soloing

a

so, what are the approaches?

there's a 'functional' approach that's been discussed here. the solo comes out of the trying to get through the chords. in this case, the chords are the master

there's motivic development...sort of like romantic development of a theme, right? in this case, the chords are just there as background, to remind of the key etc.

there's playing against the chords- antgonizing them. this includes the seemingly arbitrary or intellectual - serialism and all that; the no-wave or 'noise' thing. this can be used tear things down when it gets trite.

any others ?

dennis

then there's a combination of all of the above, of which django and bireli are masters....

django was very modern for his time !

Ken Bloom

My goal is to simply play a new and hopefully memorable and expressive melody against the framework provided by the chords. My old teacher used to tell me that improvisation was instant composition. I don't get there too often but that's what I try to do.

BluesBop Harry

Yes instant composition...I've heard that one before..
Duke Ellington once said something like "...the good improviser is nothing more than a composer whose pencil hasn't got an eraser..."

Thought a different approach, I also like Joe Pass idea that "improvisation is just spontaneous reorganization..."

Remember also that one must follow the harmony, at least to some extent, even when one is not just running changes, and viceversa playing with arpeggios should be done in a melodic way.

A good way to learn this is to study the melodies of songs, they follow the chords but they aren't total slaves to them, sometimes they are arpeggio based but they don't sound like an exercise.

From what I can see Django's solos are always true to the harmony (even if purposely outside it) but as a friend remarked is sounds like the guitar's singing, not just a chain of chord tones.

a

i think the strongest melodies are the ones that let you play a multiplicity of changes underneath, and the strongest changes let you play many melodies on top.

Ken Bloom

Perfect!!!!!!!

BluesBop Harry

a wrote:

i think the strongest melodies are the ones that let you play a multiplicity of changes underneath, and the strongest changes let you play many melodies on top.

I don't get it...Could you elaborate?
The way I see it ANY melody will let you play lots of different chords behind it and ANY chord progression will accommodate multiple melodies.
What do you mean by "the strongest"?

a

by strongest i mean that it can work in a lot of situations and maintain it's integrity.