Improvise challenged

[Billhenry]

Hello, I have always wanted to be able to improvise but seem to fall into the memorize trap. I read music well growing up in band in the ’70s. I know I am way too “structured” in my playing and practice. I play fingerstyle with good use of TIMA, so I would think I would pattern myself somewhat after a Mark Knopfler picking style. Any active melody lesson recommendations, or other methods to break out of overthinking and working toward improvising?

Thanks!

[GnLguy]

Hey William

Welcome to the club, we all want to be able to blaze away on the fret board effortlessly like our heroes.

Great improvisors, regardless of style, are primarily playing what they are hearing internally – you’ll hear people say “Just play what you feel…” which is worthless advice when you have no clue what they are referring to
I remember hearing Eric Clapton make the statement “I can usually hear what I’m going to play about a minute before I play it”

This goes back to what is known as ear training – being able connect your hands to what you are hearing either internally or with your natural hearing. Personally, I can sing guitar licks or a solo but I may not be able to work it out on my guitar.

To begin this process, try this simple exercise: go to the 5th fret of the 3rd string of your guitar, which is a C note. Beginning at that note, play the nursery tune “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or any other simple melody that you can hum or sing.
Not as easy for some people as it may sound.
Why do something like this? If you can’t play a simple melody like this, you likely won’t be able to play blues licks or solos that you are hearing.

Sweet Home Chicago is a typical blues melody in an 8 bar format. Don’t concern yourself with Clapton’s lead playing in this version but use it as a template to find the melody; play that melody over a jam track and start expanding it with licks, runs, slurs, etc

It takes time but you’ll get there

Hope this helps
Keith
aka GnLguy

[Jean-Michel G]

Hi William!
I can very easily relate to your “problem”: I started as a classical guitarist and I played classical for about twelve years before looking at other styles. At that time I was able to sight read about anything and play rather complex pieces, but I certainly couldn’t improvise anything – like the vast majority of classical musicians.

Classical guitarists can sight read anything and the intervals that they are reading get translated into the corresponding finger movements, just because they have spent so much time practicing position playing.
But that’s “play first and hear next”, whereas improvising is the opposite: “hear first and play next”.

Keith’s advice is a good one if you still don’t know the fingerboard well. It is of course essential to be able to play anything anywhere on the instrument. It is also good in developing your ability to play what you hear. But in order to start developing your real improvisation ability, I suggest the following exercise:

1. Play a chord (any chord) anywhere on the fingerboard a few times while carefully listening to it.

2. sing or whistle a short musical phrase – something that comes from you, not an existing melody or lick that you know (for many this is already a challenge!), and immediately try to reproduce that short phrase on the guitar, as accurately as you can. At this stage, you need to check two things:
– the phrase reasonably fits the chord. Do this by singing your phrase while playing the chord.
– you play exactly what you sang or whistled; if this isn’t the case, correct any mistakes.

3. Next try to play that exact same phrase somewhere else on the fingerboard.

This exercise is less easy than it looks and it is excellent to develop your ear and your musical creativity. Once you get reasonably good at doing this, you can start to worry about the musical quality of your phrases, your phrasing, your timing, your ability to tie phrases together, your ability to target specific notes, etc. But by then you will have surpassed the initial barrier to improvisation!

As for the technical side of your question, I would certainly not recommend copying Mark Knopfler’s technique, simply because his technique is in fact “sloppy”. Don’t misunderstand me: Mark Knopfler is a great guitarist and I really like what he does. But he is a self-taught guitarist who found a technique that works for him. That doesn’t mean it will work for you. In fact, it probably won’t work for you! I strongly recommend sticking with the orthodox technique – until you adapt it to your own physical requirements and gradually make it work for you.

I hope this helps. As Keith said, it takes time but you’ll get there if you work hard enough!

[sunjamr]

Lots of good advice above, and I agree with all of it.

Nobody just keeps practicing until one day they say, “Aha, now I can improv!” There are some caveats. If you put on a jamtrack with lots of unusual chord sequences, and complex chords, it can be difficult to impossible to play any decent improv to it. So for me, when I was practicing improv, I favored 2-chord jamtracks. Your brain easily knows what chord is coming up next, and when it’s coming. So I would listen to a few rounds of the chords, then mentally hum a simple melody line, then pick it out in several different places on the neck. Then start gradually embellishing the melody line and just allow it to morph into whatever comes into my head. I can’t think 1 minute ahead, like Eric Clapton, but I do think a few seconds ahead, and I reckon that’s how most people do it.

Sunjamr Steve

[Richard G]

There are quite a few guitar tutors that will say learn the standard licks (against given chord progressions) from your favourite artists, when you’re familiar with the chord changes and chord tones, adapt and modify those standard licks to suit and develop your own personal style.
David Hamburger has mentioned he doesn’t know of a noted blues guitar player that didn’t, earlier in their career steal licks from other well known artists in order to put their own stamp in them.

Just another viewpoint ……..
Richard

[Michael L]

All of the above is good advice. I would only add that working with Brian’s lessons and really listening to how he explains them will build your knowledge of not only the licks, but the fretboard and music as well. It won’t happen with just one or two lessons, but by the time you get to 20 or 30 you’ll have seen many things again and again, and it will start to come together for you. Keep going, keep studying, keep listing, keep playing. Participate in the monthly challenges here at AM. This will get you using what you learn in other contexts. It takes time, but it will happen!

[John H]

Brian once said you cannot improvise what you haven’t already played. You can’t speak if you don’t know your letters, vocabulary and sentence structure. Same with guitar. Don’t be too hard on yourself. You have commit certain things to improvise. It doesn’t come easily to most people. It is a constant battle. Trust me. Grab some backing tracks that you really like (Brian has many) and start applying licks, riffs, arpeggios, triads etc. etc. to the backing tracks of your choice. Play against backing tracks from the genres of guitar that you love. Learn to steal from other players. You also have to listen a lot to other players. It’s a long journey and you will experience many ‘uh huh’ moments along the way. Be sure to participate on the Forum and with the Monthly Challenges. There is no easy path to learning to improvise however, if there is a will there is a way. Make it fun!
John

[GnLguy]

Another thing that I thought about, in your original message you stated: I play fingerstyle with good use of TIMA, so I would think I would pattern myself somewhat after a Mark Knopfler picking style

I’ve done a lot of fingerstyle playing myself and I’m actually better at playing alternating bass/monotontic bass (Stefan Grossman term) than I am at playing electric guitar with a pick
That is a great skill to have for sure and commendable that you stuck with it long enough to proficient using that skill

Mark Knopfler is definitely a great player and has made his mark on the Rock & Roll of our time.
Be cautious in that you aren’t trying to emulate Mark to the point that it becomes a hindrance to your advancement as a player. You may fall right into playing similar to Mark but you may end up playing more with pick & fingers in a hybrid methodology. You might end up playing with just a pick.
The main point that I’m stressing – be open to what your guitar journey opens for you. Your style is your style. It may be influenced by a lot of people and that’s OK but it’s still what works for you

Keith
aka GnLguy

[Billhenry]

Thanks so much for your replies. These are some really good ideas to consider and implement. Now, to just avoid the other trap of drifting away from discipline and wandering into something that I know how to play (perhaps a bit attention deficit here) . Had the chance to see Joe Bonamassa last week at an awesome venue in town. Saw an interview with him a bit back and he said “if you are thinking about where you’re going next, it’s already too late.”

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