You may think learning scales, arpeggios and licks will make you a great improviser — and don’t get me wrong, these things are the foundations of improvisation — but practising them has a kind of “limit of usefulness”. I often get asked how to practise improvisation, and my answer is simple: practise improvising.
There are only so many times you can run a scale before you need to start improvising with it. Otherwise you’re just getting good at running scales. You may think you’re becoming a better improviser, but in fact you’re becoming faster at playing scales. I’m all for good technique — but it’s a delicate balance between technique and musicality, and there’s a time and a place for fast runs and liquid arpeggios.
If you take one thing from this post: the single best way to practise improvising is to take four or five notes and see what you can come up with over a beat — not a scale, a small fixed handful of notes. I built a free tool that does exactly that, dealing you five random notes and a drone to play against, so you can start right now: Riff Cells.
How to Practise Improvisation — What Doesn’t Work
There’s stuff guitar teachers generically recommend — which they probably don’t do themselves — that’s supposed to improve your improvising. A few culprits:
Learning licks
By learning licks, you’ll become good at… learning licks. It’s always interesting to see how other players construct their lines, but copying them note for note isn’t a great use of your practice time. True improvisation is spontaneous — much the opposite of trying to insert someone else’s licks into your solos.
Transcribing and learning solos
I can see how this is appealing, and deconstructing someone else’s solo gives great insight into their playing. You’ll improve your ear, impress people and pick up new techniques — but you’re not practising the act of improvisation.
Practising scales and sequences
Most people need to learn scales in order to improvise, but there’s a point where this is far from practising improvisation. Check how well you can play a scale in sequence versus how well you can improvise with it. If there’s a huge void between the two, it’s probably time to stop running scales.
Guitar backing tracks
Notice how most pro players never really recommend backing tracks. What they do instead is improvise over a beat — just drums, or drums and bass. I’ve never turned up to a session where someone said “let’s play that Am backing track off YouTube.” Playing over a beat is the closest you’ll get to actually playing with others: listening and reacting to what you hear, which is the essence of improvisation in a band.
“Play melodically”
File under generic advice that’s really hard to actually do. Of course you want to play melodically — part of improvising is meeting the audience (mostly non-musicians) half-way with something pleasing to the ear. But creating melodies on the fly is extremely hard work. If you want to practise that, you’re better off taking a chord progression and writing a solo for it. Composing a solo then playing it isn’t improvisation as such, but it’s a very cool skill to have.
How to Practise Improvisation — What Does Work
I’m with Wayne Krantz on this one: to practise improvisation, you practise the act of improvisation. You go straight to the guts of it.
Listen to improvisation on other instruments
I’m least likely to listen to improvising on guitar — the only guitarists I like to hear improvise are the ones who take their influences from other instruments anyway. Soak up as many different styles and instruments as you can. It expands your sense of melody, time and groove, and teaches you about space and phrasing. All you have to do is listen attentively while your brain absorbs it.
Work on your tone
Dial in a comfortable tone to improvise with — one close to what you’ll use when you improvise for real, with other people. Turn up enough that you still feel in control at higher volumes; that makes all the difference psychologically. And if you can’t always use your own gear, learn to quickly dial in a decent tone on any amp. You can practise that in any guitar shop.
Play with other musicians
This is where it all comes together (or doesn’t). If you know you’re going to have to improvise, come in with a clean slate — nothing in your head — so you can listen and react to what everyone else is playing. Rolling up trying to cram in your newly-learned licks won’t cut it; you’ll be so fixated on using them you won’t actually improvise.
Practise the act of improvisation
This is as simple as taking four or five notes and seeing what you can come up with over a beat, or bass and drums. The rhythmic side of improvisation is the most overlooked of all, and working this way forces you to combine actually improvising with making it work rhythmically. Don’t underestimate it — you’ll soon be able to adapt to any groove you hear and know what to play, and what not to. This is the one to start with today, and it needs no one else and no setup — it’s exactly what Riff Cells is built for.
You can also see how I practise improvising using Wayne’s ideas here.
If you want a structured framework for actually applying this approach — starting with just a handful of notes and building from there — The Dorian Improvisation System is built exactly around this kind of thinking. Melodic Soloing in 10 Days is also worth a look for the melodic side of improvisation.