Stefan's Improv and Blues Learning Log

@CT Thank you for the advice Clint. I really do need to start having more of a play with the tones as I’m just okay with it at the moment but know it’s lacking something for me.

Improv is now part of my daily routine and hopefully one day I’ll show up and blow peoples socks off.

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You are in the right headspace and well on your way. :slight_smile:

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Great work, Stefan! Great use of space. Looking forward to where you’re heading!

Jeff

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You’re on your way, Stefan. Lot’s of pointers shared. So I can only say keep on keeping on and have fun fun fun

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@jBreck and @DavidP Thank you Jeff and David and thanks for the listen.

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Stefan, really cool improv. The improv fits awesome with the spirit of the backing track. Looking to hear more of those. :+1:

Is that licks from the grade 4 blues modules like : https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/5-blues-licks-from-pattern-1-bl-404 ?

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Thanks Mathieu.

No, the licks are from Richards blues thread. This

Actually, those are the same 5 licks.

Truly commendable effort Stefan.
Space and room to breathe … that is the standout for me. You don’t rush or snatch or play endless flurries of notes. You have a melodic sensibility.
As people have already noted, your bends are not hitting the mark, work on that as a separate exercise to improve the intonation of your bends.
Try to bring in a little variation in terms of the length of your phrases. Think in sentences … How to play a solo ... think in sentences
Take control of your guitar and fx controls. Move from bridge pickup to neck pickup for tonal variety across such a long track. Set your amp and fx to be quite overdriven and gritty with your guitar volume at 10. Then, back your guitar volume off, down to about 5. That will clean it up. You then have space to up the volume, increase the dirt in the tone, and back it off again. Some reverb would make it shimmer.

Keep it up. It is great fun too. :slight_smile:

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@jjw Ahh, thanks John, I didn’t realise they were.

@Richard_close2u Thank you, Richard. I’m working on them there bends, it’s hard to break the habits you get into but I’ll get there.
Thank you for the link, interesting stuff. Just one more thing to try and remember when playing.
I’m having a good old play with tone and I never even thought of changing pickup position. I’ll also give that a go.

Hey Stefan, I’m late, most things already have been mentioned and on top I’m far from being qualified to add any helpful advice, but I just wanted to let you know, that I liked your impro a lot. To me, it’s charm was about the space you gave it and your feel for the melodic aspects. I liked the tone too, all in all a very satisfying listen, given the fact, it’s your first log entry. I think you are definitely on the right track. Thank you for sharing your attempt with us, a lot to learn from!

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Thank you for the great feedback, Andrea and I’m glad you enjoyed it.

My ability to space seems to be one of the positives so far, which I’m glad about. I know just need to get my head around all the other things I need to think about when playing.

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Just a question on bending.

If as in the picture below where I’m doing a 1/4 bend on the D, do I have to bend upwards or can I pull down? I instinctively find it easier to pull down.

Thanks. :slight_smile:

You can do either but when bending the e string you will pull the string off the fret board so unless you compensate for the e string it’s best to learn bending up at the beginning.
Even when doing 1/4 bends or curls it best to use the pivot technique Justin teaches.
Forming good habits right from the start is always a good thing.

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Thank you, Rick. Thought I’d best check.

Just though of another reason to bend up on 1/4 note bends. Here a very common lick in blues

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Thanks Rick. That sounds very cool. :+1:

I’m having a bit of an issue whilst I practice my bending. It only seems to happen on the high E string but every time I bend up the hard skin on my fingers catches the B string and makes a noise. Please could someone let me know if there is anyway I can stop this from happening? Thanks. :slight_smile:

Are you muting the B string? The only other thing I can think of is to gently file the hardened skin on your fingertips to smooth over any irregularities that could catch on the string.

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I think I’m muting it. My fretting hand is quite low down.

Thanks, I’ll get the file out.