How to improvise on the guitar. Tips for beginner guitarists.

Improvisation on the guitar. What will be discussed?

Guitar improvisation is one of the cornerstone themes of musical skill. There has already been a huge amount of talk on the subject of this issue, and almost every eminent guitarist has his own opinion on this issue. And it is true – after all, it is in improvisation that music is born, it was improvisation that created a huge number of famous compositions.

Moreover, a huge number of performances and shows have been built on it – in rock music, often famous performers do not replay their solos live, but come up with some new ones, and some of them become truly legendary. A whole genre is built on improvisation – jazz, which is fundamentally different from all other music.

And seeing this, any novice guitarist will wonder – is it difficult? We have to be honest – yes, improvisation is really difficult. However, it is not as difficult as many say. A simple game does not require huge musical knowledge, five years of school, and such things. It will be enough just to work a little with your head and make out what you already know – however, more deeply. And then after a couple of days guitar training you will be able to play your first impromptu solos and compose your own songs!

Easy tutorials for beginners

Without knowledge of scales and notes

Most likely, if you are reading this article now, then you have no idea what scales are, how to play them, and notes for you are generally something incredibly sinister, complex and incomprehensible. Let’s be honest – without knowing the notes at all, things will not go anywhere, however – surprise – you already know them.

How so?

Chords. The whole secret is in them. In fact, the designations of chords are the notes from which they are built. That is, A – denotes the note La, plus an additional two sounds, a third (small or large) and a fifth. This is the third and fifth degree from the note A, but you won’t even need this terminology.

A small digression into the theory.

It will not be very difficult, but will be extremely useful for your development. So, there are only 12 notes. These are seven full notes – do (C), re (D), mi (E), fa (F), salt (G), la (A) and si (B), plus five more intermediate ones – denoted with the so-called “Sharp”. There are five intermediate notes, because there are none between Mi and Fa, as well as Si and Do.

Between full notes there is a gap in the so-called tone – on the guitar these are two frets. That is, between all the seven sounds listed, the distance will be in two frets – except, respectively, Mi and Fa, and Si and Do – in this case, the gap will be one fret.

Now take your guitar and play a chord E – Mi. Now, without changing the position, move it one fret up – that is, now the strings will be clamped on the second and third, and not the first and second. And on the first place barre. What happened? That’s right – chord F. Now move the entire position two frets – that is, the third. you put the chord G.

And it works with all other positions. If you move Am two frets and barre on the second, you get a Bm chord. And so on.

It is called “chord shapes” and it works with all the positions you put in when you play so-called beginner chords. If you can learn this thing, then you will have a huge scope for improvisation with chords.

Moreover, all seventh chords, all triads with raised steps, also obey this rule. Therefore, the first thing to learn in order to compose your own songs is precisely the forms of chords. It will also help you learn fretboard notes – just look at the name of the triad, and pay attention to which string sounds the very first when played – and that is exactly what the note will be.

Pentatonic is easy!

But for this, you already have to learn a little about what gamma is, because without it it is impossible to understand what pentatonic scale is. Again, this won’t be too hard, as the basic gist can be understood from the previous section.

So we know that all notes are separated by a tone or, in two cases, a semitone. In essence, a scale is a sequence of consecutive notes arranged in a certain order. The very first note in the scale is called the tonic.

Gamma C major

The major scale is built according to the principle: Tonic – tone – tone – semitone – tone – tone – tone – semitone.

That is, the C major scale looks like this:

Do – re – mi – fa – sol – a – si – do.

Gamma A-minor

The minor scale is built according to the principle: Tonic – tone – semitone – tone – tone – semitone – tone – tone.

In this case, take the minor scale A:

A – si – do – re – mi – fa – sol – a.

Each of the notes that are used in the scale is called a degree – there are eight in total. This is the classical rule from which the pentatonic scale departs. There are five notes in the pentatonic scale, since it lacks two steps. In the major case, these are the fourth and seventh, in the minor case, the second and sixth.

Pentatonic in C major

That is in order to build a pentatonic scale, you just need to remove two notes from the scale.

In such a situation, the pentatonic scale from C major looks like this:

Do – re – mi – sol – la – do

Pentatonic A minor

From A minor like this:

La – do – re – mi – sol – la.

Therefore, in order to build a pentatonic scale, you just need to understand what note on the fretboard you are currently playing, select a scale for this note – which is very simple if you follow the scheme – and then remove the necessary steps from it. Of course, this will take time, but it is simply necessary for rock improvisations, and also to resolve the issue – how to play beautiful guitar solos.

jazz improvisation on guitar

But here everything is much more complicated. The fact is that jazz is played in a very peculiar way – standard chords are almost never used there, they are expanded by raising steps and adding additional notes. That is why it is important to start with classical jazz standards. You may not learn notes and scales, but it’s worth watching the lessons – how they are built, what jazz is based on in general. And only then can you comfortably improvise.

Blues guitar improvisation

In fact, the whole blues is built on pentatonic scales. To master improvisation in this direction, the section above will help you, which details how it is built and what it is based on. However, it is also worth looking at certain blues standards, which include chord progressions, techniques, and characteristic rhythmic patterns.

Guitar improvisation – everything you need to know

But after all, the beginning of the article promised that there would be a minimum of theory! And rightly so – on this we will close this topic. Now we will give some tips for beginners that can be applied to the game. beautiful busts,and solo parts, and chord positions.

Play more, learn more

Exactly. Everything is very simple – the more you play and listen to yourself, the more you learn pieces – the more your musical reserve becomes. It’s like with a dictionary – if you read a lot, then your vocabulary will be much wider. So practice every day and learn as many songs as you can.

Explore each song

However, simply memorizing the text of the composition is not enough. It will be much more effective if you start to disassemble them. Why is there such a chord in this place? Why is this note played in the solo? By starting to answer these questions for yourself, you will not only fill your head with musical phrases – you will begin to understand how the musical kitchen works. This is very important for competent improvisation – because this is how the best moves will be stored in your head, and then you will unwittingly start yourself, they will be put into practice. Remember every move you hear, increasing the number of phrases and intonations for yourself.

Start simple

Yngwie Malmsteen, no matter how brilliant he was, did not immediately start playing tapping and sweeping. Not a single guitarist started to master complex things at once. Start simple – with simple picks, chords and solo passages. This is how growth occurs – by moving from simple to complex. Gradually, you will be able to play more and more intricate melodies, but now try something simple.

For example, simple guitar picking diagrams for which are presented on this site. The compositions of the Blackmore’s Night band, or classical works in general, are also perfect.

For solo practice and the beginning of improvisations, AC / DC songs, for example, or compositions of the Offspring and Green Day teams are suitable.

Chord songs can be found on this site – just take a regular triad track for beginners.

Listen more

Every self-respecting musician should not only play but also listen. Listen to more music, a variety of directions – from rap to heavy metal. And most importantly – listen to how the compositions are arranged in them, how the instruments sound. Remember this and then try to repeat it on the fretboard of the instrument. In this way, you passively expand your musical vocabulary. Melodies are deposited in your subcortex, and then in the process of improvisation they will definitely prove themselves.

Listen to songs more often

The basis of improvisation is the ability to hear not only yourself, but also others. What key does he play, bassist or second guitarist? What chord can you play now? And what note will sound good in this case? This all develops only with ear training. And you can develop it in only one way – the selection of melodies. At first it will be, to be honest, very difficult – but then, gradually, the hearing will improve, and the whole process will become faster.

Learn Theory

Yes, it is possible to improvise without knowledge of theory. Yes, it will work out, and even at a certain moment it will be easy. But when? After five years of continuous playing by ear? Or in six? The theory greatly simplifies this matter – you will simply know what to play at any given moment, without any doubt. You’ll know how chords are built, and you’ll know all sorts of ways to diversify your music in any way. Be sure to study music theory if you want to become something more than just an ordinary backyard guitarist.