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Post by bluesbruce on Aug 4, 2020 17:27:31 GMT -6
OK, finally got the next BLYCU challenge put together. This is licks 10 & 12. Lick 10 is a 2 bar lick going over bars 7 and 8 of a 12 bar blues (I chord). Lick 12 is a 2 bar lick fitting over bars 9 and 10 (V chord followed by IV chord). These are presented here with Guitar Pro version over the backing track, then with each lick presented over a metronome beat. In sticking with our two week cycle, we'll call the "due date" Sunday, August 16. Once again, you're free (and encouraged) to use these licks however you see fit.
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Post by grampalerxst on Aug 9, 2020 5:22:37 GMT -6
Thanks, Bruce. Midway through the assignment I'm still a little behind my desired schedule, but ahead of where I was the last couple of installments. Both licks end with a similar phrase that I'm finding a little tricky to execute cleanly, I tend to somehow set nearly every unused string on the guitar vibrating in the process of picking the quick notes on the G then D strings, then jumping up to the high E-string to finish.
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Post by bluesbruce on Aug 9, 2020 7:55:45 GMT -6
Grampa, I'm coming along a little better on this than I did on the past few, as I've gathered motivation from my previous poor showings (a no show on 7, and a strikeout on 8&9). I am likewise finding these to be great finger-stretching exercises. Keep your work up - you've been doing really well on these lick challenges!
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Post by joachim on Aug 11, 2020 12:46:26 GMT -6
The timing on lick 12 is kind of tricky...
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Post by bluesbruce on Aug 11, 2020 18:47:16 GMT -6
The timing on lick 12 is kind of tricky... I'll second that! There is a note that falls directly on beat 1 and beat 3 in each measure, but trying to fit all those sixteenth notes in... oh, well! I don't really know that I can count 16th notes in 12/8 time, and I probably try to listen and get the timing and feel more than I try to count them out. |
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Post by grampalerxst on Aug 12, 2020 4:55:54 GMT -6
The timing on lick 12 is kind of tricky... I'll second that! There is a note that falls directly on beat 1 and beat 3 in each measure, but trying to fit all those sixteenth notes in... oh, well! I don't really know that I can count 16th notes in 12/8 time, and I probably try to listen and get the timing and feel more than I try to count them out. Joachim, are you referring to those four bent notes in the first measure? Something like that is impossible for me to count at this stage. It feels like sort of a 4:3 grouping of dotted eighths maybe, with the last one cascading down to the G. JG does have a penchant for what to my ear are out-of-the-box ways of spreading notes through time, at least in the context of the type of blues guitar playing I tend to listen to. And those challenges start fairly early on in BYCU.
A point of comparison with the only book I'm familiar with that's similar to the BYCU corpus, Wyatt/Blues Guitar Soloing, in BGS you spend a lot more time studying phrasing that uses more basic note values/traditional pulses. There are some (mostly later on in the book) that aim to create tension by having the rhythm of the melodic phrase rub on the pulse of the rhythm section a little bit. But someone methodically working through the book in order (something I haven't done yet) would have first encountered at least a couple hundred phrases (granted, some arguably too simple to have practical application) that are more aligned with the expected pulse.
Besides the rhythmic rubbing, there is also the observation (thanks to all of Bruce's effort) that the written notation is really only an approximation to what JG does in the demos. Could be vice-versa, I suppose, but I'm guessing the written notation comes second after the examples are composed on the guitar. I can only do what Bruce suggests, and play along with the demo over and over and over again; and hope I begin to "feel" what's supposed to happen. When I get as far as I can with that I then work a little with the backing track + GP to get a feel for what notation literally implies, then try to sling together 12 coherent bars. I do the middle step because it is interesting, and because although I want to rely on it less-and-less over time, I do want to continue to improve or at least maintain an ability to read.
More than once as a lick is set in a chorus my timing begins to vary somewhat in spots. My 8+9 entry is a good example of that. I'd like to claim it was due to overall artistic judgement, but in truth it is most likely me gravitating toward something that's just easier to play. I don't even notice I'm doing it until I go back and listen to a take.
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Post by bluesbruce on Aug 12, 2020 6:05:03 GMT -6
Grampa, I agree that the written notation is most certainly done after he's recorded the example. When I've transcribed these into Guitar Pro, they definitely have a more "mechanical" and less "organic" sound than JG's recorded demos. I've always assumed that was because of a mechanical consistency in volume (that is, there is no variation in dynamics), but another part of that could certainly be the computer-like adherence to notational timing. I suspect you can probably program variations in note dynamics into GP, but that's beyond my simple uses of the program. I've also struggled with the triplet sixteenth note figure in the fourth beat of the first bar in Lick 10. I can count this one out in my head, and I can listen to the recorded demo or the GP version and hear how it is supposed to sound, but somehow when I play it, my mind and hands just seem to want to "do their own thing" and muff the timing of that figure... Practice, practice, practice....
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Post by grampalerxst on Aug 13, 2020 6:31:20 GMT -6
Bruce, for whatever reason that little passage came pretty easily for me, maybe because slurs are indicated versus picking each note. The final little phrases that are straight sixteenths but picked are what trips me up most consistently with these.
Under the hood GP is a midi sequencer when it comes to playback, and sequenced music is infamous for having a somewhat robotic character. I use Cakewalk as my DAW, which involved into a DAW from being one of the first software sequencers way back in the day, and it retains all the sequencer capability. I know with Cakewalk a person can get in there and edit any of the midi parameters (instrument, timing, duration, pitch, velocity, etc.). I'm pretty sure when you create the notation in GP, GP translates it into midi info, which is styled after midi keyboard controls/outputs. I don't have GP so I don't know how much parametric editing it allows to attempt "humanizing" a score. Cakewalk lets you draw notes on a staff that get converted to midi info too, and I've tried to play around and edit some variation and inflection into midi data. But it's painfully tedious and my results weren't a whole lot better than what I started with. I've recorded a keyboard into cakewalk then viewed the resulting midi info as staff notation--didn't look anything like what I thought I was playing. Might be fun to play around with for giggles when you have time to kill, but imo no reason to burden yourself with it for my sake as part of the challenge. I sort of enjoy trying to replicate both JG's demo and the robotic version anyway.
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Post by joachim on Aug 14, 2020 7:28:03 GMT -6
Grampa, yes - that's what I was referring to.
I am out of town all weekend - thought I could do a quick recording before I left, but I couldn't... I will record something Monday night.
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Post by joachim on Aug 16, 2020 13:47:36 GMT -6
Here's my mock-up.
I am really looking forward to moving to a new backing track soon...
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Post by grampalerxst on Aug 16, 2020 14:30:56 GMT -6
Great job, Joachim. I'm jealous of your ability to play these so clean! I agree, getting on to the next group here in a few weeks will be great. I'm under the gun, haven't recorded anything yet, and am about to sit down with no idea what I'm going to do before and after the ones we've been working on.
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Post by grampalerxst on Aug 16, 2020 15:30:15 GMT -6
soundcloud.com/grampalerxst/blycu-1012-1I just played through the whole chorus half a dozen times, couldn't get inspired, so hit the red button and just rambled up to Licks 10 and 12, then finished. Opted to get something in by the deadline instead of working out something nice. Got a little rushed in the first half of 12. That 4:3 rub isn't something I can feel well yet.
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Post by bluesbruce on Aug 16, 2020 19:54:25 GMT -6
OK, you guys set the bar pretty high. I had to work this weekend, got home pretty late. Now I'm going to stay up and get something recorded! I'll probably get the next challenge put up tomorrow. I was thinking let's take Licks 11, 13, and 15. That's THREE two-bar licks covering bars 7 thru 12. That would only leave lick 14 - which is a 4 bar lick over bars 9-12. Then we'll be on to a new backing track! I think we've just about all had our fill of this one!
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Post by bluesbruce on Aug 16, 2020 22:03:19 GMT -6
Sliding in, just under the wire - 11 PM US CST. Starts with Lick 3, uses Licks 8, 10 (twice!), 12, and 15! Recorded clean, but put some dirt on it to try to cover up my bad playing...
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Post by grampalerxst on Aug 17, 2020 4:26:01 GMT -6
Hey Bruce, you integrated a lot of the prior ideas pretty well. When I sit down to make a chorus, what we did last bi-week, or the one before, is usually lost somewhere beyond recall. Maybe I should look at the book a little more often!  Good job. It's probably best not to think of your playing as "bad". I've got my share of issues technique-wise, and though I don't say much about it, in most of BLYCU challenges there's at least one thing that I do that I like, maybe just a 3-4 note stretch that if I forget about what surrounds it I can pretend it came from a "real" guitar player. I study (using the term very loosely) those bits to see what went right, which is just as important as doing forensics on my more frequent train wrecks. |
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Post by joachim on Aug 17, 2020 12:26:29 GMT -6
Grampa, that was really well put together for something semi-improvised! There was clear a melodic idea flowing through the chorus...
Bruce, I enjoyed your recording a lot as well. As Grampa also wrote, your recording integrated the previous licks perfectly.
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Good job.