Improv over Billie's Bounce

[CliffR]

I guess I could post this in 'Songs'. I'd previously been posting these in 'Showcase', but I'm under no illusion this is a finished piece of work, so that just doesn't seem right.

The reason I'm posting under 'improv' is because working on this has highlighted a few thought I've been pondering about improv versus licks, something Christian and I have discussed at some length. This is a blues, so yeah, it should be easy enough to truly improvise over. I've spent a month or more learning the chord shapes for the relevant chords across the neck, and have them down reasonably well. I think there's always scope for more improvement here, and the more ways one knows how to play over and through the chords, the more scope for originality there is. Anyway, knowing the notes has given me more freedom to mess around with rhythm, which I think we're mostly agreed upon is really the key to all this.

Over the course of the last four days I've kind of 'distilled' some of the lines I came up with (the notion of this distillation was discussed in another sub-forum, and I think the basic idea is one plays similar improvised phrases over several performances and gradually fine tunes them). In addition, I started cribbing lines from Bird's solo in the Omnibook. Sometimes I've tried to pinch rhythms, sometimes melodic ideas, sometimes both, and sometimes I've mutated them a fair bit. In any event, these are more sophisticated than the sort of thing I myself would come up with in the moment (well, duh!). As such, I've had to spend two days drilling away at them so I'd have any hope of playing them at the right place and the right time. Most of what I've been working on didn't make it into this particular recording. I have others where better ideas did, but I totally fraked up the head (yes, I know the head is not perfect here either, there's a triplet turn that I consistently didn't nail, for example). At other times, I managed to include parts of them, or coarse variants thereof. Some of the above recording is true improvisation. And frankly, I think maybe the 'truer improvisation' parts, although melodically basic, might actually be the better parts, because the rhythm and feel is freer.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on my take itself, plus any thoughts on my ramblings .

Here's a version from three days ago before I started wood-shedding all those more complex licks. Aside from the fact I totally fall over and hurt myself on the last go at the head, I think it may be better overall:

[supersoul]

Just from a listening standpoint I actually enjoyed the earlier version more. There's a cool part at around 0:50 where you start a chromatic idea, hit a weird note, and then pull it together, it felt like a real moment to me.

The quality of the lines in the later version are more sophisticated and more together. I like how you use rests to put space around the lines. The playing itself feels a bit stale, but that's probably because you've been working on this for a few days and it's starting to blur together a bit. It would be interesting to hear how you've assimilated the ideas after a few days away from it, when they come out more naturally.

[CliffR]

Just from a listening standpoint I actually enjoyed the earlier version more. There's a cool part at around 0:50 where you start a chromatic idea, hit a weird note, and then pull it together, it felt like a real moment to me.

The quality of the lines in the later version are more sophisticated and more together. I like how you use rests to put space around the lines. The playing itself feels a bit stale, but that's probably because you've been working on this for a few days and it's starting to blur together a bit. It would be interesting to hear how you've assimilated the ideas after a few days away from it, when they come out more naturally.

Hey! Many thanks for listening and for sharing your thoughts! I agree it’ll be interesting to see how those lines (and the others I worked up but didn’t manage to shoe-horn in to the latest take) come out more naturally. I hope they do, at least in part . Maybe in the next blues I try….

[Bobby Timmons]

Tremendous improvement from what I've heard before.

Definitely agree how that's a great approach for soloing to learn part of the player's solo and then try to run with it on your own.

[CliffR]

Tremendous improvement from what I've heard before.

Definitely agree how that's a great approach for soloing to learn part of the player's solo and then try to run with it on your own.

Thanks man! Yeah, there's lots to work on, but I do feel like it's a decent step forward.

[CliffR]

I like how you use rests to put space around the lines. The playing itself feels a bit stale...

Very interesting points. I think because the lines are precomposed with specific start points in mind (I tried to avoid everything starting on beat 1) the approach naturally lends itself to adding space.

On the other hand, because the lines are precomposed, I'm spending my time focussing on beginning them at the right time and then executing them as best I can. Hence the lack of verve. My goal, though, is to gain the sort of freedom I had when I was just noodling on a minor pentatonic in my blues-rock days. I knew the notes so well, I didn't need to spend any time worrying about which ones to play, and could instead focus on making phrases in the moment. I've been learning jazz for 3-4 years now, and I've let my arpeggio practice slip until quite recently. Getting back on to that makes me feel that I can eventually achieve a similar freedom to playing Am pentatonic at the 5th fret . I think as I get better at that, I'll be able to play more in the moment, with some gusto, and let some more spontaneous rhythmic ideas flow out.

[Bobby Timmons]

Thanks man!

You're welcome!