Improvisation - an Introduction

Check out the Video Lesson to support this

Improvisation is a very useful skill for a guitarist to have, particularly if you intend to take your playing into the creative realms of song writing and performance. Being able to be creative on the spur of a moment is key to a band or collectives creative success. This is where improvisation is rooted; Improvisation is simply being able to make music up at will, a melody, a riff, a lick, or a chord sequence.

It will take many years of practice to perfect this, to know how to apply certain techniques, and to fully understand what works. So, the sooner you start the quicker you get good.

This first Improvisation lesson takes you through the basics of lead or melody guitar jamming against a backing (soloing). The Audio is 1:45 min long based in the key of A minor. It has two parts to the chord progression and you can remain playing in the same key throughout.

The key

Firstly lets look at what we need to get started; we need to know the key(A minor) and we need to know the scale that accompanies that (see scale diagram). When you play the backing track you will hear a click accompanying the guitar line, this is spaced in crotchets (quarter notes) and there are four beats to the bar.

Start off by getting familiar with the scale by playing one note with every quarter beat, moving up and down in sequence following the scale diagram. This will sound a little dull to begin but it’s really important you get confident with the available notes of the scale before you progress. Repeat this exercise a few times until you are ready to move on and you think you’re quite familiar with the notes of the scale.

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Rhythm

There are several things guitarists can do to make a scale sound more interesting and develop it into an improvised melody; the first is altering the rhythm you use to play the notes. Try playing the scale again against the backing but change the note length every couple of notes. Try half, double and quadruple note lengths to see what interesting rhythm changes you can come up with.

As a starter exercise try playing one note for two beats (Half notes) and two for single beats (Quarter notes) moving up and down the scale whilst playing the rhythm sequence. Above is the suggested sequence in traditional music notation. The first note is the Half note (two beat) and the following two are the Quarter notes (single beat).

Another rhythmic element you should use are pauses. Rhythm can be made interesting by what you don’t play as much what you do. Try playing the scale in sequence but missing the occasional beat out to see how this effects what you’re playing.

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Note Sequence

The second area to look at is the order of notes you play. Using the scale once again, try playing the first string upwards and then the second string down alternating as you change string. Follow the tab for the example.

Now try playing the first note and missing the next, then repeat this in a play one miss one sequence. Once you are confident with these exercises put the two together play one miss one and playing up and down the scale alternating with each string change.

Take this last exercise try randomising the notes from the scale you’ve learnt, play them in quarter note lengths against the backing track. Build on this improvisation by including different note lengths and pauses looking out for any interesting melodies to latch on to and keep going. Well done you’re now improvising.

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Expression

As you build confidence in your skills you can start to add various expression elements to your improvisations, like string bends, vibrato, slides, and hammer-on pull-off. All these elements will make your playing sound interesting and add another dimension to your improvisations.

Good luck folks and have fun.

James B