Very good explanation fiddlewood. That explains a lot. Thank you
Banjo Improvisation
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Hi @lonewolf223 Mike try finding a lick to replace Earl’s Tag lick. You know the one you hear so often in a tune. It’s just one measure of G. Now that is a simple improvisation.
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Playing melody notes when improvising goes a long way to sounding good. If you are familiar with the song it is easier.
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Along those lines, check out Ben’s brand new Build a Break lesson just released. First you play just the melody notes, then he gives you options and variations on those same notes, hammering on the D note or sliding to the B, for examples.
Those tricks can be transplanted to just about any song.
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Hey Mike, take a look at this video I just found covering a banjo break on the way overplayed song Wagon Wheel. Watch what the down-the-neck break looks like, and see how similar it is to the video I posted yesterday. He’s using a lot of square roll slides, but as you can see, it’s nothing crazy. With just a little practice, you could probably play something like this on the fly.
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Bela Fleck said improvisation is basically composing in fast motion, and composing is basically improvising in slow motion
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Thanks a lot Mark. I’ll have to study it when I get home tonight. Thank you
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I think that’s what my build-a-break lessons are all about, showing you how to put licks in a chord progression to communicate the melody. I think all the tools are here, it’s just seeing it from a different angle.
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You’re right. They are. My block seems to be that I learn the build a break, but my fingers treat them as a single song. I can’t get my fingers to pick and choose the licks in the build a break songs in other songs on the fly. I’m sure by now I know hundreds of licks that would fit all over the place, but what I lack is an ability to hear those licks in songs I didn’t learn them in.
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I agree with Ben completely.
Mark, a different strategy might be "I’ve learned this one lick…now where are all the places I can fit it? Once there is a place or two I really like it well enough to keep it in my cycle of playing I will search out the next cool lick I want to learn.
If the “thinking” or “imagination” mode for placing an experimental/new lick doesn’t work for me I’ll sometimes resort to the “math”/grind-it-out method…read the written chord progression and try it wherever it may musically fit for musical correctness. This method takes longer, and can create both wonderful and horrific things just as well as flat out guessing from trying to see/hear it in your mind first.
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Ok, this is great feedback. A good teacher will find out how a student learns and then teach it that way. I will do my best!
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Same. That’s why I like the single lick challenge style, where you learn the one lick and then put it in places
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Here’s a message I just sent Ben. What do you think, Gunnar?
I was listening to “Heaven Came Down” in the car and realized I could hear tons of spots the lick you taught at camp would fit. I then thought about your recent lick challenge and could work that in some places too (though not as easily.)
I realized that the key for me to learn decent improv is learning a single lick and just burning it into my brain. Your bag o’ licks lessons must have just been too many at once for my brain to tackle, so now I’m going to go back to those and the BaB lessons and slowly, methodically try to burn those in my brain. I’m thinking no more than one a week.
If others out there are having the same problem, maybe you could start doing a monthly challenge like you did before you went on vacation. One at a time seems to be the key for me.
Oh! And then future song lessons could highlight previous lick challenges, so eventually we build an entire song made out of nothing but lick challenges. Maybe even pick a song out ahead of time and build your lick challenges around it. That would be awesome!
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Sounds awesome
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