Concepts for Improvisation

Episode #1: Eliminate Your Fear of Improvisation (Part 1)

This lesson is the first in a series of seven lessons which will cover the major scale and its
application in an improvisation over a static chord vamp. All examples are written out for C,
Bb, and Eb instruments.

I have been teaching and playing professionally nearly 50 years. In all that time I've
experienced students and players at many levels deal with this “fear factor” of playing the
wrong note. My goal is to eliminate that from the music making process. I have developed
over 110 video courses available at Truefire.com which cover a number of different topics.
Most of them are rather advanced so now I'm approaching improvisation from the ground up.

Let's say you played horn in the school band, or violin in the school orchestra. You can read
music and perhaps read it quite fluently. But you might be mystified by this concept of how to
improvise if you don't have a piece of music in front of you. It doesn't matter what your
technical level is, you can still enter into this joyous activity of improvising. I call this your
musical playground.

Pretend that you and I were little kids and I come up to you I say, “Hey, there's this new
playground a few blocks away. It's got the seven different stations. Let's go over there and
check it out!” Well, you would say, “Yeah let's go!” Why? Because you want have some fun!
There are no right or wrong stations at the playground. You might have your favorite stations
that you're more comfortable with but again there are no wrong stations. The same thing
holds true when you're improvising. It's important that you eliminate this concept of right and
wrong notes. A more accurate way to assess the situation is that there are strong and weak
notes.

This is where music theory comes into play. In improvised music, you generally play over a
chord or a chord progression. It makes no sense to worry about how to play over two chords if
you don't know what your options are when you're playing over one chord. Even if you are not
a chordal instrument, it's important for you to understand chord structures because they
establish the strong notes. It makes sense that if you're playing over a C chord which contains
the notes C, E, and G, those would be the strongest notes you could play because it would
lock up with the chord. That is how we are going to approach this first lesson.

The major scale is the foundation for the majority of the music that you will be playing over.
Yes, in jazz, you have some other scales but we need to really understand the major scale
and everything that it contains. So let's get started.

I'm going to explain everything in the key of C. If you are a transposing instrument, you will
need to be in the respective key that accommodates your instrument.

What you need to know going into this particular lesson is how to play the major scale on your
Instrument. When you play the major scale, you are playing seven different notes. In music
theory, we number these notes so that we can label each scale degree to organize melodic
and chordal patterns. “Chart #1” is a chart of all your major scales. Right now, I want you to
set yourself a goal. That goal is to have this chart memorized at some point in the future.
While this seems like a rather lofty assignment, let's break it down. When you look at chart
number one, you will see a I underneath the word “Ionian”. That will always be what key you
are in. Then as you read from left to right, you will have the seven different notes of the major
scale in order. Thus, in the key of C: C is 1, D is 2, E is 3, F is 4, G is 5, A is 6, and B is 7.
Notice that in the column that has the VIII, you are back at the note you started with which is
the key. Let's set a goal that you are going to memorize the major scale that corresponds with
concert C for your instrument. If you play trumpet or tenor sax, you'll need to memorize the D
major scale. If you play alto or baritone sax, you'll need to memorize the A major scale. If you
play flute or guitar or piano, you're playing a concert C instrument so you are in the key of C.
Now when I say memorize the major scale, it means a few different things. Memorize the
letter names with their respective numbers away from your instrument, and then when you're
playing the scale on your instrument, think of the letter names and their respective numbers.
After you've done this a few times, try singing the letter names with their numbers.

Principle #1

“If you can sing it, you can play it”

I cannot overemphasize this principle. Your ultimate goal is to hear something in your head
and know where it is on your instrument. This is something that doesn't happen overnight. So
be patient and just listen, listen, listen. I have found that this is something that many strong
readers have not developed. Again, if you can't hear these things as we work through these
improvisations, just keep at it and it will eventually become clearer.

Principle #2

“There is no finish line for a musician”

When it comes to developing your ear, developing your technique, understanding music
theory, assimilating rhythmic patterns, and just plain being musical, there is no point when you
will be finished learning. This principle should help you eliminate this “fear factor” of playing
so-called “wrong notes”. Down the road, we will be discussing how to use all 12 notes of the
chromatic scale. Remember there are no wrong notes, just strong and weak notes.

Another huge topic which I'll be discussing in depth as we move through these lessons is the
concept of applying rhythmic options because it's important to think in pure rhythmic terms
when we initially listen to a piece of music. The rhythm equates to the groove. In the example
for this lesson, you will be playing over a Latin style groove which has a 16th note grid work.
Your first assignment is to learn how to play the bass line which is notated in “example 1”.
This will give you something to lock into to help you get up and running on improvising.
“Example 2” is the harmony that you're playing over. It is a C5 which is the chord symbol for a
C power chord. “Example 3” shows the two notes that make up a C5. They are the root and
the fifth. These are the strong notes.

So let's do a little math here. If you remember from your middle school math class, you were
taught the principle of sets and subsets. A subset is contained within a set. Therefore if we
apply this concept to the major scale, the power chord is a subset of the major scale. It is
what I would term 2 of the 7. Therefore you're on your way because you're learning how to
hear and understand 2 of the 7 notes of the major scale. This explains why the bass line in
“example 1” utilizes just these two different notes. Here is another important concept that you
should memorize and learn to hear; the root will always be the strongest note. The fifth
will always be the second strongest note.

Up to this point, we’ve pretty much been in the classroom. So now let's go to the playground. I
want you to practice playing over the jam track using just the root and fifth of whatever key is
appropriate for your instrument. Now you're probably thinking, “How can I make music with
just two different notes?” This is a great way to develop phrasing. First off, don't think you
have to play. A rest is a beautiful thing in music. So pretend you are a percussionist, or you're
playing some Latin horn parts that are punctuating the music with some rhythmic stabs.

This lesson applies the practice scheme of limiting your melodic options in terms of the
number of available pitches which then increases your awareness of the rhythmic options. In
this example, you only have two different pitches so you pretty much have to focus on
phrasing. Also remember you want to know how to play the root and the fifth throughout the
full range of your instrument.

Now let's go back to the classroom.

Melodic patterns are way of developing facility on your instrument and also creating a
vocabulary to help you improvise. In the case of two different notes, you want to practice the
“destination to origin” concept. This simply means that you're not just thinking about the first
note of the phrase that you're going to play (the origin), but you are also targeting a
destination tone at the end of your phrase. This is how you organize the weak and the strong
notes. So in this lesson, the root is your strongest tone, and the fifth is your second strongest
tone. Therefore, you could practice the following moves: if the root is your strongest tone play
5 to 1. If you want to target the 5, you could use the following move: 1 to 5. As simple as
these may be and indeed boring if that's all you're going to do, they will always be a strong
option in the vast majority of harmonic situations. (When you're playing over extended and
altered chords this changes a little bit. But you don't need to worry about that for quite a
while.)

Because you're going to have more than a one octave of range on your instrument, it's
important to think outside of this one octave view. Which means you would experiment with
leaping from the 1 to the 8, or the 5 to the 12 (12 is the octave of 5). This will give you more
angularity in your lines.

Okay, let's go back to the playground. As I referenced earlier, in this lesson we are learning 2
of the 7 notes of the major scale. These two notes are the two strongest tones, so now you
can have fun and use any of the remaining five notes of the major scale and simply target a
root or a fifth as the period on the end of your musical sentence. Remember, do not allow
yourself to think in terms of right and wrong notes. Rather simply listen to what you're playing
and mold and shape your ideas to please yourself.
 Principle #3

“Of what value is it to the man who knows every word in the dictionary, but doesn't
have anything to say?”

This is a principle that I have presented to many people because I've actually had a few
students who had great technique, could talk theory all day long, but couldn't play. I give you
this principle to show you that you don't have to know everything about music (which you
never can anyway) in order to be able to improvise. You want to be like the little kid who
doesn't put judgment on what he's doing because he is exploring the world. He just wants to
have fun!

Principle #4

“Making a mistake is how you learn what not to do.”

So in closing, I hope you enjoy this lesson and it is an encouragement for you in your effort to
enhance your ability to express yourself musically.