well .. when you are playing on stage ... especially when improvising ... you dun have time to think about what to play. You need to RESPOND to the music, instead of thinking what to play.
Expanding your vocabulary is like a soldier equipping himself with gadgets and weaponry to get ready for war. The more well equip you are .... the more options you have when playing or even composing.
Vocabulary can mean a few things ...
1) Chords - Expand on Chord knowledge in terms of different keys, tensions, modulation, voicings and inversions. Recognising Chords and progressions helps you in composing and trancription of songs. It helps you understand the music better. Many people might think it's easy to play a pop song. But not many people are aware that pop songs contains typical chords that are Hybrids, altered (jazz) and can appear in very odd timings. Try transcripting a song from Whitney Houston ... sounds simple but more between the eyes.
When playing more complex genres like Jazz or Classical ... chord knowledge is inherent in chord solos. Classical is more compplicated ... it's no longer chords ... but harmony. But dun have to go that far la ...
2) Scales - There are 15 main positions of the Major scale that covers the whole fret board. And Scales can be altered like b5+b7 or b13 (melodic minor modes). Scales should be practiced not just linearly but in melodic patterns. Melodic patterns are like Rudiments for a drummer. The more melodic patterns you can play at the back of your hand ... the more Vocab you have for playing!!
Ex: instead of playing 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 of a scale. Try playing 1,3,5,2,4,6,3,5,7 or 4,3,2,1,5,4,3,2,6,5,4,3,7,6,5,4. Do this on all shapes. Explore as many patterns as you can ... dun be lazy (again
) ... play it to the max! If you are willing to go all the way.
Dun forget pentatonic and blues scale ... face melting solos are based on these. FEEL the blues!
3) Rhythm - Learn to jam to as many genres of rhythm as possible. Samba, Funk (especially), Bossa, Swing, Rock, Raggae, Cha cha, Carribean, Blues, etc. Remember this ... a wrong chord or wrong note is NEVER as obvious as a wrong beat! You can play a wrong chord or note and still bluff your way true ... but playing something out of beat you will stand out like an ugly duckling!! Everybody makes mistakes on stage .... but you want to minimise it. Hence the very very foundation of playing is to get your rhythm right! If Rhythm is not consistent ... everything else fails.
And pay special attention to any transitional progressions in a songs when there is odd timing or Syncropaton. Make sure your timing is smack on with your eyes close. The TIGHTNESS of the band depends on how well the band can play their parts together ... not playing the right note or chord ... but the right TIME.
Experiment in time signatures mainly 4/4 and 6/8. If you want further ... you can try 7/4, 5/4, 12/8, 19/16 (it's the weirdest but i heard!!) In case you dun understand ...
4/4 means 4 crochets in a bar.
7/4 means 7 crochets in a bar.
6/8 means 6 quavers in a bar.
19/16 means 19 semi quavers in a bar.
Sigh ok ... i know i talk too much and i am long winded .... whatever it is ... just keep figure out songs ... jam ... play with friends ... ask ask ask ask ask ... and take note of the points i told you when you do these ... you should be able to get your music sense. Well, i am not professional musician ... hence i dun have that kind of time to commit to all that i told ya. But if you really want to achieve ... it's very time consuming and you might have to watch less TV, drink less coffee, watch less movie. It really depends on what you want in life. But whatever it is ... life is good ... do whatever that makes you happy .... ok ok i know .. i will stop nagging ... :?
