[edhotmail]

Hey, I've been playing for 3 years now and its been over a year since I've been learning how to improvise, due to my discovery of Jazz.

I go to a community college in Sacramento and I've made more than 3 new friends whom are new to guitar (1-2 yrs.), they wanted to learn how to improvise. So they came to me!
ahh! I'm relatively new as well! But I don't want to leave them hangin'. They have good intentions, and I don't want to seem like I'm holding back anything. I want to help steer them in a rather good direction. Everything I know about improvisation was learned in a very indirect and unstructured manner, so I don't know how I know as much as I do. haha
Where do I start?
But I've noticed that many developing musicians have problems learning improvisation.
It is probably due to:

1 A lack of exposure to artists with a well-developed rhythmic sense.

2 Tension in the body(poor coordination and relaxation).

3 Technical difficulties with the instrument. Lack of control, as if a barrier is blocking them from expressing themselves.

What could I do to direct my now unofficial students? lol my guitar teacher makes it look so easy! lol

[Slideplayer]

hey guys, just putting my two cents out there. I have been improvising for a good 4 years now, and to me, the thing that is key to having meaningful, strong solos is listening. Listen to your favorite artists, and really concentrate on the lines that they play during their solos. Try and recognise how they build up to something, or how they work melodic lines into their solos. If you are just starting, i recommend using the minor penatonic to solo in. Learn the scale, learn a few simple licks and then try and use those licks, and notes, preferably on the d,g,b,e strings to fill inbetween. (just noting, this is only for when you are learning, when you progress, you can create and play at the same time) Also, learn vibrato. It is a pain to learn, and can take a while, but it is completely worth it. A guy who knows 5 notes, and has killer vibrato strait up beats the shredder who has no feeling and meaning to his playing. (not trying to piss off metal-shredders) Also, bend the strings. If you dont, you are playing the piano. Try and bend on the e,b, and g strings, to pitch, by playing a note 2 frets higher, and then bending to the same pitch as that note. I hope this helps anyone trying to learn how to improvise. (btw, i am a lefty, so improv came pretty easy for me. ) Good Luck

PS.
try and solo over your favourite songs. You can solo while the vocalist is singing, just try and go for the whole song. You will progress weekly if you do one song a day.

[edhotmail]

awesome! I learned a lot from you guys. Your replies got me deeper into learning how to improvise. now i 'just do it' and sometimes i don't think, but it sounds good! hrm. that's cool but eventually ill learn more about what notes im playing instead of just playing a broken up chord or scale or lick whatever its callled. its fun!!

[felixdcat]

Originally Posted by edhotmail

awesome! I learned a lot from you guys. Your replies got me deeper into learning how to improvise. now i 'just do it' and sometimes i don't think, but it sounds good! hrm. that's cool but eventually ill learn more about what notes im playing instead of just playing a broken up chord or scale or lick whatever its callled. its fun!!

But careful, not note names, note roles count.

[bolerama]

Hi Kirk,
I thought I would wade in on the chord vs scale discussion. Your system was a revelation to me, despite the fact I haven't found the time to study up on it yet. (I bought the program). What I tend to agree with is that knowing the chords and changes you are playing over, and by that I mean having at least a bare theoretical knowledge of their structure and how fretboard theory is applied, will aid you in your choice of notes. Whenever I go out to listen to a guitar player, whether blues, jazz or rock, I evaluate him based on how a solo can either be totally repetitive using the same worn out phrasings that the guy the night before used, or how it can be fresh and adventurously creative either in timing or melody using an obviously studied approach to where on the fretboard the guy is playing. Make sense? (I almost lost myself in this rant) I don't think that posture, although I have my preferred stance, has much to do with it. I do think that getting over nervousness has a lot to do with it, yet that stems from an inadequate knowledge of where and what to play.

[LMay]

In my opinion, SCALES are the key to improvisation. I have my students practice scales in different rhythms with the metronome. Then I have them play a scale in a specified rhythm--eighth notes, triplets, or sixteenth notes--while i play a chord progression.

After that, I have them imagine a sentence or phrase and match the scale notes to the rhythm of that sentence. In this way they not only learn what notes to use, but they learn about phrasing as well.

Pretty soon they are improvising like they were born to do it!

[felixdcat]

Maybe I could do a post with pentatonics, a bit explained.

[rickbuck99]

Improvisation, IMO, comes from a great familiarity with the instrument and the music played on it. After going through the different chord progressions and lead licks associated with them time and time again they all seem to flow together and that's when you get improvisation. Improvisation takes complete control of the instrument and the music.

It doesn't take a long time to master but it does take a lot of playing and familiarity with the music and the instrument.

I used to improvise on the classical guitar using chords and associated notes just from memory and familiarity. Not fast but improvised not the less.

[tomg123]

I guess there are many ways to look at this. It would seem improvising out of chords would be the most efficient (as kirk would
teach) because your using less movement with more choices. Of
course it takes time to learn all the chords including barres, and then
moving in a timely manner to them. I personally am not experienced
enough to give advice on inprov, but with the limited knowledge i
have i seem to be moving in the listening, then remembering, what
the notes sound like. Then use that along with what you know
mechanically at that point

[rapter]

I am kind of new to improvising and as a casual observer on this specific topic, I have improvised using mainly pentatonic scales, and after awhile they can get a little, same sounding, to me. I know there are other ways to play the penta. to make it more interesting sounding. I have read a little deeper on the workings of making music along with this forum and together it seems to me that important details such as intervals, scales, chord tones, leading notes and other tools help make an improvisation sound great. Preparation breeds confidence, easy for me to say it than actually do it, but dedication to your instrument and discipline to learn the music is the key I think.

[AX7221]

In my opinion I would teach the blues shuffle I've copied and pasted below from another post, and the blues scale or minor pent. It was the first thing I improvised too and it's simple enough to enjoy it w/o thinking about too much stuff.

I have an mp3 of the riff here

Pentatonic Minor in G: (the convention I've used here is the strings and the frets that contain a scale tone on that string next to the string letter name)
e | 9 12
b | 9 12
g | 9 11
d | 9 11
a | 9 11
E | 9 12

Blues Scale in G: (minor pent with the blue note)
e | 9 12
b | 9 12
g | 9 11 12
d | 9 11
a | 9 10 11
E | 9 12

Here's a blues shuffle, each one is a measure in 4/4 time:

I
e|--------------------------
b|--------------------------
g|--------------------------
d|--------------------------
a|-2--2--4--4--2--2--4--4--
E|-0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--

IV
e|--------------------------
b|--------------------------
g|--------------------------
d|-2--2--4--4--2--2--4--4--
a|-0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--
E|--------------------------

V
e|--------------------------
b|--------------------------
g|--------------------------
d|-4--4--6--6--4--4--6--6--
a|-2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2--
E|--------------------------

Turnaround
e|------------------------------------------------
b|------------------------------------------------
g|------------------------------------------------
d|------------------------------------------------
a|-2--2--4--4--5--5--4--4--2--2--4--2--2-2-2-2--
E|-0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-0-0-0--