I have my first band practice next week and am playing the 5 songs we have arranged to know for the day.

I can play all of the songs pretty well, but when it comes to the lead parts, I usually improv.

Im unsure if the guys im playing with expect note for note solos or if my improv solos will be ok. im not so good at learning off long solos, note for note.

The main songs in question are messing with the kid by Rory Gallagher, Pride and Joy by SRV and hey Joe by Jimi.

My questions are:

1. When you are playing blues songs such as the ones ive listed, do you play note for note or do a little improv?

2. When auditioning a guitarist, do you expect note for note perfection or is improv fine?

I think improv is better than note for note, because anyone can learn something off.
But your band mates may disagree, so you should probably check with them.

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Rated "M" for meaty.

Only way to go is to put YOUR touch on it. Your style and phrasing is what you know best. Note for note is what tribute bands are for.............. Mike

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

I just find that when you are pretty familiar with the blues, its easier to learn the parts that people will instantly recognize, and fill in the rest with your own thing, instead of spending ages learning everything note for note, just hope the band sees it like that

i agree with everybody. music is what YOU do. each individual musician has their own style. i almost always improv. good luck to ya.

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When you are playing covers your audience expects to hear something familiar. Thus, the fill riffs and solos for a given song should be somewhere "in the ballpark". Personally, I take my work very seriously. When I "un-zip my fly" on stage I prefer that folks are convinced that I know what I'm doing. YMMV however.

Arjay

I learn songs note for note, but I don't preform the live note for note. Live it's all improv loosely based on the actual recorded solo/lick. Unless it's a truly iconic riff and you can't change it, like the intro of Pride and Joy. But I find that learning solos, licks and entire songs note for note will improve your playing much more than if you didn't.


I would think that the people who are auditioning you would want to hear what you sound like, not who you can mimic. I've never been in that situation before, so I don't know what that's really like though.[/i]

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I say always learn to improvise and put your own twist into it.

My guitar instructor once told me a good story about his friend Barney Kessel.

He and Barney were hanging out playing guitar and talking and this younger guy came up and asked it he could play something for Barney. Barney obliged him and the guy proceeded to lay down this really nice sounding melody and solo and when he finished he said to Barney "do you remember this, you played it in....". Barney looked at him and said "no I didn't really care for it much. The guy said to him, "but it is exactly how you played it..." and Barney told him, "I know that, and that is why I didn't care for it, to be honest with you I didn't particularly like it when I had to play it just like that myself."

So since hearing that story I have decided to learn the songs I like while putting my own touch or spin on them and not trying to play them exactly like the person who first played it did.

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

I always improvise solos, I never play them the same way. It takes too long to learn it note for note.

Yeah, that's what I always did.

I played the lead guitar when my band played Tuff Enough by the Fabulous Thunderbirds. I played it pretty close to the record and saw that the Fabulous Thunderbirds were going to play the song live on TV. I plugged in my strat and got ready to play along with Jimmie Vaughn...

He didn't play it ANYTHING like the record. After that I heard that he never copies himself. He always goes for something fresh. If it works for him, it's good enough for me.

I had a similar experience with Pride and Joy. I got my entire rig set up in front of the TV, tuned to Eb, plugged in a DVD of Stevie and got ready to jam along. After the first five notes he was off into something completely different than what I had learned. And that's when it first dawned on me that I needed to forget about it and improvise. That was about a year and a half ago, and it was one of the most important things I learned.

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I would say you've got some very good advise on this thread. To expand upon what you've already been told, take "Hey Joe" as an example: When Jimi goes for the solo, he starts on that bent note going up to the high C note. The audience is going to expect that note and the singing quality Jimi gives it, and if, say, you decided to start your solo on a slide to a low C or to a different note, even if the idea worked musically, it would sound "wrong" to the audience. Once you nail that note, if you played around with a few ideas that were your own, it probably add, rather than detract, from your performance.
Hope that helps a bit. Have fun with those songs, and the audience will have fun listening.

If close enough is being lazy--then, not so good.

But if close enough is you doing it your way--great.

And it's a good way to learn and develop your own style.

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It wasn't Willy-Nilly, it was at crows.

Make the songs your own. Nothing more boring than a live jukebox.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

I have SRV live at the Mocambo dvd, I thought Stevie did VooDoo Chile EXACTLY like Jimi, Like someone said earlier, The Framework was there but the little differences were noticable when I looked for them. All these years I thought Stevie Played it note for note, But no, but your average audience member would never notice. And SRV played the hell out of that song. Awesome DVD.