Improvisation - making up your own stories

How do you improvise?

Improvisation is not a special or unique gift... every person improvises, every day.

Improvisation is doing something that you know well, telling a familiar story, and telling it a little bit differently to the last time you told it.

So, to improvise, or tell stories, in an interesting way you need a repertoire -

Then you will juggle the basic ingredients of the story...
rhythm - - melody - and harmony - .


Juggling all this information at once can seem quite a feat. And it is!

The way to master it is to approach the task in small, manageable chunks. This FREE downloadable worksheet - How to Create a Solo Jazz Guitar Arrangement - provides a template and sequence of working.



Here is an example of telling the same story two quite different ways.

1. Firstly "Black Orpheus" played by 2 guitars in a small jazz ensemble : Black Orpheus - a latin jazz classic
2. and then played on solo guitar

How does an improviser construct these stories? - 10 steps to telling your story.

Also check out - putting it together in practice and performance.

Here is an example of a performer well known for his classical interpretations of stories who as it turns out can improvise with the best of them - John Williams and the Paul Hart Concerto - Jazz - Fusion - Bluegrass - Classical ? all of this and more!

Books on guitar playing

"Guitar Playing and how it works"
"Scales and Arpeggios and How to Play Them - 1998"
"Fundamentals of Piano Practice, 2nd Edition - by Chuan C. Chang"
Modern Method for Guitar
Carlevaro's School of the Guitar
Carlevaro's Series Didactica
Carlevaro - Book 2 - Right Hand


Links

Click here to see VIDEOS of Peter Inglis performing at the Art Gallery of N.S.W. featuring Guitar, Violin and Cello as well as SOLO GUITAR.