at about a month of working on the Major Scale Maestro course, so itās probably time for me to post an update too, thanks for posting your own update to motivate me to think about that.
is clearly mine 
no worries Richard. That said, I can handle it if you say your fulltone bend is still way way too flat or sharp to even get away with it in a blues context.
