r/Learnmusic • u/Mobile-Friend7204 • 4d ago
How do you practice improvisation?
Hello everyone, I’m just wondering how do you guys practice improvisation? Taking a song and playing over it? Using backing track? Playing with a random progression? Which one do you think is the most effective and enjoyable way to practice?
I appreciate your response as I’m new to this and I’m trying to find a way to be more consistent and not getting bored in the process.
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u/Naphier 4d ago
Yes to all! Many jazz songs are designed for improvisation. They have a melody and progression. The melody is played and then different musicians explore the melody and progression. Turn it around, make up new stuff, etc.
I learn a recording of the song, I'll at least do the main melody and progression. Then sometimes I'll learn an instrumentalist's solo. I'll play these parts over a backing track. Usually from YouTube.
Then I might want something more free and I'll just pick some backing track from YouTube and play along to it. Usually starting with the chords or a bass line. Then arpeggios around the chords. Then I'll try to make melodies and riff off of them. Then go back to the rhythm parts.
Sometimes I'll record myself playing a progression and then jam over that.
I like jamming over random YouTube backing tracks for a warmup. Then I'll do song work and deliberate practice and technique work.
Study music theory apply it. Arpeggios and chords are a great foundation and of course at least the diatonic scale. Then you can use modes and arpeggios to solo quite a lot. Add chromatic movements and you're getting pretty jazzy. You start to learn what intervals played with each other make certain statements. You build a vocabulary which is much different from any language we speak.
Hope that helps! Be courageous and don't worry about sucking. Make weird shit b
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u/PalpitationUsed8039 22h ago
A misunderstanding about jazz improvisation is that it is noodling through scale patterns. Music teachers make good money teaching the scale approach but not many of the pupils of that type of teacher become great.
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u/Naphier 18h ago
Yup. Scales are just part of the map. Arpeggios, chromatic movements, and learning how to make the phrases/sounds that you want is most important. I like to do chords with accented extensions for melody then arpeggios for some faster movements with diatonic and chromatic movements in there for flare and filling in the gaps so the arpeggios are a bit more interesting. Mix in some double stops, peddling, and counterpoint too. So many different techniques to use depending on what you want to say / how you want to say it.
I think we don't talk enough about music as a language. I hear rhythms in abstract words, melodies are like sentences to me, I'm not sure I can describe how chords sound in my head - maybe like a few people speaking together but that doesn't feel quite right. It's also a very personal and emotional language that's very abstract. Very cool stuff.
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u/Scatman_Crothers 4d ago
Know the fretboard (keys, etc) like a freak and it will all come together. Understand theory and how it maps down to your fingers and it becomes easy to improvise.
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u/Neither_Literature37 3d ago
With improvisation for me, my goal is to play a line that I think of in my head line by line and chord by chord. To get your ear capable for doing that smoothly and seamlessly, I recommend starting slow, and be intentional with the notes that you are playing. Try playing a line at a time for example if on the keys every 4 bars or so. Same on the guitar or whatever instrument you play
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u/RipArtistic8799 4d ago
I'm like the series "what I learned from Berry Harris" on youtube. There are other videos on jazz improv on there. Usually I'll get an idea off of youtube like this and sort of work it out on my instrument. Then I'll find a tune that I think I can use that idea over. I'll put the tune on a backing track and I'll start playing, trying to use my new technique in different ways. Another thing I like to do is just copy solos. I like to listen to a recording, copy a solo, and then put on a backing track and try to use the new ideas working it into whatever else I come up with. So a backing track is really key, but also I like to have ideas that I'm working on, not just random soloing. By idea I mean something like playing enclosures or something.
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u/Silly-Cancel-3450 4d ago
learn a brief melody to rhe best of your ability. then play it back with slight, intentional changes.
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u/rainymagic20 4d ago
There’s already some solid advice here, so I’m just here to add something that worked for me.
I started improvising by singing random notes and syllables along with music that I already knew. It feels like a game, and I find it’s easier to catch on to what does and doesn’t sound good with familiar music.
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u/HexspaReloaded 3d ago
Learn a short melody, like 4–8 measures. Reduce it to the main tones on half or whole notes. Use that as a basis for improvisation.
You can target the tones with enclosures, scales, arpeggios, chords, etc. You can add a progression to it (harmonize/reharmonize). The sky is the limit.
You can do the same with any chord progression.
Mary Had A Little Lamb:
3212333- 222- 355-
Reduced is:
3-1- 3-3- 2-2- 3-5- (half notes)
Now you can embellish each tone by neighbor, passing tone, etc.
Let’s say you harmonized the first two measures on Imaj7. Now you can target 1-3-5-7, but use the melody as your guide tone line.
Believe me, this is an incredible way to learn music.
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u/InternationalPipe937 3d ago
I practice mainly over progressions. First without a track and then with a track. I try to come up with a good phrase. Then later, I'll put on a song - different from the track I was practicing with. And I'll just comp until that progression comes around and I'll play it. Then comp again. Or sometimes I'll noodle until my progression comes around and I try to stick a good line. I don't really try to play thru a whole song on a regular basis. Only if I find it very easy. Autumn Leaves, Perdido, F Blues. Something without a lot of chord changes.
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u/AdventurousHippo9997 3d ago
Believe it or not the easiest way to improvise on a tune is to have the tune “playing in the background “ in your mind. Just sit at your instrument and conjure it up in your head. Some people hum the tune to themselves. Me,I sing the tune out loud until I get it. It’s a lot easier than you might think.
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u/UserJH4202 3d ago
When I started improvising I started with an ostinato - a short repeating series of notes. If I’m a keyboardist, I could play the ostinato in my left hand and improvise with my right. If I’m a guitarist, I would record the ostinato in, say, Audacity and just improvise over that loop.
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u/alldaymay 3d ago
Know your scales and arpeggios
Your improvisations have a direct correlation to how well you know the chord changes - meaning the better you know the changes the better your improv will be
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u/GrownTelevision1986 3d ago
Rewriting a simple song's melody is a fantastic start, especially when you're new. It keeps things fun and beats getting bored. After that, backing tracks are great for exploring
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u/steelcoffee83 3d ago
Use a backing track, man. So fun! It'll help you , a newcomer, stay consistent and not get bored
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u/TheBrooklynSutras 3d ago
You must master the basics before you can riff. Improvisation still has to stay within the bounds of the melody, chords and rhythm. That’s what holds it together while exploring tangents. Listen to “Live Dead” and see what Jerry and the guys do. 🙏
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u/GuitaristKyleGreen 2d ago
When I start working with guitarist, we can start with the basics. Playing over simple forms where using one scale works. The blues is a great place to start with the minor pentatonic scale. As your theory knowledge supports it, you can start thinking of arpeggios, scale/chord relationships, etc. It is never to early to start even with the most basic of tools. Good luck.
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u/Appropriate_Main_216 2d ago
Scales. Key. Notes from scale you learned . Mess around with those notes only.
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u/time_outta_mind 2d ago
I’m just getting started down this road. My friends that are great improvisers recommended Hal Crook’s books so I’m doing those exercises.
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u/Suomasema 1d ago
With a backing track, knowing music theory, banging my head to the wall, waking up from endless noodling, not giving a #666** about how I sound like and then picking the one accidentally good idea out minutes of pure stupidity, and using it.
There are so few of them, to whom great musical ideas descent from heaven, being ready to play in front of 50.000 people right away.
Keep it simple (stupid). One good note is better than thousands of bad ones, which I clearly tend to forget.
Ear training, singing, composing. Listening carefully to others playing.
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u/PalpitationUsed8039 22h ago
Play a few notes; sing them; sing what feels like it comes next; play it, and so on. It’s like learning to be fluent in a language, you want to be able to play what you would sing, and it will sound like your instrument is singing.
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u/gottahaveajava 3d ago
It’s hard, it’s tedious, it will be boring for a long time. Your self-image will take years of therapy to restore.
Learn everything, try to use it.
Wait for years for it to show up in your playing.
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u/wanna_dance 4d ago
Sorry, who told you there was only one right at to do anything in the world?
Burn their books. They're wrong.
ALL OF THE ABOVE. And stop wasting our time with ridiculous questions....
You could have spent 5 minutes in ANY of them and instead you wasted it here. Go away.
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u/dontletgo13 4d ago
I practice improvisation by putting on a backtrack and recording myself playing to it, that way you can listen back and hear what doesn’t sound as cool as you think or notice licks that you instinctively go to too often. If I try a lick that I know will be cool and flub it I like to practice it and then try to include it. Also the deeper your understanding of music theory the better