Making your leads sing.

[RABid]

When I think back to my early years of playing keys in bands, I shudder while thinking about my early solos. They were so mechanical. So, ummm, Bach. It took me years to evolve from solos that sounded like they were sequenced to playing solos with life and emotion. There are a lot of people here who understand exactly what I am talking about and have been through the same process. The goal of this thread is to help new players accelerate that process. Give your tips, techniques, ideas, practice routines, and anything else that will help people play better leads.

 

Here are two of my thoughts and evolving your lead technique.

 

Play around with other instruments. Three instruments that I learned really changed the way I approach leads. Electric guitar pushed me to bend notes, go wild with the whammy bar, and make it scream with distortion and feed back. When going back to synth I was paying much more attention to the pitch bend and modulation. I also had the button ready to turn on glide and just the right time and then turn it back off again. Saxophone taught me to growl, to delicately push a note off tune and pull it back again, trill, etc. Congas/finger drumming help me break out of straight 16th note leads. I had learned to do triplets, but after finger drumming for a few years I found myself shoving 5, 7 or even 9 evenly spaced notes into those spaces that used to hold the standard 4.

 

An early bandmate told me that if I wanted to improve my leads, listen to Aretha Franklin. "It is what all of us guitarists do." This was in the early 80's and I did not understand at the time. Now I can say Aretha, Gladys, Ella and Janis all affected my playing. How to deliver a power note, how to moan and growl, how to add those little touches that give life, and how to scat those lines with variances in speeds and dynamics of delivery. Listen to what the great singers are doing. One day I realized that I was singing the leads in my head as I played, using every controller available to add the nuances that I heard my imaginary voice sing. That is when I realized how much my leads had improved.

[MAJUSCULE]

Main things for me were (and still are) lifting great solos, singing along with myself (need to do more of this), and remembering to leave space/allowing lines to end. Fully agree on the playing other instruments or at least learning solos from other instruments.

[MathOfInsects]

It's funny but my references mostly go to speech. Think about the cadence of a good preacher, or rally leader. This involves not only a slow and sneaky ramping up of energy, but lots of short phrases that lengthen in complexity, move higher and higher in pitch space, and strengthen in intention as they go. They also involve repetition for effect. IMO repetition and "repetition with a difference" are indispensable elements of a cohesive-sounding solo that gains energy as it goes. 

 

Try to find a phrase or shape from the melody to key off of. This is a simple thing that people can overlook. Make a solo that would only go in that song. 

Pre-hear everything you're going to play. There has to be a reason for what you say. 

Remember that it's the space between phrases that really makes a solo. It is more important to compose/conceive/create those, IMO, than what happens between them.

 

Finally, for city-dwellers: Think about when the newlywed couple in the apartment next door does either of the two things that newlyweds do. Have you ever heard a couple argue from the apartment next door? (Everything I'm about to say also applies to the "other" thing.) It starts low in pitch, short phrases with pauses between them. Then it starts to ramp up, and phrases come out faster, with more energy, higher, and sometimes they are saying the same thing but meaning it differently. That simmers down a bit and then out of nowhere it explodes again. Then finally there's this sort of boiling return to "normal" at the end. You can't hear words, you just hear the "shape" of what's being said. If you can structure a solo that follows that same "shape," you are getting somewhere.


 

[RABid]

28 minutes ago, MathOfInsects said:

Pre-hear everything you're going to play. There has to be a reason for what you say. 

This leads right into something that I came back to say. Think about the songs. Is it a bouncy party song, a soft, loving ballad, full of anger and betrayal, about the wonder of first love? Is it reflecting someone that feels timid and fragile, or someone going after what they want and willing to do anything it takes? The patch and notes should reflect those emotions. 

[KuruPrionz]

Many good ideas so far. I'm a guitarist and I agree that listening to great guitarists will provide ideas that are useful on keyboards. 

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the use of silence. Thelonius Monk mastered silence, a brief silence in just the right place can spark a solo in a way that a note cannot. 

 

 

[Jose EB5AGV]

Pretty interesting topic for me as a beginner. Following it to learn 👍🏻

 

Thanks!

[Tusker]

Internalize the vocabulary of the idiom you are playing. (Lift ideas. Immerse yourself.)

 

Internalize the most popular melodic invention patterns (inversion, retrograde, retrograde inversion, augmentation, diminution)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h31-bxhrN40

 

Repetition is ok.

 

Practice variations of the dramatic arc in your solos (small to climax, climax to small, small to climax to small etc.)

 

Use phrases. Take a breath.

 

 

[KuruPrionz]

Create Tension and Release, that is the basic skeleton. 

Don't just learn from your mistakes, learn to USE them!!!

A mistake can be a great way to create tension if you remember it and put it in just the right spot. 

 

A brief bit of disturbing nuance, whether it be playing across time in a different signature, playing "the notes that are wrong" or some other oblique obstacle, can make everybody twitch, launch right back into the groove in the correct key and toss another blip in there, then back to "normal" music. 

I do it all the time, it keeps the focus on the solo and can be a great use for those blunders that you put in the wrong place. There could be a right place for them too. 

[timwat]

What a wonderful topic...thank you RABid, for starting this.

 

Some things that are helping me, and have helped me:

 

Gifted soloists, keyboard or otherwise

The first time I heard Tom Harrell was his Sail Away. It has hooked me ever since, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is his short solo (1:38 to 2:33). I would never have thought of those note choices, phrases, rhythmic choices. There are other solos that caught me: Brecker's My One and Only Love, Jan Hammer's Play with Me, Bill Nelson's Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape, Jarrett's My Song, The Good America, Gary Willis' For All We Know.

 

I was taught to tx Miles solos, Freddie Hubbard, and others. It is the one like Harrell I think I learn the most from - choices I would not naturally make, that speak to me in fresh ways.

 

The negative space

Years ago I spent time listening back to my playing in rehearsals, and occasionally gig recordings. Boy isn't that humbling. Take that in very small doses, like hemlock. I play too many freakin' notes. This was one of the major things I worked on early on with my long-time teacher, Peter Horvath. A lot of the time, all those notes were crappy blathering filler to make up for the fact I had no real vocabulary to say something musical. So instead I tried to bluff something technical. At that time, most of the results were neither musical nor technical LOL. Great soloists use so few notes - even the busy parts. This was a hard, hard lesson for me to actually integrate into my heart. The head learned it first, but it was years to replace bad habits with more musical ones. Now, one of my long-time drummers says regularly he can hear what I'm thinking, where I'm going, how I'm trying to get there. I know I'm not always successful, but the journey is the reward in itself.

 

Struggle to exorcise demons

Horvath once remarked that our solos is "where we work out all our demons". The older I get (and the more demons I acquire), the more I am learning what that means.

 

Saying a feeling

One of the things I started experimenting with is digging into how why certain relationships, events, and conflicts make me feel - and using that deliberately as the impetus for a particular solo. I think I started with a phrase of Lewis' from The Weight of Glory, "We betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name" - how does it feel when someone innocently mentions the name of someone who is you? I used that to compose a waltz, and sometimes think of set of feelings to try to say something. 

 

Bring the non-musical to the solo

Along similar lines, the poetry of Dana Gioia (like his compelling Words), has fueled how I want to shape and start a journey. And I think it was Stevie who once said to become a great singer, you had to "Grow up in church, have fallen in love, and have your heart broken by a woman". In other words, the fuller your life is, and the more your heart has been enriched by more than the practice room, the more you eventually have to say.

 

Anyway, I'm still trying to figure it all out too. And of course, there is the lonely discipline of transcribing, study, playing, transposing that builds the foundation.

 

Eager to hear what others have to add to this great topic.

 

Tim

[cphollis]

A topic near and dear to my heart, as I started pretty poorly but have made huge strides in the last few years, or -- at least -- this is what others tell me.

 

I agree with MOI's comments on speech cadences, as I am an effective public speaker and a good cadence is a good cadence.  Thinking of a lead line as a grouping of phrases (statements) is also another parallel to oration.   Finally, it took me some serious work to get meaningful expression out of certain instruments (AP, organ).

 

As I'm playing mostly covers now, I try to find lead lines that are (a) memorable, (b) unique to the song, and (c) aren't a lame attempt to recreate the original.

[JamPro]

1) Know your scales - in all keys: pentatonic; relative minor pentatonic; major ionic; major dorian; harmonic minor; melodic minor; altered; diminshed.

2) Practice changing beat values: when I practice my scales, I do the following: set the metronome at 40 bpm, play one measure in eight notes up and down.  Then play two measures with swing eights up and down; then play three measures up and down with triplet eights; then play four measures up and down with 16th notes, then four measures up and down with swing 16th notes, then three measures up and down with triplet 16th notes, then four measures up and down with 32nd notes, then four measures up and down with swing 32nd notes.  Then on to the next key.

3) Know your chord voicings and which scales go with which chords (in all keys).  I practice this by playing I-IV-ii-V-I: I can play chord voicings in a song "context" and use a variety of scales played over those chord voicings.

4) Play a song in all keys.  I try to choose songs which make me work on scales and chord voicings.  This week I am playing Oleo (major), Sugar (minor), and Mr. PC (minor blues) in all keys.

5) Sing your solos: make sure to include a pause where you need to breathe.

6) Record yourself and listen back immediately.  I use my iphone and the voice recording app to make quick recordings to tell me how far off I am from what I wanted to hear.

 

Notice how these things build on each other: it is really hard to play a given song in different keys if one is unsure about scales or chord voicings in different keys.

 

7) Have fun.

[16251]

Learn some of your favorite solos without writing them down.

[RABid]

A few tips on pitch bend and the emotions it invokes.

 

Up 1 step or so - Happy, much like a major chord.

 

Down 1 step - Sad, much like a minor chord.

 

Up an octave - Power move.

 

Down an octave - Crash

 

Bending just a fraction of a note can and keeping it moving can equate to a playful teasing, or a struggle. 

[AROIOS]

13 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

...

Finally, for city-dwellers: Think about when the newlywed couple in the apartment next door does either of the two things that newlyweds do. Have you ever heard a couple argue from the apartment next door? (Everything I'm about to say also applies to the "other" thing.) It starts low in pitch, short phrases with pauses between them. Then it starts to ramp up, and phrases come out faster, with more energy, higher, and sometimes they are saying the same thing but meaning it differently. That simmers down a bit and then out of nowhere it explodes again. Then finally there's this sort of boiling return to "normal" at the end. You can't hear words, you just hear the "shape" of what's being said. If you can structure a solo that follows that same "shape," you are getting somewhere.


 

Some nuggets of wisdom right there. Btw, if you ever decide to change career, MOI, by all means consider romance novels first.

[Al Quinn]

It’s a lot like public speaking and story telling. Early on we might be playing something composed or copied; like the person speaking in public who reads a script verbatim because anything else is too risky. If it’s memorized, rehearsed, and brought to a high level this can be effective; like a good actor in a play. Fast forward to an intermediate level and we can create our own ideas in real time but the ideas don’t necessarily tell any kind of bigger story; for the listener this is boring. I’ve too often heard players who know all the scales, lots of good language, and play them in a masterful way — but aren’t saying anything interesting. Sometimes they sound like they’re practicing when they’re supposed to be performing. This reminds me of the person who has mastered the language and talks a lot — sometimes never coming up for air. It’s boring and hard to listen to. Eventually and hopefully, we get to where we’ve mastered the language: we know how the notes sound and what emotional effect they stir up in us, we’ve developed personal preferences through a combination of listening to the music that moves us and finding sounds we love through experimentation in the practice room.
 

When it’s time to perform we turn our conscious thoughts to what others in the ensemble are playing. Gotta have big ears to contribute to the goodness of the ensemble. There’s no need to be thinking about technical stuff like scales and chords — they’re a counterproductive distraction and that stuff was sorted out in the practice room. That would be like a public speaker thinking about nouns, pronouns, verbs, and other technical stuff. None of that technical stuff belongs on the podium or bandstand. When properly trained we just play / speak. Like a good public speaker we can have an outline to what we want to say but the details should just flow in the moment from the subconscious. In recent times my conscious outlines have been those of texture and changes in texture thereby, hopefully, inspiring an interesting story. That’s a lot of rambling for what others have said in a more concise way:
 

You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

- Charlie Parker

 

[Al Quinn]

One of the masters , Lyle Mays, shares his thoughts on structuring a performance in this recording of a masterclass.

 

 

[jerrythek]

A great practice exercise is to start with a simple motif, 3-4 notes is fine, and try to keep developing it logically throughout the whole song/solo form. Force yourself to stay related to it. There are so many tools to draw upon to do it, as Tusker mentioned above. But don't forget about rhythmic placement: where you start the phrase in the measure, playing it over the bar line etc. The end result is not a "great" solo, but it is exercising the thought processes on how much you can do with a single idea.

 

In a jazz context, I often use the last idea that the soloist before me plays... I try to pick up on the idea and continue it in an interesting way. I don't beat it to death, but it's part of the conversation we have when we are improvising with other players.

 

Lot's of good ideas here, and a GREAT topic to discuss. Thanks for bringing it up RABid!

 

Jerry

 

[Tusker]

22 hours ago, jerrythek said:

In a jazz context, I often use the last idea that the soloist before me plays... I try to pick up on the idea and continue it in an interesting way. I don't beat it to death, but it's part of the conversation we have when we are improvising with other players.

 

You inspired me to say a few words about the group psychology of soloing. We have all experienced the difficulty of soloing in one band and the ease of soloing in another. This has to do with trust, communication, listening, a shared purpose, blended egos, the willingness to take risks together. The group "magic" is a very important aspect of personal musical growth. I tell people to improvise with people who know how to push into that magic. This seems to help. Thank you for reminding us, jerrythek.    😊 🙏

[Montunoman 2]

I'm a total jazz nerd, and I actually keep notebook with licks that I've lifted and come up with. The note book has sections of major, dominant minor, ii V I, blues, alterted, blues, pentatonic, licks.... I am now actually writing out my own solo "etudes" using this licks. I memorize my solos, then deliberately mix them up in all sorts of ways. 

 

But before I do this, I make sure I know the song really well. melody, chords, bass lines, even the lyrics.  I can improvise on the fly, but I'm just trying to put a little more thought into it nowadays 

[Tusker]

5 hours ago, Jazz1642606857 said:

No, no, no, the main thing is to always play Roland's Take 6 vocal jazz scat patch!

 

LOL 😃

 

Sorry had to post this. Jesus Molina's mega chops don't hurt a bit either ... 

 

 

 

 

[Theo Verelst]

Jazz of course is a main territory for soloing, which is more and more interesting with knowledge about keys and scales and chords, and not to forget classical "pure" intervals and their use (pretty hard but the basis of most interesting solos).

 

Even taking a basic blues is sufficient to get a feel for solos, and importantly so, unless you want to play strictly rhythm, which is an influence your main example used much as well, and mastering those proper blues elements is quite the job!

 

Theo V

[RABid]

On 10/4/2022 at 1:09 PM, JamPro said:

1) Know your scales - in all keys: pentatonic; relative minor pentatonic; major ionic; major dorian; harmonic minor; melodic minor; altered; diminshed.

My biggest mistake was not practicing scales when my piano teacher presented them. I did not see a reason. Later in life when someone would to a run in a solo it clicked. If you want to pull off good runs, scales are your foundation.

[timwat]

Play what has broken your heart.

[aronnelson]

I used to have a playlist of only solos that I liked. I tried to learn most of them and also learn "why" I liked them. What was "it" about this solo that I liked? The phrasing? The note choices? I incorporated them.

 

But there are "crowd" pleasing solos and solos that please yourself - sometimes they are the same, but not always.

 

Listen to the instruments that take solos! Playing keyboards is tough because our interface is pretty crappy if you want to try and solo like a wind instrument. In my case, I used a breath controller from the lowly  Yamaha CS-01 to Yamaha VL1, BUT - you need to solo to get better soloing and it's tough when there are hardly any solos needed in music now.

 

Jan Hammer/Tom Coster/George Duke/Stu Goldberg soloing was a long time ago! 

 

I always suffered between my "wind playing" and my piano soloing and my guitar soloing. All different to me.

 

[stoken6]

3 hours ago, timwat said:

Play what has broken your heart.

I'm not a songwriter - the only times I've been sufficiently inspired to write songs is when I broke up with a girl. The sheer heartbreak needed somewhere to go, and it ended up in songs.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[GovernorSilver]

In my last rock band I just played pre-composed solos.  Some rock acts have been known for improvisation - this was not one of them.

 

When the band's songwriter completed a new song, I would get an email with an audio file of the song.   I'd improvise my part the first few times I played along with the audio file, until I came up with something I felt I was ready to record.  Then we would go through several iterations of recording my track, sending a new mix of the original audio plus my new track, getting the thumbs up/thumbs down from the songwriter and various comments, then recording another track to replace the rejected one, sending a new mix, etc.   Eventually we would settle on what my part would be.   For gigs I'd memorize my part, including any solos, and just play from memory.

 

For ideas for composing my parts for this band's repertoire, I listened to a lot of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Grinderman, folk music from Sweden, Norway and Denmark - basically stuff the songwriter was into.  I tried to cop the ornamentations used by the vocalists on those projects, as well as the fiddle playing - so not just copying the notes but also trying to get the dynamics, pitch bends, etc.

[TommyRude]

Anything I say here must be taken with many grains of salt, 'cause I can't solo for s***

 

But, seems that trying to master simple solos is a good route (especially for those of us with less dexterity).  Playing simpler/slower solos well is better than playing fast solos not so well.  Although taking the title of this thread - making any solo sing (simple or complex), is not easy.  Practice practice practice, and then let go.

 

[b3plyr]

1 hour ago, Jazz+ said:

No vague advice from the masters, nor magical thinking, nor Mark Levine's scale/chord theories worked very well for me, but then I met Barry Harris in the early 90s. Harris gave me just three scales, his half-step rules, and his two embellishments and that was all it took in my case to go from average to excellence.

__________________

Harry Likas was the Technical Editor of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" and also helped develop "The Jazz Piano Book".

Can you tell us more on your take away from Harris?