Hey, how are you doing? Justin here.
Today we're going to be learning how to improvise
a solo using the C major scale in open position.
Doesn't that sound so boring?
We're going to learn how to make up solos!
How to improvise a melody It is loads of fun.
Loads of fun here!
You've learnt the C major scale
I wouldn't worry about the alternate
picking thing for now.
If you can alternate pick it, great.
If you can't just use all down picks.
The important thing, when we're improvising
is that you only use the notes that you're supposed to use.
In this case, the C Major Scale.
There might be some other notes that you
could use from time to time, and later on
down the line, it gets a lot freer.
But to start off with, when you first
improvise, you want to stick with the
notes of the scale and what we've talked
about in previous lessons,
was this idea of chords that belong
to a key. We're in the key of C,
so we're only talking about using the
chords C, D Minor, E Minor, F Major,
G Major and A Minor.
So, just using those chords,
if you've got a jam buddy, they could be
playing any of those chords in any order,
and you can improvise,
i.e, make up a solo,
using the C Major Scale.
They go perfectly together.
Now, at this stage, you just want to be
having some fun with it.
Just exploring the idea of playing the
scale over some chords.
Its just really good fun.
And I've got a 2-minute backing track
for free, download it from the website,
it's a little MP3.
You can play along with it,
it'll also be in the practice assistant,
of course, if you're choosing to use that.
The idea is just for you to have a little
bit of fun, exploring the scale over the
chords, but there are a few things,
little tips that I can give you, that will
make it a lot more enjoyable experience.
The first one is, try and just use the
thinnest three strings, okay?
Maybe start of just using the thinnest
string, then maybe move into using the
thinnest two strings, then maybe the
thinnest three strings.
And the reason for this is,
you want to be thinking about the melody,
you want to be thinking about the sound,
that you're making and how it fits with
the backing track that you're playing over
or the music that somebody else is playing
if you're jamming with another human,
okay, or another alien, if you happen to
know some aliens.
so that's the first thing
limit the number of
strings that you're playing
on to start off with.
That will really make a big difference.
So instead of trying to think of this huge
big scale, you're just thinking of
a couple of notes.
It really makes it a lot easier
and a lot more enjoyable.
That's thing number 1.
Thing number 2, is that you don't want
to be thinking about playing more stuff,
you want think about letting things
breath, and playing a little idea that
you might repeat a bit.
Repetition is great when you're
improvising.
Don't be afraid of playing
the same little bit over and over again,
and seeing how it changes when the chords
change. 'Cause if you play the same thing
and the chord changes, the way the notes
feel, the emotion they invoke is
different a little bit.
So don't be afraid of just playing one or
two notes, and repeating it over and over
again, and letting the backing track
kind of change how it all feels.
You definitely want to be leaving some
space. Let it breathe.
Music is a language and when you're
communicating something,
you need to leave gaps.
If you just talk all the time
and you let the notes
go one after the other, and you
play too many of them, and you don't
leave any gaps and there's no punctuation,
it just gets really hard to understand
what it is that you're trying to say and
it gets a little bit boring for the
listener and definitely after maybe 2
minutes whoever's listening to you is
going to be completely bored.
It doesn't want to be like that ,
you want to be leaving little gaps.
Play a little bit, stop a little bit,
let a note ring out.
Play a little phrase and then stop for
a bit.
You don't have to play all the time.
When you're learning to improvise it can
be really helpful to stop 'cause it lets
you have a think about what you're doing.
If you've just been playing on one string,
it gives you a chance to think about
what the notes are on the next string,
before you play them.
Gives you the chance to think of an idea,
and then experiment with it,
and then stop again,
think of another idea,
experiment with it, stop again.
So don't be afraid of leaving gaps,
it will make your playing sound better,
and its the biggest problem that most
people have when they're learning this
stuff is playing too much.
What a gap that feels, when you're
improvising, at the beginning, is a
really big gap,
actually isn't to the listener.
You can leave, quite, you know,
a second, or a couple of seconds gap,
it doesn't sound bad to the listener.
It feels like an eternity when you're
doing it, when you're improvising
with that stuff, you know,
it can feel like a real long time,
but it won't feel that bad to the,
or that bad. It won't feel as scary
to the listener.
They will probably quite enjoy
having these little breaks as you play
through.
Recording yourself is also a fantastic
thing to be doing.
And that will help expose that idea of
playing too much.
So if you've got a, you know, a phone with
a record function on it, improvise with a
backing track and record yourself and
listen back to it.
Or maybe even video yourself, you know,
set up your camera so you can video
what you're playing, and then watch
it back and listen back at the same time.
That way you'll be able to see if there's
anything that you're doing that's a little
bit weird.
Some of that stuff like open strings
ringing out when you don't want,
that'll become a little bit more obvious
when you record yourself as well,
so that's quite a helpful thing.
Many advantages to recording yourself
when you're learning to improvise,
for sure.
If you want to get into it, you might want
to try singing improvising, as well.
So using the same backing track and just
not playing for a little while, and going
'la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la'
now what this is going to do is,
its going to force you to breathe,
particularly again if you play guitar a
little bit and improvise, and then
sing a little bit and improvise, you start
to hear how they're different.
And the singing one generally speaking
sounds more natural and more melodic and
more interesting than when you play.
Because with playing its a bit easier to
play too much and if you,
when you're singing it'll force you to
take a breath, otherwise, you know,
consequences are a bit heavy
if you don't breathe.
So that can be something that will
help inform your improvising if you think
about all of that.
So, what I'm going to do now,
I'm just going to play over that little
backing track that you've got,
and I'm going to start, with just the
thinnest string, and then I'm going to
move onto the thinnest string and the
second string.
I'm going to really emphasis the idea of
repeating little bits, and leaving spaces,
the kind of thing that I'd like you to
explore, when you're improvising.
So this isn't an example of, like,
an amazing improvisation.
Its an amazing example, I hope,
of the things that you should be doing
when you're learning to improvise.
When you're taking your first steps
into the improvisation puddle.
Big thanks to my friend Dave Marks,
who made this backing track,
I was, I've been really crazy busy lately
and I knew I needed a backing track,
so he's my partner in the JAM series of backing tracks.
We've got loads of backing tracks for
sale, if you've never seen them before.
Usually played with a whole band,
real bass and drums, as is this.
So I asked him, look, please mate,
can you make me a 2-minute
backing track for beginners to improvise
over and he came up with this.
I think it sounds lovely.
So do experiment with that,
like I said, it'll be a
downloadable thing on the website
or it'll be in my practice assistant.
So let me just give you a little playout
for a couple of minutes
just to give you some ideas,
I'll try and keep it as simple as I can,
start on the thinnest string,
try and use the right fingers
and the right frets.
I find that really difficult
to focus on that, because my ear tells me,
oh, I want to hear these melodies, so
sometimes I, I find it really hard to be
locked into this.
But when you're starting, its a much
better idea to be very focused and
locked in on a small amount of material
rather that trying to play like,
the whole scale and use
different fingers and slides and
anything like that.
Definitely if you've tried it before,
don't do any string bending yet. Definitely not.
Because that's, its a real wonky scale
here and we're in no position to be doing that.
So, lets have a little improv on that.
I hope you enjoy doing this, it really
is, I think a fantastic experience.
If you've got the opportunity to jam with another person,
to get them playing those chords in any order,
just make up a chord progression or
a song, that uses only those chords -
and then improvise and then swap it over
and then take turns in doing the soloing.
Its an amazing experience, loads and loads of fun.
I'm sure you're going to enjoy it.
So, just, enjoy it! That's it.
There's no brief, you don't have to be
able to do a certain thing.
Just have some fun with this for a couple of weeks.
Off we go!
♫