The art of improvisation

Steve Becker · From: Daytona Beach FL

Here's a subject that I have struggled with forever.
The ability (or lack thereof) to improvise.
I can construct a solo, practice it, and execute it proficiently, but when it comes to soloing in a jam setting, with no time to plan ahead, or practice, I tend to either run out of ideas after several bars, or revert back to just stringing licks together, with no real direction. (sometimes I get lucky and come up with some nice results, but I'm usually dissapointed.)
I'm always super impressed by players who can improvise, and manage to create beautifully constructed solos on the fly, and wonder if there are some 'tricks' or exercises or advice anyone could offer that would help me with that aspect of my playing. Or is it more a matter of 'ya either got it or ya ain't'... Thanks.

Dr. Hugh Jeffreys · From: Southaven, MS, USA

My friend Jaime Aebersold,New Albany, Ind. has many works on improv. from beginning to advanced players. In the meanwhile I'd recommend scale practice, major/minor then memorize the Church Modes - Dorian, Lydian,etc. Building a good foundation with scales is necessary and should keep you busy for awhile. Jazz professors in Universities stress the importance of the Modals. Good Luck.

Richard Damron · From: Gallatin, Tennessee, USA (deceased)

Steve -

Listen to the good Doctor. Jaime Aebersold has a ton of stuff that he's written over the years. He may still have a FREE, extensive download written with the jazz inclined in mind. Check it out.

Dr. Hugh alluded to the idea that one must improvise within the scale associated with the chord being played. You may not be jazz oriented but a prime example of an expert doing just that is to be found in Clifford Brown's "Cherokee". The changes fly by at close to breakneck speed yet Clifford didn't miss a one. Should you listen to this particular rendition you'll become immediately aware of the scales associated with the chord changes.

For improvisation at its' best just listen to the jazz players. I could name a hundred but won't take up the space here. Should you need the names of the best that ever played, then just PM me and I'll put together a list and even include cryptic comments as to their style.

Respectfully,

Richard

Steve Becker · From: Daytona Beach FL

Hey thanks for the feedback, guys.
I don't play jazz, mostly country, rock and some blues. I also just play by ear, having never learned or taught myself to read music. I'm sure that this has hampered my progress over the years.
I do know what notes will work in various keys, but it's how to go about stringing them together and phrasing them , and more importantly, not focusing so much on what I'm playing at the moment,but rather deciding where I'm going next.
I've heard a lot of players that were very good at improvising, that don't know scales or have jazz backgrounds. So I'm thinking it's more of an innate skill that's born from familiarity, comfort, and confidence with your instrument,and the ability to train your brain to think ahead.
What's your take?

Nathan Sarver · From: Washington State, USA

I think innate talent is a very small factor in becoming a good improvisor. Talent is at best 10% of what made Charlie Parker, B.B. King and Buddy Emmons great at improvising. It was hard work and thousands of hours of practice that got them there. If any of us put in the time those guys did constantly working to get better, we would be really good. Talent is maybe what separates a very good player from an extraordinary player but talent alone won't even get you close.

Probably the best thing to do is spend half your practice time working on scale shapes and the other half making up little melodies with those scales against backing tracks or Band In A Box. After a while, you'll get better and better and quickly transferring what you hear in your head onto your guitar.

Terry Barnett · From: Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada

Welcome to the club Steve. I've made my living for years in the Jazz and Blues scene and you can run out of ideas in a hurry with that much improvization. I was doing a gig with a particularly great harmonica player and after the second set a guy came up to us to say how much he loved our playing, particularly during one solo where the harmonica player had held one note for the better part of two bars. After the fellow had left he leaned over to me to say that, that long note...he had totally run out of ideas and was waiting for something...anything...to get him through that solo. Laughing

Nathan's right it's hard work. Learn form...learn scales...listen to the greats. Learn the language and you'll start to find your own voice but there'll still be times when you won't be able to think of anything to say. Cheers

Scott Swartz · From: St. Louis, MO

I would also add this observation....

I began playing with a singer, lets call him X, 9 months ago.

He went to Nashville and recorded 5 songs and asked us (not surprisingly) to learn the parts from those sessions.

I transcribed some of the key fiddle parts onto steel, since at the time we did not have a fiddle player.

Fast forward 6 months and I decided to pick up the fiddle to increase my marketability near and long term. I then set out to learn these same key licks on fiddle as per original recording.

I was struck by the fact that these parts were easy to figure out by ear and play on fiddle, and were/are harder to play on steel due to the number of pedal/lever moves required to execute them, even though I am much more familiar with steel.

Which is another argument for learning scales, etc, the better you know your instument the more you can just play the music.
_________________
Scott Swartz
Steeltronics - Steel Guitar Pickups
www.steeltronics.com

William Lake · From: Ontario, Canada

Nathan got it right. 10% talent and 90% work.
I am always annoyed when somebody says Charlie Parker was a genius. He was laughed off the stage in St.Louis and went to N.Y. and practiced 12-16 hours a day...every day. He worked his ass off to get the technique required to play what was in his head.
That's the secret. Get the chops to be able to play what you hear in your head.
BTW..what you hear in your head is probably stuff you heard other players play. Listen, listen, practice, practice.
Unfortunately, what Bird took to keep up that pace of practicing, killed him. So sad.
_________________
Bill

Paul Crawford · From: Orlando, Fl

Scales, Scales, Scales until you can hear the next note a week before it's due. When you get one scale down, switch to a different mode. Once the mechanics of knowing where to find a note become automatic, then it's simply playing what's in your head.

If you're head is muddled as mine then you'll have several lifetimes of ideas to try. You'll likely find the simplier ideas work the best to everyone else's ear. The technically challenging ones or the most interesting to try usually make me feel satisfied but are met with hostile glares from other band members and any audience members that make it through them. My very best improvisations are saved for situations where I really don't care if I'm invited back. Mr. Green

Christopher Woitach · From: Portland, Oregon, USA

Scales, arpeggios, etc, are important, as materials - but what to do them? How do you make melodies "on the fly" that aren't just hand habits, or licks out of context?

The simplest, and non-genre-specific way to use all the material you've practiced is motivic development, in my opinion.

What is a motif? Quick-n-dirty: a short musical phrase that serves as a basis for melodic development

Here are some basic approaches (start with a 3 or 4 note phrase, one with some rhythmic interest - easier to manipulate than a longer one):

1. Silence - without holes, anything you play has no rhythmic or melodic context
2. Repetition - repeat your motif exactly, with space between repetitions, a few times
3. Sequence - Quick-n-dirty: same motif, different pitches, played as a pattern using the prevailing scale. Ex - if your motif is C E G A, and the prevailing scale is C Major, you could play the following sequence - C E G A, D F A B, E G B C using the same rhythm as your basic motif. This is just an example, and what you choose will depend on the specific harmonic situation. This doesn't have to be in scalar order, it could move around much more
3. Augmentation - motif with longer rhythmic values, motif slower
4. Diminuation - motif with shorter rhythmic values, motif faster
5. Retrograde - motif backwards
6. Q & A or Call/Response - play motif, answer it, play motif answer it differently... Blues uses lots of this technique
7. Fragments - use part of your motif, perhaps as a sequence
8. Rhythmic displacement - WHERE you play your idea - move it to a different part of the measure
9. Articulation - HOW you play your idea - slides, harmonics, damped...

This all might sound like a lot to think about - it's stuff to practice until it becomes natural to you. Nobody says "now I think I'll play some retrograde diminuation over my motif" during their solos, it's just something you play around with until it's part of your arsenal of concepts..

There are plenty of great players who play this way - in the jazz world Sonny Rollins, Chet Baker, Paul Desmond, Jim Hall are good examples of motivic players. I'm sure, if you listen with this in mind, you'll hear lots of this stuff in whatever music you listen to, during the improvisations.

Hope this helps... sorry so long winded
_________________
Christopher Woitach
cw@affmusic.com
www.affmusic.com

Alfred Ewell · From: Virginia, USA

Clete Ritta · From: San Antonio, Texas

Start by improvising over simple changes like I IV V7. Alter the tempo and rhythm.
How many hundreds of songs use this exact progression?
Then add more complexity to the progression, i.e. add a fourth chord.
Improvising has a lot to do with knowing the progression first.
Once you are familiar with a handful of the most common progressions, keep testing the boundaries by adding more diversity and complexity.
This is a lifelong pursuit, and why there's no substitute for experience. Hopefully every time you practice, you'll discover something new about the art of improvising.

Clete

Joe Cook · From: Lake Osoyoos, WA

Christopher, that's the best instruction for improvising I have ever seen. I guess I've been doing some of that for years but have never seen it in writing. Thanks for posting that.

Steve Becker · From: Daytona Beach FL

Thanks for all your responses.
Obviously practice is #1 on everybody's list. Unless you're some kind of savant, there's no substitute for it. That stands to reason. And practicing scales, and playing over various chord progressions is certainly good advice. But, how many of you have come across very accomplished classicly trained musicians,who practice for hrs and hrs on their instruments doing scales, arpeggios, etc. who have NO ability to improvise. Without their sheet music in front of them, they're lost! They're not playing what they think, they're thinking what they play...So it does seem to me that there has to be some sort of intrinsic ability to "play what's in your head".
The whole motivic developement concept that Chrisopher so eloquently explained, is new to me, and I think I already unknowingly incorporate some aspects of it in my practice. It seems to come closest to addressing the fundamental aspects of improvising,so I'll definitely be doing more research on that!
Keep your ideas coming.

Paul Crawford · From: Orlando, Fl

Steve: Most classically trained musicians can't improvise because it's not something they are ever asked to do and is traditionally frowned upon. I play in a couple of groups with members of the local philharmonics. They are wonderful players and can come up with some wonderful orginial ideas but don't do it on the fly. They think it out, write it down, revise it, practice it, then revise it again until it sounds perfect to their ears. They've made a lifetime commitment to exactly reproducing amazing performances that most of us will never dream of approaching. Their skill is in that area, not putting something together on the fly. It's not a limitation of talent, it's just another skill set and approach to music necessary to play nice with 80 or 90 other musicians at the same time. It's also a skill a lot of the band leaders I've worked with would much appreciate if I'd learn. Embarassed

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

You get good at what you practice, and if you practice seven note scales, up and down, it'll sound that way. Scales are more often used in fragments -

1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-5, 3-4-5-6
8-7-6-5, 7-6-5-4 etc.
And in threes: 1-2-3, 2-3-4 3-4-5 etc. up and down:
6-7-8, 5-6-7, 4-5-6 etc.

4-3-2-1, 6-5-4-3, 5-4-3-2, 7-6-5-4, 9-8-7-6 etc.

Chord arpeggios, touched on above, are critically important. In threes and fours:
1-3-5, 2-4-6, 3-5-7, 4-6-8 up and down backwards and forwards. 1-3-5-7, 2-4-6-8, 3-5-7-9 etc

There's always four permutations. The fragment can rise or fall, and the movement of the fragments can be up or down. It never hurts to repeat one once in a while.

If you listen to good music, you will hear the fragments above in hundreds of places. Just working through one scale using all the possible combinations can take weeks. And then there's the five note fragments and the eight note ones, and.... chord arpeggios using altered and five-and-six note chords, and... Devil

I've been listening to U. Srinivas a lot lately, he is obvious in his use of these things.

Dr. Hugh Jeffreys · From: Southaven, MS, USA

In response to the scale issue: I've devised several exercises (with rhythm comp) that go through all 12 keys. They are part of my daily fare.

Clete Ritta · From: San Antonio, Texas

Steve Becker · From: Daytona Beach FL

I appreciate all your thoughts on this subject.
I think in my case, I'm pretty much the type of musician Paul describes,(although not as talented.) I have an orchestra mentality, having always played with cover bands, learning my specific parts and refining them, and then reproducing them faithfully every time out. And being somewhat of a perfectionist, I got pretty good at doing this!
Sure I will make some small changes sometimes, mostly for my own amusement, but I pride myself in playing it as close as possible to the original. And although I have written and recorded several of my own tunes, I still take the same approach when performing them. It's all about the craftsmanship with me. The challenge has always been finding players that have the same approach and attitude and work ethic. That's when I'm in my comfort zone, when everybody is playing their respective parts, and it all hopefully comes together with a minimum number of mistakes.
But, occasionally I find myself in a jam situation, and I get uncomfortable mostly because I'm expected to come up with extended solos on the fly, but also because I'm playing with musicians who are extremely comfortable with that format.
So, that's why I brought this whole improv thing up. In order to personally feel like a more well rounded musician (and be regarded as one), I feel as though I need to be able to come thru, and not drop the ball in those situations.

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Listen to and transcribe the playing of the great musicians who have done it before. You can start with something simple like Phil Woods' solo in Billy Joel's Just The Way You Are, for example. You should do this as much as possible, using solos by folks playing other instruments, particularly horns, because let's face it, they are the best improvisers. Horns have the distinct advantage of playing with their wind, which makes the phrasing seem more articulate and expressive, and generally their ideas tend to be more concise phrase-wise.

You should continue to practice playing scales, not only stepwise, but in different alternating patterns, just to get your chops up to begin to hear things more clearly.

The real trick to improvising is to be able to hear what you play and make choices that well enhance the melodic content of what you are playing. You develop a melodic sense and simultaneously develop the ability to play what it is you are hearing. It takes a lot of years to do this; however, if you narrow down the options into "safe zones" (scales and such that work for certain chords) than you have made one step closer to getting it. When you "get it", that's like when you hear about players taking everything they know and throwing it all away--learning the rules then breaking them.
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links

Twayn Williams · From: Portland, OR

Here's the hardest piece of advice I can think of that will hold you in good stead in a jam/improv situation:

Play less.

Smile

_________________
Primitive Utility Steel

Clete Ritta · From: San Antonio, Texas

If you aren't the singing type, there's also whistling.

Even if its in another key, a recognizable melody that is in your head doesnt have to be read off a score.

Another thing to try while improvising is interject a familiar melody from another song for a chuckle or two. Television series themes are good fun. Laughing

Clete

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

In the context of jamming on tunes, it's a stellar idea to actually know the tune - vocal melody, and signature keyboard, horn or six-string motifs or turnarounds.

I for one stole & printed out Chris's nine rules above to add to my collection - the construction methods used to manufacture melodies is really my main interest. The idea that so-and-so just sort of "is" a genius and therefore no one can figure out what they're doing is foreign to me. Everybody has the same fingers, and listening is cheap.

There are great melodicists who actually use a fairly small number of techniques to construct great solos - Jeff Beck comes to mind, ha absolutely milks what Chris called "articulation" above.

Let's say you know a ten-note vocal line (including RESTS) from a jamming vehicle. Play it once, then play it again up a 4th, then again up a 5th - there's thirty notes, already. Or, transpose the same relative melodic contour to the minors, and play the ten-note line starting on:
I
mIII
mII
V
IV
mVI

You're sixty notes into a solo... insert pauses now and then, huh?

The bebop guys had another trick of superimposed triads, if you want to get heavy the book "Thinking in Jazz" by Paul F. Berliner is the best single source for the construction techniques that I've ever seen. Reading really helps with his examples, but you can be as slow as you please. The biography "Coltrane" by Lewis Porter has a lot of concrete examples, and a new book "The Music of Miles Davis" by Lex Giel used the framework of Miles to hang a succinct explanation of jazz tricks. If your library has an inter-library loan program you can probably check these out first for free.

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