Soul R&B Backer

[klasaine]

I did make this BT from scratch.
It is loosely based on the chord of "That's the Way of the World" (EWF) and "I'm Not In Love" (10cc).
I know it looks like a lot of chords but you can play it all in D major, D maj penta, B min penta, B Blues scale. It all works.



Here's a chord chart if anyone wants it.
'A' section repeats 3x
'B' section once then jam out on the Dmaj7 to Em7 and a fade.

 

[FendrGuitPlayr]

Thx Ken! I got distracted along the way...cool backer!

 

[bigbreak]

Not one of my better efforts.

 

[telekaster1999]

Thanks for the track Ken.

 

[ASATKat]

Nice job Ken, I did enjoy it.


Toes in the River

 

[G-52]

Thank you @klasaine and nicely done

 

[Alan L Cole]

Thanks, Ken:

 

[klasaine]

All of you so far have great takes!
I wasn't sure if anyone was gonna want to do this one. I'll admit, it's a bit 'sugary', especially the 80s synth strings.

I'm gonna work backward here ...

@Alan L Cole ... That's the classic Alan 'glassy' neck pkup tone I've come to expect. Love the vid! Not what I expected but I dig dragons, so ...
@G-52 ... Nice lines over the chord changes with a great water droplet (middle position?) Tele tone.
@ASATKat .. Great slow burn over all of it and at the bridge you tie up the melody nicely with the high sus4 lick.
@telekaster1999 ... Another great neck pkup tone, and then you switch to the bridge pkup before the bridge and dig in a bit more. Very cool.
@bigbreak ... I don't know man, sounds pretty good to me. I love the triplet feel that you give to a lot of the lines. I wish I had just 1/2 of your piano chops. *Is that a 'real' mic'd piano?
@fendrguitplayr ... I like the 'distraction'. This song calls for more 80's 'ray-gun' flourishes. It goes perfectly with my cheesy synth part.

*Something I noticed about all the takes so far is that everyone really nails the Gm7 (or C9) chords, especially in the bridge section. A lot of good playing over the changes all around.

Thanks for participating!

 

[NWinther]

Thanks....I like these kinds of tracks....lovely beat!

 

[Mjark]

I probably should have passed.

 

[klasaine]

@NWinther ... Very nice use of either a volume pedal or the volume knob.
@Mjark ... No reason to pass. The fuzzy lead tone and the big triplet lines are nice.

 

[guitarsophist]

I struggled. It evolved over several takes. When one is learning, one struggles. It sounded easy, but it wasn't.

 

[bullfrogblues]

Thanks for the cool track, Ken!!

 

[klasaine]

@bullfrogblues ... The Sitaresque tone is perfect for this! I'm glad somebody went there. Great lines all the way through as well.
@guitarsophist ... Very melodic and grooving throughout. It's only 'easy' in the sense that the reliably good notes reside in the major pentatonic. But that only gives us 5 choices, and it can easily get stale. Finding the cool blue notes and when to throw 'em in is the harder part. You navigated it nicely.

I'm gonna do mine tonight or tomorrow.

 

[guitarsophist]

You navigated it nicely.

That is sort of the problem though. "Navigating" is not quite the same as improvising creatively. It was fun though. Very nice backing track! Thanks!

 

[klasaine]

That is sort of the problem though. "Navigating" is not quite the same as improvising creatively. It was fun though. Very nice backing track! Thanks!

I disagree. Navigating uncharted seas is what it's all about.

 

[guitarsophist]

I disagree. Navigating uncharted seas is what it's all about.

I think the only note I played that was outside of the D major scale was a C, a flatted 7th. It worked, I think. The struggle is between feel and intellectual understanding of the chords. The mind and the fingers are sometimes at odds. I agree though. The only way to advance is to be a little uncomfortable.

 

[ASATKat]

I think the only note I played that was outside of the D major scale was a C, a flatted 7th. It worked, I think. The struggle is between feel and intellectual understanding of the chords. The mind and the fingers are sometimes at odds. I agree though. The only way to advance is to be a little uncomfortable.

Your struggle with mind and fingers I don't understand. That needn't happen. Imo talking and playing goes right along with analysis. None of any of that should happen during the performance, those are activities for the practice room. I just allow melodies to freely flow in my mind with no cognitive thinking going on. No different from driving a route you've driven for years. You don't need to look at a map. And you don't have to think about it, like Michael Jordan said "just do it". In my opinion this is what all fine improvisors do.
Having a relaxed mindset is essential to good improvising. I have problem with playing fast and that is because I go into think mode. It's not an automatic thing with me. Playing 8th notes and 8th note triplets is where I don't need the supervision. But 16ths and fast tempos is where I choke. And that's a product of analytical thinking. When I'm playing good my mind is on vacation.
All my favorite players don't think analytically when playing. It's much like meditation. The freeway is not clogged with traffic.

 

[ASATKat]

I think the only note I played that was outside of the D major scale was a C, a flatted 7th. It worked, I think. The struggle is between feel and intellectual understanding of the chords. The mind and the fingers are sometimes at odds. I agree though. The only way to advance is to be a little uncomfortable.

Your struggle with mind and fingers I don't understand. That needn't happen. Imo talking and playing goes right along with analysis. None of any of that should happen during the performance, those are activities for the practice room.

I just allow melodies to freely flow in my mind with no cognitive thinking going on. No different from driving a route you've driven for years. You don't need to look at a map. And you don't have to think about it, like Michael Jordan said "just do it". In my opinion this is what all fine improvisors do.

Having a relaxed mindset is essential to good improvising. I have problem with playing fast and that is because I go into think mode. It's not an automatic thing with me. Playing 8th notes and 8th note triplets is where I don't need the supervision. But 16ths and fast tempos is where I choke. And that's a product of analytical thinking. When I'm playing good my mind is on vacation.

All my favorite players don't think analytically when playing. It's much like meditation. The freeway is not clogged with traffic.

Try watching TV when practicing. Let the TV deal with your thinking, you just watch the program and play/practice/improvise over it.

Relaxed concentration.

 

[klasaine]

Here's mine ...