Sorry: But I just can't shake hating doing fills: need some words of wisdom
I just don't get fills. I don't know where they come from. Maybe I should just give this up. It ain't happenin'. I hate doing chorus forms because of fills. I don't want to hear my attempts at them. They just go sour, have no rhythm. Learning songs doesn't help. I can only play the licks within the context of the song. I can't access them outside the song, and I don't how to pull any inspiration for fills from them anyway. And to top it off. I can read all the left brain stuff in the world about theory, but I don't see how I can get into my brain in a form that it will come out when I'm playing. I'm just stuck.
Thanks for listening.
Thanks, Winslow,
Sometimes I just have to wrestle my demons to the ground and identify them.
Those are great tips. David also gave me a jump start in my lesson yesterday by highlighting the fills in songs I already know. We learn and improve by increments, so these suggestions will head me in the right direction.
I keep forgetting that the things like tone and improvising are very much like learning to bend. It seems impossible at first, but after a while you can't imagine not being able to do it. I'm in the seems impossible stage now with fills. It's an illusion.
Now time to go play with fills.
Thanks for the tips.
You might check out Joe Tartaglla's lessons where Dave explains using focus notes to create fills.
Just needed a nudge. This evening I did have fun with fills. Used some I learned in songs and made up some--slowly and wrote them down, but that's progress. Happy camper :-)
Yahoo! Time and listening. I spent the past year, learning from Muddy Water's harmonica players and then my favorite, James Cotton. I ain't rushing out to cut any CDs today, but finally when my boyfriend, a guitar player at the Saloon in San Francisco, calls me on stage and just tells me the key of what we're playing, I don't freak, I enjoy myself and have some surprising moments. Time, listening, and faith......and, of course, all your suggestions and Dave's lessons sinking in. Thanks! Can only get better from here.
You could just memorize the fills you want to play on specific songs.
One strategy could be to just echo the melody. Often the melody takes up 2 bars, with about two bars left to play the fill, almost like call and response. If you know the tune on harmonica, just repeat the phrase.
However, the song melody often ends on the first beat of the third bar, so you have to dance around that and adapt.