Tips on soloing?

[CoffeeJanitor]

I've got a jazz band audition coming up for my high school, and part of the audition is to improvise to blues-12-bar I assume. I can solo, but I am not the best at really "telling a story" with my play, if you will. I often end up running the blues scale up and down generic intervals at generic points (hope that makes sense). I really have trouble building from the beginning to the end, to create a coherent piece of music.

My teacher, and instinct, are telling me that really the only way ill get better is with more solos/experience, but is there anything else that you guys have found has helped you? I have thought of simply coming up with a few licks before the audition to pull out in the solo, but I feel that is a cop-out to true improv (though I will most likely end up doing that, as this is allowed for these auditions).

Thanks!

[MarkTAW]

- Motifs. Playing variations on a theme helps lend coherency to your solos. Come up with a simple melodic motif & come back to it from time to time with little changes.
- Your motif will probably have an A part and a B part. The A part sets up the tension & the B part resolves it. So if you find a place where you've created a tension you don't know how to resolve, play the B part.
- (when you're writing licks, keep this in mind)
- Think from the center out - make your melodies climb or descend (or both) around a central area.
- Don't be afraid to play the roots.
- Rather than hit the root on the one, start somewhere else & find your way back to the root.
- Remember to follow the drums & keep it grooving if you can.
- Safe notes on the accented beats (1 & 3), experimental notes on the unaccented beats (2 & 4 and off beats).

It's tough, I'm very melodic & I throw out a lot of material before I come up with something that really works with the song.

[Nathol]

I think the most important thing in an impro is to keep the rhythm going, to be on time. It's better to flow with fewer notes than to play a huge amount of notes that are wrongly timed.

[gregmerrill]

Yeah John Patitucci says keep the rhythm going. Try making a solo up from bar to bar. Hear the 1st bar and then sing with out playing an idea. Then stop and figure out what your idea was on the bass. Then keep going working one bar at a time as if your writing a song. This will help you from what Jaco callled "rambling on" which can happen when your improvising just running the scale up and down with no emotion destination or feeling. A great soloist is also a great song writer since they will be creating a melody within a solo that's just as important as the actual melody.

[gregmerrill]

Actualy Jaco called it "wiggling the fingers".

[Oneirogenic]

Does your jazz band teacher want you improvise or solo? Too different things in my opinion. I would say focus on keeping groove and hitting those "safe" notes and branching out when proper and maybe throw in a fancy fill or two in the right spots. When did jazz band in school my teacher was focused on me keeping groove and nailing the important notes of arpeggios during improvised passages. Of course he never really paid attention to what i was doing half the time he seemed more focused on the horns and guitar all the time

[bassandbeyond]

If you'll be auditioning on a blues and have limited experience with soloing, then for now you're probably best off sticking mainly with the blues scale (though following your ear, as recommended above, is the way to go in the long run).

You mentioned that you have trouble building a solo. One tip for that: start with a long note or a rest. That will immediately establish contrast from your walking line quarter notes and get the listener's attention. It also gives you a good starting point to build your solo rhythmically. Here's a link to a recent blues solo I played. Notice that I started with basically just a trill for the first bar. Good luck on the audition!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbYFnt--EFg

[HaVIC5]

Hey, I have a video series on the subject that goes far further in depth than I would be able to be write on the board.

Lesson 1 - Phrasing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEs3yJQXM8s

Lesson 2 - Diatonic note choice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2ppY0KuyIU

Lesson 3 - Motivic Development
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q-BXdouA0g

Lesson 4 - Guide Tones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEVaqg5bnAY

Lesson 5 - Minor Keys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llGxqg_rCYw

[MalcolmAmos]

The Jazz I like is based upon songs. Tunes. As has been mentioned --- Is your solo to be based upon the tune or is it to be pure improv. Need to check that out first.

Probably lies somewhere in between. Take the lead with the tune, move into your interpretation of the tune and return the lead playing the tune. Touches on both worlds.

[Kevin.Kevin]

If you want to show off a bit, Try breaking out of the blues scale, and look into other scales/modes. Nothing says jazz band like a bop scale, or some 5th mode harmonic minor

Groove is very very important. You can play a solo with one note, as long as its placed well and swings, so think more rhythmically. Your hands and ear will guide the notes.

Im sure your teacher will be expecting some bluesy type stuff. So why not show him some other key centre based things. On the 8th bar, you can imply a Related ii-V7 to the ii chord in the 9th bar. ie, blues in F:

F7 | Bb7| F7| F7|
Bb7| Bb7| F7| A-7 D7|
G-7| C7 | F D-7| G-7 C7|

Touching on those other key centres as well as throwing in other chord subs, will not only show your awareness of other possibilities, but it will set up some tensions, that will be nicely resolved in your last few bars.

And always be mindful of the melody. You can always base an improvisation off that, where the spaces are, where youd like them to be filled ect...

[JTE]

To solo well, don't start with the bass in your hands. Lock it up in its case. SING a solo that sounds good to you over the changes you're soloing over. Record what you sing. Then and only then get the bass out and learn exactly what you sang.

Why?

Because good solos aren't about the instrument, they're about the music. In order to tell a story, you gotta HAVE a story, and you gotta know the story. So start with the story, and the playing will follow.

John

[ctufankjian]

Originally Posted by JTE

To solo well, don't start with the bass in your hands. Lock it up in its case. SING a solo that sounds good to you over the changes you're soloing over. Record what you sing. Then and only then get the bass out and learn exactly what you sang.

Why?

Because good solos aren't about the instrument, they're about the music. In order to tell a story, you gotta HAVE a story, and you gotta know the story. So start with the story, and the playing will follow.

John

That's such an interesting approach!!! Definitely going to give that a shot myself

[tappingtrance]

The best advice I can give is to write it out like an etude esp. if this is for an audition. Leave nothing to chance. The more you practice 'your' etude' the more natural it will feel and sound. Sing it, find it, write it, and memorize it. Soon you will notice that your will start using your motifs you wrote in other areas of solo and you will be building your repertoire. Here is an example, and while I think it sounds stiff I only had a day or so to put it together for a recording, now however, I fly through this tune (Bright Size Life) http://www.fusionhouseband.com/toons.html
Good luck!

[puff father]

Nice thread. Nice links in here too.

I think this was an excellent post too: (nod to JTE)

Sing your solos.
Yep. I'm serious - sing them.

Start out by singing along with scales and exercises as you play them, mimicking the sound our bass is producing. Don't worry about your voice sucking - just match pitches. If your bass part goes too high, sing them an octave below (the opposite if they're an octave above. In the extraordinary event that you can't get the pitches *even roughly right* after a good long period of trying, please sell your instrument immediately and never buy another - but I'm certain you'll be able to.

After you have a certain amount of practice singing along with your scales and exercises, start "jamming" a bit by yourself while singing along with your fingers. This can be done in the first week, and even the first time out if you find yourself matching the pitches of your exercises easily enough. If not, keep practicing your scales and exercises until it's a bit easier. You should notice an immediate change in the way you phrase - immediate meaning "first time" in some cases and "after two or three practice sessions" in others.

Next level, sing your solos as you jam with others - even quietly if you feel self-conscious. Eventually you'll be able to *sing silently inside your head*, but keep singing nevertheless.

The following areas will improve astonishingly quickly -

1) the vast library of musical phrases which long listening has planted inside your head will become your seedstock for musical ideas rather than the comparatively tiny number of finger gestures you've practiced on that particular instrument.

2) instead of your voice following your fingers, your fingers will begin to follow your sung phrasing, with all the little scoops or slurs or vibrato with which you'd naturally sing something (it's extraordinarily difficult to sing notes with such sterility as that which we practice scales)

3) your phrasing will improve because "run on sentences" will edit themselves as you run out of breath. Or you'll die. One of those two. My money's on the editing.

Timeline for improvement: a week to a month of "fifteen minutes a day practicing this" to get pretty confident on the basics (faster if you put in more time) and a couple of weeks of regular jamming to notice a big improvement. A few months before it's complete habit.

Trust me on this one.

[cnltb]

A tip;
Don't play all the notes, just the good ones.

[bass12]

If you haven't already, check out Willie Weeks' solo on Donny Hathaway's "Everything Is Everything" (from the album "Live"). That is a great example of how to build a solo that really does have a beginning, middle and end (and maintains a groove throughout).

[steverosati]

listen and transcribe solos from other players not just bass but sax, piano, guitar whatever it will help your ear and give you new ideas.

[Lincoln]

Originally Posted by JTE

To solo well, don't start with the bass in your hands. Lock it up in its case. SING a solo that sounds good to you over the changes you're soloing over. Record what you sing. Then and only then get the bass out and learn exactly what you sang.

Why?

Because good solos aren't about the instrument, they're about the music. In order to tell a story, you gotta HAVE a story, and you gotta know the story. So start with the story, and the playing will follow.

John

Definitely!!

Singing what you want to play is one of the best practice exercises i can think of doing. If you're practiced up with the scales, arpeggios and chords of a given song, your fingers already have the muscle memory built in. However, there's no artistry in muscle memory. Your brain often is way more developed in this area than your fingers. It's also for more intuitive. A long time ago someone once told me, if you can sing it you can play it...

Also, take your time, relax and practice breathing. This will help your phrasing