In the last article I wrote on the subject of Improvisation, I talked about developing your rhythmic ability before moving in to the arena of solo improvisation or single note playing.
Of course you all listened – not! You are guitar players so I would assume you have just jumped on to this article to see if there is any thing substantial that you can glean.
So sorry to disappoint, most of the time you will need to read the whole thing to work out what the hell I am on about!
Back to the subject, I also mentioned about modern pop and rock music not really containing a lot of single note playing. This is definitely to your advantage especially if it’s up to you to play some kind of fill or solo break and especially for original music. Why original music? Because you can’t copy some one else’s idea. No need to panic though, as it’s surprising what you can come up with, with a little experimentation. Of course this is all before the theory related approaches such as scales and modes, which can potentially distract you. These subjects are good but you can eventually end up in the same place you might be right now.
So how many notes do you need? Well I would say not as many as you think! Probably a clichéd reference is Neil Young’s classic hit Cinnamon Girl, This is a great example of what I am talking about! The whole solo is a single note played repeat ably but with guess what? Good use of rhythm and timing. Another example that immediately springs to mind is The Edge out of U2. You don’t hear the Edge playing a lot of single notes but he uses his rhythmic ability combined with guitar effects to do the job. In the previous article I made the point that it’s the listener that determines the popularity of the music. Did Neil Young get scoffed at or ridiculed because he only played a one-note solo, course not! He sold millions of records!
What I am getting to is that before you knew much about playing the guitar you were probably practising the approach that I am alluding to, you probably pretended to play solos by moving your finger (s) up and down one string. With out too much difficulty anyone can come up with a combination of right notes by experimenting (using your ears) with intervals along a single string.
How I see it, single notes i.e playing one note at a time and possibly with a single finger compared to seven notes of a scale (or eight including the octave) are the same deal!
The important part of what I am trying to relay to you is that you can start to build note combination’s or scales by playing single notes up an down one string.
In many instances this can and will suffice for a solo break or other fills.
From a learning process what you need to observe (by watching your fingers and using your ears) are the intervals (or spaces) between the notes. Two frets making a whole step and one fret making a half step.
So in summary
No 1. Be a bloody good rhythm guitar player!
No 2. Play single notes along a single string (observing intervals)
In the next article I will pick up why it’s important to observe the intervals and how this continues on to be a better approach than learning numerous scale patterns.
Regards
Steve Webb
