Questions tagged [improvisation]
For question about spontaneous composing in real time, typically during performance.
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How to start playing by ear/improvising?
Up till now I've been playing music from the sheet, and eventually I've grown frustrated how after 3 years of playing I can't even play Jingle Bells if I'm asked to without figuring it out from a ...
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Ways to get out of a scalar rut?
I'm a well versed and experienced guitarist. I have a decent sense for rhythm and melody, but I have a VERY hard time with soloing. I know you've heard it all before I'm one of those guys that got ...
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How to know what notes will go together while improvising?
This is 3 questions in one, so it might take a slightly involved answer, or some good links.
Edit--- tl;dr:
How can you learn which keys to hit to make the notes you hear in your head? I know what I ...
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How can you listen and judge where you are in the music whilst improvising?
When improvising over a chord progression, I have a hard time knowing where I'm at. I'm thinking about what I am trying to play and not listening to what going on in the background. I know this comes ...
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How to learn piano improvisation
I am a self-taught piano player, played for about five years with shorter and longer breaks. I've never had any formal education, don't know chords or music theory. What should I do to learn piano ...
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Does improvisation in the classical idiom differ significantly from jazz and folk improvisation?
How do musicians who actually improvise in classical music, such as Robert Levine, JS Bach, Edgar Meyer, church organists and classical ballet pianists, compose in the moment?
Are there any ...
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Guitar solo techniques
I have been playing guitar for a while now and I've decided (after playing with a guy I know and seeing how expressive his solos are) that I need to improve my improvisation.
My improvisations are ...
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Where can I get started with my improvisation?
I have been playing the alto saxophone for a while now. I have also improvised from time to time and have some theoretical and practical background on the instrument, harmony, scales, etc.
I have ...
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In jazz, what is a guide tone?
I've heard that guide tones are very useful while improvising, and seems to be an important concept for jazz theory.
What is a guide tone? How can it help improvisation?
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How can I produce any melody on my guitar as effortlessly as I do with my voice?
When I improvise on the guitar, I rely too much in theory and muscle memory. However, I can do creative vocal improvisations.
I want to be able to let my inner ear command my guitar playing as well.
...
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What is a parallel mode?
What is a parallel mode? How are the parallel modes used in composition and/or improvisation?
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Comfortable notes in a key
I've been playing guitar for some time, and often when i do improvisation exercises, I hit notes which sound too tense to finish a run/lick/riff on. Kind of like having a sentence which no full stop.
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How to break out of playing scales up and down when improvising
I play piano, and when I am playing a gospel or a blues song, I always improvise with my right hand. I have been practicing major scales and pentatonic scales for a while now, and when I play, i ...
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What is a good solo to learn in the Dorian mode?
I understand that Dorian is a commonly used mode in rock. I am starting to play / improvise in the mode and would like to learn some guitar solos that are good examples of this scale so that I see how ...
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Pat Martino chord concept - Augmented Forms - Guitar Fretboard shapes
Imagine a A+ chord that Pat transfers to a Dm chord by raising the note c# to d. Pat seems to relate a A+ chord to a D-minor chord.
What´s the improvisational use of that approach as A+ is not "...
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Mental approach to improvisation
Improvisation for guitar is a fairly well-covered topic, with good resources to be found within multiple contexts (Web, traditional literature, etc).
However, most of what I've read is basically ...
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How to improvise a walking bass line
When improvising or writing a walking bass line the bass note (usually the root of the chord) is played on the chord change, but how do you choose the other notes for a walking bass line? Is there a ...
Dom♦
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Lead guitar improvisation strategies for young intermediate guitarists
One of my 15 year old students is progressing quite nicely in her ability, including playing live and playing learned guitar parts including lead lines. She reads music and can play many classical and ...
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How to close the gap between ideas and capabilities when improvising?
I'm a drumset player. I just finished a B.A. in Percussion Performance, marched 4 years of DCI drum & bugle corps, and am now working on a degree in jazz studies. As I've begun to play more and ...
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Keeping track of theme when improvising
Improvisations in jazz is done over the song itself, typically. However, I don’t hear the theme in plenty of recordings, the harmonies and solo are so far away that I can’t see the connection to the ...
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Finding the "Starting point" when creating a composition or score
This is a fairly simple one, and hopefully not too wide-open to be permitted here: what approaches are available when sitting at a fresh screen or sheet of paper, or at your instrument, to create the ...
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Should I learn the notes of all the scales
I'm playing guitar and therefore have learnt all the major,minor and harmonic minor patterns. But while improvising I usually forget the right notes of a scale(the problem comes when switching the ...
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Can the I IV V chords harmonize any major scale melody?
Are the primary chords of the major scale (I IV V) enough to make any major scale melody sound good? These chords together seem to encompass all 7 notes of the key.
I ask this because as I'm learning ...
user34288
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How does improvisation in Indian ragas differ significantly from jazz melodic improvisation?
I have heard that Ravi Shankar once said that ragas are not jazz. However, Ravi Shankar had a significant influence on some jazz performers.
How does improvisation in Indian ragas differ ...
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What is the purpose of knowing the relative minor of a particular major scale?
I know that the relative minor of any major scale shares all the notes of that major scale.
I'm also aware that the concept of relative minor seems to be useful for the purpose of soloing and ...
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How much baroque music was derived from improvisation?
I've heard that much music we think of as "baroque" was actually improvised, and only later set in stone. Is this true?
I'm currently playing baroque-style continuo/bass lines in a duo that riffs ...
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What is the approach taken by Bill Frisell to improvisation in jazz music?
How do Bill Frisell and his mentor Jim Hall approach improvisation?
In The Guitar Artistry of Bill Frisell, Frisell is very emphatic that he improvises from the melody, not from the chord changes, as ...
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Does Phish base their improvisational style on any predetermined techniques?
I have heard of the phrase "The Circle Game" used in reference to Phish and their style of improvisation and extended jams.
How does this work, and is it evident in their live performance?
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How did classical composers learn piano improvisation?
https://ericbarnhill.wordpress.com/facts-about-improvisation/
I just came across this old yet interesting article about the improvisation stories of certain classical composers. Since classical ...
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Should I learn all diatonic chords in all keys?
I'm wondering how important it is to know the diatonic chords of a given key. Like, if a key is given to me like G# major, is it beneficial for me to know the I, ii, iii, IV, V, etc chords of this ...
user34288
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How can I improve my fingering on the saxophone in the high notes and overtones?
I have a couple of months working on my improvisation and I'm having some issues with fast passages on the saxophone's higher notes and overtones (starting from D with the left hand palm).
I'm ...
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How to practice guitar improvisation?
How to practice improvisation on guitar? How did you learn improvisation?
What should I practice, how should I practice? I want to lift my guitar playing to a new level, because I'm little bored of ...
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Tips for starting with improvisation on guitar, with a focus on metal?
I want to improvise! Make solos and stuff! and maybe it will help my transcribing too yea?
I know there are various other questions about this but i wanted to ask my own. I know it can sort of be a ...
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How do You Internalize a Song Progression While Soloing?
Here's my problem. I hear a song and I can immediately hear a solo in my head, even anticipating chord changes. It's beautiful.
Everything goes to sh*t when I actually start soloing. The song ...
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Improvising in two pulses/tempos at once
In this documentary, Brad Mehldau states this about his trio with Jorge Rossy and Larry Grenadier:
It’s pretty specific what I’m doing, I think, especially with the trio. We have the regular pulse ...
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Developing a good practice routine for piano improvisation with a band
I have been playing the piano for 2 years now and I can play some of my favorite pieces through sheet music and a lot of time. I have also been singing in a band for quite some years and want to ...
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What are the rules of improvisation in Indian ragas?
In How does improvisation in Indian ragas differ significantly from jazz melodic improvisation? Phil states:
With a Raga, there is no theme, per se. A Raga is more like a set of rules as to how you ...
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Does improvisation usually start with a chord progression?
I'm wondering if it's "usually" good to start off with a chord progression. I also was reading about musical motifs but I think that is mainly for melody, and I'm not sure if the motifs should start ...
user34288
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What interval do all the modes have in common?
I was watching a video exercise to play all of the modes you can over a power chord A5 in this case. Is there an interval that all modes share over a particular tonic (A in this example)?
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How to improvise over a C#, B, A chord progression?
I'm looking to improvise a piano solo in over a C# verse that has a C#, B, A chorus. I'm unsure of what scale to use for this, or unsure on how to determine why musically some notes work better than ...
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How to learn the modes of the scales? And even worse, how to improvise over them over any key?
I struggle to memorize the formulae for the modes of the major, harmonic minor and melodic minor scales.
Actually the formula for the major scale is pretty much ok. I start learning them by heart ...
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"Breaking through the wall" with guitar speed and accuracy
I'm really struggling with improving my hand speed in both hands while keeping the accuracy, anyone got anything that really worked for them that they would recommend?
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Whole-step technique for figuring out jazz scales?
I was watching a tutorial on how this guy finds scales to play on top of jazz chords. And I was wondering if this a good method to use, and if not how do I know which scales to improvise on chords. Do ...
user34288
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Example of Partimento for improvisation?
I was watching this video about improvisation on partimento.
In the video in the bottom I see terms such as Parstorella, Clausula ottocento, Scalino 7.1, Phantom Lancia, Queiscenza 1.
What are those ...
user34288
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Harmonic Motif vs Melodic Motif?
From my research online it seems that most are talking about melodic motifs/motives in order to develop an improvisation or composition.
But in other articles about improvisation I read people ...
user34288
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Theory of scales in piano improvisation
I'm learning the piano and just learned two scales, A and C (and the theory as to how to make the other keys: WWHWWWH).
Other than learning how to make major/minor/dim etc chords how else can I use ...
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I'm stuck in diatonic land. How do I get out?
I've been playing a lot of diatonic everything. So basically just staying in the scale as I improvise with melody/chords. I play alot of songs by ear and I notice when they use accidentals but I don't ...
user34288
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How are melodic sequences used?
I keep hearing about sequences. I know that there's both harmonic and melodic sequences. I am familiar with harmonic sequences I believe they're also called "basso ostinato" where you play a repeating ...
user34288
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How to solo over chord changes on guitar?
To give some context, I am able to easily solo over a backing track based on the key of the track - all over the guitar's fretboard using most of the advanced guitar techniques and scale runs.
My ...
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Question about Building My Composition/Improv Skill
This is coming from a musician that is now about 1 1/2 years into music study. I started by learning about the basic languages and theory of music, and like to just improv (badly, really badly) on the ...
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