Guitar: Improvisation Resource Pack Preview

New musicality video:

Who are your favorite improvisers? Why is it that we can listen to their recorded solos over and over? Why do aspiring soloists and scholars transcribe and memorize every detail? What gives these spontaneous creations the same long-lasting meaning and greatness that we might ascribe to a Beethoven symphony? http://musl.ink/respackphrasform

Then, we look at our own improvisations.

Maybe we’ve learned some good licks or riffs. Or figured out which scale patterns work best over that chord progression. It was fun at first, but after a while it all seems shapeless, mechanical. Is there something wrong with us?

Were we condemned to be born as mere mortals, never to enjoy the crucial spark of inspiration and talent exuded in the eternal musical expressions of our improvising hero-gods?

The good news: now that we know that all the hours of practicing licks, riffs, and scales are not enough, there really is another step to take to make your improvs sing.

Just as we shape our verbal communication with words, phrases, sentences, questions, answers – and larger structures such as paragraphs, stories, topics – we can shape our musical expressions with phrasing and form.

Phrases are short sections of melody with a beginning, middle, and end. While meaningful in and of themselves, they’re too short to make a whole piece of music. They need to join together with other phrases in larger sections and forms to make that happen. As improvisers, an understanding of phrasing and form gives us to shape our solos into whole musical works – much like a composer or a songwriter.

In this month’s Instrument Packs Musical U’s Resident Pros for guitar, piano, and bass introduce the concepts of phrasing and form – with videos, PDFs, and MP3s that lay out structured sequences of exercises to help you mold and shape your improv into the satisfying, whole musical expression that you crave.

http://musl.ink/respackphrasform

Learn more about Musical U Resident Pro Dylan Welsh:
https://www.dwelshmusic.com/

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwelshmusic

→ Learn more about Instrument Packs with Resident Pros
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/introducing-musical-u-instrument-packs/

===============================================

Learn more about Musical U!

Website: https://www.musical-u.com/

Podcast: http://musicalitypodcast.com

Tone Deaf Test: http://tonedeaftest.com/

Musicality Checklist: https://www.musical-u.com/mcl-musicality-checklist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MusicalU

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MusicalU

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MusicalU

Subscribe for more videos from Musical U!

Guitar: Improvisation Resource Pack Preview

Writing lyrics is an important step in the songwriting pr…

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/songwriters-secrets-mastering-the-melody/
Writing lyrics is an important step in the songwriting process. But to really shine, a great set of lyrics needs a good melody. A tune that the audience finds memorable and enjoyable. Musical U shares some tips you can use to improve your melody writing. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/songwriters-secrets-mastering-the-melody/

Improvisation: a topic that is full of once-in-a-lifetime…

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/introduction-to-improvisation/
Improvisation: a topic that is full of once-in-a-lifetime moments, tremendous virtuosity, freedom and… controversy. Why controversy? Because there’s a healthy dose of misconception as to what is improvisation actually is. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/introduction-to-improvisation/

Learning to hear harmonies has many benefits for all musi…

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/hearing-harmonies-active-listening/
Learning to hear harmonies has many benefits for all musicians whether interested in singing in a choir, composing an interesting piece of music or just strengthening your ear training skills. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/hearing-harmonies-active-listening/

About Improvising with Scales and Chords

New musicality video:

Many musicians stick exclusively to improvising with scales, leaving them feeling frustrated and creatively stunted. This episode reveals how to integrate the idea of chord tones and harmony into your improv to really tell a story with your playing! http://musicalitypodcast.com/55

Links and Resources

Interview with Improvise For Real’s David Reed: http://musl.ink/pod54

About Improvisation: https://www.musical-u.com/learn/about-improvisation/

Patterns and Playgrounds: https://www.musical-u.com/learn/patterns-playgrounds-4-ways-approach-improvisation/

About Chord Tones: http://musl.ink/pod21

About Finding Chords in Scales: http://musl.ink/pod27

Let us know what you think! Email: hello@musicalitypodcast.com

===============================================

Learn more about Musical U!

Website:
https://www.musical-u.com/

Podcast:
http://musicalitypodcast.com

Tone Deaf Test:
http://tonedeaftest.com/

Musicality Checklist:
https://www.musical-u.com/mcl-musicality-checklist

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/MusicalU

Twitter:

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/c/MusicalU

Subscribe for more videos from Musical U!

About Improvising with Scales and Chords

Learning to improvise is a long-term mission, one which w…

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/twelve-tips-for-learning-to-improvise-music/
Learning to improvise is a long-term mission, one which will push you to your musical limits and then beyond. You’ll need to be armed with some tips, tricks and strategies to help ensure you continually improve. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/twelve-tips-for-learning-to-improvise-music/

Piano: Improvisation Resource Pack Preview

New musicality video:

Who are your favorite improvisers? Why is it that we can listen to their recorded solos over and over? Why do aspiring soloists and scholars transcribe and memorize every detail? What gives these spontaneous creations the same long-lasting meaning and greatness that we might ascribe to a Beethoven symphony? http://musl.ink/respackphrasform

Then, we look at our own improvisations.

Maybe we’ve learned some good licks or riffs. Or figured out which scale patterns work best over that chord progression. It was fun at first, but after a while it all seems shapeless, mechanical. Is there something wrong with us?

Were we condemned to be born as mere mortals, never to enjoy the crucial spark of inspiration and talent exuded in the eternal musical expressions of our improvising hero-gods?

The good news: now that we know that all the hours of practicing licks, riffs, and scales are not enough, there really is another step to take to make your improvs sing.

Just as we shape our verbal communication with words, phrases, sentences, questions, answers – and larger structures such as paragraphs, stories, topics – we can shape our musical expressions with phrasing and form.

Phrases are short sections of melody with a beginning, middle, and end. While meaningful in and of themselves, they’re too short to make a whole piece of music. They need to join together with other phrases in larger sections and forms to make that happen. As improvisers, an understanding of phrasing and form gives us to shape our solos into whole musical works – much like a composer or a songwriter.

In this month’s Instrument Packs Musical U’s Resident Pros for guitar, piano, and bass introduce the concepts of phrasing and form – with videos, PDFs, and MP3s that lay out structured sequences of exercises to help you mold and shape your improv into the satisfying, whole musical expression that you crave.

http://musl.ink/respackphrasform

Learn more about Musical U Resident Pro Sara Campbell: https://sarasmusicstudio.com/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/sarasmusicstudio/

Twitter:

→ Learn more about Instrument Packs with Resident Pros
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/introducing-musical-u-instrument-packs/

===============================================

Learn more about Musical U!

Website: https://www.musical-u.com/

Podcast: http://musicalitypodcast.com

Tone Deaf Test: http://tonedeaftest.com/

Musicality Checklist: https://www.musical-u.com/mcl-musicality-checklist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MusicalU

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MusicalU

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MusicalU

Subscribe for more videos from Musical U!

Piano: Improvisation Resource Pack Preview

Form and Phrasing, Improvisation Ideas, Starting to Improvise, and Shaping Your Improv

In Improv Month thus far, we’ve been looking at different building blocks of music that you can use in your improv: chords, scales, rhythms, and harmonies.

This week, it’s time to put it all together and give it some structure.

We introduce our upcoming Instrument Packs for improvising with phrase and form, provide an exercise in structured major scale improv, interview a master guitar educator on his take on improvisation, and release a podcast episode that explains the importance of phrasing – by comparing it to the phrasing naturally present in speech!

Form and Phrasing

This month, we’ve been discussing how to improvise with purpose that is, not just noodle around with random notes, but use musicality concepts to create riffs and licks that stick.

One of the keys to unlocking this musicality in improv is form and phrasing, or the practice of shaping your musical expression into words, phrases, questions, and answers. In other words, telling a story through your improv.

Improv with phrasing and formSo this month, we’re incredibly excited to announce our Instrument Packs on the topic of improvising with phrase and form. Our resident pros for piano, bass, and guitar teach you how to create cohesive improvised solos that fit any genre and style, how to expand a single musical idea (or even a single note!) into a full solo, and of course, how to elevate your improv from riffs and licks to full-fledged storytelling.

Improvisation is not just something that musicians do during a song… it can also be the path to writing a song! For generations, musicians have improvised their way to new compositions, allowing their muse to guide them along the way. Guitar.com takes us through Songwriting 101, detailing how the pros compose by improvising.

Of all the instruments, perhaps none is more universally known for improvisation than the saxophone. This month, we’ve been introducing some new words into your musical vocabulary that you may not have used before – to really cement your understanding, check out this guide to improv vocabulary from the Best Saxophone Website Ever.

Steve talked about how backing tracks are a great way to have fun while practicing improvisation. These days, there are so many different options available for backing tracks online – how are you to know which ones are good? Sean from Guitar Ramble compiled a list of 5 jazz guitar backing tracks to inspire your improvisations this month.

Improvisation Ideas

In improvisation, it’s easy to focus too much on your instrument and not enough on the musical ideas inside your head.

David Wallimann, founder of GuitarPlayback.com, music educator, and guitarist extraordinaire has the following counterintuitive-yet-brilliant advice to give: put the instrument down!

David Wallimann interviewDavid’s fresh approach to improv emphasizes and prioritizes musical ideas, and recognizes music theory and instruments as simply a means to an end to express those ideas.

In Tell Your Own Story, with David Wallimann, David discusses how to break out of the improvise-by-numbers trap that many musicians fall into, shares the importance of music theory in improvisation, and spills the secret of putting self-expression at the center of your improvisation. This interview is an absolute must-hear for anyone seeking freedom through their improv!

David filled us in on how he broke free of the standard fretboard patterns for improvising music. The counterintuitive method that he talked about is certainly inspiring! For more tips to get started on guitar improvisation, check out Stuart Bahn’s ultimate guide.

Perhaps one of the most poisonous myths in the music world is that learning theory will somehow rob you of your creativity. That’s kind of like thinking that learning the difference between a noun and a verb is bad for a creative writer! Music theory has a place for all musicians that want to experience more freedom in their musical expression. The Struggling Guitarist exposes this myth and why it is rubbish.

No matter where you are in your musical journey, there are roadblocks that you will run into, and frustrations that you will experience. One of the things that we loved about talking with David was his positive mindset to his musicality. This can make such a big difference as you work on perfecting your art! To help you get beyond what you think is possible, here’s some serious motivation from Keyboard Improv.

Starting to Improvise

This month’s content has been geared towards introducing you to improvisation tools and how to use them.

Time to put some of these to the test, by diving into some simple exercises in improvising with the major scale!

Beginning improvisationWhether you don’t know how to play the scale or can blaze through it with your eyes closed, you’ll find something helpful in First Steps to Improvisation. We run through some basic theory for scale-building, introduce the concept of building musical motifs from the major scale, and show you how to combine and manipulate motifs to make complete musical statements and tell a story in your improv.

Scales are a great starting point in your improvisation journey. To learn more about how to apply scales into a chord progression and more, check out the Play Guitar Podcast’s exploration of how to really understand guitar scales.

Moving past just playing around with scales, a good piece of improvisation must tell a story, with the use of melodies and motifs. In the same way that certain words are better when starting a written sentence, there are ways to start a musical sentence that pack a punch. Tim Hansen explores four different ways to start a musical sentence for Soundly.

After completing this lesson, wouldn’t you enjoy some practical ways to apply scales to your improvisation? Nick from Jazz Duets goes through a number of different exercises that you can try out today.

Shaping Your Improv

With the release of our Instrument Packs on improvising with phrase and form just around the corner, you’ll want to put yourself in the mindset to create music that sounds like a conversation.

In About Improvising with Structure and Phrasing, we define a musical phrase by relating it to its cousin: the verbal phrase. Just as a sentence is the first level of structure we give to our speech, the musical phrase is the basic unit of improv, lending it the shape it needs to avoid becoming a formless string of notes.

Improvisation with structureThis opens up a world of possibilities: we can think of how one phrase relates to another, how to use them to create tension and release, and most importantly, how to use these concepts to bring your music to life.

We talked about the importance of phrasing when you are improvising music. Phrasing can really make the difference in your improvisation being memorable and catchy, or just a collection of notes. Mika Tyyskä takes us through a simple melody, with an approach to building phrasing that can be applied in almost every context!

No matter what style of music you prefer, we all want our improvisation to be musical. After all… isn’t that why we started playing in the first place? Harmony Music Center shares some quick tips that will change the way you approach improv!

It’s no secret that the Musical U team are big fans of podcasts. So, when we found an episode from Tune In, Tone Up that explored adding interest to improvisation through phrasing, we couldn’t wait to share it!

A Musical Statement

As you’ve probably realized, chords, scales, and notes themselves are like sentence fragments and singular words – small components of a meaningful whole.

By shaping, expanding on, and combining your licks, riffs, and melodies in the right ways, you can create complete musical statements that are more than the sum of their parts – that will engage the listener and tell a story.

Stay tuned for the last week of Improv Month, where we impart some final nuggets of wisdom about how to approach learning improv, and round up some experts’ favourite instances of improvisation, and why they work.

The post Form and Phrasing, Improvisation Ideas, Starting to Improvise, and Shaping Your Improv appeared first on Musical U.

Improvisation doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, it can be…

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/5-improvisation-insights-jeffrey-agrell/
Improvisation doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, it can be a game! By learning to treat musical improv as a game you free yourself up to experiment and learn the skills in a much more enjoyable way. Learn more with Jeffrey Agrell of Improv Insights. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/5-improvisation-insights-jeffrey-agrell/

Musical U’s Andrew Bishko shares his easy tricks for impr…

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/crazy-easy-weird-modal-improv-trick/
Musical U’s Andrew Bishko shares his easy tricks for improvising on the piano… even if you have never touched a piano before in your life! You’re not going to want to miss this fascinating lesson. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/crazy-easy-weird-modal-improv-trick/