Beyond The Alphabet
Published: Wed, 02/07/24
It's a point of pride to have worked out a way of teaching improvisation that goes beyond just handing out scales and chord progressions and saying "here you go – figure it out if you can!" Anyone who's ever been taught that way knows the results: when you try and solo, you sound like you're playing scales – because you are.
Learning to improvise, even on something as seemingly straightforward as a blues chord progression, involves learning actual licks and phrases. The scales are just information, like the alphabet or the integers from one to ten. For some time now, I've used a more or less three-step process to teach beginning improvisation. First, we'll look at a model solo – an example of what you could do, using simple phrases and a basic scale fingering. Next, we'll look at the rhythm, or phrasing, of each lick in the solo, to see how it relates to the chords and helps move the solo along. Finally, for each lick, we'll look at swapping in two or three variations on that lick.
Unlike just trying to pour a scale over the chord progression, this approach gives you a kind of scaffolding to hang your licks on – and a supply of licks to try out. Learning the model solo gives you a sense of how to put licks together; learning the variations gives you a vocabularly to start experimenting with. If you're struggling to put solos together over a steady bass, or just need a plan for getting your right-hand coordination together in the first place, this approach can actually help you work on both things at once.
Of course sometimes, especially for more advanced players, what helps most is just seeing it done. So for today's video, I've recorded a complete performance of "How Long Blues," complete with a three-chorus solo in the middle. You can find it at the link below:
Improvising on "How Long Blues"
The tab for this solo is available inside the Fingerstyle Five membership, along with tab for all the solos, licks and improvisation exercises I'll be talking about this month as well. Replays of every live-streamed lesson are archived for on-demand viewing, so you can work at whatever pace you want for as long as you're a member. To find out more and sign up, go to:
www.fretboardconfidential.com
More soon,
David