Hello from England!
The Jewel Box Vol. 2 is coming very soon. Just in time for Christmas :)
Also, I’m making MUCH MORE stuff right now, so if you’ve enjoyed any of these creations from The Electric Campfire:
Then let me know what you found useful, and what you’d like to see on the site.
What would be helpful for you?
Lemme know…
Saludos,
Mike
PS: If you want some guitar lessons, tips, and practical improvisation advice then I invite you to check out ElectricCampfire.com which is my membership site with all my lessons, plus 1-2-1 feedback from me too. Me me me me. Well I made it for you though :)
Hi Mike,
can’t wait for the second Jewel Box! I really enjoyed the first one!
For the website maybe it will be cool having for some topics a youtube video of you explaining directly on the instrument. And to some technique exercises I’m focusing a lot around a bpm goal so it will be cool knowing which tempo are you focusing on.
For me personally I would love to read more about the memorizing process. For example I’m trying to understand the difference between learning the actual song and learning the form. There are a couple of song that I know but that I sometimes miss the form if i’m trying to play “free” on them. It will be coll hearing your view on that.
Hope you’re good!
Nelson
Hi Nelson, Thanks for writing :)
I’m definitely going to be doing video; it’s such a great way to understand something.
Also, a few people have asked about the memorizing thing, and I’ve got epic amounts of stuff to give you re that, but do you mean that you know a melody but your improvisation gets away from that and then you get lost?
If so, check out drum solos. Good drum solos!
I think that because drummers don’t obviously have harmony and melody, they consequently ‘think’ harmony and melody when they play, and really USE the melody/song throughout their drum solo.
It’s amazing when you hear that. A drummer playing a drum solo and you’re in no doubt about where you are in the song even though they might not be literally stating the melody rhythmically. It’s more about cadence, harmony, form, the melody, the song! It’s definitely not about showing what you can do with your chops :) Or in a guitarist’s case, about showing that you can play a bunch of scales :)
That’s something to strive for, eh? To improvise *with* the song.
I played a 3 week tour recently with drummer Jeff Williams, who has toured with Joe Lovano, Stan Getz, Dave Liebman and gazillions of people, and he talked a lot about doing this, and, fuck me, can he do it!
Hello Mike, thanks for the reply.
What I mean in a more concrete way is that in certain kind of forms especially AABA I’m a lot concerned about creating something that has some sort of meaning but in doing I sometimes lose the whole form.
Thanks for the answer. Have you got some drum solo suggestion?
I listened to all the drums solos that I liked in the past and the one on “Sweet and Lovely” (Jonathan Kreisberg – Trioing) is probably my favourite but I would like to hear your listening choices as well!
Nelson
Form as in you get lost or
Form as in you lose the thread of he solo development?
I would say both but mainly the first one!
Simplify.
Try playing solos that are ridiculously simple. Do that for ages.
Also, try to understand something you don’t understand.
Take some music where you know something is going on but you’ve got no idea what is happening. It could be with harmony, rhythm, interplay, etc. Listen to it deeply for a long time. Work out what’s going on. Get so you can articulate and demonstrate what’s happening in the music. That is great for deepening your perception and it might help you be more solid with the form and being ‘in’ the music.
I asked Jeff what his favourite drum solos were and he said:
“Off the top of my head–Elvin’s solo on Monk’s Dream from Larry Young’s Unity album is a great one. He plays the form while really stretching out at the same time. You can listen over and over before you realize he’s right on the money. The Salt Peanuts Philly Joe Jones solo is another great one. It’s from one of the Miles Prestige dates”
Here’s the Elvin track – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbCyNRBhLbo
Here’s the Philly Joe track – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH6ac5cbePk