26
votes
What does one need to know to learn to improvise with other musicians?
Not knowing your particular background or skill level the question is incredibly broad. From the point of view of an experienced improviser what's going on here is fundamentally very simple.
Pianist 1 ...
- 1,679
25
votes
Accepted
What do you have to do to sound like you're improvising when you're actually reading from sheet music?
When an improvised solo is good, it sounds as if it had been composed, written with great skill and artistic taste, and practiced to perfection. Like a good performance of a good composition. The only ...
23
votes
Accepted
Making Sense of Blues Soloing; differentiating major/minor pentatonics
How do I understand the mixture of the major and minor blues scales in an applicable way?
The short answer is that the mixing of major and minor tonalities is the essence of blues.
Many people draw ...
- 1,802
20
votes
Accepted
What does it mean to play in a mode?
The difference is all about what is the tonic and how a tone become perceived as the tonic.
In C major C is the tonic. In E Phrygian E is the tonic.
Unless you're talking about Gregorian chant (no ...
- 55k
17
votes
I can't create even a guitar lick when playing over a backing track
Never mind what's wrong with you. What's wrong with your teacher?
May sound harsh, but it would appear your teacher hasn't explained, at least in a way that you understand, how to play over a backing ...
- 190k
16
votes
Accepted
Can the I IV V chords harmonize any major scale melody?
A melody diatonic to the key can be accompanied with just I, IV and V chords, but this will give a less rich harmonization than using a wider variety of chords. But based on your question, you want to ...
- 5,567
15
votes
Accepted
When creating a bass line, how do I know what notes I'm allowed to use?
Where my confusion really comes in is that if the song is in the key
of G does that mean I'm only allowed to play the notes in that scale
(G,A,B,C,D,E, F#)?
The key of a song does not determine ...
- 6,823
15
votes
What does one need to know to learn to improvise with other musicians?
Accompanists tend to mainly think in terms of chord sequences rather than individual notes. Guitar of course is primarily used today as an accompanying instrument, but piano was and is also regularly ...
- 4,752
14
votes
Accepted
Why is a Cadence important in music?
Just see how many different sentences you used in these three lines you posted! 5 Different ones, which where separated by punctuation marks. Think of music as a language (which it basically is). It ...
- 31.3k
14
votes
How to break out of playing scales up and down when improvising
Try working around chord tones.
Three things you can add to playing only chord tones are auxiliary tones, passing tones, and enclosures.
The enclosure example shows enclosures targeting each tone of ...
- 55k
14
votes
Accepted
Improvising with modes and over "advanced" chords
A full backing track has SO much more harmonic power, with bass and harmony instruments, it rules and bulldozes over your feeble little solo notes. Mode is not just a set of note names, because one of ...
13
votes
When creating a bass line, how do I know what notes I'm allowed to use?
There are many different ways to approach the bass and the approach that you take may depend on what styles/genres of music you are playing. The first thing that you want to do is understand the ...
- 7,429
12
votes
Why is a Cadence important in music?
A cadence does at least two things. It makes a statement about what key you are in at the moment. It also indicates a completion of a thought and therefore the beginning of another, similar as you ...
- 2,591
12
votes
Lead guitar improvisation strategies for young intermediate guitarists
Reading music - safe. Regurgitating others' riffs - safe. Both, when one is good at either (or both) have a certain authenticity to them. 'I play what's written - if it's written, it's probaably good, ...
- 190k
11
votes
Can the I IV V chords harmonize any major scale melody?
Short answer. The short answer is yes: because all 7 scale degrees are represented by one of the chords, it is possible to make a harmonisation that only uses I, IV, and V. This is pretty close to how ...
- 747
11
votes
Can anyone precisely describe what it means (or feels like) to play exactly what your "inner ear" is hearing?
If by "inner ear" you mean the ability to improvise without actually hearing what you play, and still knowing pretty much exactly what it sounds like, then nothing even close to John Coltrane's skill ...
11
votes
Keeping track of theme when improvising
I'm afraid a tendency to work just with 'the changes' and ignore the original melody is endemic in today's jazz world. Particularly if your improvisation technique is based on the chord=scale system. ...
- 90.4k
11
votes
Lead guitar improvisation strategies for young intermediate guitarists
I am not a music teacher, have not been teached by a music teacher and would not consider myself a 'good' guitarist. But I remember having similar problems in terms of improvisation. When I tried to ...
- 1,191
11
votes
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How to find scales to improvise with for "How Insensitive" by Jobim
First of all: music is not "in a scale". When we say that it's "in D minor", it does not mean any particular scale, it means that the home note is D and its third is a minor third, ...
10
votes
Accepted
How does improvisation in Indian ragas differ significantly from jazz melodic improvisation?
For much of Jazz, the harmonic changes provide a key forward push. Melodic choices have to work within that framework. In Indian music, there are no harmonic changes to exploit for forward motion or ...
- 1,282
10
votes
Accepted
Are non-diatonic chord progressions usually modal mixtures?
Modal mixture means borrowing chords from parallel modes. But here, the ♯v dim chord is the leading tone chord to the vi chord (i.e., it's really a vii°/vi). I would suggest not trying to analyze ...
- 1,409
10
votes
Are modes in jazz primarily a melody thing?
The simple/traditional approach is for the chords to match the scales you're improvising over. You wouldn't improvise with C Lydian in your right hand and simultaneously play a CMaj11 chord--the F in ...
- 11.2k
10
votes
Making Sense of Blues Soloing; differentiating major/minor pentatonics
I think the source of your confusion is the notion of "switching" between major and minor, and the resulting question of when to switch. I would suggest to view things differently, i.e., not to think ...
- 20.1k
9
votes
How to give classes on improvisation
I think an excellent piece to start with is Duke Ellington's C-Jam Blues. It's about the simplest 12-bar blues you're ever going to find.
Start by discussing the overall form of the piece: play ...
- 15.1k
9
votes
Accepted
Soloing on Scales
Minor pent works well over major chords, but not vice versa.
Add the 'blue' note to both maj. and min. pents for a little spice.
Try the full major scale notes on major songs.
Try the full minor ...
- 190k
9
votes
Accepted
How do video game music composers make so many songs for one game? Are all of them some sort of musical talent / genius?
It’s actually not that difficult. Here’s where an education comes in handy:
Music for those types of video games is written to be looped seamlessly. The original portion might only be 2-3 minutes ...
- 25.5k
9
votes
Accepted
How do I teach myself guitar (as a high level pianist)?
I'm a professional guitarist (with a jazz background), and I also play piano. What I'm reading into your question isn't a problem of "what should I learn", but "how can I apply what I already know?"
...
- 4,797
9
votes
How can you listen and judge where you are in the music whilst improvising?
Step 1: Play one note per chord, on the downbeat, leaving plenty of mental space to keep track of where you are. Play only the roots, then only the thirds, etc.
Step 2: When you're comfortable with ...
- 82.4k
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