Improvisation Confidence in Music

People often say to me, "How do you feel so confident to go on stage and improvise?"

You go on stage with no idea what you're going to play. I really enjoy that because it allows me to express my creativity and what I'm feeling in that moment.

Starting Simple

Now, if you haven't got a lot of confidence with it to start with, start simple.

• We know the melody.
• Take the melody; it's only four notes, but you can have some fun with that.

Changing the Rhythm

The most obvious thing to do is:

• Don't even change the notes.
• Just change the rhythm.

For example:

"Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood."

Obviously, if you were singing it, it would sound a bit disjointed, but if you're soloing, you're not going to be singing it, you're just going to be playing.

Advancing the Melody

I'll just play some stuff in the right hand and watch how I advance the melody.

1. I'll put it on a loop.
2. I'll keep it quite similar to the original.
3. Then by the end, let's see where it goes.

And again and again.

The little arpeggios that I'm using to connect one note to the other are simply:

• The arpeggios of the chord.

Once you've got your head around the chords we're playing, you can mix those chords with:

• Some blues scales
• The pentatonic scales

You can just come up with your own thing.

Embrace Improvisation

The thing to remember is:

"It can't be wrong because you're improvising. It's what you're feeling right there."

You can just tell people that's what you're meant to do anyway because that's what I do.

You're only ever:

"Half a note away from a right note."

So, if you hit a note and it doesn't sound quite right, just move it up or down a semitone, and I promise you'll get there in the end.

Have Fun!

For one last time, I'm going to start quite simple and then let's see where it ends up.

Have fun with this!

• Take your own spin.
• Make it jazzy.
• Make it bluesy.

And you too can have your own version of the incredible New York State of Mind!