hi I'm sky Houston
welcome to my studio. Hey, you know I want to share with you today is a
is kinda really basic way to start improvising a little bit
sometimes I think it's kinda tough for beginners to kinda get a step
into the world of improvisation when they see somebody really playing and think
oh man, I'm so far away
How can I get started with some baby steps
I think I've got a great one to give away
its gonna be some sure-fire
easy ways to just start improvising a little bit so
let me just give this one away dig right come on. Okay now the step I want to
give you so you can kinda
jump off the cliff into the world improvisation is something that we used
in a lot of different
things in fact, I think I've probably gone over this in the show a
couple times one in particular I remember is a segment I did with a good
friend of mine, named Bradley Sowash. so I
I'm going to give you
some some notes that are guaranteed to work well
It will confine you to just a few notes to play whatever
it is you wanna play in your right hand
while you're playing blues chords in your left hand. so for those you that are
brand new to my lessons, let me just share these
three chords
We will use a C7 an F7 and a G7 so here they are.
there's a C.7 It is C,E,G,Bb
Here's the F7. It is F,A,C, Eb
F,A,C, Eb
okay you want to be playing it with your left hand. The G7
is G, B, D, F.
okay by the way those either just starting Don't get your hand all
wrenched, by trying to get your thumb on the black note. Just slide your hand this way
a little bit and let your fingers slide between the black notes
there's the C7 C7= C,E,G,Bb
C7= C,E,G,Bb Here is the F7= F,A,C, Eb
slide your hand away
so that your thumb can reach up there comfortably and then a G7
Now we need to play those three chords you in the blues chord
progression
if you don't know that yet you go find somewhere else but you will hear it as I'm playing
it here so
those are three chords. Just to keep it absolutely simple I would
probably never play it this way in real life I'd use inversions and things but
just so there's no confusion I'm just gonna play I'm just like that
I'll hold them down
F7= F,A,C, Eb G7= G, B, D, F F7= F,A,C, Eb
C7= C,E,G,Bb okay now here's the improv part. here's what we're getting to
What I want you to play let me make sure you can still see this
What we are going to do
is just stick to by one two three four five to six notes:
here's what it is: C,D, E,
G and A so basically even if you have like a five finger position where you
just went ...
Slide your last 2 fingers up one note so that you have CDE
G&A down here at CDG and a
now the only note that I'm going to add to that is the EB which will give you a little more spice to
play
is that the Eb so we will play
and then you also have that one
and don't worry about fingering again because you're not going to be playing them in this order
anyway.
but those six notes 123456
6 if you can just kinda keep yourself centered right in there,
remove it up to this octave. those are the only six notes that you're allowed to
play
but you can play in any way you want and in your left hand you're just gonna play
a blues chord so let me just try this
Now you're probably thinking
what am I playing? I say I have no idea I'm just making it up
Now I went to the F7
(playing)
Here's a G7 ...
all right ...
now once you get comfortable playing you can move to a
different octave but still just stick to those same notes
we have
and I would maybe play the G down here so
(Scott playing ...)
or whatever you doing, maybe something else you can do with your left
hand and if you don't want it hold the chords down all the time
is to just play straight quarter notes with your left and so we have you like this
(Scott playing ...)
the
(Scott playing ...)
I don't know I'm just making up the improvise
I'm improvising with my right hand is what I am trying to say
Of course I can't talk and play at the same time.
and on and on and on so you that just a quick way to do it kinda helpful I think
that way you don't have the whole world to choose from
you force yourself to just pick from one of those little notes and it kind of let's
you start rolling
you know you don't have to be embarrassed about it if
you have head phones and have a digital piano
put them on so if you're worried about sounding funny you know that this is all
about just
just kinda breaking free and kinda taking this first step off the cliff into
the world of improvisation so
use that. It's actually the
pentatonic scale actually if you wanna know what it is but I added one more
bluesy note to it but that's just a nice little start so maybe you can use that
as a
as a as a little nudge in the ribs or poke in the ribs to get started
so
whatever you do make sure you're having fun playing piano
I'll see you next time