Improvisation in Detail

Introduction

This lesson is going to be going over what improvisation is and how it can be used, and what to play when improvising. Be sure to read everything, don't just skip to the end. Everything is just as important as anything else. Enjoy!

Improvisation

Improvising is basically just going with the flow of music. Therefore, you need to be able to recognize "the flow", or find out "the flow." What I mean by that is, the key of the song.

Train yourself to be able to recognize what note is what, when you hear it. Easy ways to do this is just close your eyes and go high on the fretboard, and hit a random note. Try to memorize what it sounds like, yes it takes time, very frustrating time, but it’s worth it. Also, a much easier way to find out the flow is by looking at what chord the song is always drawn back to. And lots of times, the very first chord of the song.

Improvisation is extremely helpful if you're lead guitarist in a band. Say you're playing a song and in between every part of a verse, you just play like 4 or 5 notes, depending on the tempo of the song. (I.e. metal - a short sweep, jazz - 3 or 4 note with a pulloff or two), etc.

Improvisation all comes from scales and modes, (which are explained BRIEFLY farther down the lesson). So given the situation where there is a break in the lyrics for a reasonably long period of time. This would be perfect for a solo! (Especially if you're playing Rock, or Metal). Improvising, using whatever key that you're in, (which if you are doing what I said earlier in the lesson you'll know) is great way to solo if you don’t have time to plan ahead. But if you do have time, use theory and more efficient methods of coming up with a solo.

Improvising is pretty much just running through your scales across the fretboard in whatever key that the song/backing track is being played in. Like this one time last summer, my band and I were at this.. camp. The judges came up with this "Improvisation round." We had to right there on the spot just start playing. ALL the other bands completely failed, but we didn’t. Our singer told us play in 'Dm' right before we started. Since I was the lead guitarist all I had to do was Improvise using 'Dm' as my basis.

It sounded right on key, there’s that word again, key. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WHEN IMPROVISING!!! Don't get me wrong, scales don't make music. You can't just play a scale to what key you are in, you have to make little licks out of the scale, i.e. IMPROVISE.

Scales to use when Improvising

Pentatonic

Once you have found out what KEY your band/backing track is in, find where on the fretboard the Pentatonic scale for this KEY is... for instance, if the song was in..say.. 'Am'. The easiest and simplest way to improvise would be running up and down and using licks across this scale and bending the heck out of the G-string. This would be the scale i'm talking about if you don’t know it.

E|--------------------------------5--8--8--5--------------------------------

B|--------------------------5--8--------------8--5--------------------------

G|--------------------5--7--------------------------7--5--------------------

D|--------------5--7--------------------------------------7--5--------------

A|--------5--7--------------------------------------------------7--5--------

E|--5--8--------------------------------------------------------------8--5--

That's an Am Pent. There’s more ways of playing this, like on the next octave, or the extended scale, but this is the simplest way, and it sounds good.

The Major/Minor Scales

LEARN YOUR SCALES!!!! This is meant to be an intermediate lesson; therefore you should already know them. It will make everything so much easier. If you try to move on, without learning the basics, you will be in the dark when you get into more advanced stuff like legato and sweeping. I, myself, wasted like a year of my experience with guitar because I was too lazy to learn scales. Now that I know them, I can improvise without even thinking about it.

So say that we're still playing in Am. Since it's in the KEY of 'Am', (A Minor), we will already know what our root note is going to be: 'A'. So the next scale you could play, a little more difficult, compared to the Pentatonic, is the A Minor Scale!!!

e|------------------------------5-7-8-8-7-5-----------------------------|

B|------------------------5-6-8-------------8-6-5-----------------------|

G|------------------4-5-7-------------------------7-5-4-----------------|

D|--------------5-7-------------------------------------7-5-------------|

A|--------5-7-8---------------------------------------------8-7-5-------|

E|-5-7-8----------------------------------------------------------8-7-5-|

Of course there are way more places on the neck to play this scale so don't confine yourself to just this.

Modes

Modes are basically variations of a certain scale. I'm sure there are different lessons covering the theory of modes and how they work and what they are etc etc... But say you find out the song you are trying to improvise with is in the KEY 'D Dorian'. Now, like I said if you don't know what that is, there are lessons about it.

Anyways, so the song your playing along with is in 'D Dorian'. So, if you haven’t caught on by now, just use scale!!! Use Vibrato's and bend the strings and, if you going neoclassical or shred, sweep and tap on your scale across the fretboard. All the 'D Dorian' Scale is, is C Major, but your root note is going to be interval 2. Aka 'D'

This is the Interval Structure of 'D Dorian'

1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 8

But like I said if you want to know more about modes and scales, there are different lessons on them. Like this one:

http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/lesson.php?id=6

Throwing in Licks

Improvisation isn't ALWAYS 100% on-the-spot make-up work. This is what licks are for; a 'lick' is a short pattern of notes played on a scale/mode when improvising or warming up. There's a lick section of this website where people from the forums have posted licks that they think sound good and are great to throw into improvising.

Rack up your arsenal with as many possible licks as your memory can hold. They will become very useful. Say that you're improvising, you run out of ideas, and your solo becomes quite repetitive. Go through all the licks you know in your head, and pick which one you think will sound good with the solo that you are playing and make sure the lick is in the same KEY as the song is in.

Here are some random licks you can try, and if you like them, memorize.

http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/lick.php?id=546
http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/lick.php?id=542
http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/lick.php?id=535
http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/lick.php?id=493

For tons more go here: http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/guitar-licks.php

YOU DONT HAVE TO MOVE WITH CHORD CHANGES!! Just stick to the KEY that you're playing in. (Usually)

Anyways,

Thanks for reading!!!
Good luck to you all!!!
-Walkk