Five for Beginning Improvisers

Whether for jazz, blues, rock, funk, pop music, R&B, or soul, give these five a try

1. Start with the melody.

“Don’t play it until you can sing it.” That was great advice from one of my sax teachers. He was right -- improvising a solo really means composing something new based on a song’s melody. Learn the melody backwards and forwards. Be able to hum it.  And that way, you can always fall back on the melody if/when all else fails during a solo.

2. Open your mind.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to learning how to solo is the fear of making mistakes in front of an audience and in front of our peers. Most all have that fear deep inside of us, and it will probably never go away. So, we get used to it, and we stand up anyway and we perform and we make mistakes. Lots of them, if necessary. Making mistakes is part of how we learn. As Miles Davis once said, make them loud.

3. Learn your scales, but not out of a book.

Learning scales out of a book means having to unlearn those scales at some point. Why? Because, as Kenny G himself told me (I managed to sneak a quick sax lesson out of him once,) you will never, ever, play a scale in front of an audience. Ever. He’s right. Instead, try learning scales by ear through an exercise I learned long ago.

Pick a simple song you know cold – for example, “Happy Birthday.” Now, starting with middle C, play it on your horn from memory. Congratulations – you’ve just used an F major scale starting on the fifth note of the scale, C -- (F-G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F)                                        

Next, play the same tune beginning with C#...which uses the notes in an F#M scale. Keep at it until you’ve done this using all 12 notes as your starting point, and you will not only have learned all of the keys, you will have taken a giant step toward connecting your mind and your fingers and your horn. 

4. Listen.

All the time. Listen to other sax players (or soloists of whatever your instrument.) Listen to their tone, their timing, their use of space, how they approach the melody, and how they interplay with the other musicians. This is how we learn music --- by listening, and then by imitating what we heard on our own instruments. Think about it --- when you were a child, you learned to talk by imitating the adults around you, right, and not by reading a book. Every art is learned in this manner. So, listen to other soloists, and then imitate.

5. Play.

As often as possible with other musicians in all styles of music – be it music you study or like, classical, country western, folk, rock, bluegrass, whatever. Try not to limit yourself to only one style or genre, because all music has something to teach us.  Finally, when you get with other musicians for a little jam session, which should happen often in your instrumental life, put practice time aside and just play music. Save practicing for the practice room on your time.           --- ©Dave Good    davegoodmail@gmail.com

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