Improvisation

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!

...[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.

:pinch: A terrible idea...

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.

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.