I have heard the term NOODLING used several time before. I am not sure what defines NOODLING. For example, when does NOODLING end and IMPROVISATION begin? What do you call noodling?
---------- intermediate level (+) player per the Adam Gussow Scale, Started playing 2001
To me the difference is that IMPROVISATION is done to music while NOODLING is not.
Of course having said that you can noodle to music and improvise without music but it seems that improvising is done with some kind of baseline that you are improvising off of and noodling is just playing around and not keeping tempo or tune in mind as much as just discovering progressions of notes or sounds ets..just like, hey those 3 notes sounded cool together, let me try them again, oh what if I add this.
Does that even make sense? I hop eit does a bit.
Oh and of course most bandmembers like hearing improvising while they get really annoyed if they have to listen to noodling.
Memorizing blues licks and then force feeding them over whatever the band is playing=noodling.
Noodling=playing notes without coherent relationship to the underlying chords and movement of the melody and/or rhythm. What many harp players like to refer to as "embellishment" is just noodling.
There is a difference between not playing any bad notes and playing the right notes.
Hvyj said, "There is a difference between not playing any bad notes and playing the right notes"
I "LOVE" that. That may become my mantra. That's worth a complete thread unto itself. or maybe that's what I'm trying to learn. ---------- intermediate level (+) player per the Adam Gussow Scale, Started playing 2001
"There is a difference between not playing any bad notes and playing the right notes. " And if the right notes have no musicality behind them, and are not played at the proper intervals,they are still the wrong notes.
1. playing when you are not supposed to... over vocals, over another instruments solo, in-between songs, or while someone is talking to you.
2. playing without structure, thought or feeling... solos that sound like you are running scales, poor phrasing, diarrhea of notes (never stopping to let the melody breath or wanking off), or not keeping a recognizable theme (rhythm or melody).
I think you can be perfectly in the groove, have a sense of the musical progression and still be noodling. And example would be an endless solo. Jason Ricci comes to mind.
Please bear with me.
I think that sometimes Jason plays speed for the sake of playing speed and the result is noodling. It sounds good and is technically impressive; it works, but it's not as musically founded as most of his other playing.
Barry, I wouldn't worry about it. What matters is what you use the noodling for, e.g. when I noodle I'm working on tone, intonation, clean individual notes, fluidity, glissandos. None of this is ever going to go to waste when I start playing real music!
---------- Andrew, gentleman of leisure, noodler extraordinaire.
I think practice should be intentional otherwise you're not really learning.
Noodling and jamming is good for opening up the connection to music and bonding with your musical partner. Don't worry about the mistake, in my examples above, both tracks are loaded with mistakes, intonation, time and rhythm issues... but that doesn't concern me because I was working on the connection with music and the musicians.
---------- "I am a great believer in understanding, not copying."
Here's a little ukulele video I posted several years back that addresses this subject. This was made for a contest, hopefully I play a little better now.
Noodling is playing shapeless, often overlong melodies. Noodling is sometimes a result of improvisers who haven't either memorized a song's melody (meaning they have no basis for improvisation) or mastered the underlying harmonic structure (i.e., they don't know how to suggest the chord changes in their solo). In short, they don't really know where they're GOING with the solo.
Noodling means having no ability to construct improvised melodies with the help of intentional spaces between phrases: noodlers don't have phrasing.
Noodling generally also means playing solos that don't communicate any sense of urgency. But of course some wonderful solos don't communicate any sense of urgency; they just communicate a sense of proportion, peace, beauty, joy.
A solo, an improvisation, should tell a story. Noodling doesn't tell a story.
Jason Ricci isn't a noodler. He always knows where he is in the changes, implies them in his solos, and communicates a great sense of urgency.
You're right Adam, in the above video I had no idea where I was going and got lost several times on the way! There was a sense of urgency at the end, the contest rules gave a time limit. BTW: Liked your recent lip pursing tongue blocking videos. Have you received any hate mail yet?
Mindless city zens of antiquity reunite, face the future with retrospect! The harmony of dischord the space between your is is fallow ground round , chuck chopp beat the meatles .. firm to the tooth and onward into the future i relinquish my hold on your reality and claim a fowl A foul! how dare you! I defend my right to noodle endlessly while you try to carbon copy some ideal of tone or musical propreity. Noodle on ye mindless! re invent , disenchant, deconstruct, revole , optimize , . God bless the Suns of Ra, The unmathematicians the irreconsolable travelers of time . I LONG for the Gritiness of the captains of beef, the psychic deli's. Born of noodles confirmed as....
