Practice making up lines

Getting into improvising music takes a lot of practice. Not only do you need to work on scales and arpeggios, you also need to practice the skill of making things up. Imagining and creating lines to use is a skill in itself. It’ll take practice to get used to it and get better at it.

The first few lines you make up, even if they use the “correct” scales and notes, will likely be boring.

I have a YouTube video titled Improve your ear training skills by learning the language that’s useful here, but the main idea is to learn the specific phrases used in a genre of music. Jazz has different “words” than rock. Learn those words.

But we’re talking about making up lines.

Creating solos and writing solos and making up things to play is a skill in and of itself. The act of creating a solo is a skill. Not only does it require some previous knowledge of the genre of music you’re making, but it requires practice to imagine lines and know how to play them.

One way to start doing this is by using licks you already know from solos you’ve learned. It can be a great way to get started. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Start with a lick
2. Make a variation of that lick
3. Make another variation
4. Repeat step #3 until you have a ton of variations

Just make a bunch of variations. You can use different rhythms, time signatures, beat subdivisions, scales, groups of notes, chords, keys, or modes. Try to make as many different variations as you can. Add notes at the beginning. Add notes at the end.

Once you’ve exhausted all the variations you can think of then use a different lick.

Keep doing that and you’ll feel much more comfortable improvising. It also helps you write or improvise a solo that sounds concise and cohesive. The different parts of a solo will sound related if you go into playing a solo thinking, “I’m going to start with this lick and vary it as much as possible.” It’ll sound like the solo is one cohesive melody that was written as a whole, rather than a collection of licks.

Another benefit of doing this is that it demystifies improvisation.

Improvising can be scary and intimidating. Creating lines to fit over a specific chord progression can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. The more you practice making lines and creating lines, the better you’ll get at making lines and creating lines. The lines will get better and more natural. It’ll be easier to think of ideas to use over different chord changes after you’ve tested out a number of different ideas.

It can also be a great way to test out ideas before using them in a recording or performance.

Start with an idea you already know “works”, or an idea you already like the sound of. Try something funky with it that you’re not sure how it’ll sound. Try out lots of different ideas like that. Try the strange sounding scales or the dissonant tensions or the “out” notes. Try out the ideas that might not sound good. It’s better to test them out with a familiar lick and while practicing because you’re starting with something that you already like and can play and no one needs to hear it if it sounds bad.

And remember that it’ll get easier the more you do it. If you improvise 100 solos you’ll be much better at improvising solos afterwards. Not all 100 of those solos might be amazing, but that doesn’t matter. When you’re starting out what matters is the act of doing it. The practice is what matters before you worry about the end result of that practice.

ISJ