Improvisation on the guitar. Tips for Beginner Guitarists

For most people listening to music but never picking up an instrument, for some reason it often seems that improvisation on a guitar is very simple. Indeed, it looks like this - a man sits and sorts strings.

It seems that for this you do not even need to know the notes, on the guitar you just need to drive along the strings with your fingers, periodically clamping something on the neck. At the same time, it’s good if the performer has a musical ear, but if he is not there, then it’s not scary.

Such an opinion is deeply erroneous, before improvising on a guitar, you need not only to learn how to play it well, but also to master different styles of musical performance. In fact, improvisation is a special way of playing, and it also has its own canons and rules.

What do you need to be able to get started?

The main technique used to improvise on a six-string guitar is pentatonic. In fact, this is the same gamut, but consisting of only 5 sounds. Pentatonic devoid of halftones. That is, it’s enough not to lose the steps forming the half-tonality in an ordinary gamut.

What might come in handy?

Every musician performing improvisations, regardless of style and instrument, has a kind of “library”, “repository” in his tactile memory.

This is baggage from literally well-learned, and not just learned, musical phrases, excerpts from various compositions, all kinds of clichés and solos. Their presence in memory allows you not only to feel confident behind improvisation, it is through these accumulated knowledge that it seems that a person is simply sitting on a chair, and the music is born by itself, without any effort.

What do we have to do?

This question is often asked by beginners in music, it relates to a series of questions - “where are the notes on the guitar”, “why are scales needed” and other similar ones. The fact that experienced musicians like these questions cause a smile does not mean at all that they do not need to be asked.

On the contrary, the first thing a beginner needs to do is ask. Asking everything and everyone, even if the question seems stupid, does not mean that you do not need to know the answer.

The second thing that newcomers to music need to do in order for improvisation on the guitar to succeed is not to be afraid to try. A very large number of talented guitarists, perfectly performing "finished" pieces in various genres, have never played a single improvisation.

It is more difficult for those who have already gained experience to overcome the psychological barrier between verified, worked out music and a one-time, stringed song from the heart and from the heart, which is improvisation on the guitar, and it is especially difficult for graduates of music schools to do this.

That is, the earlier a beginner guitarist tries to improvise, the simpler and easier this type of music performance will be given to him.

How to do

There are two types of musicians practicing improvisation. The first type plays only when there is a mood, inspiration, desire. The second type is ready at any time to pick up an instrument and perform something “on your own”.

You can often hear that you need to work, and not wait for inspiration. But this is an individual moment, already related to the work of musicians speaking to the public. During the development of the instrument, improvisation on the guitar should be daily, like all other textbook exercises, memorizing clichés and templates, with the only difference being that the textbooks need to be removed.

Many guitarists are advised to record discovered occasionally interesting-sounding musical phrases. This is good advice. It is important to remember what came out from under the fingers, and to use it in the future.

The very first steps in improvisation themselves will require only desire, attention and a recording device. It is always necessary to record, listen and analyze your game, no matter how “clumsy” it may seem.

How much time to devote to improvisations?

Another question often asked by beginners. There is no definite answer to it. Moreover, if a novice guitarist hears something from the series “at least an hour a day,” “from a couple of hours,” “40 minutes,” and so on, then you should not ask for an answer in this way for advice.

The fact is that the concept of time in improvisation is an individual issue. These are not exercises that place a hand or stuff a technique. One person improvises for hours, listening to what was played, recording something of what happened, and trying again. The other sits down, wins back the music with a clearly audible logical beginning and end. And both options are correct, it all depends on the person.

Regarding time, there is only one rule - the clock needs to be removed. The only “chronometer” that can be used in improvisation is the metronome.

In which genre to start?

The question of choosing a genre is quite interesting. Of course, there are musicians who know exactly which genre they want to improvise and play in. They, as a rule, master it precisely, often completely ignoring the others.

However, most of those taking their first steps in music do not particularly clearly imagine what they want to perform. You do not need to select a genre in advance. That is, the option - “I like listening to rock, improvisation will be in this genre” - is wrong. Moreover, pre-selection often leads to the fact that a seemingly pretty good musician does not sound absolutely decent in improvisation.

At the time of mastering improvisation, searching for his own manner of performance, not the musician chooses the genre, but exactly the opposite. In practice, this happens like this - the guitarist sits down and plays, completely not thinking about what kind of music the genre sounds in.

Day, two, three ... at some point, listening to a recording of improvisation, a person suddenly clearly hears that he played a good blues. Or that jazz improvisation on a guitar came out from under his fingers.

The genre that turned out on its own is the best base for mastering the technique of improvisation, it is in it that the guitarist will be able to reach maximum heights.

Can genres be different? Which tool is better?

Many beginners to master the guitar are often worried that a certain level of mastery can only be achieved in one direction of music. Both in the performance of works, and in their own improvisations.

It's not like that at all. Moreover, improvisation can combine completely opposite genres within the same composition. In order not to get hung up on something and not become monotonous, you need to learn cliches, phrases, templates from different musical directions. With the diversity of the basic stock in the “internal library”, improvisations will never be boring and of the same type.

Almost all beginners are interested in what instrument to learn to improvise. In fact, in order to master this manner of performing music, any instrument is suitable. There was a rather funny case, which in fact is very sad - the aspiring bass player acquired the “classic”, mastered it on his own, which was difficult for a person, not in the sense of technology, but because “the soul didn’t lie”. And all this was solely because of the desire to learn to improvise so that the audience "carried a piece by the mouth."

In fact, it was not necessary to change the tool at all. The principles of improvisation are the same for any kind of guitar. And improvisation itself is music coming from the heart, that is, the instrument must be loved, it must be a continuation of the artist, otherwise nothing will work.

As Ray Charles said, improvisation is the sound of ether, which, passing through a person, for a moment becomes music, and there is only a moment to hear. In this phrase, the essence of this manner of execution.