"The Rules"

[nadroj]

Took an organ solo on sat night. Did lots of wanky organ things and got whoops. 
 

Did a stupidly basic pentatonic run up (not fast) and got extremely loud whoops. 
 

Were the audience thinking “hell yeah that’s  a pentatonic scale!”? No. They were thinking subconsciously “that’s what my ear wants to hear!” and responded in kind. 
 

Funnily enough in that same solo I tried to end using a fancy chromatic thing I’ve been working on. In the heat and thrill of the moment I ballsed it up and ended up playing musical garbage. Random notes. The audience went flat. I should have stuck to what was simple - if I did it would probably have been one of my best live solos yet. 
 

The pentatonic is my get out of jail free card for all of my gigs. If I’m lost I go there and find my way back. in fact usually consciously trying to go beyond the pentatonic scale sounds messy if I’ve not mentally prepared. It’s a pride thing.
 

It depends on the band and the tune. I got shouted at by a drummer in an old band for doing blues wanky stuff during a pop song solo. There are tunes in my current band where sitting on the tritone for a bar or two works. There are songs where the blues/pentatonic doesn’t work and the harmonic minor sounds best. None of these are jazz tunes - I’m not a jazz guy. 
 

A good solo will have tension and release. Doesn’t matter the genre or the band. If you can bring that tension and release and give the crowd’s ears the sound they subconsciously want to hear using only the pentatonic scale, power to you. Same if you go outside for a second then bring it back in to land using the pentatonic. 

In my case, 90% of the time Dorian and blues/pentatonic does the job, and does it well. It’s usually musical pride that makes me want to go outside of that. Sometimes it works and makes it better, but a lot of the time it falls short and makes me wish I’d stuck to what was simple and effective. I’m learning that more and more regularly playing with musicians who are much better than me. 
 

TLDR: who cares what tools are used to build the shed if it’s built well.

[o0Ampy0o]

 How many people in the audience who like Jazz think of jazz theory? During its history, Jazz has been popular including people without college educations. There are very few sweet spot notes hit in Jazz. Is it the percussive delivery of the melody matched to the rhythm and vibe that hooks the untrained listener in? 

[Tusker]

38 minutes ago, nadroj said:

It depends on the band and the tune.

 

QFT 

[Thethirdapple]

 

[ProfD]

Most of the rules are predicated on the game, er, type of music one plays.😎

[Theo Verelst]

Politics of a cover band members freedom...

[stoken6]

1 hour ago, Theo Verelst said:

Politics of a cover band members freedom...

That's a Smiths song, isn't it? (RIP Andy Rourke)

 

Cheers, Mike.

[David Emm]

The rules are there to establish a baseline so that you know how to follow them well and how to best violate them when needed.

 

My family enjoyed the Ice Capades when I was little. My mother said that Frick & Frack, the clown duo, were the best skaters in the cast. I naturally asked how they were better than the more elegant, classical skaters. She said "Because they have to be able to do all of those moves and THEN shoot through a barrel at the end!"

[TommyRude]

On 5/22/2023 at 12:56 AM, Jr. Deluxe said:

Thank you for taking my foolishness seriously.

I guess the rules could be:

Always break the rules but

Never break the rules. 

 

But I prefer:

If you learn the rules, you can break them and it will sound good.

Except when I doesn't. 

Maybe make 2 rules: 

#1:  Know the rules

#2:  Break the rules

[16251]

Ok, then.