El Lobo

I've been listening to videos by Kenny Werner, the "effortless mastery" dude. He says something very much like what MOI and Al Quinn are saying here: practice small bits, maybe just a few notes, until you can solo with them without thinking. When you perform, the pieces come together and fit without you having to think about how to make them happen musically. That's my rephrasing of the concept, but it makes a ton of sense to me. So the answer to the OP's question becomes: solo on a major blues using only 2 or 3 notes until you automatically start to add notes that feel right to you. Don't think, just solo with a few notes and make them sound musical to you. It can be a little hard to do this because our conscious mind wants to do more. Resist the temptation until your playing becomes automatic or unconscious. This advice is hard for me to take. But I want to try to do it. I know, I know. Yoda says there is no try, there is only do. But doing can be hard, even for the simplest task.

My blues-rock band has played that for years. I play sax on it and solo. That's one of the ones where I think of using (almost) all the notes in the chromatic scale -- going through some notes as passing tones, especially the major 3 and even the #1 and maj 7, as long as you end up emphasizing the 1 or dominant 7 or 5 or some note solidly in the major or minor blues scale.

I don't hate Facebook. I accept it for what it is. I enjoy keeping in touch with friends. I promote my band(s) and gigs. If I engage in a pointless argument with somebody I don't know, I think of it as entertainment, as well as stretching my brain to keep logic and writing skills in shape. If it's an argument with a friend or somebody I know, I try to find a way to agree ... or at least be agreeable. It's not a time suck. I actually get some things accomplished on Facebook. Also, I have a busy and fulfilling Real Life so FB does not fill that need.

Thanks for that. Hard to listen to. I've lost too many people.

Vince Guaraldi, Cast Your Fate To The Wind, 1962 -- smooth jazz precursor?

Yeah, for happy major blues, play the 2 and the 6. Also the major 3. And the 4 on the IV chord. And the 5 and maj 7 on the V chord. That's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. In C, that's all the white keys. That should give you plenty of notes to work with. In my band, the guitar player plays the Johnnie Johnson solo on guitar. I could play it on keys, except on that tune I'm playing the sax lines which are also important parts of the sound. +1 on Louis Jordan as the "secret Grandfather of Rock and Roll." I'm a huge fan of his jump blues. I think of him as rock 'n' roll before there was rock 'n' roll.

For discussions like this one, I always say I use the chromatic scale. You can play all the passing notes you want until you get to notes you like. I play pentatonics and minor blues and other scales, but I often go up or down chromatically by a note or 2 or 3 to do little chromatic runs on my way to target notes. You can use the 1, 2, b3, 3, 4, #4, 5, #5, 6, b7, 7 if you go through them to the next note up or down. About the only note that often doesn't sound good is the #1 (b2), but you can go through it from the 1 to the 2 and land on the b3 or 3 or 4 or 5. It all depends on where you're going.

Horn players come after the crew and management?

I empathize. I grew up playing rock/blues/R&B/top 40 sax and rhythm guitar. I started playing keyboard in blues-rock groups about 15 years ago. I've tried to listen to jazz but it's just not my thing. In jams I've played all the soul jazz, blues jazz, funk jazz, fusion jazz standards -- Mercy Mercy Mercy, Chameleon, Maiden Voyage, The Chicken, Blue Bossa, Song For My Father, Put It Where You Want It, Cantaloupe Island, Cold Duck Time, Sunny, etc. I can do a pretty credible soulful keys solo on most of those. But I'm not very interested in playing American Songbook Jazz Standards. I'm in a regular jazz jam now where we read from Real book charts so I'm playing keys on some straight ahead jazz tunes. But I really get more into tunes like What's Going On, tunes that are based on modern or pop or rock changes. It's what I grew up on, it's what I hear in my head. I don't hear bop styles or old skool changes from 75 years ago. 50 years ago - yes. I'm a much better sax player than I am a keys player. I don't play any straight ahead jazz on sax, but I can play a very good sax solo on an old soul tune, much better than some jazzers I've heard try the same thing. It's about feeling the music and having played and absorbed it all your life. Do you have to do jazz to be “good”? Definitely NO. There are lots of rock and blues players who are not jazzers who are very good.

I think most self-taught piano players, like me, start with the key of C because it looks most obvious and straightforward. And you can play a bunch of songs with only the white keys and don't have to worry about what all those black keys do. Then you can move to playing a blues in Am and you're still good. Oops, but if you want to play that E7, you're gonna need to find a black key. When I found out that Stevie Wonder likes to play (and compose) in Eb, I started to work my way around the black keys and learned to love them. I can chord in any key, but it's hard for me to solo in some keys, especially those sharp or flat keys. But the more I do it, the more I can do it. The easiest keys on the guitar, when you're first learning, are the keys that all rock guitar players like to play in -- E, A, G, D. C comes last. Sometimes Bb comes before C for guitarists' ease of play, once they start playing up on the neck and learning patterns and get away from open chords. On sax, I'm permanently transposed and it's all muscle memory, so I don't think in sharps or flats, I just know where all the notes are that work ... and some that don't work unless I choose to make them work. They're all there under my fingers and the key I'm in doesn't matter. I wish I could do the same on keyboard or guitar. But there's not enough time left ...

I've been following the development of electric trucks and SUV's and plug-in hybrids for a while. There will be many more models developed in the next 2-3 years. Currently, there is no plug-in hybrid truck. I'd be most interested in such a model because most of my driving is less than 30 miles round trip so that would all be on electricity, no gas. But I could drive 400 miles for the occasional trip to see the grandkids or vacation getaway. Right now, I don't see any plug-in hybrid trucks on the horizon; car makers are going full tilt on all-electric models. I want a truck because I need a vehicle with a tall door opening. I have neck problems and can't bend my head down to get into a vehicle without pain. A lot of vehicles look like they have a tall door opening or roof line but really don't. Toyota Highlander is one example. It's not headroom, it's the space from the seat to the top of the door opening that matters. I've gotten in and out of friends' Ford Explorer or Toyota Tacoma and it still makes me bend my head down to get in. I've learned to get in a car head first. But I'd love to just hop in my vehicle without having to bend my head down. I wish Ford made a plug-in hybrid Transit Connect or an electric model with 200-mile range. Edit: spoke too soon without checking. Apparently there is a PHEV Ford Transit Connect available in Europe. PHEV and electric models are supposed to be in the US in 2023.

I recently saw the video that the OP posted. I've been looking at electric trucks and SUVs for a while. There will be more models being produced in the next couple of years. I can wait. But this F-150 Lightning caught my attention. There are outlet plugs all over the dang thing, in the bed and other places. If I remember correctly, there's even a 220 outlet somewhere so you can plug in your clothes dryer. What really caught my attention was that you can use the truck like a storage battery to power your house if the power goes out. That happens to my house occasionally. This feature of the truck makes me think of it as dual purpose. The idea of powering a band is new. I like it. I think it's a question that needs to be answered -- especially the part about having enough juice to drive 100 miles home after the 4-hour gig running full PA, guitar, bass, keys, etc. That may be too much. But the video shows all the ways this truck has been engineered to be feature-heavy (including fake sound of of engine running), so it's something that Ford should engineer and advertise for next generation: "Ford F-150 Lightning can get you to the gig, power a full rock band for a 4-hour show, then get you home again!" There's also enough storage for all your gear -- the bed, the front trunk (the "frunk") and the 2nd row behind the driver. The drummer in my main band has a truck with that 2nd row and it's roomy enough that he puts all his drum gear in that space, nothing in the bed. It looks to me that the Lightning would have lots of space for gear.

But there is crying in baseball. Didn't you see the movie? Just kidding. As always, timwat is a fount of wisdom.

The other 4 guys is my main band all sing. At rehearsal, we work out the harmonies until we all agree they sound right. Sometimes it takes several tries, sometimes they have to switch parts around to get it so everybody can sing their part correctly. We work until we can do the song and we're all happy with it. We don't gig the song until we have rehearsed it enough to feel it's gig-worthy. I feel your pain. If the band members aren't willing to work to get the correct harmonies, I don't know what you can do. I'm with you -- if you can't sing (or play) the parts correctly, don't do the song.

Another way of saying it: the more you play, the more you CAN play. I keep experiencing this. I'm playing sax and keys in a few different settings. The more I've been playing, for instance on keys, the more I discover I can do some things that I didn't realize I could do. I may be reading Real book charts with complex or fast chord changes. Sometimes I struggle and can't do it well but sometimes I discover to my surprise that I can follow it and my fingers know where to go without me telling them what to do very much. Similarly, I start a solo over some unusual changes, thinking that I'm going to have to stay basic, but then my fingers go places I don't think I know. Of course, sometimes my fingers go to bad notes but I just smile and look at the other players and try to indicate that I intentionally wanted to go "outside."

Bass player I played with in the 70's always said it's "time on your ax." There is no substitute. You can't get there from here without "time on your ax." I play a lot of instruments. Some instruments I tried, I didn't get very far very fast so I stopped trying. Other instruments I got enough reinforcement for playing so I kept playing. I'm a good sax player -- I've been playing and gigging for decades. I played guitar as a young man, played rhythm guitar in a rock band in the 60's, played guitar in a free jazz group in the 70's. I could play decently but I haven't played guitar regularly for a long time so I can barely play it at all now. We had a piano in the house when I was a young man and I learned to chord on it. I had a Wurlitzer in the 70's that I dunced around on a little, but gave it up in a divorce. I've had a band for the last 20 years. I'm the sax player. About 15 years ago the keyboard player quit. I asked the band if I could audition as the keyboard player. They said yes. I was a very basic blues/rock keys player but I've been gigging on keys in that band for 15 years now and I've gotten a lot better. I'm still not a very good keys player, but I can do a credible and soulful blues/rock solo and get applause. I play keys in other bands, including a jazz jam group reading Real book charts. Want to play keyboard better? It's "time on your ax." The original question was "Why is it so difficult?" Answer: because it's so different from guitar and bass. Keep doing it. It will get easier and you will get better. Time on your ax.

wow. geeking out on being in the weeds on this. you can hear the Nord piano library here: https://www.nordkeyboards.com/sound-libraries/nord-piano-library

I hate playing the Doors' "Roadhouse Blues" because it's so boring to bang away on the 1 and 5 for measures on end. Thing is, it always goes over well. Dance floor fills, and the crowd always sings along on "I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer" -- even people who are clearly too young to have even existed at the time this song was popular. I don't understand why this song works with any audience. I don't play it very often any more but when somebody in the band calls it, I mentally prepare myself to start banging on the 1 and the 5 and tell myself I'm just happy to be gigging at what I call my advanced age and happy to see people dancing and being entertained. I try to practice gratitude, even when I'm playing Roadhouse Blues.

While I agree with that description, I'm sure Stevie Nicks was not thinking about that when she wrote the song. As others have said, music theory is used to explain something after the fact. This wikipedia entry describes how the song was written and how it evolved into what became the finished recording of the song. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams_(Fleetwood_Mac_song)

I agree with everything that y'all are saying. Except maybe for "Sweet Home Alabama." I just hate that song. 🤠

I'm enjoying this discussion. I know music theory and the names of the modes and how they'er derived. But my experience playing is that I don't know the name of the mode I'm in, I only know which notes work and which don't. I've played Dreams in jams before and I just think of it as a 2-chord song. I can solo over those changes credibly but I have no idea what mode I'm in or even what key I'm in. I just know what works. Edit: and just as I post, there's timwat saying it better than I said it.

Nord

That Natalie Cole version is still too upbeat for me. I've just listened to a bunch of versions on utoob. I tried to stay away from the Willie Nelson version which is closest to what I think of as the mood of the lyrics. Then I found this Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington version. Very nice playing and singing by Satchmo, plus nice soloing/fills by Trummy Young on trombone, Barney Bigard on clarinet, then Duke soloing on piano.

Yes, it's the circular firing squad made real.

The only thing this war accomplishes is demonstrating that human beings have not evolved enough to ensure their own survival. We will be the cause of our own demise.