To quote a great inspiration to most of us (more about him later): “If you can feel it, might as well try it”.
But first, a story from when I shared lyric duties for 1 of my bands. Our vocalist had better English than mine, yet wondered how I wrote better lyrics than his. My answer was that what I presented would be the 5th/6th draft, as actually I’d have corrected a lot. With each draft, I’d let the words talk to me back, seaving the manure from the gold in a bunch of hay. How I differed from him was that I never expected amazing lyrics at my 1st attempt, but would rather let the good parts shine through the bad as I re-read them over and over again. Nothing that a novelist wouldn’t do when writing a book, and as soon as he applied that approach, his lyrics improved!
Similarly, let’s bring this to the table how to become a good improviser, which is music on the spot without time for drafts. Yet, drafts do happen, in our practice time. So what I generally suggest to my students is:
- Record your solos.
- Listen back & seave out your own golden licks.
- Repeat them to generate new golden ones.
Time and time again, this approach made them understand that fire only burns the 1st time, and once you know how to walk it without getting burnt, it’s fun! And it works! Every time without fail.
So back to the quote above, by none other than Joe “Satch” Satriani! With “If you can feel it, might as well try it” Satch tells us that after hours of training and singing scales (your drafts), melodies and fingerings become sort of attached to each other with less effort. So when you actually improvise, whatever you hear in your head can be translated onto your fingers.
Be adventurous! The main thing is knowing how and where to resolve, purposely repeating “mistakes” before resolving. The safe bet is to play a semi-tone up/down to find the note that sounds right (within the key), as explained in my articles on treating the fingerboard as an alphabet and turning a wrong note into jazz.
In closing, here’s some Satch talk…..
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