This lesson should be a approached as a continuation of our Rhythm Based Rock Improvisation Lesson. On this page I will be briefly discussing how to approach a similar exercise to this but spread over 8 bars. You will also need a copy of This Free MP3 that is used as a backing track for this lesson (this file was updated 05/03/2017). The content on this page will be very similar to our 8 Bar Groove Based Rock improvisation lesson and we have similar lesson for the Funk genre.
Note: The backing track starts with an eight beat count in.
This lesson will be very straight forward if you have covered the lessons linked at the top of the page as All you will be doing is taking the same ideas but spreading them out over a longer phrase. The basic exercise will look like this:
In previous rhythm based improvisation lessons the first thing we discussed was the construction of a groove based on the given rhythm. Have a look back over the lesson linked above for some ideas on how to do this. Specifically to this rhythm, something based on This Groove would work well. Note that there is a crotchet specified on beat 4? It would be worth highlighting this in your groove by adding a kick under the snare you would normally find there.
The next this we discussed was structure and part placement. Obviously for this longer pattern you could just play the same thing twice, but that won't earn you as many marks as creating a full 8 bar phrase. What I would recomend doing is placing the 'B' and 'C' sections at the end of each line in the example shown above. That would give you an 'A A A B A A A C' type structure. If you haven't come across this pattern it would be well worth looking through the linked lesson.
As you can see you will be using the same ideas, 'A' being the groove given to you at the start of the exercise, 'B' being a variation on that and 'C' being a fill. There is just more groove this time between each change in the part. In the lesson linked at the top of the page I discuss ideas for both varying a groove, fills and making them appropriate to the rock genre so have a go now at working out a part that would fit with this exercise.
Below I have included two examples of what you could play for this exercise. Try making your own part before looking at my ideas as this will be far more beneficial in the long run. When you have done that compare them to my examples.
Full Phrase 1
Full Phrase 2
TASK:
- Create your own part for the improvisation exercise presented at the start of this lesson.
- Play your part to the backing track and see if you think it fits well.
- Think about different ways you could approach this exercise.
