Starting with the melody is wise. Playing it, or part of it, up or down an octave provides some variation and sometimes opens up new possibilities. Experiment with places you can add drone strings and double stops to fatten up the sound. If you get a second time around on the tune -- or sometimes the second time through the A or B part, when they repeat -- you can look for ways to alter the melody slightly.
Try to invent -- on the fly or when practicing -- a counter melody or pseudo harmony part, if there are other instruments playing the melody or if it is strongly implied. Scale-based solos are pretty widely derided, but I think having your fingers really know where they can go is important and allow you to stretch out some beyond the basic tune. It also makes it possible to get out of first position. Another thing to do is to tastefully incorporate a favorite lick from another tune. Say a little tag in D that you can transpose to A or G or whatever you're doing. I try to really "feel" the chord progression. A lot of times, especially if I'm freely improvising away from the melody, I rely on the correspond note to the changes to ground whatever I'm trying to make up on the fly. Sometimes the root note for the key works well, too. Less is often more. Slower but with feeling is better than playing really, really fast without "saying" anything. None of this probably makes any sense. My best advice is practice a ton and get something you can do without freezing up on. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Taterbugmando" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/taterbugmando?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
