What kind of music do you improvise to and how?

The Pessimist wrote: HackettFan wrote: Dayvenkirq wrote: The Pessimist wrote: Dayvenkirq wrote: The Pessimist wrote: Adapting it to your style is what makes a phrase/progression individual, not the actual architecture or content of the thing. Don't the architecture and content of a phrase determine its style? Not at all. The five notes 2 - b3 - 7 - 2 - 1, in a minor key going from dominant to tonic (the tonic note landing on the tonic chord), can be found in Baroque, Bebop, Folk, Heavy Metal, Hip-Hop, Funk, Prog Rock and Jewish Klezmer music. I can say the same about a million different cells or phrases. Oops ... we've almost made this a conversation based on a different question - the question of style. So, going back to my original question (or argument) of how to compose a phrase. The way I weave a solo is I string different phrases together, each phrase based on its own chord and placed in its own bar. One bar would feature a phrase that is a fast ascending scalar run. The bar after it would rely only on the root and 5th notes with an octave slide-up (since I play an electric guitar), executed economically, slowly. Two different phrases, each one has its own character. I don't know how other guys do it, but that's the gist I got. Very interesting. I've never caught on to chord based leads. It sounds like a burdensome approach to me. I just use scales and explore aspects of tension and resolution in a very free-form fashion. I know my scales very well, but thinking about chords is something I never do aside from throwing in an arpeggio here and there. Interestingly, I like to create rather complicated chord progressions, yet I've always been more successful soloing over more simple progressions. I ought to try incorporating some of your approach. Chords and scales are the same thing. Scales emerge from chords. If you were to just play the chord tones (so the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th), then there would be no tension. However, the tension comes from the 9th, 11th and the 13th, and so when you incorporate them, you've essentially got a scale. Every scale functions this way. To say that you think in scales and not chords is actually to disregard where the idea of a scale comes from. This whole concept is known as Chord-Scale Relationships.

You're not wrong, of course. But I would turn it around and say chords come from scales. And historically that's my the order of operations in my discovery process. I'll learn Hungarian minor or the half diminished scale, then I'll say, hey look what chords I can play, or look at the odd interval between these two minor chords. Some people discover new scales through complex chords or combinations of chords. I don't. I look at intervals I like and expand from there. For instance, I was playing in Hungarian Minor quite awhile back, and was falling in love with the place where there's a half step—whole step—half step sequence of intervals. Further fascinating because there's no such sequence of intervals in the traditional major scale. So, I think, well, what if I repeat this same interval sequence, and presto! something I later learned was a diminished scale. The scale can be thought of as (a) sets of diminished chords one half step apart, (b) Major and Minor chords neutralized over the same root note, then repeated one and a half steps apart, or (c) two adjacent notes one half step apart with all proceeding notes following a minor third ahead, or (d) the recurring set of intervals I used to discover it.   So, yeah, it's kind of whether you're seeing things as concave or convex, but that's the crux of the challenge. This difference in orientation has real implications, I would tend to think. I concentrate on the character of the scale, not chords. I know my approach well, but Dayvenkirk's made me interested in sampling a bit of his approach, if I can manage it. It might be helpful over some complex chord sequences. I'm not sure how it would work with a diminished scale in which one can play, for instance, either an A Major or an A minor, both are valid with respect to the scale.

I'm looking for a cool scale to learn, what do you guys recommend me? I know the major, minor, pentatonic minor, blues minor and byzantine scales.

^ I'm more of free improvising like Steve on the previous page: don't think at all of the note progressions I'm playing, mix scales, and that's how I think its fun.
My problem is that there are so many scales and cultures that I don't know what I should learn next and also my music theory knowledge is not very good.
I do scat-sing sometimes but didn't know the term.

I would bet a dollar that you might have seen this page already. Care to try them all?

Edited by Dayvenkirq - October 31 2014 at 18:40

I've been getting some informal coaching from a local jazz student and aficionado. The second time we met up in a rehearsal room I've been pulling some pretty slick jazzy imitations. We did a bebop chord progression (2-5-1):

Edited by Dayvenkirq - November 23 2014 at 22:50

I'm a guitarist and now I improvise to all kinds of stuff. Led Zeppelin, especially "In Through The Out Door" is a great one to start off on, because most of the songs are in A minor but they're modally quite flexible, so you can practice stuff like D dorian and E phrygian, etc. 

So, last Friday me and my guy Shawn tried getting around Miles' "Tune-Up". Of course, things didn't work out since I had poor count (I'd lose count and couldn't keep up with Shawn) and poor timing of ambidextrous synchronicity. You know, the usual amateur problems.

When I first decided to try lead guitar I played along with some blues LPs like early Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, Savoy Brown, etc. It was a lot easier than trying to learn Jimi Hendrix or Jeff Beck which were my favorite guitarists at the time.

My earlier post refers to playing lead guitar along with an album or CD.

Dear diary,

Edited by Dayvenkirq - January 16 2015 at 19:28