Richard (of RBB) to the rescue.

 The old guy who likes to be referred to as The Curmudgeon left a comment on our last post.

Here's the bit that caught our eye at Richard's Bass Bag*.

"...so as to not have to even try and understand nonsense like: "harmonic approximation"."

NONSENSE LIKE: "HARMONIC APPROXIMATION".

Silly old bugger.

It seems he has been biting his lip over this.

I'll try to explain in simple language.

This term was coined by Jazz musician and writer Jerry Coker to explain a certain type of improvisation. I mentioned it because I was trying to help Robert the quite a few different things with his improvising and thought this might be a good place for him to start.

A lot of people who play Classical music, and similar styles, spend their lives virtually reading note for note what is written by a composer. In some other styles of music, Jazz being one, musicians use their skills to create things on the spot. There are lots of things musicians might practise or learn to prepare for this experience. Rhythms, scales, 'more unusual' scales, pentatonic riffs, preconceived musical motifs, etc. etc.

An easy way to get going on improvising is harmonic approximation.

Harmonic - how notes can be used together to make a pleasing sound.

Approximation - not necessarily exact.

Okay, most tunes have a melody and chords (imagine a strumming guitarist here, if you like).

Let's imagine that there are four chords in this tune - C   Am   F   G.

Each of these chords are made up of 3 notes:

C (major) has - C  E  G.

Am (minor) has - A  C  E.

F (major) has - F  A  C.

G (major) has - G  B  D.

Here are all the notes being used - C  E  G  A  C  E  F  A  C  G  B  D.

Let's write each note only once (C, for example, is used 3 times) and in alphabetical order:

A B C D E F G. In music we call that a Natural A minor scale.

We could use this scale to safely play over these four chords. Because the first chord is C, most musicians might choose to use the same notes, but starting on C - C D E F G A B. We call this a C major scale.

It'll help if you put some sort of rhythm, with breaks, into your improvised solo - just like how we use sentences when talking. If you play F against the first chord (C E G), it might clash a bit, but all you have to do is move to a note on either side (E or G) and it will sound fine. Clashing notes can add interest to your playing, as can the occasional 'wrong' note.

That's basically it.

No need for thanks TC. Just remember that, if you keep biting that lip, it's going to get red.

Ciao tutti.

* the original bass bagging site