Improvising with an empty head

[Acoustic Eel]

I've got an adequate grasp of music theory, scales and modes, but I still can't improvise melodic leads or even bass note grooves when I play with friends.

Some people learn phrases and licks in every fretboard position in every key. Being able to do that is as astonishing to me as having a photographic memory. It's something I lack the brain power to do.

One strategy I've experimented with is, while listening to recorded music, to hum a simple, spontaneous melody and then try to to translate it through my fingers into the guitar neck. I haven't been able to do this in "real time," but maybe it's the way to go.

Any suggestions?

[JonPR]

You answered your own question in paragraph 3. Just keep doing that.

The other thing I recommend is just to learn more songs, but make sure you learn to play the vocal melody. If you can read music you can get this from sheet music, otherwise it's down to listening, playing along and copying. (Not enough tabs available for vocal melodies...) Of course if you can sing along and then copy what you sing, that makes it a little easier.
The more melodies you learn, along with an understanding of how phrases link to the chords, the more vocabulary you'll have in your head to "speak" with when you solo.

[RodB]

Originally Posted by Acoustic Eel

I've got an adequate grasp of music theory, scales and modes, but I still can't improvise melodic leads or even bass note grooves when I play with friends.

Some people learn phrases and licks in every fretboard position in every key. Being able to do that is as astonishing to me as having a photographic memory. It's something I lack the brain power to do.

One strategy I've experimented with is, while listening to recorded music, to hum a simple, spontaneous melody and then try to to translate it through my fingers into the guitar neck. I haven't been able to do this in "real time," but maybe it's the way to go.

Any suggestions?

I would say doing it on the fly with others calls for a very good overall feel of the fretboard, to spontaneously play a note you want - not just knowing scales. You are jumping in the deep end - great if you float but not very pleasant when you don't!

I would suggest starting on your own, by picking out a melody you know, in one key - then another - and another. Find where a harmony can be added or a chord in place a a single note - build up in that way. Play along with recordings melody and rhythm - try different chord inversions. You are training your ear, increasing your library of shapes etc. and building a map of where intervals land on single and multiple strings.

[Hotspur]

Originally Posted by Acoustic Eel

One strategy I've experimented with is, while listening to recorded music, to hum a simple, spontaneous melody and then try to to translate it through my fingers into the guitar neck. I haven't been able to do this in "real time," but maybe it's the way to go.

Work on your ear.

Start by transcribing simple melodies, stuff you know by heart like christmas carols, nursery rhymes, and movie themes. This will be hard at first. Hunting and pecking is fine.

Use the functional ear trainer (a mobile app and/or a download from miles.be for desktop).

Maybe get the book "Ear Training for the Contemporary Musician" by Wyatt and Schroeder.

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by JonPR

You answered your own question in paragraph 3. Just keep doing that.

The other thing I recommend is just to learn more songs, but make sure you learn to play the vocal melody. If you can read music you can get this from sheet music, otherwise it's down to listening, playing along and copying. (Not enough tabs available for vocal melodies...) Of course if you can sing along and then copy what you sing, that makes it a little easier.
The more melodies you learn, along with an understanding of how phrases link to the chords, the more vocabulary you'll have in your head to "speak" with when you solo.

This^^^^^. I asked Joe Pass once about learning to play chord melody and improvising. His answer was simple: "learn melodies". That was it. When I said "what about learning chords, and ...., and ....?". He said again, "learn melodies".

Tony

[jseth]

Keep listening for that song/melody inside of yourself, and try to play that... you have to "fake it" at first, but after a while you will find yourself translating what you hear into notes much more easily...

You can start by playing a note and humming that, then taking it from there...

Although learning a few licks and phrases is instantly gratifying, it is no way to be confused with actually EXPRESSING yourself or improvising... and yet, a LOT of players play nothing but licks they've rehearsed and memorized. Gets old and boring very quickly, both to the player and the audience.

If you are going to "make it up on the spot", you will have to be willing to make mistakes and continue... this is the most exciting aspect of playing "solos" over a given set of changes.

Keep after it! You're on the right track...

[Pitar]

Sounds like some ear training is needed. That's the kind of thing the eyes (sight reading, theory) can't provide. Knowing what comes next in any progression, by ear alone, and where it lies on the board is what I mean. That's when one can say he's arrived. Plenty of time spent listening to where the hands are versus just watching them is essential to that kind of development.

[Mr. Jelly]

One little trick among others is to play around or off the root of the chord being played.

[hakkolu]

There is no roadmap to learning to improvise. It is like how a baby learns how to speak. It just happens slowly and all of a sudden everything hopefully falls in to place. This is what works for me if I keep at it:

Do not hum melodies and then try to play them on the guitar. That would be trying to express your thoughts in a language you do not know yet. First you need to learn the language. So, learn passages in recorded solos that resonate in you on your guitar. Usually, passages or licks that I like are not even really hummable, they exist on the guitar only. Practice those licks starting on the B string, G string, then D string. Good solos are made up of multiple sentences. If you like a lick, make sure you learn the complete sentence that comes with the lick. Also do not try to learn exactly. Just get whatever resonated in you. It might be phrasing, or usage of an outside note, or the rhythm of the lick. Rhythm is very important. One thing that people look over is rhythm. Make sure you know where that lick fits on a measure and always practice it that way. So if it starts at the And of beat Three and covers two measures always play it that way. Have a metronome handy to give you the beats.

Try this for a few months and play everyday. Keep a record of your licks. If you come up with something record it or write it down and practice it too.

When you are actually improvising, do not think of anything. Just play.

[mattbn73]

Melodies work in a certain way . It's not 100% mystery and shouldn't be treated as if the entire thing is hocus pocus.

Learn to hear melody in terms of tension and release. All things being equal, chord tones sound more stable than non-chord tones. The non-chord tones are mostly tensions which resolve to chord tones. If it's a G chord, practice really hearing G-A-G as "home-away-home". Then the same for G-E-G etc and all the rest with the other chord tones.

If you start analyzing your favorite licks in this context, you'll see patterns which are more than simply note names or fingerings. You'll notice patterns which can be applied to other chord types, or even different scale degrees or chord tones.

It can be much more than just one-note-at-a-time, trial and error.

[godfreydaniel]

One thing I’ve been working on is playing melodies across different string sets to become more intuitively aware of the shift that occurs in standard tuning between the G and B strings (in standard tuning), which are a major third apart, while all the other strings are tuned in 4ths.

I start by playing a melody that crosses two or three strings on the lower strings (E, A, D and G), then play that melody on a higher string so that the B string and then the high E string are included in the melody, remembering to shift any note that has moved from the G string to the B string up one fret to adjust for the tuning between those two strings, and to shift down one fret if the melody descends from the B string to the G string. This has really helped my playing.

[Bob Womack]

Hi!

I wrote up a page on the art of soling that might be helpful. You can find it on my website, HERE.

Bob