Posted by john timpany on Monday, July 21, 2014
I've just started improvising - really improvising, and not stringing bunches of notes I know work, together.
What freedom!
Bit like playing on a knife edge though, since there is always the disastrous bum note waiting to be played.
Any of you tried it yet? How do you get on with it?
4 comments on “Improvisation.”
carlb Says:
Tuesday, July 22, 2014 @5:21:16 AM
I've improvised most playing swing, jug band and blues music on clarinet. I've found that I need to do it regularly over a period of about 2-3 months to feel more comfortable about my solos. Yes, sometimes my breaks work and sometimes they don't, but the frequency of success is much higher after those 2-3 months.
john timpany Says:
Tuesday, July 22, 2014 @6:01:27 AM
Good point Carlb - thanks for the advise.
ChickenMan Says:
Wednesday, July 23, 2014 @8:15:46 PM
I am super comfortable with improvising on a guitar - pretty much anything I want to play, I can play. You learn to work through a bum note, even use it as a springboard to something you hadn't felt or thought of before. Fiddle....eh, when I improvise on it I'm told I sounds a lot like when I'm playing my guitar, probably because that's how my brain is wired after just shy of 40 years of guitar playing and better than 20 of that improvising, often in a live audience setting. The thing that trips up my fiddle improv. (which is by no means as...fluent is a good word, as the guitar) is the dreaded bow. Always the bow. Oh, and sometimes intonation. I whistle often, both to work out a tune and to entertain myself. The latter is usually improvisation.
john timpany Says:
Thursday, July 24, 2014 @2:25:06 AM
Some good points there ChickenMan - thanks, and I know what you mean about the bow !
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