How to get to real improvisation?

[Jimmy Mack]

Damn! Guys make it so complicated.
If you like jazz, listen to it, "feel" it when you hear it, hum it .......

A teacher (that you like) is a great help. Then get a copy of Kenny Burrel/Jimmy Smith "Blue Bash" and start listening and playing along.
The songs are bluesy jazz and the chord changes are not beyond a beginner who has some good knowledge. Listen to Kenny improvise over simple changes. Copy him - he's bluesy and bendy, sticks to pentatonics mostly, and has a relaxed style that is MUSICAL. Spend a few days on it, maybe weeks. I never get tired of hearing it after 50 years of buying the album.

Yeah that's what got me started .... and what works for me.

[Aiq]

“How can you think and hit at the same time?” Yogi Berra

[pauln]

Here are some things that might help. Let's start* with harmony - chords and chord sequences. Improvisation is expressing a tune's harmony which comprises the chord progression. Usually those chords are given in minimal simple form. You can use those chords, or you may extend, alter, or substitute those chords, or substitute a chord series.

For example the chord may be F7, which you could play like this:
x 8 7 8 6 x

For some tunes you may find this extention to F9 is nice,
x 8 7 8 8 x

Or you might like it better as F6 like this,
x 8 7 7 6 x

Or as F6/Eb like this,
x 6 7 7 6 x

Try a two five one of Cm F7 Bb subbing F9, F6, and F6/Eb...like this,

8 x 8 8 8 x Cm7
x 6 7 7 6 x F6/Eb
6 x 5 5 6 x Bb(69) a cool sub for Bbmaj7

The point is to play with them, listen, and learn how they sound so you may know if they can be applied to form improvisational melodic ideas that express contexts within a tune. Two fives may also be expressed as a series of chords each the two and the five (four chords). Try a two five of Am D7 (going to G) using four chords:

For the two chord make it an Am9 shifting to an A7sus4
x x 5 5 5 7 Am9
x 7 7 7 8 x A7sus4

For the five chord, these two
x 10 11 10 13 x D(#13#9sus4)
x 12 14 12 15 x Dsus2sus4/A
(can you guess why I don't name things?)

* Personally, I actually do this like almost everything else, backwards. I improvise a line for a place in a tune by ear, identify what basic chord function is the context of that place (e.g., the five of a two five one, like the F7 above), then compare what my line expressed (F6/Eb) successfully in that context. That becomes the connection between vocabulary and its applied contexts. In these examples I've tried to name things, but I play by ear: - both vocabulary and contexts to me are sounds. What I learn is to play what sounds sound good with other sounds... for me it's all sounds.

[lammie200]

The Right Note is Always a Half Step Away on Guitar - YouTube

Not really much of an explanation in the video, but I think Dweezil is just trying to point out how chromaticism is integral with improvisation.