Improvisation in Music

Hello, guys.

Introduction to Improvisation

So, what we're going to talk about now is improvisation and some methods of approaching it in different ways.

Improvisation is basically you having the creativity and the freedom to play whatever you're thinking in your head onto your instrument. That's the ultimate goal with improvisation.

It doesn't just start and magically happen that way. There are lots of tools that we have at our disposal, lots of useful things that we can draw upon to assist in getting what we're hearing from our head onto the fretboard.

If you are taking the Rock School syllabus, this is particularly relevant for you. There is a part of the exam dedicated to improvisation. If you choose melodic improvisation, then this will really help you out.

First Approach: Chord Tones

Let's get stuck in. The first approach we're going to take is looking at what we call chord tones.

• If chord tones is a term that you're unfamiliar with, simply put, it means the notes featured in a chord that we're playing over.
• For example, if I play a C major chord, there are three chord tones in that chord because there are three different notes: C, E, and G.

Even this may surprise you if you're relatively new to guitar. You think, "While I'm playing five strings here on that C major chord," but in fact, you're only playing three different notes:

• C (root)
• E (third)
• G (fifth)

So, we can apply the formula for constructing any major chord. The major chord here consists of a root note, third, and fifth. These are intervals that come from a scale.

C Major Scale

Hopefully, you should know this scale. If you don't, check out your technical exercises in the Rock School books.

Let's play through the C major scale:

• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (and back to 1).

Now, those notes from our C major chord have come directly from that scale.

• Note 1: C
• Note 2: (we don't need)
• Note 3: E
• Note 4: F
• Note 5: G (our fifth).

So, when playing over a C major chord, the three best notes to hit are any one of the chord tones: C, E, or G.

Not to say there aren't lots of other notes we can play, any of the other notes within the C major scale would work really well. However, some are going to sound more tense against that chord than the chord tones themselves.

Demonstration

Let's demonstrate over a C major chord. I'm going to set up a little loop just on a C chord, no other chords involved just yet, and we'll play through the C major scale.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Here's my C major chord loop that will keep going forever.

C Major Scale: 1, 2, 3, 4.

The notes that really sound like they belong are those chord tones.

• Let's play those individually: Root, Third, Fifth, Root, Third, Fifth.

Exercise

This would be a really great exercise to start with:

1. Identify the chord tones from a major chord.
2. Don't just do it on C.
3. Try it in different keys, D, G, whatever you fancy.

Minor Chords

Just before we move on to trying that in the context of a chord progression, let's talk about minor chords and how they differ from major chords.

This is really simple. In fact, there's only one note difference between a major chord and a minor chord on the same root.

For example, if we take A minor, an A minor chord sounds different from A major:

• A major has a root, third, and fifth.
• A minor has a root and a flattened third.

That is to say, we've moved the third back one fret.

Targeting Notes in Minor Chords

In the case of A minor, our notes are:

• A (root)
• C (flattened third)
• E (fifth).

Let's just try that on an A minor chord:

2, 3, 4.

We're playing roots, thirds, and fifths. You can make little melodies out of those three notes that will sound like they really belong over that chord.

A Natural Minor Scale

Now, let me play for you the A natural minor scale. Again, this is a scale in your technical exercises that you'll have access to.

You'll hear that the chord tones sound really strong, and we have passing notes either side of them that create a bit of tension.

3, 4.

You can hear that certain notes do sound quite tense. This isn't a bad thing because we can use that tension and resolve it to a chord tone.

For example, I could play the B note in the A natural minor scale, then resolve it up to C, which is a chord tone of our minor chord.

3, 4.

Conclusion

We've created a really simple phrase using one note that's not a chord tone and two that are, which works really well by changing the rhythm.

One important thing to remember when you start approaching improvisation is that there are so many options available that it can feel overwhelming.

It's worthwhile to restrict yourself:

• Apply a note restriction to your improvisation
• Consider a technical restriction
• Limit yourself to a physical area of the neck

This can really help you become more creative within certain limitations. Happy improvising!