Improvisation

Opinions opinions, people don't know how to keep them to themselves

How about you learn to use your brain, and then get back to trying to say anything?

Already learned

Anything

improv. I've found that since I have learned to improvise, I have become a much more confident person, and a better composer, because that is what you're really doing : composing on the fly.

I started way back on the piano. Amin, Fmaj, Dmin, Emaj. it's really easy, because at that point, any white key goes. it's fun and easy to play with things. however, I find another good place to start is on jazz scales.

a jazz scale, if you don't know goes like this : tonic, minor 3rd, 4th, flat 5, natural 5, flat 7, tonic. on C, that looks like this :

C, Eb, F, F#, G, Bb, C.

play with that. a good way to start in the early goings is to pick a basic melody, and go with it. do it over four bars. then the next four bars, either repeat it verbatim, or end on a different note, or some small variation. third time, do something a lot different, but with the same sort of stuff in it. then, on the last four, repeat the main. that is the easiest way to get started. if you know someone who plays the piano, get them to play a 12-bar blues for you. any decent pianist knows how. then just try stuff.

the thing about improv : it's improv. it's hard to "learn". you need to screw around, and you need to wank, until you get some ideas in your head. once you have those ideas, you can reuse them in the form of various licks. then, you will start to develop your own style. I know, also, that several styles (including my own, but it's changing now) begin by finding something easy to do on your specific instrument. I know that I play the clarinet, and on my A dorian, I can go between A-G-F# really, really fast, because it is an easy button switch. so, I do that, up and down those notes, very quickly in certain sections. therefore, I have that kind of fast, repetitive style.

I think that the most important thing you can possibly do in improv is to listen to jazz. and lots of it. you can't play something if you've never heard it.

hope this all helps.

Originally Posted by Jordan

...a jazz scale, if you don't know goes like this : tonic, minor 3rd, 4th, flat 5, natural 5, flat 7, tonic. on C, that looks like this :

C, Eb, F, F#, G, Bb, C.

...a blues scale, perhaps?

To say jazz scale doesn't really mean anything.

Originally Posted by Jordan

I started way back on the piano. Amin, Fmaj, Dmin, Emaj. it's really easy, because at that point, any white key goes.

Try playing a G over that E major chord then, that will not sound good

yes, blues scale. whoops.

also, in passing, it's fine. (the G of Emajor, I mean.) I'm just saying, it's a very nice and basic way to do it. I actually really like that chord progression for basic stuff, because G# is the harmonic of Amin, so It sounds awesome to hover there on the last chord.

Originally Posted by Will Kirk

Opinions opinions, people don't know how to keep them to themselves

Or they don't want to, and that's why there are forums to begin with.

A good idea is to play a chord and then sing a tune. Then try to play on your instrument the tune that you just sang. When you improvise on changes it's good to study the harmony by singing and playing the arpeggios of the chords. All that can help unifying your mind and your fingers.
Once you can play what you sing you can start playing what you hear from solos, to earn some vocabulary. Vocabulary is very important, but remember that your improvisation should be communication, and not a display of vocabulary.