Improvisation

Originally Posted by Mark

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

Actually that's the "hendrix" chord. E7#9.

Originally Posted by Tumababa

[re: EMaj7] Actually that's the "hendrix" chord. E7#9.

Almost.

Originally Posted by Tumababa

Actually that's the "hendrix" chord. E7#9.

It actually makes for a good V chord....adds some tension....
I do have to agree though, unless you know what you're doing, a b3 doesn't work very well in a major chord...

~Kal

When I improvise, I don't worry about chords and all of that stuff. I really just play what sounds good. It I make a "mistake" and change the direction of where I was originally planning to go with it, I just adapt the direction to fit it and nobody is the wiser.

I think that the best way to start improvising is to consider the way you think about a simple melodic line, as when you compose.
What do you do when you want to start composing anything?
I think, you'd start from a melody, that could be a series of ritmic figures,
or just an arpeggio from the tonic to the dominant or anything else,
but u start first from the melody and then you get from there the armonies.

So, i think you should just take your instrument, think of a key you like a lot.
I like F major, it reminds me the gold yellow of the sun, those great days full of light, warm, summer, or my time with my friends or family...
Something i really feel dear to me, my city...think of that, and then start with something.

Give you some parameters, like i will start my F maj in with A, C, F...then i keep pressed F
and then i go with a little scale to C and then whatever it comes, but LET YOUR HEART SPEAK you will feel better.

Think that music is nothing but another language in which, there are words that make sentences,
there are meanings to those words and there are affermative, negative or interrogative sentences,
and you also have periods, and grammar to link all that.

So just think that you want to give somebody, even yourself, a sense...and you must think first about yourself..
since if it has non sense for you, then will be hard that it is understandable for anybody else.

Once you have got that, then just let it go.
One day it will be not that great, the day after you'll see a little improvement,
and as long as you keep trying...as when you train yourself with anything, you will see your improvements.

I also suggest you to record yourself, so you can pratically see where you make mistakes and on what you have to work on...

But, there's no written rule for improvisation, there's not a tecnique; you can't write rules for improvisation, since there are many different styles,
many different things that go on with that, just because all is linked to what your heart tells you. If you like pop, you'll find it into listening
to that music and getting that "vocabulary" but as with any language, once you have the words, and you know the meaning of them,
you can start automatically "talking" in music, as you do when you are a child.
Before being able to read, you can talk, you know the words and you know their meanings...
why??
Because your parents talk to you, the TV and the Radio tells you words, so you listen and you start talking...
same thing with music, you listen to classical music, you start thinking those melodies, those armonies, those expressions, those words...
and you begin working on them and making them yours, with your own way of "speaking", preferring some sentences, to others...
as you do with a language. so listen to a lot of music, take a score and read it while u listen to it, then do it again just in ur mind, then go play it and so on...
practice that way, then start some easy melodies on all the keys you like,
if you are a composer you know how to go with armonies and linking one key to another. go for that...
but DO IT...it will go automatically, nothing is wrong. all is good. somebody as something to say?? whatever.

Just express what are your inner thoughts.

this is the best advice i can give you, and i apologize if i made any non sense in it, english is not my language, so if anything or everything makes no sense,
i'll be super happy to try to work it in another way to make it more clear

Best wishes! and have fun!

Visual Jazz

Assuming you have a good background in theory (being on a composition website that's a fairly safe assumption), then this will be a great angle to approach improvisation for you, IMO. It's got a bit of artsy, hokey meta-thinking involved, but, it's at least a step up from 'let your heart speak.'

If you're in F major, why on earth would you stick to F, A, and C? That's what's already in the chord, we don't need to hear it again! Land on a G, or better yet, a D, stretch the tension, and don't let the audience sit back in their chairs by just reiterating the chord tones; use 'color' tones, it will radically increase the interest in your improv.

For the classic improv approach, the industry standard, as it were (that doesn't scream innovation to me, but, hey), can be found at Jazzbooks.com. This is Jamie Aebersold's pretty comprehensive approach; basically, you can learn licks and tricks in every key until finally you can just whip out a pre-programmed line for any occasion.

The Visual Jazz method above is more about content generation in the moment, but is nonetheless similar. It's less dogmatic than the Aebersold method, but both produce good results.

i know what you mean....it was just a tip for an easy melody to start....i was not making a piece, but just saying, whatever note you pick, whatever key..whatever style, just do it.
don't think about people that can think you are making just noyse and not music...just start. day by day you improve what you do...and when you look back at where you started from, you see how well you improved and how many things you learnd on your own and listening to music.
And by the way it could have been easely understood it was just a simple melody...in a "classical" way....
but i agree whit all what you said and i really liked the link you posted!
i didn't know of that
very nice!

Originally Posted by Stubbazubba

...[with Jamey Aebersold] you can learn licks and tricks in every key until finally you can just whip out a pre-programmed line for any occasion.

A terrible idea...

Originally Posted by violinfiddler

Hey all,

I was wondering if any of you could give me some advice on improvising? I am totally self taught where that is concerned. So if any of you have any advice, techniques, ideas etc. please share them!

I think the three most important things one can do to gain facility with improvisation are:

1) Try noodling/improvising in all the different key signatures that you know, and try to learn all 24 major and minor keys (eventually, not all at once of course).

2) Record yourself, and listen to yourself, a LOT. When you're a beginner at improv, it is amazing how often one accidentally comes up with a cool little phrase, which you would have forgotten otherwise. When you listen to yourself you can say: "Hey, that was neat!" and pick it out again, and thus have absorbed it into your vocabulary. Recording yourself and listening to yourself facilitates musical "natural selection." Thus you can "evolve" your sound in this way.

3) Never worry about rules. At least not for the first several years. Your first few years of improv experience should be getting familiar with as many key signatures, chords, figures, as possible. Much like a baby learning speech, it says all kinds of nonsense syllables before forming words and sentences. But it becomes way easier to form words and sentences being able to make nonsense syllables first!

Hope that helps!

Regards,
-Derek.

Originally Posted by Derek

3) Never worry about rules. At least not for the first several years. Your first few years of improv experience should be getting familiar with as many key signatures, chords, figures, as possible. Much like a baby learning speech, it says all kinds of nonsense syllables before forming words and sentences. But it becomes way easier to form words and sentences being able to make nonsense syllables first!

rules, rules, rules! I haven't had any lessons in a few months. But for the 8 years that I studied violin privately, there was nothing BUT rules. And I really have not had a great foundation in theory either...so I am slowly learning the ropes of improv.