For beginners, learning to improvise may sound like an odd thing to try and do, after all improvising is essentially making things up on the spot.
However to improvise effectively, it is crucial that musicians know a certain level of theory such as scales, a wide variety of minor, major and 7th chords and how they are made.
Whilst playing to backing it is also advisable to follow the chord progressions.
Musicians can practice their instrument for countless hours, attempting to put the technique and theory they learn into practice.
However getting stuck in a rut is easy and many musicians find that their soloing sounds forced and unmelodious.
I asked the Last Minute Musicians community if they had any tips to share about improvising.
Common problems musicians make when improvising
- Not listening
- Forgetting their emotions
- Failing to play in public
- Playing alone, without a metronome
Saxophonist, George Philips, explained “Practice scales and the basic seven chords A to G and the minors A to G. Play the chords over and over again till you learn them by ear. Then whatever is played you will instinctively know what to play.”
Take inspiration from your heroes
Take inspiration from other musicians you admire and want to emulate. Learn a few licks and phrases by your favourite musicians and closely study their style of playing.
Improve your musicianship by refraining from using tablature or other online resources too, learning by ear is the best way to refine your improvisation technique.
Classical guitarist, Joseph Warwick says:
Steal everything you can from every song you’ve ever loved!
Joseph Warwick
To begin with things simple
Learning to improvise successfully is a marathon, not a sprint. By taking only a few notes from a scale to work on, you will teach yourself to value each note, creating new melodies.
You may find that you feel the need to speed up, but resist the urge to overplay. Every solo should have melody, by using fewer notes musicians will force themselves to be melodic.
Guitarist, Sven Dupon suggests that musicians should improvise with their ears, not their eyes. He says:
Make your lines follow your breathing, you will leave space between your phrases.
Sven Dupon
Use backing tracks
The best way to practice improvisation is to play along to a selection of backing tracks, ideally in different genres.
Many musicians begin by simply playing scales over the backing tracks, then slowly deviate from the scale form using their ears to decide what sounds good.
Singer, Laura Stephanie Sharley said:
For jazz, practice as many scales as you can! When I was part of a jazz group on clarinet a few years ago I used to improve around the dorian scale quite a lot.
Laura Stephanie Sharley
Rothwell guitarist, Mark Gill advises:
Jam with as many other musicians as you possibly can and learn from one another and play live as much as you can too. We learn much more from live and jamming with others than we do just shredding alone in the bedroom.
Mark Gill
Sources
Do you have any tips on improvisation? Let us know in the comments below!
