how do you improvise?

[jianrong]

Hi,

I find that after I listen to song I would improvise the melody faster than the chord progression. And then add on the pattern of the rhythm...

Any techniques to share?

[piano_ex]

hi there ...

r u sure u're improvising?

it sound more like transcribing or playing by ear to me .... =)

after I listen to song I would improvise the melody faster than the chord progression. And then add on the pattern of the rhythm...

[jianrong]

Hey senior,

so would you like to offer some tips?

[zenguan88]

theres a few methods to improvising.

some of the obivious one are,
1) improvising with rhythm
2) with the native scale
3) chord approach

it also depends on the style of music you play, for jazz pros normally knows the different type of scales like aeolian, dorian, lydian, etcetc. and they improvise based on the chords. AND NO they dont just use the chords to improvise, with some solid rhythm added to it, they can use one motive and go on forever!

however if you do not have such knowledge, you can improvise using the native scale, find out the scale you are playing in, use melodious line to improvise. if you are comfortable already add in some rhythm. remember improvising is about getting the motive and the groove once they are register in you, you can improvise better

well my thoughts might be wrong man.

[piano_ex]

so the question is, are you improvising or transcribing/playing by ear!?

[jianrong]

I apologize that I do not know the exact theory. What I mean is listen the song once or a few times at how the melody flow from whole structure.

Then figure out the suitable chord progression for the song and add some pattern to it.

[zenguan88]

transcibing is playing note for note.

well if you are not playing the actual melody but playing riff den thats improvising in some way. usually we listen to the chords first, after we know the chords den we start putting riff on it. RIFF = Motive.

i guess once you got the motive just keep holding the motive of the motive lols! and den modifying it in someway like transposing it, etc . the thing is not to have too much of a motif, and just use one motif to deal with the song.

oh and yea, make sure you put in your motif at the right places

[piano_ex]

aiyaa zenguan broo .. dun make it too complicated for him =)

he just want to hear the song then can play it .. with some of his own style ... hahaha

not really improvising on it .... maybe improvise a lil bit here and there, but not really improvising ...

My suggestion is, keep listening and try to figure the chord.
once you get hold of the melody, try to identify the key the song are ...

like, if the song goes like , A C# D E ... E E F# E F# A ..

then from the scale, you can idenfify that it's actualy in the key of A major
A B C# D E F# G# A

then after that, figuring out the chord will be easier when you know the keys..
cuz for most pop song, they'll use diatonic chords, meaning chords from the scales up there ... =)