Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Basic Techniques To Help You Learn Guitar Improvisation

By Chris Lake


If you have been to a concert, you most likely are very much aware of what it means when one mentions the phrase guitar improvisation. Improvised music is the technique of capturing what one is feeling by permitting your inner sentiment to speak through the instrument. It is the most creative, communicative and a showcase of precision, skills, techniques and creativity that leaves the audience in awe.

The key factor is familiarizing with all parts of the instrument and being able to use the techniques effectively. In general there are two techniques in guitar improvisation, these are horizontal and vertical techniques. In horizontal technique, a guitarist plays a solo based on his current scale while in vertical technique he gets to play one base on his current chord

To begin with you should first get familiar with the different scales, this technique does not involve playing unsystematic notes hoping to create a good resonance, and in this case you should refer to specific scales which are termed as the framework of the piece of music. You find that there are particular scales which you should choose from, but as a novice you should first begin with pentatonic scales. Once you have identified the type of scale to use and the type of chord sequence, then you can obtain the best out of the practice.

The scales also help in building the muscle memory and guide the fingers to the right direction. The second technique involves learning the Arpeggios. Arpeggios are a series of notes which make up a chord. Unlike a chord the notes are played one after the other while in the latter they are played simultaneously. These notes are important as they do not necessitate a lot of effort in identifying them.

Once you familiarize yourself with the scales, you should move to the next step and use a jam track to experiment your scales. In this case you should listen carefully at the sound of the notes over the track little by little experimenting other methods of playing the notes, use your ears to identify what note gives the right sound. The best kind of music to help you kick start this is blues soloing. The reason behind this is because he 12 bar blues progression are very consistent and are easy to memorize. This technique can help you learn how to anticipate chord changes.

Additionally there are fewer wrong notes in blues hence when one plays a wrong note he or she would probably not cause much damage. The other step involves structuring decent licks. To do this one should make out some licks on a piece of paper learning how to play them by heart.

Guitar improvisation necessitates patience, time, dedication and a lot of practice. But most of all one should learn how to listen.




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