Music Vamping

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Music Vamping

January 1st, 2009 admin

music vamping

The Value of the Jam

Nothing will help you get better at improvising, creating music on the spot, on your instrument faster than playing with other musicians in an open jam. The open jam is most of the time left out of rehearsals because 1) nobody thinks about it, or 2) nobody knows how. You don’t need a ton of music theory or monster chops in order to start improvising with a group of people and therefore getting better at your instrument. Getting good at improvising helps you get good at every other facet of the musical game like writing and ear training. All that is takes is just trying it. Here is how.

You can improvise with yourself, or you can improvise in a group setting. They are both good to do but I understand that some hobbyists don’t have anyone to jam with so, the next best bet is to play with the music you are currently listening to or just to yourself playing to open space. The first thing you need to do is just pick a key. I’m a guitar player so I like the key of E when I’m jamming because I can play the whole scale of the instrument. Then pick a particular scale. There are a lot of scales but to start out you only need to be relatively familiar with just one. The pentatonics are a good place to start by the way. Establish a groove. Make sure it is locked in; that the heart beat of the music is solid. You don’t even need to change chords; you can just “vamp” over one chord and play the notes over the chord. Listen to each note as it is being played and feel how it, well feels to your ear. There are really no “wrong” or “right” notes per say. Rather we can say that there are only tensions and resolutions. So if a note sounds “wrong”, interpret it as tension that needs to be resolved. The notes that will be resolved to are only a half or whole step away. It’s easy! Also, don’t feel like you have to play a ton of notes or fast for it to be good. To be quite honest, you’ve heard the saying “Less is more.” Well that is true. The better you get you will realize that in many ways it is harder to pick just one note rather than five played lighting fast. Got it?

So don’t be scared of sounding bad, or losing ideas when you are improvising. You have to “ride the wave” per say and express something. Improvise often and then a whole new world of music will start to show itself to you. Then once you feel ready right some tunes, you can start the process by…IMPROVISING! Pretty sick right?

About the Author

Ming Loo is a professional guitar teacher and professional guitar player with over 20 years experience. To learn more about Ming, visit http://killerguitarchops.com/

Chordal Vamping (Harmonica) (Whammer Jammer intro) 004.