Hello All,
A consistent question that I have received since I started here and elsewhere is “how do I improvise?” The answer is both simple and complex. The simple and most to the essence answer is that you just start playing - going for it - mistakes and all and, if you become comfortable with that, you gain a fearlessness that people can feel and that is compelling. But there is another side to improvising: the learned, intellectual, practiced side. In this lesson we will talk about some things you can and should do that will deepen your learned but intuitive connection to the instrument.
There’s a lot of talking in this lesson and not a ton of playing, but it is my hope that through this discussion some useful ideas and practice techniques will be illuminated. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Cheers,
Chris
Topics and/or subjects covered in this lesson:
Bluegrass
Print Chords & Tab
Loop 0:00 Run-Through of Angeline The Baker Chord Triads Across Strings
Loop 2:09 Chris Eldridge's Thoughts on Improvising
Comments
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That's really cool!
James - very cool man.
Yes James, exactly! This is great! I can hear the tune but I can also hear that you are stepping out of the well-worn tracks. Keep it up. The one thing that I would suggest is that you do this at a variety of tempos. Play it quickly like this sometimes, but also play it slow and give your lyrical intuition a little more chance to get involved. If you give it a chance to sing at slower tempos, you’ll learn good stuff that will stick with you at faster tempos. But this is good. 👏
Great lesson!
Another new Collings guitar? This time a rosewood? Tell us more about it, please.
Chris, thanks for this, maybe we can all break free after learning all the notes of any tune and move on , to the cool and fluid improvising you demonstrate here, unfortunately you make it look so very easy, Roy Cotton
Hi Roy,
When it comes to improvising, there wasn’t ever any secret that I learned - I just enjoy losing myself in the sounds that come out of the guitar, whether they sound good or not.*
Of course, I’d always rather that they sound good. But, for this lesson in particular I just wanted to capture the vibe of being playful within what I know. In other words, I don’t think by any means that this intro is particularly great or musical, but it was honest and I was trying to use really simple devices to depart from the road map of the tune. And if I’m doing that, then the journey (i.e. exploring and going somewhere - that may or may not be good) becomes more important than the destination (playing something great). Which is the lesson that I want to impart. Through that practice** of improvisation, you learn to trust yourself more and more and not worry about when things didn’t go where you thought they would. From THERE you gain the ability to say more with less and you can imbue simple things with musicality. You can definitely do this too!
* I guess if there’s any secret, that may be it!
** Think of the word “practice” here more in the sese of a practice of meditation rather than, say, practicing drilling scales over and over.