“You’re adding to the problem”: Warren Haynes says this is the biggest mistake guitarists make when improvising
Warren Haynes believes the key to good improvisation doesn’t actually have much to do with the guitarist as an individual, but rather how well they can listen and adapt to the band around them.
Haynes – known for playing in the Allman Brothers Band and its jam spin-off Gov’t Mule, as well as his solo work – feels that by concentrating solely on your own parts as a guitarist, you miss out on important changes from other band members, like tempo or dynamics.
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In an interview with Sweetwater, he says [via Ultimate Guitar]: “I think that’s the key in improvisational music, without question. To play music to the best of your ability, you have to learn how to listen to everyone else while you’re playing and adapt to that – even if it’s just from a tuning standpoint, or what register you’re playing in standpoint, or rhythmically.”
He adds, “If you’re just concentrating on your own part and you don’t realise that the rhythm section is kind of laidback or pushing, then you’re adding to the problem. So, I think musicians that improvise on a certain level are all deeply listening to each other.”
Haynes even feels that, to a degree, you have to pay more attention to each other than the audience stood before you. “All the years that I played with the Allman Brothers, that was the key ingredient – being locked in together,” he continues.
“You’re not ignoring the audience. They feel part of it. They are part of it. And the energy you’re getting from the audience is a very essential part of the overall picture. And when the magic happens, a lot of it is because that audience is there. You can’t conjure up these magical performances in a studio or in a rehearsal the same way you can if you have the right audience. And we’re lucky to have that.”
You can catch the Warren Haynes Band on tour this spring. Gov’t Mule are also playing a select number of shows later this year.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
