David's Tip of the Day: Playing Bluesy or Light - Tip #4: Grooves

From your list of memorized instrumentals and solos, you wrote down what the grooves were. Within each groove, licks are contained that have a light feel, a dark feel and combinations, depending on what the band is playing to create that groove. Lighter notes tend to be chosen for Swings and Rhumbas (E's and B's), where Box Shuffles and Slow Blues will tend to use more bluesy notes (F's and B-flat's). This is why it's important for you to memorize many solos and instrumentals (at one time in your studies, it doesn't mean that you have to be able to regurgitate them note-for-note at any moment)... imbedded within these solos and instrumentals that use different grooves are a great treasure trove of licks for you to use when you play to similar grooves. If after watching "Performance Training: Grooves" there exists some grooves you haven't studied, then search songs out (dig into your collection and start listening for them) that have these grooves for you to study to develop a lick basis of how to approach those grooves when they come up in your playing.