Improvising Lead parts

[frayne48]

No matter how hard I try I just don't seem to be able to play a good improvised lead. I keep coming back to old penatonic scale notes in no particular order. Any good way to learn this skill ?

[Unk]

Hmmm, same goes for me. I fully expect a revelation sometime, some little thing that just doesn't click yet. I'm going to watch this thread for our experienced gurus input.
Good question frayne.

[d28mikeip]

My musical roots comes in blues, so improvisation is one of the first things I learned. When I was learning it, I would listen to some of the greats such as Clapton, Jimmy Page, BB King etc to try to get a feel of what they are playing. I think the best way to learn improv is to copy their styles and alter it to what you like. You need to experiment a lot of course. A key point though is not to think when you're improving just play what comes natural, if it sounds bad don't stop just continue on until you hear something you like.

[Unk]

That's a great tip. It's exactly what prevents me from getting past not being able to make key changes. When I hit a couple sour notes I stop so as not to embarrass myself further. Most of my friends encourage me to keep going, I need to play with them more often. I have another friend who I've gotten together with to play on a couple occassions. He encourages me to try lead but visibly grimmaces if I temporary lose the key or whatever. Fairly discouraging.

[stringslowe]

I started playing leads on the mandolin last year to work with a duo who already had two guitars. And then magically, I could do it on the guitar too! Probably not much in the advice department, but that's what happened....

[rhinollc]

The only advice I can offer: Just stop thinking about it and DO it. Forget about the clams -- I serve up a fresh bowl of clam chowder every night I play. Take risks. Try intervals you've never tried before. Hit double stops. Hold bends. Make lots of mistakes. Learn from them. Keep on playin'.

[Simplyhere]

First of all, I cannot play total improv very well - my stuff is, mostly, canned and re-warmed licks that I've used over and over again with slight variations.

I have been told, however, from a great player, that learning to improv is easier than you think. Here's the way he explains it:

Learn to hum or sing your desired improv...then simply learn to play the notes that you're singing. According to Pat, that's how to learn it the fastest. If you can learn to sing (hum/whatever) your own lead line, then learn to play the notes you're singing, soon you'll be able to eliminate the singing/humming and just play the notes you hear in your head. Start off with some familiar song you know by heart (Star Spangled Banner, Happy Birthday, etc.) and play the lead line melody as you hum it (don't worry if the note you need to hit is an octave above your vocal range). Do this multiple times until the notes come NOT from memorization, but from knowing where they are on the fretboard in relation to your singing. When you have that down cold, switch to another familiar song. Work it up, too. Switch. Work. Switch. Work. According to what I'm told, when you've done this for awhile, the voice in your head and the notes you want to play just "naturally find one another."

Makes perfect sense to me...although I haven't worked on it as much as I should. The guys kid me that the "same" lick shows up in everything I do, which I guess is the truth. Durn it.

[gfuguitaraddict]

I would also reccomend learning triads. htese allow you to base your notes off of chords and understand scale degrees better. They also open doors to things like arpeggios too.