Need Help on Improvising...

[Vince~]

I strarted out improvising few months ago and it still sounds crap. Same thing goes to my blues stuff which don't even sound bluesy =(.. I really need help here and although I play in the correct key and suitable scale, I just can't bring out the sound.

[mi2tom]

I think the hardest thing in my teaching is to teach people how to improvise, what I can say is, the best thing is improvising is in you. I thought a kid here which can play a lick perfectly and cleanly but when ask to improvise they can't get the click or some of them get carried away with improvising, the music finishes but not they're improvising. the best thing is listen to more music and other styles of music instead of only guitar music

[wallie!]

You gotta get some awsome backing tracks, ones that suit your style of playing, and that you find really cool to listen to.

Stand alone backing tracks (Should be sold in music shops) are very good, include a booklet with all the scales, modes etc.

I found some other ones called guitar jam tracks, if you pm me ill tell you where you can find them :P

Also listen to some music, try to hear some of the licks used then try to variate them on your own.
But you need more than a few months to get decent at it, and you probably need to keep at it every day for at least 30 mins or so

If I had my setup back I could record you an example
Ill try to a crap quality one with a tape recorder.

[Vince~]

Thanks but is ther any guideline to improvising like which strong notes to hit on a chord progression. Another thing when i'm playing modes, eg. lydian,phrigian and stuffs like that, I just can't make it sound like them or in other words when I'm playing lydian it sounds like crap.

Help Help Help Help =p

[The Extremist]

Originally Posted by Vince~

Thanks but is ther any guideline to improvising like which strong notes to hit on a chord progression. Another thing when i'm playing modes, eg. lydian,phrigian and stuffs like that, I just can't make it sound like them or in other words when I'm playing lydian it sounds like crap.

Help Help Help Help =p

you might want to try improvising in the major scale (over some major scale oriented BT's), and just stick to that for a few months. when i started learning to improvise (no teacher, had to figure it all out on my own), i'd only used one or two backing tracks at first, but i'd practice over those 2 tracks relentlessly, and milk them for everything they're worth.

the way i see it, if you keep switching around through different tracks and modes and scales, you have to approach each one different. every different chord progression requires a different approach. as a beginner, who hasn't grasped the basics of improvising yet, that can be a total mindf*uck, since you're constantly changing your approach, when you haven't even got comfortable with a single approach.

sticking with one or two backing tracks for a while as a beginner, you'll start to completely internalize the tracks to the point where you know all the chords in the progression, all the notes in the chords, and you can follow the changes. that brings me to my next point:

as a beginner who's trying to get the feel of what creating a melody over a chord progression is all about, you need to know what chords you're playing over, and what notes are in those chords. that way, you can begin to understand the purpose/functions of the different notes in the scale. (chord tones vs. passing tones / tension vs. resolution)

i think once you get the the basic understanding of how to manipulate different notes within a single scale to do what you want with them, then it becomes much easier to translate it into other scales and modes, and different backing tracks for each scale and mode.

as already mentioned, improvising is such a massive subject, and its very difficult to explain it in words, especially over an internet forum without being able to use a guitar in a visual example. i think the most important aspect of learning to improvise is EXPERIMENTATION. many moments of "enlightenment" will be reached through experimentation.

others might, and most likely will disagree with certain aspects of my post, but that's completely understandable, since i think we all have/had different approaches to learn how to improvise. i dont think there's a right or wrong way to do it, just the one that works for you. im just trying to give you an idea of an approach that worked for me to learn the basics. take little bits and peices of each approach mentioned in this thread and form your own.

and dont forget to have some fun while you do it!

[bammbamm]

Extremist nailed it I think.
The other thing I'd add, is to familliarize yourself with as many techniques as you can, and you will glean bits of style from each and make it your own. Pick a player, or a genre, something you can identify with. For me, I love David Gilmour's phrasing and sense of melody, but I still love to rip from time to time, so combining the two is my ultimate goal. Then, within those two guidelines, I draw from some of my fave players like Yngwie, EJ, Becker, etc and try and make my improv as tasty as I can. There are a lot of elements that you can add to your playing that will in time, with practice, improve your improv skills.

Improvisation is as difficult as just learning to play the instrument itself, if not harder, and like learning guitar, the more you practice, the better you get at it. Once I lock into a progression, I imagine what would sound best to me and try to get my fingers to do it. Like Extremeist said, finding that moment where you reach a state of nirvana when doing a live improv, you find an almost mystical connection that you can't quite quantify or duplicate, but in the moment, listening back you wonder where you pulled it from.

EXPERIMENT !
Don't be afraid to make mistakes!
Practice!
Borrow ideas and make them your own by integrating them with other ideas you like and put your own spin on the whole mix.
Practice!

The one thing you asked for was specific notes that stand out more than others. Think about what you like to hear when you listen to a solo from whomever. What notes stand out to you?
Pick your favorite solos and analyze what you like about them, that will help you decipher some of your hidden ability. Once you've started to recognize that, start chipping away at it.

Good luck and I hope this helps somewhat.

BTW, some things that I 've always done that have helped me improve my overall level of playing was to envision things that I might not be able to play, and I forced myself to learn that technique to improve a song. I'm not a double stop style country player, but one song needed it, so I had to work it out. The end result was rather satisfying for me and it seemed anyone who heard the song.

[kenneth]

Check out this link - it's from Marty Friedman's instructional video (Melodic Control) on improvising. He shows you the importance of following the chords in the progression and how to hit different target notes.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...Marty+Friedman

[spkenn5]

amazing! i love marty!

[Vince~]

lol THANKS GUYS

[kenneth]

You might want to also check out the book "Shred Guitar" by Paul Hanson. He's a fantastic teacher/player who specializes in 80's-style shred - he taught at GIT back in the day and was Michael J. Fox' guitar teacher for "Back to the Future." The book goes through 10 different progressions in a variety of styles and modes, and for each progression, he analyzes the scale choices and also includes suggested licks and "vocabulary" to use in soloing over the progression. It comes with a CD which has the 10 backing tracks and all the licks played fast and slow. There's also a section on music theory as applied to guitar - chord construction, scales, modes, etc. Great book.

[kenneth]

Here's another Marty Friedman link - just a short clip where he shows and talks about practicing repeating patterns:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YX7kfeefW...rty%20friedman

[Rob A]

Sorry, bit Ot, but as we're here...

Ive just started to do a bit of improv. But when say pros do it, do they hear the melody in their mind, and go, oh im gonna go there then there... Whereas I just go oh yeh this lick, maybe move up there...

How do you do it?

[mi2tom]

I think most pros do it subconsciously, they practice hard and everything just come out of them, when they hear chord changes they automatically know where to hit the notes

[kenneth]

I've found that a good way to start is with the melody. Re-state the melody, then improvise by gradually changing notes, rephrasing, adding your own licks and lines. Check out how three great guitarists do this in their own unique way on three separate versions of the Beatles' classic "While My Guitar Gently Weeps":

Paul Gilbert...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tEI35cBen...tter%20custard

Steve Lukather...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...r+solo&pl=true

Prince...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GZKBTpMllc

[mi2tom]

That's some cool video there