As I sit here and type, it's near pure improvisation. These may be words I have typed before, but certainly not in this order. I might pause every now and then and pick and choose between synonyms, but that’s a minor point. It’s off the cuff, and basically fresh, clichés like “off the cuff” notwithstanding.
If I should choose to hum a tune I’ve never heard, or to imagine a instrumental break that goes along with a particular melody or chord progression, this too is a piece of cake. I’ve had music going on in my brain ever since my I first heard my mother play a polka on her accordion, and that means since before I was born.
When I’m in a conversation, I’m even more free-wheeling, because I’ve talked many more words than I’ve ever typed, and there’s no pausing to wonder about how something is spelled, or wince over my tendonitis. Talking and humming are my real gem examples for improvisation; I only included typing to show there multiple things I can do basically without any effort at composition.
Okay, now I’m going to pick up my guitar. I’ve played the guitar for 36 years, and yet not for 1/10,000th the amount of time I’ve spent speaking, or walking, or humming to myself. That lack of immersion in the instrument is why I can’t improvise on the guitar to the extent I would like. Heck, I can’t improvise *at all*.
But I want to, and I’ve come to a point where I’d be willing to cheat. I know there are shortcuts having to do with scales, and even simpler systems that have to do with what beginning guitar students call “boxes” on the fretboard. I rebelled against these two for all these decades because I didn’t want to play what I think are syncopated scales or regurgitate unimaginative riffs that are strongly suggested to the user of these “boxes”. At the same time, I cannot become a 24-hour guitar picker for the next 5 years.
So, I’m coming to you for whatever suggestions you may have. How many different paths to improvisation are there? Do they all involve reading music? Do they all involve practicing scales I can then morph into something “original”.
Here’s where I’m at. I took 4 years of involuntary accordion lessons as a small child. The teacher was a witch of a woman, and I quit the moment I was able to convince my mother to let me stop going into that Montrose, Colorado torture pit. I subsequently forgot everything I knew about reading music, and I’d rather not relearn it. It seems after all these centuries; someone would have come up with a system of musical notation that makes sense. I’ll do it if I have to, but I’m looking for options here.
I know the structure of certain chords quite well, and I do improvise in a way by wandering around in them, and going up or down a couple of notes in my transition from one chord to another. I think this may actually be the key I am looking for – to just keep playing and work more and more on new fills and transitions until I start to spontaneously play things I’ve never played before. Again, that may take too much time, and it’s important for my life to have balance.
One problem I have is imagining the sound a note is going to have before I go to play it. The fourth and fifth intervals are easy, because the guitar is tuned around those, but if I reach for a note one or two or three frets higher, I really don’t know what it’s going to sound like. That is a problem. There is a website where you can train your ear, starting with the primary note of a scale, and I think it’s useful, but what if you’re in the middle of a scale? Does ear training help you go from a third to a seventh? I don’t know.
The only thing I don’t want to hear is “If you haven’t figured it out by now, you never will.” I’ve heard that several times, and each time it has seemed ever more unhelpful than the last. There is a very similar platitude uttered by some jazz fans when asked to describe jazz: “If you don’t just ‘know’, you’ll never get it.” I know that is nonsense, because Leonard Bernstein recorded a wonderful lecture called “What Is Jazz”. It went into syncopation, blues scales, call-and-response, quarter tones, the works. It totally de-mystified the subject.
What I’m looking for is as similar lecture or series of exercises entitled “How to Improvise”. That would be really slick.
I’ll take it in little bits and pieces in your responses, too. Any help and advice is appreciated.
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Comments: 36
I use improvisation mostly for songwriting. Trying out what might work, then playing around with it. I play around with tunings, effects, delay, smacking the strings with pens, coins, whatever strikes me at the time. The results are not always the best, but hey, Jimi Hendrix wanted to hear what a guitar sounded like underwater and it was awful.
It sounds like you want to do more in the realm of soloing within a chord progression. If so, it's about learning the scales inside and out, knowing what works and what doesn't, what notes fit and what doesn't.
Anytime you pick up the guitar, you're improvising. Making due with what you have at hand. Your notes and chords are your ingredients, it just depends on what kind of musical stew you want to whip up with it. Sometimes it's tasty, and sometimes it heads straight for the dustbin.
Best of luck to you in your search.
Wow, I could have written that; straight out of my experience. Hanging in a Hootenanny would be a fine start. Even a little bluegrass break eludes me. I know if I could break through into those, blues would follow close afterward. I'm just stuck, and have been for a good long time.
Composition goes on almost entirely in my head, where instrumental limitations don't apply. I'm very picky though, and I complete on average one song every 6 years.
William, they say there are rules to be learned about writing. I prefer to absorb them into what sounds right. I don't know an appositive from a gerund. To me an article is a short story, essay or report.
As I recall you wrote an article about "What the Bleep." My brother turned us onto that last year. For years now I have been a fan of intention and visualzation. Perhaps if you decide that you can improvise and simply allow it to come through, you will be amazed. One of the best parts about hooting at the Hootenanny is that one gets to listen to the others and join the conversation simply by listening and contributing.
Whenever I am playing with others I turn off the analytical part of my brain (or it turns off) and I listen to the whole and determine what holes I should fill.
Now the caveat to this is I'm a drummer so I am never limited by those pesky chords and notes! Well, I do play keyboards as well and sometimes strange combinations do present themselves.
Always great to read you on Gather. Play on.
I try to learn other's stuff as well, but usually what happens is I discover how badly I suck and how much they rule, and I come away from it with a few new chords to and a deep appreciation for those who really devote the time.
So after a few days of trying to keep up with the surprisingly quick pace of a Grateful Dead song I always thought of as being more laid back than that, I slip the anthology back on the shelf.
Then I get up one lazy weekend morning, head still full of fuzz, grab the guitar and stare off at the trees, or the dust dancing around in the light and let my hands play with those chords the Dead taught me. In no particular order, or tempo I listen for new relationships between them. I don't care what it sounds like, so I feel free to pluck the strings all funky-like a bad 70's porn soundtrack, or attempt the slow and soaring slides that only David Gilmour could pull off.
In otherwords I noodle with the guitar, Ron.
But if any of it ever works, I try to reproduce it. Right there, while the random actions of my fingers are still somewhat in memory. Some little action, some little way of plucking and immediatly dampening with a slight bend, catches my ear and I do it over and over, teach it to my fingers.
Then on another morning with another set of chords in my head, I find that little fixed action pattern replaying adding a flourish. And I'm like, yeah, I planned that...
You can learn scales and chords and theory till you're blue in the face, but from careful observation of other musicians at play, I've decided it's having a crazy storehouse of chops in addition to the a good understanding of song stucture and harmony that make the improvisor.
-=Cliff>
I love improvisation. Whether it be music, writing, comedy, whatever, improvisation is the act of an active mind. I wish more people would improvise. I've had friends in bands that played covers note to note, even the solos. I would always tell them, I came to hear your interpretation. If I wanted to hear the original, I'd buy the CD.
My favorite, sort of improvisation, is mixing GarageBand loops to create whatever happens.
Timothy, thank you for the reassurance that I'm not going to have to read music to improvise (or learn the tools). The actual path may be harder; I just rebel against that adsurd notation system.
Alan, you make me feel much better about my abilities when you say such nice things about playing by ear. When I learn someone else's song, it comes back out of me all turned around. Absolutely it's my own interpretation, even when I'm trying hard to make a photocopy : )
Folks, these tips are INVALUABLE! Thank you! I'm especially intrigued by the link between writing a song and inprovising. I've also received great emails in response to my plea. It's just wonderful.
BTW, have any of you heard a major recording artist or band play cover tunes ? Very seldom are they note for note. Hell, Hendrix and Vaughan couldn't even repeat most of their original recordings note for note when they performed them live.
If you want a technical clue as to what might work, you should get some jazz 101 books. Mainly though, your 3rd the 7th notes are good notes to end on - these are called guide tones. In a G7 chord, the 3rd is a B, the 7th is an F. (G-A-B-C-D-E-F is 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 respectiviely). You will be surprised how quickly you will learn those tones once you use them often.
Most musicans who get good are either born with a strong natural ability, while others just practice and play all day and all night. For the everyday Joe, the best thing to do is listen and learn - and figure out the music by ear. Do not spend too much time on complex phases. Learn the simple stuff by ear, and the rest will just come naturally. Trying to learn Jimmy Pages solo in No Quarter would be very difficult to do, and there are better ways to spend your time.
Of course, who really - we all take different paths. Personally, I started as an obsessed bass player and tried to learn everything Jeff Berlin, Jaco Pastorious and Stanley Clarke played (which made learning Geddy Lee lines much easier), but by the time I was 25 I gave up trying to do that... I was never going to be as good as those guys. But, I did learn from trying. I actually made a living playing music for a good 10 years before I decided I needed to get a real job :)
Don, thanks for the tip about the 3rd and 7th. I am not the type brimming with natural talent, nor do I have all day to play guitar (not any more anyway, I did for a couple years as a kid). I really like playing the basic riffs of No Quarter, and you're right - if I was going to learn that solo, I might as well try Since I've Been Loving You : )
Either way, I think you can always improve improvising skills. Here are several ideas:
Don't fear the "box". It's a good technique to approach soloing on the guitar.
Try humming or scatting a line...maybe just one or two measures. then play the notes you just sang. Do it repeatedly...hum it...play it...hum...play. If it starts to feel good, try singing simultaneously with your playing, like George Benson. Slow it down as much as you need to make it work.
Have you tried Band-in-a-Box? It's a pretty inexpensive software program that lets you play along. The sound is cheesy but I've had it for years and it's more interesting than playing alone.
Build an arsenal of licks. They are building blocks. You can fall back on them when improvising.
"Try humming or scatting a line...maybe just one or two measures. then play the notes you just sang. Do it repeatedly...hum it...play it...hum...play."
Playing along with the scat might just be the ticket to knowing how notes will sound. That's great. Thanks much.
I've gotten much from this discussion, and I'm barely able to figure out what note is on the fourth fret of the D-string. Lots to chew on here. Even so, I've been able to write some chords down for a handful of my song lyrics and have gotten some good feedback from those who have listened to me play. I did try to fingerpick a Christmas carol ("Silent Night," I think) after I figured out the proper chords.
I try to listen to different kinds of ways to improvise via CD's and records--ie dance music, gospel, swing and jazz, 30's & 40's music, folk music, etc, and then try to learn those different styles. I'm prettg good now with dance, and gospel, and folk, but have much to learn in jazz, though I can do pretty good swing on piano, but not real well on the accordion yet, and not at all with the hammer dulcimer.
The point I think is that the technical part of the instrument you're playing must be just natural so you don't have to think about that part anymore, and your mind can just wonder in the improvisation.
I just had a great time last month with improvisation of Babes in Toyland. Being the music director for the play, I hired another piano player. She played the score straight and I improvised on the Roland with different sounds and harmonies so it sounded like an orchestra along with the piano. It was so much fun, because the other player was so good, that I could play off her and not worry about timing. We would just glance at each other and make instant changes. It is so wonderful to play with musicians like that. You can really get off on the improvising when the music is so secure.
What I would really like to have in my lifetime is the opportunity to sing in a vocal group like that (like Quink, or Manhattan Transfer. ) I've been able to do it with bluegrass groups I've had the pleasure of doing some pickin' with, but I'd like to explore more jazzy stuff too. When the kids were teenagers( they're 37-43 now) they were able to instantly improvise and harmonize in our family band. Now we're all too far away to sing together.
Something I do to practice my "ear training" is to hear a song and try to figure out what key it's in and how it's played and then pick up a guitar and see if I was right. It's a good way "practice" in the car. If you don't get the key right, maybe you'll at least get the right scale or chord or the right progression.
Good luck
At the risk of sounding immature, I've gone my whole life avoiding the rearranging of scales to create melodies or licks. While I may be kidding myself, I want to arrive at improvisation by some other path. That may be my musical doom, but I'm still holding out hope I can find a way. I'm not lazy. I just don't want to do the equivalent of memorizing the dictionary, and end up sounding like everyone else. I say this, of course, as a person who has played guitar for 30+ years without having achieved improvisational ability, so it shouldn't be taken too seriously. Even I don't put that much stock in these ingrained attitudes of mine.
You are one of several who have suggested envisioning playing something when you don't have the instrument at hand. This rules out the hunt-and-peck crutch, and I find that advice especially helpful. I'm also encouraged that you've reached second nature with your instrument. I'd hate to be thinking "okay, I'm in a minor key and on the 7th, and I want to also play the 3rd to get that effect I like" : )
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But soloing is important. Many people rely on music theory and make gifted guitar players. Many rely on their ears and experimentation. I fall a little in between. I don't really understand all the theories, but I understand the box concept, I understand scales and one could use them to create a lead. But there are two things I have found even more useful. The first is just experimentation. Pick up a guitar and start experimenting with soloing. For me, I combined this with lots of electronics. I would find some new combinations of effects, get a sound that made me feel excited, then start playing notes. In my early days I did all my experimenting off Barre chords and tended to play in the higher frets. Then I discovered the joys of open string soloing too, where I land on an open string every now and then. Experimentation took me a good part of the journey.
Next came discovering tabs and books (or websites) that had recorded versions of songs tabbed out including solos. I ate the books up, I now have over 100. I looked at solos by Clapton, Page, Skynyrd, Neil Young, Rush, country music, hard rock, acoustic rock, jazz... You name it. Seeing what made all those great solos I used to play air guitar too was extremely educational.
Then I combined the two. I took tricks or riffs and maybe even scales I learned from studying others, and began morphing my own solos. Also the electronics. For example I wanted to play a song by the White Stripes that involve an octave multiplexer and a single note riff. The sound was so inspiring to me I started experimenting with that devices and adding power chords and other structures.
My career started as a software developer and evolved into a software/Internet executive. My development efforts always started with seeing what I could find as an example of what I was trying to do. In some case, there was nothing and I had to invent it myself, but more often something similar existed and was available in the public domain or open source or published in a book. I say stand on the shoulder of giants. Learn from what is done already, but morph it into what you want. The same applies to guitar.
I don't think there is one right way. Each person learns and grows differently. But this works for me.
I have a lot of effects boxes and different amps, but I also have a rack mount Line 6 Pod XT Pro. This is a two U rack mount unit with a big foot pedal accessory that models hundreds of amps, speaker cabs, effects, rooms... I had the first generation kidney shaped Pod too, but this rack unit is a completely different beast. It will never replace a real stack of Marshall or (insert brand here) amps, but it allows me to feel like I have a warehouse full of equipment. It really is mind blowing. For a little over a thousand bucks you can get the unit and the floor board. You then plug it directly into your mixing board or PA (no amp required). Someday I should write an article about this thing. The article would be better once audio is supported by Gather, but I suppose I could post short MP3 clips on my personal website and link to them from the article. Line 6 also makes a number of modeling amplifiers that have this same technology (or most of it) built in. I have been noticing more and more bands in small venues where I can get close enough to see the equipment are using Line 6 in live shows. I don't use the live 6 live yet, I need real tubes when I step on stage. Somehow the glow of the tubes empowers me. Maybe I should rig up a circuit that just lights a couple of valves up and then go all digital! Nah, tubes still rock. I even use a tube preamp on my microphones.
I realized some time ago that music wasn't about impressing anyone but yourself. What really matters is whether playing or singing frees you and makes you feel good. For so long I worked to sound like other people because I was afraid nobody would like how I sound. Now I will sometimes still mimic somebody's playing or singing while learning a song, but then go my own way with it. I have a lot of fun with cover songs once I free myself to "do it my way".
I've just been reading this and wondering how you are doing on impprovising now, some six weeks on? many interesting points of view, thank you for starting the discussion. my two cents: agree with adam that intenrion and visualization are ways to go, but it depends on how you think how useful that advice is for you. also, one of the things that happens in irish music sessions is tunes are often played three or four or more times, each time a bit differently. even if you don't play this sort of music you may want to find a session ot two -- there's a good irish music scene in the twin cities -- and give a listen for the ideas you might take away
I find best results by thinking of a phrase of language. I'm of the belief that all phrase's inherently lead themselves to certain melodies by the rising and dropping of pitches, inflection and whatnot. If you can think of a phrase, try to pick out the melody for that phrase, and then 'embellish' it a bit with some tricks you might know. If it's piano, some trills, arpeggio's, for guitar hammer-on's, bends, stylistic riffs suggesting blues, country, rock, etc...
Even if you don't plan on singing the melody, it's a good way to come up with something truly memorable. If you can sing what you are playing, it's always going to be a more memorable melody than just playing scales for the sake of scales. Emblisshments are just the flashy sequins or icing on the cake.
Stacy, this is great advice. Thank you. I'm delighted with the advice I've gotten here. Amazing.
Song is music, music is life, so why don't we turn life into one big song.
The best, and purest improvisation - in my humble opinion - is by the person who has fiddled with her or his instrument so much it's as second nature as humming a tune. I can improvise like mad singing, but that's because I've used my voice every day hundreds or thousands of times a day. My experience with the guitar, though extensive, does not reach anywhere near that level. Thus, we have shortcuts called music school, and notation, and scales. They're shortcuts. Getting the real muse out there seems to be a much more personal, decades-long journey.