Learn Guitar Improvisation By Faking
A fake book can really help you a lot in developing your improvisational skills. If you choose just one of the songs you will find a source to many exercises that will help you become a much better guitarist.
Do you know what a fake book is?
A fake book is made in a very compact format containing a lot of songs. This is possible because you will usually only find the melody of a song and the chords of a song.
The melody is written out with sheet music notation and maybe guitar tablature and if it is a song you can find the lyrics beneath the melody. The chords to play you will find above the notes.
Because this is a compact way of writing down songs a fake book can contain more than 500 songs.
This very rudimentary way to write down the songs gives you as a guitarist an opportunity to use your own musical taste when you interpret the songs.
The songs will usually only contain very basic chord progressions. When you hear these songs played the songs are often spiced up with more interesting chords. Often there are also more chords used which will make the chord progressions more interesting and exciting musically.
The act of trying to find more chords to use in a song and to spice up existing chords is an excellent exercise in chord theory. As you are working with a song you are interested in and also will use the exercise in you actual guitar playing you will be more motivated to do a good job.
You can now practice the new chords in the song. Concentrate on one chord at a time. There are many ways to practice a chord by for example playing the chord in various positions and with different voicings.
You can now take the chord practice a step further by using your new chord progressions in the song and practice changing chords. Take a few bars of the song and practice to play the progressions on your guitar as you vary the chord voicings.
When you have decided which chords you will use in a song you can use these chords to find suitable scales to use in your guitar improvisation. You can find many scale books on the net with suggestions on which scale to use for various chord progressions.
We will use the first chord of the song you are working on to show how you can find out which scale to use. If your first chord is a C-major chord you can choose between for example a C-major scale or a C-major pentatonic scale. The principle is to find a scale that contains the notes in the chord.
Now it is time to actually practice playing the scales on your guitar. Start with the first chord in the song and continue the same way with the other chords. First, strum the chord on your guitar and practice playing the suitable scale up and down in various positions and patterns.
Actually it is very common that you can use the same scale to many chords in a song. For example, the C-major scale will work together with the chords C-major, G7, Dm, Am and so on.
Now when you have mastered playing the suitable scales to the chords you can start to work on improving your improvisational skills by taking the previous method a little bit further. Strum a chord and use the scale you have chosen to create your own patterns, melodies and licks.
You are now prepared to improvise over the chord progressions you have written down using the scales you have chosen. The exciting part is when you come to a bar with a new scale to use. If you find it hard to change scale during your improvisation it might be a good idea to concentrate working on this skill for a while.
That means, use two scales and try to alternate between them as you continue to improvise maybe a couple of bars over each scale.
You can use a song in many other ways developing your skills in guitar improvisation. This should of course be a positive exercise leading you towards the goal to be able to play the song from start to end with melody and improvisation as you would like to play it in public.
Related Tags: guitar lesson, scales, guitar chords, learn to play, chord, guitar improvisation, jazz improvisation
Peter Edvinsson invites you to download your free guitar sheet music, guitar tabs, ebooks, music lessons and read his music blog at Capotasto Music.
Your Article Search Directory : Find in ArticlesRecent articles in this category:
- Five Brilliant Tips For Learning To Play Acoustic Guitar
These little guitar lessons have been put together for the newbie acoustic guitar scholar who feels - Acoustic Guitar Instruction For Up-and-coming Guitarists
These little guitar lessons have been put together for the beginner acoustic guitar scholar who feel - Which Are The Best Guitar Lessons?
There are many music lovers in world and many like listening to music. Some music lovers take the ne - Piano Bench Buying - Three Purchasing Tips
Before purchasing a piano bench it's in your best interests to consider the model and style and how - Sade Tickets Soldier Of Love Tour
Soon enough the sector may don't have any drawback in correctly saying her name. Born Helen Folasade - 5 Ways To Learn To Play The Guitar
Proud owner of a new guitar! What now? How do you learn how to play? It used to be a friend taught y - How Gucci Mane Mixtapes Helped Establish A Star
Most people have never heard of Radric Davis, but almost everyone knows him by his rapper alias, Guc - The Double Piano Bench - A Buyers Guide
The adjustable double piano bench has dual adjustable seating, allowing each player to adjust to the - Recording Studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally, the space is specifically - Jbl Car Speaker
Among the most famous car speaker brands JBL car speaker are then popular in that which is especiall
Most viewed articles in this category:
- Hotmp3download.com Review
After having a chance to take a look at the site from several different angles, I decided to post th - The Complete Definition Of The Music
Music PortalMusic is a form of art that involves organized and audible sounds and silence. It is nor - The Blues Scale & Cool Stuff You Can Do With It
Most of us who took piano lessons as kids are all too familiar with scales, and most of us hated pra - Your Playing the Guitar All Wrong!
Each time you pick up the guitar it should be an enjoyable experience, if you are frustrated you are - Trendy Music
Music forms as an amazing remedy to get of this stress in life. Music is the only language which is - Can You Still Find A Gem In The LA Music Scene?
At the Whisky a Go Go, Saturday, January 6, 2007, the opening band was Vekstar (Can hear them on my - Keyboard Bags
Keyboard Bags - Anybody who buys his/her first keyboard generally buys a stand and a keyboard bag al - Guitar Strings - Are Coated Strings Right For You
When it's time to change guitar strings you're faced with a dizzying array of makes and types. One - Piano Chords: How Many Are There?
An interesting experiment is to ask people how many chords there are in music. You'll be surprised t - Rediscovering Radio With Satellite
It's been many generations now since radio was born. A crackling signal carrying serial dramas and c