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Ben-you pretty much nailed it. I don't do nearly enough work with backing tracks as I should. there are an incredible number of resources out there. I definitely struggle with creating a comprehensive enough practice schedule for the time I have daily (approximately 2 hours a day/week).
You young punks don't know dick about alternate melody!
Eddie Lang was doing alternate melody way back in 1927, when Django was still backing up accordian players!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxijC5BHcR8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkHxBvgx-zY
By the way, the other two musicians on those two tunes were Frank Trumbauer on C-melody sax and Bix Beiderbecke on piano and cornet...
Some GJ players sneer at Eddie Lang. While he may not have had the virtuoso of Django, he single-handedly invented jazz guitar.
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
"It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
-- Orson Welles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql3eF8cp ... re=related
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
Man, I can relate. My own experiences have periods where I feel I'm on the right track, then out of the blue I'm wondering if I should continue. For me, that's a natural ebb and flow, though. One of the things that helps me is really listening to a tune from other perspectives. I mean, one tune that I'm working on right now is 'How High The Moon'. There are a lot of folks doing it, and Django has a nice version on the CD set Swing De Paris: Nuages disc. There are some charts of the tune out there that have the melody, so that's what I start with when learning. For some tunes that Django does, I find myself wanting to hear the straight melody, just to get some bearings. In this case, I went to the Jazz Anthology site and did a search on that title.
http://www.jazz-on-line.com/pageinterrogation.php
There are several available, but the one I was most interested in was Ella Fitzgerald's version. Not only is she a great vocalist, but I consider her voice a stellar example of a great instrument. She does the tune straight swing, then, they take off on it, and she opens up her vocals to do the scat singing that she does so well. The vocal licks she performs are just amazing, and give me a lot ideas. I play the changes to the tune slowly, and find the melody in the various voicings I am using. While I'm practicing the changes, I'm trying to hum, or sing the melody.
The goal is to learn to hear the melody in the chord changes, and learn where the notes fit. Then, I begin to play around with it. First, singing or scatting, not in the same league as Ella, but after doing this a bit, I'm finding more ways to approach a solo to the tune.
I can go back to the Django version and hear the solos a bit better, and they begin to make some sense. I don't have the 'ears of a bat' like some of our forum members, and I'm not trying to rip off Django's solos exactly. I just want to be able to hear it in my head and play it. It's not easy, and it certainly isn't something I've got down completely.
One of my favorite GJ versions of this tune, I found on YouTube taken during the Django In June fest. Check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXKb1Oc0UYk, really fantastic work by the whole group.
The message I'm hearing is slow way down when I practice and simplify my ideas. I've dialed the metronome way way back and am making sure I have an idea back before I move it up a few notches.
With regards to simplifying, I've started to devise a strategy of doing a Q&A type thing where I play a simple melodic phrase and respond with an improvised bit...nothing too complicated or speedy.
In the mean time, I think this is a series of posts I'll be revisiting often to try to absorb a lot of the ideas that have been discussed.
If I had to start all over again, I'd start with Gypsy Picking, Stephane's book, Gypsy Fire, and the Denis Chang DVDs. I bought a copy of the first Improv dvd and it has been nothing short of a revelation.
Basically, I learn a lick, try to commit it to memory verbatim by playing it in all keys, alter it as necessary, and incorporate it into a song. I've been alternating a pre-learned lick with an "answer" of something improvised and it seems to be working out pretty nicely for me. By "answer", I mean that I'm just trying to find a nice little phrase that will fit in melodically for the pre-learned lick. Michael's book gave me the foundation, and Stephane's book gives me a road map for how to practice and what to learn.
The rest of the band has seemed to notice some improvement. For me, it feels less like me scrambling to find a lick or pre-written piece that will fit in specific spots and I've been getting called to solo on tunes that I don't normally blow on. I'm feeling more and more comfortable.