One thing I don't do enough of

[Hardtail]

IMPROVISATION practice! It's something I don't practice enough of on a consistent basis. Instead, I'll do it in one big bang once every week or every other week. Not good.

 

I guess sometimes I just get overwhelmed running a track and trying to play something that makes sense over it. Sometimes I just get lost. But... I also come up with some neat stuff too.

 

Yes.. I gotta roll up the sleeve and get dirty with this more consistently.

[A String]

I have the opposite problem. When I practise, I either play chords and just improvise them as I go or I'll drone an open string and practise playing different scales over them, just improvising riffs.

 

I can improvise songs and solos really well, my actual song repituare seems to get smaller each year...

[Dr. Ellwood]

I don't get to improvise at all with the regular rock group, but I sure do with the Blues group! that's one of the reasons I started the blues group. Sometimes the keyboard player and I do some after regular band rehearsals and he plays foot peddels, it's great because he has a huge background in classical piano and in jazz organ work too.

[Rampdog]

FWIW...I have hours and hours and hours of albums downloaded on my computor...Through Windows Media Player I choose 'Play All'... 'Random'. I plug in my Strat to the Classic 30 and as each song comes on I play along with it. Sometimes I don't know the chords, (or don't care) and other times I'll stop the song if it catches me and figure the chords out. Either way I always play leads and rhythem riffs to them...most always my own... It's great when I come up with something that sounds, to me, fun. Keeps my chops up at least. I should probably concentrate on learning each song completly but before I know it 2 or 3 hours have passed and I feel satisfied.

Ramps

[Caevan O’Shite]

Yhup, similar to A String and Rampdog, I have the opposite problem. Can't generally play requests, but I'll make up something original for you on the spot. Or, I'll begin to learn a tune, then find twenty minutes later I've gone off on a tangent inspired by it and come up with an entirely new piece...

 

Y'know what's fun, and one way to work on that? Use a delay- digital ones work well for this 'cause the repeated signal keeps its integrity indefinitely- to play repeating loops of someting, a chord progression, a chord, a lick, some feedback and such noises, whatever, and play over it, coming up with as many variations as possible. An actual, dedicated looper works better yet.

 

Put the Weather Channel on, and noodle around playing over the music that's on there.

 

If you can make recordings on your computer or any other way (4-track, tape-deck, etc.), make some tracks specifically for improvising over as they play back.

 

Have some friends over to jam, get out to local open-mic/blues/jam night events, play along with CDs and mp3s of stuff you generally don't play or listen to...

[Gruupi]

I'm about 50/50 just depending on my mood. Someone a couple weeks ago posted about staying motivated. I'll usually try and play through my classical stuff but if I can't concentrate, I'll stop. I can most of the time pick up my electric 1/2 hour later and improvise to my hearts content. Other times I will start to jam and nothing sounds fresh. I can usually later at that point work on songs no problem.

 

I think the key is liking many styles of music. I would get tense if I had to play classical for 3 hours a day. I would get bored if I only played rock music and nothing else. Don't get me wrong, I love rock, but I kind of got over it being like a religeon years ago.

 

I wish I could play jazz improvisation. I just never learned to play over changes as well as I should. I can work out lines over chords, but can't really improvise on stuff that isn't based on a strong key center. I'm starting to do that a little in a blues context, and I can tell when I think about the chords behind what I am playing, it sure sounds more musical. I just have a long way to go before I could improvise freely in that way.

[Phil W]

I like to try to run motifs under changes - I have to imagins the chords in my head. Or I might try improvising mostly using guide tones. I can't knock the improv habit, even playing rock covers there's always a little improvisation going on.

As a bassist I sometimes fall into the trap of making my solos a little root based (I know trhis can happen with guitarists too). Recently I've tried playing solos imagining the root and visualising it on the fingerboard but avoiding laying it.

I think it's cool to practise improvisation when you focus on just a couple of things e.g. phrase lengths, top and bottom notes, arpeggios, minimalism, starting phrases onn different beats, rhythmic phrasing, tonal colouring etc.

I've been lucky enough to do some free improvised gigs and the trick there is all about listening - when you're at home alone that becomes a little hard to practice so the other sound sources mentioned are a good idea.

Another trick that works is singing the improvisation along with your playing.

[Eric Iverson]

And there's another question: does we practice improvisation as mindless jamming, or do we endeavor to solo over things that we can't do backwards in our sleep, standing on our heads?

[Dr. Ellwood]

Originally posted by Eric Iverson:

And there's another question: does we practice improvisation as mindless jamming, or do we endeavor to solo over things that we can't do backwards in our sleep, standing on our heads?

Yes a valid point! I don't have to worry about familiar things when I'm soloing over the keyboard player I can ALWAYS count on it NOT being... he's such a little smart ass... but one monster musician I gotta admit!

[Phil W]

". . . does we practice improvisation as mindless jamming, or do we endeavor to solo over things that we can't do backwards in our sleep, standing on our heads? -Eric Iverson.

 

I think we should definitely do both (er, not mindless jamming but creative improvisation overtunes we know real well as well as unfamiliar stuff), it's valuable to get to know a tune and can be quite an effort to play something fresh over something we know that well. The benefits of playing over unfamiliar material are plain to see (but some do avoid these situations).

[Justus A. Picker]

I love doing fingerstyle improv! Just starting with a core of an idea and seeing if I can turn it into something on the fly. Sometimes it works, sometimes it burns and crashes. Sometimes it's just noodley crap......

[Hardtail]

Originally posted by Eric Iverson:

And there's another question: does we practice improvisation as mindless jamming, or do we endeavor to solo over things that we can't do backwards in our sleep, standing on our heads?

Well, yes and no in my case.

 

I don't think I do enough mindless noodling. When I do that to a rhythm track, sometimes I come up with a new idea or two.

 

Two things I think I want to accomplish by "noodling" a little more:

 

1. Don't grab what's familiar. Go for the unfamiliar.

 

2. If I discover something cool, isolate it and work it out "offline" to make it part of my vocabulary.

 

I have no desire though to mindlessly noodle for hours in a day but I think I need to allow myself to do it a little bit everyday.

[Gruupi]

Right Hardtail, sometimes mindless playing or noodling can lead to something fresh. You can just pick up and play for the hell of it and get so much enjoyment. You don't always have to have a goal or make it seem like work, even though I think you should practice things and work on things also. Again I think the key to being a good improviser is liking and understanding lots of different music.

[Eric Iverson]

And it's wonderful if you have a bandmate who can toss unexpected ideas your way to see what you are going to make of them.. and vice versa!

 

Not everybody understands the concept of interplay though, or so it seems. It ain't about cutting anybody, it's about a musical conversation! Good jazz players do this all the time - it's a big part of what makes a performance entertaining, above all for the performers.

 

And improvisation isn't just about SOLOS either! But that's another topic!