Hi, how you doing? Justin here. Welcome to IM-123,
which we're going to be starting a look at major scale improvisation.
And we're going to be using the G Major scale.
Which I'm hoping you've kind of got under your fingers now.
and you're okay playing it up and down from memory.
It's important that you're there before we start on doing this.
And what we're going to be doing is
looking at using this scale to make up some little solos.
And what I'm going to do is go through some of the hints with you,
and then I'll kind of demonstrate them to a backing track.
Now, I've just mentioned it : backing track!
Very, very important that you practice this stuff with either a backing track,
a jam buddy, or you record yourself playing some chords and solo over the top.
I think, really, using a backing track is a good idea at this stage.
Jamming with your mates is always a good fun thing
but, at this time, I really think it might be better to be on your own
where you're not afraid of making mistakes and you can kind of concentrate
and kind of figure out the sounds on your own.
So using a backing track is a good idea.
There's a free one on the website
if you're already on the website,
it'll be just below or just about this video thing.
And what I want to do is take you through some tips now.
So, the first and most important thing, when you're improvising with scales in general,
is that you need to stick to the scale notes.
Particularly with this kind of major scale soloing.
If you hit any notes that aren't in the major scale,
it's very likely they will sound pretty horrible.
Now, occasionally, you might find one that sounds cool
or be able to sneak one in between two other notes
but as an exercise for now, while you're learning to improvise with the major scale
try and stick only, ONLY to scale tones.
Second hint: you mainly want to stick on the thinnest strings.
You can make a great solo using the thick strings,
there's no problem with doing that,
but, just when you're starting out,
it's usually easier to use the thin strings
because they kind of sound a little bit more like a solo
if that makes sense.
Less like a riff and more like a lead.
They don't tend to get mixed up in the chords.
That's the problem with the low notes,
they tend to get a bit muddily with the rhythm guitar or the backing track.
So if you stick to the thinnest strings,
then they seem to set themselves aside a little bit better.
So, generally, thinnest strings.
Explore the other ones if you like, just to check it out,
but mainly you want to be sticking to the thinnest strings.
Next thing : use the play/rest approach.
And what the play/rest approach is all about
is kind of using punctuation when you play
because if someone is talking to you,
if I'm trying to explain this and I didn't stop at all,
no little pauses in what I'm saying, no full stops or commas,
it would be really difficult to understand what I was saying.
And it's the same with improvising.
You want to get in the habit right from the beginning
of 'play a little bit', 'stop a little bit', 'play a little bit', 'stop a little bit'.
Now the advantage when you're learning, of course,
is that it gives you time to think about what you're doing.
To, you know, have the picture of the scale in your mind
and making sure that your fingers are there.
Maybe even think about what the notes are that you're going to play before you play them.
That's cool! You're learning, that's allowed.
Later on you want to be all effortless and free and not thinking about it
but right now, if you're learning it, think about the scale,
think about the notes that you can play and use them.
You know : "What am I going to play? Oh yeah I might try that." Do it!
"Oh, that didn't sound very good, maybe I'll try this instead."
You know, you've got lots of time then to think about it.
There's no rush with the improvising.
You know, it's all about being relaxed with it
and using the idea of play/rest/play/rest/etc gives you that space.
Space in the head and space in the music. It's a really, really good idea.
Now, leading on from that the next tip is to stay simple.
Don't try and make things too complicated yet, you're just learning.
Just be cool with kind of exploring what the different notes of the scale sound like.
How they kind of react with the changes
cause if the chords are changing in the backing track
the one note that you're playing will sound different
so just keep things really simple.
Don't be in a hurry to try and do anything too flashy or too clever,
just look for a nice really simple little melody.
That's the most important thing.
And while we're on that, again,
another leading straight between these different points is repeating licks.
Now when people are talking,
when they start talking about the same thing over and over again
then it seems to help it sink in better and it's the same when you're improvising.
If you have a little idea that you play
and then you play the same idea again while the chords keep changing in the background,
it sounds strong, it sounds good.
It adds a new color to what you're doing and reinforces the idea to the listener.
So don't be afraid of playing making up a little lick or a little pattern,
and then playing it over and over again.
You know, here you play it, have a little rest,
play it, have a little rest, and see what the effect is.
Sometimes it can sound cool to play a little repeating figure
that goes over and over again without stopping while the chords change.
That can be an interesting little thing.
Now, I mentioned earlier on, if you're by yourself
a really, really cool thing that you can do is to explore.
You know, you're on your own, you're learning this stuff so
there's no limit here.
Try doing solos only on the thick strings.
Try jumping from the thinnest strings to the thickest strings
and back again or whatever. There's no rules here.
So long as you hit the scale 'dots', if you like, the notes of the scale,
and you don't hit other notes, it's going to be interesting, right?
Notice the word 'interesting'.
It might not be brilliant, but it will be interesting
and it shouldn't sound, you know, horrible, like out of tune.
It just might not sound maybe the most melodic, nicest solo you've ever heard
if you're jumping from :
. . .
It might sound a little bit funny
but, you know, we'll get to that
cause I'm going to do some little examples in a second.
And the most important thing,
I've left until last so it stays in your memory, is to listen.
Now what you're really listening for is the effect of the note that you're playing
and the backing track.
To the whole thing together. Don't just listen to what you're doing
cause then you kind of, you're not getting the whole picture
because somebody that's listening is listening to your guitar on the backing track.
It's the effect of those things together that's really important.
Not just one of the things.
So as you're playing try and let your ears be listening to the whole thing,
the whole sound, the sound of your instrument playing against the backing track.
That's really what you're listening out for.
And with the major scale it's a lot about listening
and if you find yourself on a note that doesn't sound very good,
move to either one note higher or one note lower
and you're going to end up on a note that sounds really good.
It's a weird thing with this major scale.
You're only ever one step away from a good note.
So if you choose one note that doesn't sound great,
move to the next note, and it'll probably sound really good.
So I'm gonna put on the G Major backing track now
and I'm going to run through these little points with you again
but with a little bit of playing as well so you can hear what I'm talking about.
Okay, let's try out these ideas that I've just mentioned to you.
So first of all we just want scale notes.
. . .
These are all going to be good while we're sticking with the scale.
. . .
Whoops!
. . .
Oooops!
. . .
While you stay on the scale, it's all going to be good.
. . .
Ooops. Whoah, even worse. Oh, that's much better.
. . .
Now you'll see that I'm mostly staying on the thinnest three strings.
. . .
That doesn't mean you can't
. . .
But it sounds better up there.
. . .
Now, hopefully as well, you can see
. . .
that I play a bit and rest a bit.
. . .
Then you can repeat licks.
. . .
You can also explore!
. . .
This it the time to do it, now.
Just to play around with what you're gonna play.
. . .
It's a really good fun.
And of course, I probably don't need to remind you,
but the big thing that you're going to do
while you're doing all these exercises is
LISTEN!
Really, really important.
Just keep your ears open all the time while you're playing.
Make sure that you're listening to your own guitar
and the backing track or whoever you're playing with
and you're listening to the effect
that the notes that you play have on the whole sound.
And if you start to play some stuff that doesn't sound very good,
don't play it, play something else and find something that sounds good.
Don't be in a hurry to play fast or anything.
Just keep it nice and simple, explore the notes.
Don't be expecting to be doing blindingly great solos straight away
because you've got to let your ears tune up, you know.
After you've been doing this a bit, you start to find,
your fingers kind of find where the nice notes are without you even having to try.
It's almost like it becomes instinctive
to find the right notes rather than having to think about it too much.
But right now you don't have to think, you're just learning it.
So, don't be afraid of thinking about what you're doing,
about looking at the notes, thinking about the scale.
Let all of that other stuff happen by itself naturally.
But in the beginning, you've got to think of it.
So I'll leave you with me
having a bit of a muck-around of this tune or that backing track, you know.
Feel free to have a go at nicking some licks or whatever you feel like
and I'll see you for another lesson sometime very, very soon.
Take care of yourselves. Bye bye.