How to practice guitar improvisation?

[GuitarGerry]

To this day (I've been playing guitar a little over 40 years), if you asked me to play a major/minor/jazz-minor scale up-and-down the neck, in strict tempo, I'd probably fluff it. Why? Because how is that musical in any way? If, on the other hand, you asked me to improvise melodic ideas using notes of those scales, that wouldn't be a problem; because in my practice time I only ever worked on trying to play melodies (running up and down scales and arpeggios doesn't sound that melodic to my ears).

I learn things on a need-to basis. When it becomes fashionable to sit around in coffee bars listening to someone methodically playing scales over a three-octave range, I'll buy into it...until then, it's business as usual (keep things practical in your practice routine).

As for transcription, I rarely transcribe a whole piece, only those bits that jump out at me. Why learn to play, or learn from, stuff that's merely OK. Surely it's better to concentrate on what appeals/is strong and then form your own opinions as to what the player was trying to do/was using in their improvisation.

Re ear training. Learn to transcribe by ear without reference to an instrument. That really sharpens your ear. Don't just transcribe guitar. Learn to hear all the instruments of an ensemble. To interact with other musicians it helps if you can hear them in the first place.

Just my take...

[fumblefingers]

I'll address the first two bullet points.

1. Your routine is sound. One approach is to play patterns like that over II-V-Is like you're doing (major and minor BTW), play turnarounds, play cycles, and play on modal vamps. See Mike Steinel, David Baker, others, etc. I think your're on a good starting path.

2. You need to analyze harmonically if you want to assimilate harmonically. Are you doing analysis? Furthermore, don't worry too much about learning licks and having it change your fortunes overnight. Just do it. Build up your physical and mental "database" with tons of great phrases and licks. Making yourself (mind and fingers) a walking encyclopedia of great phrases and licks is all to the good, when you have the duty to improvise and/or compose. This is a long term journey not a six month project.

[dingusmingus]

Sounds to me like you have a great approach. Make sure you're also playing with people.

This stuff takes a long time, but stick with your plan for a year, then look back at how much you've improved!

[christianm77]

This a question that I'm sure will generate as many different perspectives as there are people on the forum. I'll try and give you an idea of what I work on, but bear in mind that the way I work on material changes from month to month, year to year. I think this is healthy. Don't get stuck in a rut. Just because something works doesn't mean it's the only way to do things.

If you compare what I am saying now to my attitude now to what I was posting a couple of years back you might notice I have become more open. Sometimes it's good to be narrow, but it can also be good to be open. But what ever you choose to practice, you do need to live with it for a bit.

Point 1)

I like to start students off with arpeggios. Arpeggios, both vanilla and flavoured with neighbour tones, can get you a long way in jazz, especially in straight-ahead and swing stuff. Even for contemporary/fusion an arpeggio approach can be very effective - just listen to the way Pat Metheny outlines progressions in triads!

Furthermore, I think it is a very good idea to spend some serious time shedding the major scale. Triads, and patterns through the scale. See how many you can collect and come up with. Learn it all positions, shifting up and down the neck, one finger, one string, any way you can think of.

Transcribing solos has made realise the extent to which the major scale is used as a source of melodic ideas - beyond simply playing chord tones. Even in stuff like Django where the music is not 'meant' to be scalar, Django loves putting in things in thirds through the scale. He has some great scalic licks. Needless to say this work is also essential for modern jazz as the major scale is also the basis of the modes, and will serves as a reference point for learning other scales such as the melodic minor.

Be strict. Don't improvise when working on scales and arps. It's not music. You want a specific rule to practice and apply it rigorously. Here are examples of rules:
1) G major arpeggio skipping a note (so 1 5 3 1 etc) in 7th position with a diatonic upper neighbour, chromatic lower neighbour, chord tone pattern.
2) D major scale in sevenths in third position.
3) Descending F major scale in ascending thirds (with a chromatic lower neighbour before each one along the length of the neck on strings 1 and 2.

Specific, right? You should probably have a metronome on too.

Now this is important - try not to over practice patterns. As soon as you can play it correctly in time, *stop* and move onto something else. The idea is not become a lick player or a rote player (I find I develop licks though improvising anyway, I think it's inevitable...) but to develop flexibility. It is also good to be able to sing the pattern before you play it, so that you know if you have made a mistake and can hear it clearly.

I do some work on this everyday, but no more that 10-20 minutes. If you are doing it right it will be tiring.

2) Learn to sing solos. Don't worry too much about the pitches (as often these will be hard to sing) but try and internalise the rhythm of phrases. Make sure that you can sing a phrase correctly and entirely before you put it on the guitar - even if your voice can't nail all the pitches you need a clear idea of them in your head. It might seem odd, but rhythm really helps with this. This might seem slow, but trust be it will save time correcting all the mistakes you will make haha (learned this the hard way.) Feel free to analyse solos too - you will start to come to your own understanding of how music works.

3) Transcribing is great ear training. I see it as working two areas - your memory for music and the vividness of you mental picture of the music (your 'inner ear') and your ability to put the music on your instrument, or should you so wish onto paper. It's good to work on the first bit away from your instrument. Then, try and visualise how you will play a phrase before you play it.

I recommend moveable do solfege over interval training, and learning to sight sing. There's a good introduction to this system called 'Learn to Sight Sing Any Melody Instantly'. I'm sure some people will chime in recommending Bruce Arnold's system which is based on the same idea.

Lastly, to bring it all together I recommend slow improvisation. Set a metronome to click on every beat between 40-60 bpm and improvise in strict 8th notes over a tune. Don't play any other rhythms at first. Later you can become more free.

[Groyniad]

i did endless practice (a bit like yours) for about four years and then i did endless gigs for about ten

i was awful when i started gigging

i played with very very good players

i still think the most important thing is being in a group with someone who plays the heads with real conviction and swing (of course those people can also solo with real conviction and swing)

my advice is this

learn enough so you can just about play a tune - so the horn player will not refuse to keep doing the gig (this is a low bar because horn players - like everyone else - always wants gigs)

then get gigs - you get gigs

you call the tunes (the ones you have learned)

its playing the tunes with good players again and again that sorts out your ears and your improvising and pretty much everything else

so - it is almost inconceivable that someone could do so much effective solitary practice that they could arrive in a quartet and play really well for a set of tunes

its real magic - sheer exposure to the tunes - the changes, the time, the melody - teaches you how to play

the other crucial form of exposure is listening - and when you do this you need to learn to sing along with your favourite solos (this should happen by itself - but you need to do it A LOT)

[Irez87]

My journey:

Learn basic scales in multiple fingerings

Learn Autumn Leaves in all keys

Learn Barry Galbraith Comping Etudes by heart

Transcribe some Wes, Grant Green, Cannonball, Miles

Play in bands and jam sessions

Make a fool of yourself (horribly)

Learn to play all scales without strict fingering

Learn shifting rules

Learn to break shifting rules

Learn tunes by ear

Buy Real Book

Burn Real Book

Ear train like a BAMF*

Sing like a moron

Practice technique

Ear train more like a BAMF

Sing like less of a moron

Take a break from practicing technique

Ear train more and more like a BAMF

Play music at jam sessions

Get comfy with your sound

Don't come across like a JAMF* on stage

*Definition of JAMF below

Urban Dictionary: jamf

Johnny Griffin called me a JAMF after insisting that I looked like someone he knew... That's what I get for sitting front row at BlueNote... Good times

[nado64]

I practice only on the tunes I play with my quartet.

I learn and work the chords progression of the tune.

I learn the melody of the tune, rythms and notes, maybe the most important thing.
I know Howard Alden, when he works the melody, he plays the root of the chord in the same time.

I work triads (1-3-5, and 3-5-7) and triads pair on the fretboard, and use the scales or chromatic tones to connect the triads. But I am more on a vertical play than on a linear play.

After that, I try to be free in my brain and to be creative in my improvisation.
I can add some licks and other things I worked apart if I feel it.

[pkirk]

Good post Christian, but I personally have a problem with this one point (which Joe Pass also advocated):

Set a metronome to click on every beat between 40-60 bpm and improvise in strict 8th notes over a tune. Don't play any other rhythms at first.

The problem with it is that it avoids facing phrasing issues, particularly starting and ending phrases, and in my case meant after practicing this way for a long time early on I would play long lines with all the right language but that never went anywhere. I envied players whose lines were perhaps more rudimentary that mine, but who phrased in a compelling and intentional way. I get that for a beginner the "strict 8th note" thing gets your time/swing thing in place, but in the long term I find it important to learn how to end lines, phrase, think about "forward motion" *at the same time as making good 8th note choices* , as it leads more quickly to more musical improvising, in particular, the other musicians and audience will respond to well phrased improv even if the note choice is basic.

[Irez87]

pkirk, although I usually agree with everything Chris '77 says, we differ here. Variety is the spice of life. If you want to get to the next level with your phrasing, check out post #21 in my Ear Training Thread:

https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/bands...-training.html

[christianm77]

Good post Christian, but I personally have a problem with this one point (which Joe Pass also advocated):



The problem with it is that it avoids facing phrasing issues, particularly starting and ending phrases, and in my case meant after practicing this way for a long time early on I would play long lines with all the right language but that never went anywhere. I envied players whose lines were perhaps more rudimentary that mine, but who phrased in a compelling and intentional way. I get that for a beginner the "strict 8th note" thing gets your time/swing thing in place, but in the long term I find it important to learn how to end lines, phrase, think about "forward motion" *at the same time as making good 8th note choices* , as it leads more quickly to more musical improvising, in particular, the other musicians and audience will respond to well phrased improv even if the note choice is basic.

I acknowledge your point. It has occurred to me also.

I do a lot of practice now playing rhythmic phrases and simple stuff. One exercise you can try improvising a 2 bar phrase and repeating it exactly. Then try for 4 bars. Try it!

Another is to improvise rhythmically on one note.

Another is to take the rhythms that you have come up with (or stolen from somewhere) and add in notes.

But the slow improv exercise as just fantastic for getting you comfortable with the changes.

I would chop and change with a student depending on what I heard... if it was mega 8ths all the time, I would suggest a different exercise, but if they struggle with changes, or need to really learn the harmony of a tune, slow improv is great...

I also dig forward motion as a concept.

I tried to say in my post that doing different stuff is a really good idea. Don't get stuck on one thing...

[mrcee]

I'm curious about the value of practicing with a metronome. I've personally never really been a big fan of it. I have used them though but just don't really find them that useful. I'm not saying that I've got perfect time (It's been said that Lenny Tristano did BTW) but it's good and I've been complimented on it. I do like playing with various types of backing tracks though. Some years ago I studied the alto sax and took weekly private lessons from a very good teacher.
He like any good teacher stressed the importance of playing in time and we worked out of the Bugs Bower book Rhythms
Complete (very valuable). After a while he suggested that we might try and fire up the metronome. I said sure and played an exercise with it. After 10 or 20 seconds or so he said "Nah.." and turned if off. That was the first and last time it was mentioned and I continued studying with him for a year. I could well be in denial but for me they just get in the way. Does anyone else feel the same?

[wolflen]

take all the advice from above and you will be a super player-it may take years though..there is no quick way to do it..you HAVE to make lots of mistakes and stumble around and feel frustrated..and one day you will wonder why you found it so hard to play a certain tune..

when I teach..i have to keep reminding myself.."hey this guy is from earth..and has no idea what your talking about..go slow..then go slower"

music is a language..(not to start a discussion) and it filled with terms that include other terms ( turnaround/chord progression) and so fourth .. to digest this information you have to chew off small bites and chew very slowly and carefully

[christianm77]

I'm curious about the value of practicing with a metronome. I've personally never really been a big fan of it. I have used them though but just don't really find them that useful. I'm not saying that I've got perfect time (It's been said that Lenny Tristano did BTW) but it's good and I've been complimented on it. I do like playing with various types of backing tracks though. Some years ago I studied the alto sax and took weekly private lessons from a very good teacher.
He like any good teacher stressed the importance of playing in time and we worked out of the Bugs Bower book Rhythms
Complete (very valuable). After a while he suggested that we might try and fire up the metronome. I said sure and played an exercise with it. After 10 or 20 seconds or so he said "Nah.." and turned if off. That was the first and last time it was mentioned and I continued studying with him for a year. I could well be in denial but for me they just get in the way. Does anyone else feel the same?

I blow hot and cold with metronomes.

As I understand it they are a useful practice tool in the following situations:
1) you are not used to playing evenly
2) you are not used a steady tempo

In these cases a metronome clicking on every beat can be a useful tool to teach you how it feels to play slowly and in time or evenly (for example I really needed it for the slow improv exercise when getting started). Once you know how this feels you can move on. This is basic stuff. Don't become reliant on click tracks.

On a more advanced level, the metronome is a useful tool of diagnosis for issues with your timing. There are dozens of exercises for this of various types I could list for pages and pages that are supposed to work your time feel...

I don't think a metronome can give you time - I think you have to understand rhythms yourself and feel them in your body. A metronome can't do this for you, but if you can make the metronome swing you know you've got somewhere.

If you are looking for approach to mastering rhythm without metronomes the Mike Longo stuff avoids using them completely.

I could talk about rhythm for pages and pages so I'll force myself to finish here....

[Irez87]

You can hear how people practice with the metronome if you listen closely.

Although practicing with the metronome on 2 and 4 might be okay in the beginning to ween students off the metronome, here are some symptoms of prolonged 2 and 4 use (I'm serious).

1. Eighth notes become too heavily swung. Even Louis Armstrong had a natural bounce to his playing, it was't like a herky jerky circus ride. I had this in the past, and always wondered why my time feel was off. It is easy to sound herky jerky on the guitar if you are trying to force the swing into the music.

2. Eighth note lines have no natural end point. 2 and 4 is too vague. In most of the we listen to music (except trance and Gregorian Chant), the phrase reigns supreme. I did several pod casts on this phenomenon here on the site. They are located on posts #33, #34, and post #94 (my favorite, because of the examples I share) on the following thread:

https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/bands...raining-4.html

I will record more pod casts in higher fidelity in the future because I just got an actual microphone, a Blue Snowball. This is exciting, guys

3. Closely tied to #2, but the lines have no shape or melodic contour if they are tied to two and four. Here is a biology parallel (since I am co-teaching bio at the moment). Think of the phrase-al structure as the cell membrane of the cell. The cell membrane makes sure that all the "stuff" stays inside the cell and... the cell membrane is the gatekeeper of the cell. It regulates everything that enters the cell, through active transport, osmosis, and passive transport. This is all done to achieve homeostasis, balance...

The 2 measure, 4 measure, and 8 measure phrase-al structure acts in a very similar way in music. It keeps the nucleus of the musical idea packaged within the sonic context of the song. It also regulates what goes in and out of the musical idea through the concept of forward motion.

Which brings me to my next point...

4. Forward motion relies on the micro cosmic (thanks Sheryl Baily, I will interview you soon , along with Mark Whitfield to figure out what y'all learned from my man, Bruce Arnold) as well as the marcro cosmic pulsation of time.

What does THAT mean? Well, that means that forward motion, this principle of weak beat/strong beat is defined not only by the eighth note, but also by the larger 2 measure, 4 measure, and 8 measure phrase. Don't believe me? Listen to the pod casts aforementioned in point 2 of this treatise on the misuse of the metronome.

This all raises (not begs) the question of "okay, arse hole, if you know so much about studying time, how do I practice keeping my place". Good question... and I don't have an answer...







.... I have two.

A. Study Mike Longo's Rhythmic Nature of Jazz. Chris '77 hipped me to him, and I take a lesson or two with him before I leave NYC just because... I live in NYC and deal with all the frustrations of NYC... so it'd be best to take advantage of all of the opportunities of NYC before I go... Like playing with Sheryl Baily, Mark Whitfield, or Joe Lovano (he plays in a group with Bruce Arnold. His wife also plays music)...

remember our wager ? I'd do this to prove that it doesn't take godly skill to play with the greats, it takes massive cojones to play with the greats. Remember, they are just human as you and me.

B. Study the concept Bruce got from other great drummers. He calls the concept the "Big Metronome".
You can find out more about this idea on post #21 of that same thread I mentioned on point #2 of my treatise presented here.

Why am I sharing all of this here?

I'll let you decide with a multiple choice question...

Am I...

a. an egotistical maniac

b. a maniac

c. a naive educator

d. a devoted learner

... Maybe that was a poorly constructed question

Enjoy and keep pushing yourselves. No excuses!

[Cunamara]

Sickz, to get better you ultimately have to play music rather than adding together the components of music. What you are studying is like learning grammar, but you still have to find something to say. That's the hard part. Some people seem to have "what to say" bursting out of them, others don't and have to coax and nurture it.

When you listen to music, sing a solo over it. Sing the melody, sing what the soloist played, then sing something new of your own. When you're watching TV, play the melody of the theme songs and jingles on your guitar so that intervals and spontaneous melody become second nature. Spend some time playing melodies by ear, no charts. "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" from having heard it as a little kid in an unfamiliar key will teach you a lot.

A lot of jazz over the years as been musically right but mechanically incorrect- we create theory to explain it afterwards.

[Irez87]

Cunamara,

I agree, 100%.

It took me just about 10 years of studying the grammar of jazz, 10 years of embarrassing the shit outta myself on stage and in front of teachers, to finally get to a point where I can finally say something that is within me and not always tied to some preconceived notion of what is always grammatically correct.

But I had to struggle with music to get to this point. Nothing, I mean, nothing is at all worthwhile if it is not earned by some sort of struggle. If it were easy for me, I know I would have taken jazz improvisation for granted.

The one turning point for me in my playing was ear training. I know I've talked about ear training ad nauseam, but that's because it was the true turning point in my ability to improvise "freely"

I had another "aha moment" last night while watching Larry Koonse's Pentatonics masterclass from MyMusicMasterClass.com

Here it is: although I knew what a pentatonic was theoretically, and where they were located on the neck, I could not access them in my own improvisations. My epiphany was that I needed to be able to sing them and hear them against different harmonies before I took any idea back to the fretboard.

That's what I mean when I say I want my ear to teach me, not the guitar.

The music should happen first (in your head, in your inner ear)

The guitar is just a vessel (a beautiful vessel, but a vessel nonetheless)

[rpjazzguitar]

Your approach sounds terrific. I wish I had done it that way!

If you keep working that way, you'll end up with full knowledge of the fretboard and a trained ear from the transcribing.

As far as the theory portion of the post, I'd offer this. It's very tempting to ask, "what was he thinking about?" in reaction to a solo you like. I end up wishing that I could think that way and thereby get those sounds.

But, when you ask great players what they were actually thinking, almost invariably, you do not get a theoretical answer. You don't get, "oh, I was thinking melodic minor a half step up" or something like that.
Instead, you may get, as I heard once, "I was thinking, darker". Or, more likely, frustration with the question. Great players are reacting to the music based on material that is deeply embedded.

A better question might be, "what did you practice that enabled you to do that?".

When you transcribe, it's possible to review the transcription and ask, "why did this sound good"?

Sometimes, it's fairly clear, like if you hear the notes of C major scale against a Cmaj7. Bland, but no clams.

But, a lot of the time, the stuff that catches my ear involves departures from the theory that I know. That is, a passage will catch my attention and it involves, for example, playing a b7 against a major 7 or a major third against a minor chord, or something else that seems like it shouldn't work.

But, it does, and it's because the soloist's phrasing and melodicism prevailed.

Meaning, when I figure out that "oh, it's a minor triad a half step up" and I try to apply that, it doesn't sound as good.

Where I end up is, if I like the sound, can I find a way to practice it and get it into my playing, without thinking about the math?

Frankly, I'm not very good at that. But, when it does work, it's because I learned how to respond to a particular harmonic flow -- with a lick, a few notes, or a bit of theory. Eventually, the same harmony shows up in another tune.

I just reread what I wrote. Pretty useless, but I won't delete it.

Here's my real advice. Get into a group situation where you're the worst player in the room, by as wide a margin as possible. You might get to do that by being the one to book the gigs. If you lose money on it, consider it the cost of a lesson. I do it by having a band book of more than 100 Brazilian arrangements that some very good players enjoy playing -- and I serve a meal after the session. Everybody likes free food.

If you can handle the pressure on your self-esteem, you'll find a way to improve. You can't be a great combo player unless you spend a lot of time in great combos.

[rpjazzguitar]

For me to find the notes of a C major scale on the neck, I'd be thinking note-name first. I couldn't draw the shape without thinking about notes.

That said, there are lots of things I play because of shape -- most chords,(but not all - sometimes I think about notes) and some licks.

The advantage of shape is that you're visualizing multiple notes at once. A big advantage for chording.

But, if you want to start moving voices within a chord and through a progression, knowing the notes may be very helpful.

If you know lots of things by shape, it might be faster than having to think about them one note at a time.

But, if you know the sound and you have a certain skill level, your fingers find the notes.

By "certain skill level" I mean that you can hear a line once and play it correctly, starting on any finger, any fret. For most of us, that's a goal rather than a complete reality.

[jordanklemons]

Hey sickz... great questions... so big topics you're trying to work through. That's great. I haven't had a chance to read through all the other responses yet... but there's no ONE WAY to do any of this stuff, and I'm sure there's some great info being shared in this thread, so I'd give everyone's ideas a good shot and try to find what works for you. A big part of this stuff is learning to personalize your practice time so that you're focusing on what/why/how type issues in your own way. That is what will eventually lead you to actually creating music in your own way.

• In what ways do you practice scales/arpeggios for improvisation? Since i started going to school for jazz (somewhat of a beginner school, aiming to upgrade to a better school as i progress) i've learned from my teachers to practice my ii-V-I's (and other progressions) in different areas of the neck. Practicing only playing the arpeggios in different areas of the neck, practicing the chord scales in the same areas, practicing with chromatic approach notes from below, practicing on one string and practicing ascending and descending (playing ii ascending, V descending and so on). I am slowly starting to get more comfortable with this and i wondered about other ways to think of your harmonic practice so i can get more comfortable outlining the changes.

I hate to be one of "those guys" but I don't practice scales and arpeggios. At least not at this point. I have in the past, and I may again in the future. How and what we play is a direct response to how and what we practice, and I don't want to sound like I'm playing scales or arpeggios... so I've taken them out of my practice time. I personally focus on, what I think of as, melodic structures. These can be found within scales, and sometimes overlap with certain types of arpeggios. But it's not simply a muscle memory exercise of trying to memorize shapes or patterns. It's about learning to limit myself to certain notes that create certain tonalities and colors, and then learning to be creative within them so as to produce lyrical, melodic phrases in a way that gives me a sense of freedom as an improvisor. I'm always looking to make myself feel more free and to make my lines sound more melodic and musical and less like running changes. While I want the changes to be evident in my playing, I don't want them to dictate my playing. If that makes sense.

Practicing all over the neck is great, sometimes I focus on that... but don't forget you can play some BEAUTIFUL S*** using only a few frets. It's important to work on mastery of the whole instrument... but I don't believe that should be done at the expense of just learning to be musical.

• How do i get the most benefit from the solos i learn? Right now i am transcribing solo to solo, and it has proven helpful in aiding me to pickup the articulation, phrasing and tone that goes into playing jazz. But i am uncertain how to get the most harmonic understanding out of my transcribing so i can play over changes more easily. Taking licks and forcing them into playing seems unnatural and like it is not going to come out as naturally as i want it to, and i'm uncertain of how to get harmonic concepts out of my transcribing. What do you guys do when it comes to learning solos and using them as an aid to improve your playing?

Learning to sing (along with playing) them is great, but to me it still leaves a lot of meat on the bones. If you want to squeeze all of the juice out of a solo you've transcribed, I think you really have to get in there with a scalpel, start cutting out the bits you love in a surgical way, practice putting those piece into your own lines, absorb them one bit at a time, analyze and understand WHY they sound so good, learn how to manipulate them and be able to actually IMPROVISE with them... if we only learn them as a stand alone, frozen in time phrase then we have no sense of freedom with them. We need to learn to bend and flex them and let them live and breathe. Then we get the idea and the essence of them and can manipulate them into whatever we want and need them to be. It's the difference between learning one riff vs learning an idea that can turned into 100+ riffs. But all categorized and understood in the same, simple idea (like the melodic structure idea I mentioned previously).

• How do you go about training your ears? I've started singing along to my scale/arpeggios practice, and i've started spending time learning to sing the solos i've transcribed. Should i keep doing this and/or do you have any other advice regarding ear training?

Listening. A lot of listening. Singing is great too. Really powerful way to do it. But listening... and having facial expressions and/or body movements that correlate with certain chord/scale tones or harmonies. Other things that can help develop your ear...

-Write/compose/arrange tunes
-Learn lots of standards
-Practice standards in other keys (especially doing this without pre-planning it... just pick a key and try to let your ear lead you through it... going rubato and out of time if necessary)
-Learning and using solfeggi
-Apps can be helpful... I have one for single note chord/scale tone recognition and one for harmonic recognition
-Hang with friends and test and push each other. ANYTHING is fair game here... just keep it friendly and supportive... don't let anyone taint the energy by making fun of people or putting anyone down. Keep it a positive vibe. Test each other. Play a mode and see if you can recognize which parent scale (major, melodic minor, etc) it's from... or if you can hear which specific mode it is. Play a chord at the piano and have someone play a note and see if you can identify the chord tone without singing... just going for immediate recognition. Play a note on the guitar and then have a piano player friend play a chord. Can you hear which chord tone you're playing? If you know which chord tone it is... try and use that information to figure out exactly what chord is on the piano.
(Example: maybe you play an F note and it sounds like the #11/b5 of the chord. Now is it a major, minor, dominant, etc chord type? What else is in it? Maybe it's a BMaj7#11. Maybe it's a B7b9b5. Maybe it's a Bhalfdim7. There are lots of chords it could be. Can you hear which one it is?)


I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of just doing everything the traditional method... but I also think there's a reason the traditional method has been compiled this way, and if you're working with a teacher who's leading you down a certain path (assuming you like their playing or have some level of knowledge or wisdom you aspire to) I'd also just recommend trusting your teacher and working on the things he wants you to. If you want to do other things as well to supplement that's always great. But following what your teacher recommends is probably smart.

[DrGoldsmack]

Hello all! I am new to this forum but it looks like a great resource! I was wondering if you would be willing to listen to my video and give me some tips on my improvisation. I was really trying to improve my breathing and phrasing in this solo. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Jasper

P.S. Playing starts at 30sec mark

[whiskey02]

I like your use of space, relaxed, self assured space you're coming from; playing "music" not "guitar/chops". I would like to hear more tension and release, throw in some side slipping, superimposing. The harmony of the track is very chill/stagnant which puts it upon you to add more interest/movement over the drone of long held chords (something I'm not particularly good at).

[DrGoldsmack]

I would like to hear more tension and release, throw in some side slipping, superimposing. The harmony of the track is very chill/stagnant which puts it upon you to add more interest/movement over the drone of long held chords.

Thank you whiskey! You make a very good point, now that I listen to the track again your comment makes a lot of sense. I need something to drive the melody or keep the listener engaged. Tension feels like the hardest part of soloing to me. I worry that if I create tension I wont be able to resolve it and just create an obnoxious sound!
Cheers,
J

[kris]

Hi Jasper,
The harmony of the song/chords/ are not clean for me...
but generally it a kind of spanich chords progresion in fm...
you play quite good on backing track using Ab major scale...
you can use a trick ala: question/high positions and answer lower/bass strings-longer notes.
try to play solo only one string,next two strings,and three strings /Ab major scale/-creat short melodies in the mood of the backroud.
my 2 cents
Best
Kris

[DrGoldsmack]

The harmony of the song/chords/ are not clean for me...
but generally it a kind of spanich chords progresion in fm...
you play quite good on backing track using Ab major scale...
you can use a trick ala: question/high positions and answer lower/bass strings-longer notes.
try to play solo only one string,next two strings,and three strings /Ab major scale/-creat short melodies in the mood of the backroud.

Correct me if I am wrong but what you are saying is that there is not a defined melody throughout the track. I should work on creating a head or motif that I elaborate on throughout the improvisation. I can see how this would help ground the listener and give them something to remember. Thanks for your input!
Jasper

[DrGoldsmack]

I would like to hear more tension and release, throw in some side slipping, superimposing. The harmony of the track is very chill/stagnant which puts it upon you to add more interest/movement over the drone of long held chords.

Thank you for your input! I really appreciate all the feedback. Now that I listen to the track again this makes a lot of sense. I need to drive the melody somehow to keep the listener interested. Tension is one of the hardest things for me as I worry I will not be able to resolve my idea and it will just sound out of place. I will work on this.
Cheers,
J