Music Lesson: Improvisation Techniques

Introduction

If you've listened to I Tor Vallecchiro, now go back and try playing it with the backing track, which is actually just drums.

Staying in Sync

• Be careful not to get out of sync with the eight bars.
• Notice the drummer gives you some cues every eight bars; you will probably hear an accent.
• Be alive to those cues and aware of the signals that the rhythm section is giving you.

Improvisation Over Chords

We're going to talk about some vertical and horizontal ways of improvising over those three chords.

Four Note Scale

• Earlier, I mentioned the four-note scale, which is also the basis of the intro.
• Think of it in single notes; treat it like an arpeggio to get fluent with those four notes.
• There are many patterns you can use, such as those that fall under the fingers nicely.

Bass Line

Of course, you need to be doing the bass line in the left hand and so on.

Vertical Improvisation

Try some vertical improvisation, which means changing what you do from chord to chord.

Playing Triads

• Start with simple three-note triads in root position.
• Don't forget:
  • Second inversion sounds nice.
  • First inversion can also add variety.
• Experiment with spread positions and arpeggios, as you may have noticed me playing in the solo on the track.

Adding Extra Notes

Another thing you may have noticed me doing is adding extra notes to the triads. This takes it into a more interesting area:

• Not only do we play the notes of the F sharp triad, but we can add the fourth as a passing note or grace note.
• The same applies to E; you don't need to overdo it on every single bar.
• Another useful addition could be the second note. Extend it to:
  • Instead of just root, three, five , try root, two, three, five.

You can even play a whole pentatonic scale if you want. These are some ideas for your vertical improvisation.

Top Harmony

While we're on the subject of added seconds, remember that we've done this before, but with top harmony:

• Play the second and the top note together and switch to the third.

Intervallic Improvisation

The last thing I want to discuss is intervallic improvisation. Here's how it works:

• Choose an interval and just play the same interval over every chord.
• If you use triads, you're already doing this.

Root and Third

Suppose you just took root and third. The fact that you're restricting yourself to two notes creates a motif. Sometimes:

• Playing fewer notes makes the music more listenable.
• It transforms it into a motif rather than a stream of notes.

Using the Sixth

Let's do this with the sixth:

• Remember that with any major triad, there are two places you can play notes a sixth apart:
  • From the third to the root.
  • From the fifth to the third.

Example: For E:

• Third and root, fifth and third.

For D:

• Third and root, fifth and third.

Progression

Did you notice how I used fifth and third on F sharp, fifth and third again on D, but then I went to the third and root on E?

• This gives us:
  • Two ways of approaching E: here and there.

This creates a downward progression, unifying the entire eight bars with a consistent sound.