I've spent a fortune on books, videos and DVD's ...
I've spent hours copying other guitarist's riffs ...
I know more scales and chords than I care to mention ...
But I still can't improvise!
Why? Too much info ... faced with all those notes, which one do you pluck first!
Also, not giving yourself enough time to play and absorb a few basics that will lead you on to greater things. It is so tempting to start at the back of the book, but the stuff at the front is the foundation.
There are three approaches to improvisation which I shall discuss here.
- Melodic or scale like - mostly based on scales.
- Harmonic or arpeggio - mostly based on arpeggios and chord shapes.
- Minimalist - take just a few notes and see what can be done with them
Melodic
Major, minor, pentatonic and modal scales are the main ingredients for the improviser who takes the melodic approach.
Perhaps the most useful is the major scale. Why you may ask ... because from it we also make the modal scales, each of which starts from a different degree of the major scale.
Harmonic
Based on arpeggios or chord shapes, this can be slightly easier to get started with because the notes will imply chord changes and the intervals will add more unpredictability than step-wise movement.
Minimalist
Having taught improvisation for over thirty years, this is the easiest place to start.
The saying "you can make an improvised solo on just one note" is true ... so just think what you could do with two or three notes!
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