placing your music into context of improvising blues

In Leonard Bernstein's Omnibus series (1950's lectures) he covers the work of Bach in one show. He stated that early on in his studies that he found it difficult to enjoy Bach's work, stating it “seemed to me more like motion than emotion.” This is a good statement for all of us improvisors to keep in mind.

This tip comes from Tad Robinson in an interview he conducted for BluesHarmonica.com (I'm editing it right now... to release in September).

His analogy for those learning how to improvise is that of a painter... learn how to paint still life first, before trying impressionist art. In other words, copy the blues harmonica masters verbatim first, then try your own thing after time. Cool analogy.

Did you know that when most professionals do a cover song that they learn the head (the opening twelve bars... the most discernible part of the song) and then improvise the body? This takes a lot of the stress out of "memorizing" a song... learn the head and improvise everything else. If you're at the skill level where what you improvise comes close to sounding as good as what the original player of the song did, then this is the way to go. continue reading...