Developing your improvisation

Improvisation Level Two: Grades 3 to 5

Hey, I'm James. Today, we're focusing on improvisation.

Understanding the Rochecal Syllabus

In the Rochecal syllabus, there are loads of great tunes written down. However, most of the solos, actually, all of them, during the piano syllabus are written out.

• Examples:
  • Funkometer
  • Slam Dunk Funk

These are fantastic pieces, but it's essential to note that the solos are written out. This approach helps you learn the sound of other musicians while also improving your technique and various aspects of playing written music.

Importance of Improvisation

While it's crucial to read and play written music, if you aspire to be a creative pop, jazz, blues, or rock player, you must also know how to improvise.

The Blues Format

We're going to use the format of the blues to guide you through the improvisation process.

Recap on Blues Basics

In the first lesson, we discussed:

• The blues scale
• Playing over different forms, specifically 1, 4, 5 of the blues

Now, we'll make that slightly more complicated.

Introducing Chord Tones

Let's talk about chord tones.

• For the F7 chord, the chord tones are:
  • 1 (Root)
  • 3 (Major/Minor)
  • 5 (Perfect)
  • 7 (Major/Minor)

By using these chord tones, we can improvise in effective ways.

Blues Sequence

Through the blues sequence, we have the three chords of the blues. From this, I'm going to show you how to develop interesting and exciting ways of improvising.

Let's dive in!