Improvising with Intent

The idea

Improvising is composing at the speed of the music. Everything from this module applies: motifs, chord tones, contour and breath. The difference is that you cannot go back and edit, so you need habits that work under pressure.

Six habits:

1. Play phrases, not notes. Think in sentences. Play for two bars, rest for one or two. If you cannot sing what you just played, it was not a phrase.
2. Call and response. Play a short idea, then answer it. The answer can be a repetition, a variation or a contrast. This alone makes a solo sound like a conversation.
3. Develop one motif. Start with three or four notes and use the tools from lesson 6.1: repeat, move it to another degree, change the ending. Staying with one idea for eight bars sounds more confident than eight different ideas.
4. Target chord tones. Aim for a note of the chord, ideally the 3rd, at each chord change. What you play on the way there matters much less than where you land.
5. Shape the whole solo. Start low, simple and sparse. Build toward one peak, near the end, with higher register, more notes or longer bends. Then land.
6. Sound is part of the note. Bends, slides, vibrato, pick attack and dynamics decide whether a note speaks. One note with a great vibrato beats ten without.

Two ways to hear the harmony:

Approach	What you do	Sounds like
Key-center playing	One scale for the whole progression, usually pentatonic	Bluesy, direct, safe
Playing the changes	Each chord gets its own target notes	Melodic, “composed”

Great rock solos mix both: pentatonic phrasing for attitude, chord-tone targets at the moments that matter.

On your instrument

Limitation is the best teacher. Each of these removes one easy way out:

• One string only. Forces you to hear intervals instead of running boxes.
• Three notes only. Forces rhythm and phrasing.
• Rhythm fixed. Choose one two-bar rhythm and keep it for the whole solo, changing only the pitches.
• Sing and play. Sing each phrase while playing it, or just before. If your voice cannot follow, slow down.

Back yourself with this loop, and keep the scale in view:

Worked example

A guide line for Am – F – C – G. First find the 3rd of each chord:

Chord	Am	F	C	G
3rd	C	A	E	B
On the top strings	1:8	1:5	2:5	2:12 or 1:7

Step 1. Play only these four notes, one per bar, on beat 1. Let each ring. Even this bare line sounds like it belongs to the harmony, because it does.

Step 2. Approach each target from one scale step above or below, on the last beat of the previous bar.

Step 3. Fill the middle of each bar with pentatonic phrasing, but keep arriving on the target on beat 1.

You are now playing the changes and playing the blues at once. Every note in between can come from the A minor pentatonic box you already know. Only the landing notes are new.

Exercises

1. Two bars on, two bars off. Loop the progression above. Play for two bars, then stay silent for two. Do this for five minutes. In the silence, sing what you will play next.
2. Target practice. Play the three steps from the worked example over the loop, in order, five minutes each.
3. One motif, sixteen bars. Start with a four-note idea and do not introduce a new one for sixteen bars. Only develop it.
4. Record and transcribe yourself. Record a one-minute solo. The next day, pick the best two-bar phrase, write it down, and learn it as a composed lick. Your own best ideas are the vocabulary nobody else has.
5. Solo with an arc. Plan a 16-bar solo in four parts: low and sparse, middle and melodic, high and intense, then a landing phrase. Record three takes.

Common mistakes

• Starting at full intensity. If you begin with your fastest lick, there is nowhere to go.
• Never stopping. Silence is the only thing that makes the next phrase an event.
• Thinking scales while playing. Scales are for the practice room. On the bandstand, listen to the chords and to what you just played.
• Practicing only fast. Phrasing, vibrato and timing are learned at slow tempos.