Improvisation

[Doadman]

This really does my head in and I've hit a real block in my guitar playing. I can play scales at a reasonable speed and I know a few licks but turning that into music is a real problem. I don't really want to just learn other peoples material, I want to be able to improvise my own stuff over a backing track or band. My tutor said I should think of a simple melodic phrase to go with some music and then work around that. Sounds easy, and it looks easy too but I just don't seem to be able to do it for a few reasons:

1) I can't translate what is in my head to the fretboard fast enough

2) I end up concentrating so much on what my fingers are doing that I forget the tune I want to play that's in my head

3) I tend to get trapped in 'shapes' when I choose the scales I want to play

4) It gets very depressing when I try to practise my improvisation and seem to spend an hour playing complete cr@p!

I'm hoping I'm not the only one who has had this hurdle to cross but I sure would appreciate some advice on how to get on top of this improvisation before I end up jacking it all in (I'm feeling rather frustrated as I write this)

[Bird]

You are the sum of your influences... or something like that. Trying to pull out great improv without have a repertoire to pull from is pretty tough. Jazz players learn from those that came before them and try to take it to the next level, same thing with rock.... well maybe some of the time. Bottom line is you're not going to get  really good at improv until you learn other artist's material.   8)

[DeanS]

Gotta agree with Birds comment-its good to learn other material, remember how children learn to read and write- you've got to learn the language first......

[Doadman]

I've found this idea of learning scales to be quite useful:

http://www.shredacademy.com/lessons/j_cefalu.htm

And while this video is way too advanced for me, I thought it was really impressive:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=5777562536751428345&q=melodic+control

[viking]

Nice links !Thanks.But i wonder if it's such a good thing to have that much "information" to play guitar...too many tricks etc.When you see those guys practicing,it's real nice but when you hear their actual music (CD),it's deceiving... :?

[TwilightOdyssey]

When I was studying guitar pretty much full time, I had to learn several lines and licks per week, besides learning sight reading, theory, etc. Once those licks and lines are assimilated into your playing, it broadens your playing 'pallette'.

For example, try learning one lick every week. What you do is play something that has a challenging line (I find Miled Davis and Charlie Parker great for these types of exercises) and learn the lick by ear. Then spend a week memorizing it. By the end of a year, you will have added 50+ licks to your mental amoury.

[shaman]

for me,listening to/playing the blues-simple stuff ..really helped-once I figured out where all the A notes were in a song in the key of A..I played the same SIMPLE licks in diff. positions...once that got boring, I figured out how to "link" the licks from low to high,etc...-that really opened up the fretboard for me-**know the key of the song -find the positions...it didnt take long before I knew what every note was-that was my foundation,then I was able to build on it--it was only later that the modes/intervals actually made sense enough where I could incorporate into my playing-that same foundation works in jazz/metal/country-crawl/walk/run/rock!

[everton_fc]

I try and sing/hum/la melody first. Even if it sounds gash I try and work outwhat I've just sung on the fret board and then let the guitar sing instead.

Read a a good quote from David Gilmour recently - he said that he had to make up of his lack of technicality (what lack!?!) by playing more melody lines on the fretboard as opposed to ripping the shitee out of it. His playing and style therefore evolved from there in the early days of Floyd. I found that quite useful.