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I decided to try totally improvise something on my own which, to be honest, totally scares me but is why I am on Active Melody – to learn improv! I found this soundtrack on YouTube and is courtesy of Jay Roberts & Brandon Beligni of The Roberts Music Institute. It’s a classic 12 bar blues (Stormy Monday).
The soloing is me just trying to stay in the key of G Major and a change to G minor and a little D+ arpeggio. It’s in 12/8 time which really threw me off but I did my best by counting as if it were 4 sets of groups of 3 counts. This looks a lot like me just trying to figure it out as I go (which it absolutely is) and stay in the key but hey, it’s my first improv attempt…I’m sure I will improve with practice.
Thanks for watching and I appreciate any suggestions to help me improve my improv!
Joe
The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sound,
Or the strength of an Oak with roots deep in the ground.
--Graeme Edge -
Well done Joe !
As you say, we are here to try…it’s by practicing and daring that we progress…
Bravo !jean luc G
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Pretty smooth improv Joe. You definitely seem to be landing on the right notes. It’s cool that there are so many backing tracks to practice with.
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Hey Joe, that was a lot better than my first attempt at improv. I think all I did was noodle around in 1st position minor pent. You were noodling all over the neck. What you have that a lot of people don’t, is the ability to create interesting phrases on the fly.
Sunjamr Steve
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Groovy Joe,
I find that there are two ‘minds’ that I have when improving. There’s the low stakes, nobody is around, throw everything to the wall and see what new and cool things come out of my fingers approach.
Then there’s the “tried and true crowd pleasers” approach. Sticking to exactly what you know will work and not venturing out too far.
The blending of these two minds lead to the best compositions and I can tell you’re doing a bit of both in this!
Listened to the whole thing. <3
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Hey Joe(not a Jimi Hendrix reference.
That’s what here for experimenting and getting better.
You did well on your first attempt, just keep going, soon it’ll be fun.Ken F
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Nicely done, Joe. Improvisation is certainly challenging. It takes courage to step into the spotlight. Stay with it. The journey never ends.
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Hey Joe, that was really good as 1st attempt. That was really really good as 10th attempt even.
Improvising just takes a lot of practice. You seem to have natural ability to “follow the chords” which for a lot of people (me for example +;)) is very difficult and doesn’t come into play until further on.
Words of advice: KISS principle. Keep it Simple S…, less is more +;).
Also learn (memorize) some (5 to 10) 1 and/or 2 bar licks that you can play in any key and any tempo so they are part of your tool bag.
I have heard many great musicians say: it is very rare that even the great players “truly” improvise. they generally don’t make things up on the fly. IE when you hear a great player sound like they are winging it and sounding awesome , they are not making stuff up on the spot , they are effortlessly stringing together multiple licks that are so ingrained in them that it is muscle memory.I would also add that Stormy Monday is a challenging one to start of with (although you did great) for two reasons:
it is a slow blues and it there are a lot of chord changes.Improvising with slow blues is actually much more difficult for beginner and more experienced players as there is so much space to fill and it is really hard NOT to overplay.
Try a few backing tracks with faster tempo’s and less chord changes. You may find it and easier task than the slow blues. Maybe not, just my opinion.Cheers,
Marc
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Thanks very much for the advice Marc. I thought a slow blues would be easier because it was slow but what you say makes perfect sense. And I do have to learn some licks, that’s for sure.
Joe
The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sound,
Or the strength of an Oak with roots deep in the ground.
--Graeme Edge
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No warning needed Joe! This is coming natural to you. Nice timing, phrasing and bends. The PRS sounds great too!
Mike
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Hi Joe, great first attempt!
What I think, especially if you new to improvising, is keep it simple 🙂 If you know the blues scale you can put that to practically anything in any key and by adding semi-tones you are switching to the minor or major scale. Forget about trying to follow the chord changes – great if you can do it, but I would not recommend that to someone starting out. I do think knowing licks is very useful but the rest is down to ear and doing it a lot. Brian actually has great lessons on playing great sounding improvs without moving around the fretboard. Just stay in one spot and work 4 note blues – it sounds great and it works really well. He has a bunch of great Microlessons on this topic.
Just my opinion for what it’s worth.
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Joe,
As luck would have it Brian just sent email today about ML091. Check it out. Following up on Geoff’s point, these small shapes in one area of fretboard are simple and powerful, especially when you are starting to improvise.
Marc
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Hi!
Congrats for throwing yourself in the swimming pool without rubber ring!I have to agree with Marc V and (to some extend) with Geoff: you picked a very (exaggeratedly?) challenging piece. This blues is in G indeed, but it’s got a few non-diatonic chords and the tempo is very slow so the harmonic rhythm is also very slow; as a result, you cannot really “stay in G”: you actually need to somehow follow the changes in this case, which is indeed much more difficult than staying in the key.
I strongly recommend trying again with a simple 12 bar blues (with only I7, IV7 and V7 chords) at a slightly faster tempo.The 12:8 key signature is appropriate for such a slow piece, but it doesn’t need to throw you off; just view it as a regular 4:4 with a strong shuffle and lots of triplets! However, as others have said, it is very difficult to keep an accurate rhythm with such slow pieces.
…but keep at it! It’s only the start of a long journey.
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Really your first improv attempt, Joe? I can‘t believe it. You did a good job here. You have a great feel for the right tones and for the right places. And I have the feeling that you always know exactly where you are in this 12 bar blues. First of all, this is the most important prerequisite not to get lost. More to come, I would say.
Take the chance to meet your AM friends on Zoom
The next Meetup is expected to take place in November 2025There will be a detailed announcement here in the forum in good time.
I look forward to meet you.
Manfred-
Thank you Manfred. It really was the first time. I tried to listen for the chords and always lost count but picked it back up on the next chord change. I hope there’s more to come…that’s why I’m here! 😀
Joe
The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sound,
Or the strength of an Oak with roots deep in the ground.
--Graeme Edge
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Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and extremely helpful advice. It’s funny, what I learned was that I can learn to play a song, both rhythm and lead (like Melissa), but that is totally different from playing improv.
I’m going to look at Brians lessons for a simple I7, IV7, V7 blues in a familiar time signature like 3/4. So, be forewarned, you’ll be hearing more from me! 🤪
Joe
The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sound,
Or the strength of an Oak with roots deep in the ground.
--Graeme Edge -
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Joe
Nicely done. You got this. You found that blues note which adds taste and texture. Effective use of blues licks throughout.JH
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Thanks John. As my wife says, I am a work in process.
Joe
The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sound,
Or the strength of an Oak with roots deep in the ground.
--Graeme Edge-
Joe
We are all works in progress. The journey never ends. I rarely give suggestions or advice but I will give you some. In part, because you are knocking on the door to becoming a really good soloist. Jam to backing tracks as much as you can. Have fun doing it. Also, incorporated cool blues licks into what you are playing, whether it is a T-bone Walker style or a BB King type backing track. The Japanese violin teacher told his student not to inquire about how to improve until she practiced the arrangement 1000 times. Then she could return with questions. I think you get the idea. Good luck and have fun. -
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Joe, you did a great job finding those chord tones over a challenging backing track.
I have to agree there are easier backing tracks to work with. Try a simple I7, IV7, V7 track and a simple formula is to play major pentatonic licks over the I and minor pentatonic licks over the IV and V. Maybe throw in a turnaround over bars 11 and 12. Keep up the good work and it’s great to have you as such a positive presence on the forum.
John -
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Great first attempt, Joe! As others have said, this is not the easiest track to play over and you had a bunch of moments where you really hit it pretty darn good. So you should most definitely be encouraged. Charjo has some good advice on memorizing a couple of turnarounds and just plug them in note for note when the turnaround happens. First of all, everyone does that to some extent, and I find it helps keep the confidence up to know that you can nail the end of the chorus and sound good as you get ready for another go round.
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That’s great Joe!You chose a wonderful backing track (challenging as well!!!) !I’m sure this is the beginning of a very enjoyable journey!!❤️💓❤️💕
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I have to say that your improvisation was very enjoyable to listen to, a really good slow blues full of very nice soulful melodies and licks! Congrats for your very nice debut and I’m sure this is only the beginning!
Guido
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Sounded pretty sharp to me Joe.
I am absolutely terrible at this kind of thing and I would have lasted about 10 seconds before I choked over that backing track.
If you’ve just turned on the track and pressed record and then came up with all that, then you seriously need to take a bow because I think that’s up there with the most difficult thing a guitar player can do.
Big respect and I think future improvs from you will be electric.
Liam.
“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams. “
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Yes, I just turned on the backing track and started playing while recording. I always have tab but this time it was just me. I just kept recording until I felt I couldn’t come up with anything else. Thank you very much for the kind words and encouragement.
Joe
The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sound,
Or the strength of an Oak with roots deep in the ground.
--Graeme Edge
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Joe, that was pretty amazing. Especially because I recall when we did our zoom call some months ago and I think you said it was a goal to be able to improvise, but you didn’t really know what where how (I’m paraphrasing). So it was awesome to see this, and yes I watched the entire recording. You seemed to get more and more comfortable as you went deeper into the song.
Not only terrific, but for me, inspirational.
Thanks.Never Stop Learning. Ever.
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Joe,
This is your first effort? Soundin good!
We can’t get enough T Bone out here.Keep after it!
Bruce
Just focus on the notes you DID get right . . . Frank Vignola
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