Socio - October 2022 - JustinGuitar Blues Lead plus 1st Blues Improv

Great work James, timing was spot on, and you were using motifs nicely!

Edit: The Epi looked really good too. How is it to play?

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Bravo, James, you are getting stuck in, making use of what you’ve learned, and sounding delivering the goods. I especially liked the run around 1’20". But it all sounded good. Keep at it along side what you start working on in grade 3.

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Sounding really good James, do like the “home base” lick with the flick off as the central theme of the improv. Nice slides and in the pocket throughout, you’re certainly killing at the moment mate :+1:

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Good one James :sunglasses: :clap:,
And I can’t say it better about what improvement actually is than Rick,…(Justin,Buddy guy ,Eric Clapton and more I’ve heard that too) ,so print it out and hang it above your bed,… …
But you can build on this First Blues Improv :sunglasses:,… have fun,
Greetings,…

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Very nice, i especially liked the way you slid into some of the phrases plus the odd tempo change to add some sparkle :+1:

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Indeed, a great starting point and one you can explore further down the road as you add new elements to it!

All the best to you and keep up the steady paced timing and vibe!
LB

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@stitch @oldhead49 @Eddie_09 @TheMadman_tobyjenner @sclay @adi_mrok @twistor59 @DavidP @EndlessRepetition
Thank you all for the listen and your kind comments. I certainly didn’t have the blues when I logged on this morning.

This is a really good point to highlight and something that I learned from the blues discussions on the forum. Without having a bank of licks I listened to the backing track to feel the groove of the music and work out some ideas in my head for licks. Then it was about applying the right musical idea at the right moment from the licks I now had access to in my toolbox.

Yes, I tried to keep it as simple as possible and go with the feel of the slow blues. I figured if I try playing too much or attempt techniques that I don’t have in my toolbox then I would lose the feel of the music and it could end up sounding poor.

I’m glad to hear that a theme came across and not just some random notes played. Watching all the blues AVoYP posts on the forum gave me inspiration and a better understanding of how to approach improvisation.

That’s another good point to highlight. From the beginner blues lesson and following the blues discussions on the forum I learned that it is good to get as much info as possible about the music you’ll be accompanying as the key and the chords tell you which scales and notes will sound harmonious.

That’s good to hear as I was always a bit unsure how things would pan out when I started playing along to backing tracks as when playing unaccompanied you can get away with playing at your own tempo.

The Epi feels and plays fantastic, it was certainly worth the wait for it to come into stock. I need to learn more about creating tones on the amplifier.

Definitely, I’ve got a chicago blues in E and a classic blues in G to explore improv with but first I’ve got some fingerstyle blues on the horizon to work on.

The “home base” lick was my attempt of the “response” to the “call and response”. I had the idea that it doesn’t matter how you phrase the question you always get the same short answer.

The slides from the D to the E notes on the G string was mainly as I can’t do bends yet. The opening slides was something that I had seen when watching a few blues videos and thought that may work.

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@roger_holland @LBro
Thank you all for the listen and your kind comments

That’s the plan, laying down the foundation and building upon them with learning how to apply correctly the techniques that really define the blues to take it to the next level.

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Hi James, and thanks for sharing your first blues improv :hugs:. It sounded really good to my ears :star_struck:.
As I haven’t touched the blues topic yet, I can’t offer any qualified feedback - but I really liked it - and, yes, it was definitely bluesy :+1::smiley::clap:.

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@NicoleKKB
Hi Nicole, thank you for the listen and taking the time to provide feedback. That is very much appreciated. I’m glad that it sounded good to your ears.

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Hey James, a bit late to the party here, but that was great :smiley:
You must be well chuffed with how far you’ve come in such a short time. It suggests to me that you are actually following the course as well as practicing in a focused manner, unlike some of us butterflies :laughing: :butterfly:
Keep it up and you’ll have us all crying in our beer in no time at all :beer: :sob:

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@brianlarsen
Hey Brian, it’s never too late to join the party. Thank you for taking the time to give the recording a spin and provide feedback. Yeah, I’m well chuffed at the steady progress I’ve been making and how my first blues improv turned out. Here’s hoping I can keep up that progress ditching the pick and going fingerstyle.

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Super stuff James, a nice theme throughout.

A great way to consolidate!

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Very tasty James. Nice a bluesy to me and a very decent groove. Did I see a few flick-offs there as well?

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Very nice James. Smoothly played and I also liked the entry screen, makes for a more polished look. So did you blend it with the backing track on the pc? It sounds nicely balanced. I’m fumbling through the audio/recording stuff as it’s all new to me.

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@liaty
Hey Dave, thank you for taking the time to the listen and comment. Yes, it was a great way to consolidate the grade 2 blues techniques.

@SgtColon
Hey Stefan, thank you for the listen mate, glad you found it tasty. Yes, I attempted to throw in a few flick-offs to make it a bit more bluesy.

@BobW72
Hey Bob, thanks for taking the time to the listen and comment. I’m pretty new to this audio/recording stuff too. All I did was drop the backing track into the DAW (I used reaper) and added a count in to give me time to get into position once I press record. I recorded simultaneously using the DAW (for the audio) and OBS (for the video) whilst listening to the backing track being played by the DAW on headphones. I’ve not figured out yet how to have OBS also recording the backing track being played in the DAW, right now I can only get OBS software recording the audio of the guitar. So I use a cheap video editing software package to drop both the DAW file (backing track and guitar combo) and OBS file (the video and guitar) and then autosync the two files. Then I just detach the OBS audio file, clip the project and add the entry screen.

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Very well done, in time and tasty. Even if you can’t bend yet, you used some other bluesy techniques like slides and flick offs, you’re on your way to being able to learn licks and improving.

I noticed that epiphone too, it’s beautiful. What model is it?

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Hi James. I’m super late to this party! Some good stuff going on there my man. You just need to loosen up a bit and let the blues take you. You looked a little tense. Some really nice techniques included there which as you say yourself will improve as you develop this style of play. Well done.

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@lilnamida
Hi Alessandro thanks for taking the time to listen and comment, it’s much appreciated :smiley: The epiphone is an Inspired by Gibson ES-335 Figured Raspberry Tea Burst.

@sairfingers
The wanderer returns… Hi Gordon, thanks for giving this one a spin, I presume that’s you back home safe and sound. Yeah, I’m still find it difficult to loosen up when the camera is on. Though, I noticed that on the blues lead recording that I did previously as I got to the second round of 12 bars I gave myself a little shake to loosen up and seemed to play better and even managed a wee bit of improv at the end. That’s certainly something that I have noticed in other recording too and need to work on.

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