I feel like many players struggle with improvising. I am no virtuoso myself. But I believe I am better at improvising than I was a year ago. To do that, I had taken a tactical way and so far, it is working fine for me at least. So I thought I should share this in case anyone else finds this useful. So lets start from the beginning.
COMFORT ZONE:-
Every player has a “comfort” zone for improvising. Since improvisations are generally done with backing tracks having a combination of chords, “comfort” zone generally means a certain kind of backing tracks. Some players’ comfort zone are jazz backing tracks. For some its a single chord. For some its a blues style backing track. First you have to find YOUR comfort zone.
HOW TO FIND YOUR COMFORT ZONE?
At first, play with different genres of backing tracks (e.g. Rock, Blues, Jazz etc). When you play spontaneously, without thinking, that’s your comfort zone. It does not matter if you play a single note or a complex melody, as long as you are not thinking, that’s your comfort zone. You just know that whatever you are playing works for that progression in your comfort zone. That’s how feel the comfort.
THEN WHAT?
After you find your comfort zone, just keep playing with those backing tracks.Again and again and again. First you will play maybe simple 2-3 note melodies. As you keep playing, your brain starts to figure out more possibilities of combining different notes to make different melodies. Then one day you will start playing 5 note melodies. Then you will start playing more complex melodies. Then you will get bored with your comfort zone and will try to expand it. You will explore new genres of music to improvise with and so on.
So, its a long process. Reaching a point is not the target. Playing again and again to improve is the target.
COMFORT ZONE:-
Every player has a “comfort” zone for improvising. Since improvisations are generally done with backing tracks having a combination of chords, “comfort” zone generally means a certain kind of backing tracks. Some players’ comfort zone are jazz backing tracks. For some its a single chord. For some its a blues style backing track. First you have to find YOUR comfort zone.
HOW TO FIND YOUR COMFORT ZONE?
At first, play with different genres of backing tracks (e.g. Rock, Blues, Jazz etc). When you play spontaneously, without thinking, that’s your comfort zone. It does not matter if you play a single note or a complex melody, as long as you are not thinking, that’s your comfort zone. You just know that whatever you are playing works for that progression in your comfort zone. That’s how feel the comfort.
THEN WHAT?
After you find your comfort zone, just keep playing with those backing tracks.Again and again and again. First you will play maybe simple 2-3 note melodies. As you keep playing, your brain starts to figure out more possibilities of combining different notes to make different melodies. Then one day you will start playing 5 note melodies. Then you will start playing more complex melodies. Then you will get bored with your comfort zone and will try to expand it. You will explore new genres of music to improvise with and so on.
So, its a long process. Reaching a point is not the target. Playing again and again to improve is the target.