lalimacefolle

[Incidents Happen]

lalimacefolle, i have a question about your sig. It says, you have 7 out of 12 chances to be good when u improvise, i would like to know how you figure and where you got that statistic?

[lalimacefolle]

there's 12 notes in our western system (c c# d d# e f f# g g# a a# b) and pretty much all the 'natural' scales we know usually have 7 notes (modes, major, minor...) of course, I know there are the pentatonics (5 notes) and the Be bop scales (usually 8 or 9 notes) The chromatic scale has the 12 notes.
What I meant was that at any given time when you improvise, there's at least 7 notes than can sound good out of the 12 that exist. Of course, it's not always true, and it's sometimes more than 7... It's just a little humor!!

[Christoph]

I was wondering about how you arrived at those numbers myself.

I never thought about it before, but your explanation actually makes a lot of sense. Later. :)

[canuck01]

Did you know that 60% of all stats are made up?

[Hootayah]

I agree 100%

[lalimacefolle]

Well, it's not my idea, I got it from a jazz cat at berklee, I can't remember who though...

[Incidents Happen]

ooooh i see now. i always knew u had a half-decent chance at bein successful improviser ( the grateful dead improvised like the best of em in my 'pinion), didnt really ever think of it that way though.

[lalimacefolle]

Does successful mean that you hit the right notes more than 60% of the time??
Well... Jim HALL has a sign in his guitar case that goes: "make musical sense". What I do is try to get the best melody I can hear in my head at the moment that I start my improvisation. Then I'll take it, develop it, repeat it, answer to it, answer the answer... That's what a solo is all about, not linking licks one after another. That's what makes your solo unique and personal. I am always a little disappointed when I see that guitarists play their CDs solos note for note! Of course, there are tunes that were written for this (I'm thinking about 'for the love of god' by Steve VAI, that allows little freedom) But as a teen, I enjoyed listening to guns and roses because Slash would start his solo pretty much like the disc's, then he'll take off, and maaaan, that was awesome...

[Incidents Happen]

yeah, im a super-newb when it comes to solo...:( but i have made a few 'licks' up that have a pretty cool sound.