basscat125
1 post
Nov 19, 2010
9:18 AM
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I saw on one of your videos on youtube that in the description box you wrote something like"I try to stay away from playin the root notes thats the bass player job."
I'd like to know what you meant by this?
Basscat125
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Buddha
2687 posts
Nov 19, 2010
9:41 AM
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I meant I don't play root notes because it's a note that is covered by other instruments.
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"I am a great believer in understanding, not copying."
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CamiloHarper
14 posts
Nov 19, 2010
10:37 AM
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Budha, but if you don't use the root note how do you resolve your phrases?
Isn't there a moment where the ear needs to hear the root note for really telling that tension has been released when you improvise?
Thanks!
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With some latin flavour for you, chico!! :P
Last Edited by on Nov 19, 2010 10:38 AM
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Buddha
2688 posts
Nov 19, 2010
10:43 AM
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use another chord tone. I don't mean ALWAYS stay away from Root tone but there is no need to keep hammering them the way most harp players do.
Listen to any good improvising musician to hear what I am talking about.
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"I am a great believer in understanding, not copying."
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HarpNinja
778 posts
Nov 19, 2010
10:57 AM
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FWIW, I've gotten in the habit of rethinking scales as starting on the 3 or 5 or 7 as to stay away from the root. This get pretty easy if you know positions already...like literally play 1st position major lines in 4th. You end up working off the 3 of the scale and hit all the chord tones without starting/resolving on the root.
Knowing how to manipulate intervals within a scale within a song is quite entertaining to me. It opens a lot of doors in playing...ESPECIALLY when comping.
I ALWAYS try to stay away from the root of a chord when comping in a style with held notes. The bass player and keyboard player have that locked down already.
Another random though is if you are playing the root, how can you manipulate it to not just be playing a single note. When starting a phrase, ending a phrase, or holding a note with the root, how can you make it interesting?
Double Stops
Vibrato
Trill
Articulating
Slur
Dynamics...
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Mike
VHT Special 6 Amp for Harp Blog
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hvyj
839 posts
Nov 19, 2010
11:12 AM
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You know, the other day I was talking to a sax player who is a knowledgeable musician and a good improviser. He made the same suggestion about not playing the root note in structuring a solo as "something to think about." So, I starting thinking: Now, where have i heard that before?
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chromaticblues
313 posts
Nov 19, 2010
11:43 AM
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A good simple example is Little Walter's ending on "Dead Presidents".
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CamiloHarper
15 posts
Nov 19, 2010
11:52 AM
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Buddha and harpNinja, thanks for your advice. I will think about it and then try to incorporate it in my playing (wich wil take a lot more time, obviously)
I guess that's why it's a very good idea to know chords arpeggios so you can tell where are your "safe" notes for resolving.
Also, as Mike says, I think making the association between positions and intervals can make it easier to learn, as computarizing the notes for every harp is quite a difficult mathematic exercise, even more if you want to do it on the go when you encounter a song outside the typical I IV V
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With some latin flavour for you, chico!! :P
Last Edited by on Nov 19, 2010 11:54 AM
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Diggsblues
613 posts
Nov 19, 2010
12:31 PM
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If you look at some of the scales in the Aebersol exercises he ends scales on the 9th.
One of my old teacher always talked about color tones
applied to scales like playing a D dorian against
Cmaj7 chord. This is very simple example but
a good place to start. Just another approach to
improv.
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Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind
How you doin'
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HarpNinja
781 posts
Nov 19, 2010
12:49 PM
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Diggs, that's how I learned to do it too....run a scale or such to the 9th and then come back down...not ending on the root.
I think I am drawn to harp because of the patterns and mathematical thinking
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Mike
VHT Special 6 Amp for Harp Blog
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Xpun3414
122 posts
Nov 19, 2010
1:48 PM
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Man...I really need to learn music theory to understand all this. (Hummm,where to start)
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ZackPomerleau
1295 posts
Nov 19, 2010
4:13 PM
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Chris may or may not agree, but learning arpeggios can help. On a major chord play the third, the fifth, or even add a major seventh or something. Notice a lot of blues songs end on the 2 draw full step bend? That's the flat seventh, it doesn't resolve to the tonic, you become part of the chord.
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basscat125
2 posts
Nov 21, 2010
7:56 AM
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ok thanks
glad i could resolve this with out a heated debate just a misunderstanding on my part.Dorry to have bothered you.
Basscat125
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"when it comes to tone everyone to there own."
Last Edited by on Nov 21, 2010 7:58 AM
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