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  #16  
Old 01-06-2020, 09:31 AM
godfreydaniel godfreydaniel is offline
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Learning melodies is great advice. I’ve been working on that for awhile now. Great standards, and as Capefisherman mentioned, Beatles songs (try “Hey Jude”) have really improved my ear. I also try to recognize intervals in the songs and how they lay out on the fretboard. Be aware of the tuning change in standard tuning between the G and B strings and how that effects interval positions.
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  #17  
Old 01-06-2020, 10:16 AM
mr. beaumont mr. beaumont is offline
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Late to the party but:

1. Yes, definitely learn melodies. And try to make up your own melodies to fit a chord progression, and figure them out by ear.

2. Then, start to play around with those melodies. Can you repeat notes? Slide into or out of them? Add some notes in between, either "in scale" or chromatics?

3. If #2 doesn't make sense, take a step back and just look at 2 things and use these as your "safe notes."

A. The notes that are in the chords themselves (if you don't know 'em, learn 'em!)

B. The notes of the "key" the song is in (Many somgs might throw in a chord that is NOT in the key. You'll know it when you hear it, as suddenly the "right notes" sound wrong. in those cases, go back to letter A.

Keep in mind, "safe notes" just means that, they're safe. They'll sound ok. But you're not limited to them. Melody is most important. The theory/explanation comes AFTER the music.
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  #18  
Old 01-06-2020, 12:48 PM
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rick-slo rick-slo is offline
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If you are improvising on an already existing piece of music the melody is a given. The improvising is in doing variations, non melodic (per se) fill-ins (say a single note line transitioning from one chord to another), playing around with rhythm, note density, etc. Of course you can be doing improvising and composition virtually simultaneously.
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