Author: allencole
Date: 2004-10-24 15:52
Back to the original subject, let's look at a logical approch.
William got us off to a good start with learning songs and then beginning to embellish them. Sue provided us with a warning that we do need to know our scales and chords. What most students find difficult is doing all of this at the same time. Let's look at some parallel tracks:
LEARNING SONGS (AND EVENTUALLY, HOW THEY WORK)
I think that William's advice of learning and embellishing songs is the most logical first step. It is in most genres of music around the world. It also makes you familiar with a number of songs, making them accessible for both performance and study.
The most difficult aspect of this is learning chord changes and how they work. This is quite a task when you play a non-chord instrument, and will require a good bit of study and experimentation on its own. Playing a little guitar, or autoharp, or messing around on one of those cheezy electronic keyboards (w/one-finger chord function) will be of tremendous help. I recommend these over piano, because you have to invest more time in learning piano. However, learning the songs in general will make it easier to see how the chord changes work.
SCALES & ARPEGGIOS
Eventually, you'll learn a number of different scale and chord types. I would start by concentrating on three:
Major Scale - the yardstick by which we measure melody western music. It won't cover every situation, but provides most specialized scales are presented as modifications of it.
Major Arpeggio - Notes 1, 3 and 5 of your major scale. If you didn't know already, this is a chord. And most of what you see on chord symbols are modifications of this.
Pentatonic Scale - Notes 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 of your major scale. (the famous guitar lick from "My Girl" is a pentatonic scale) This is the easiest and safest framework from which to begin improvising, and it will still come in handy after you've moved on to more advanced techniques.
FREE IMPROVISATION (Yikes! Did I say THAT?)
Using your pentatonic scale, just sit around and make up some different things. This will help you to develop your phrasing, and build your confidence in making up things as you go along. Gravitate around note #1 and you'll get a major flavor. Gravitate around note #6 and you'll get a minor flavor. If you know all of your 12 major pentatonics, you will have a powerful weapon as a novice improvisor. (eventually, you can derive your blues scale from these)
These are all beginning activities, but none have a prerequisite. You can start doing them TODAY. Not everything will be perfect, and you will encounter some problems. There are plenty of folks here to help you.
LONGER TERM GOAL: FINDING THE KEY CENTER
You may notice that I haven't mentioned much about recognizing chords and the like. That's because you may likely have a chance to jam in which there will be no chords for you to read--even in concert key. But musicians learn to function this way and you should, too. This will help to keep all the theory and academic knowledge you have from confusing you.
The key center of a song is the note where everything seems to come home. If you are playing a simple song in the key of B, then B is the key center. When playing something in a given key, consider how notes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. FEEL to your ear. As you progress to songs in which the key center shifts, it is this feeling that will guide you to the new center. Another reason why thoroughly learning simple songs is so beneficial.
I've had students get through some dicey improvising situations just be hearing their key centers and applying the correct pentatonics.
If you have questions about how chords work, and where key centers are, we can easily discuss it here using songs that are familiar to us all.
START AT THE VERY BEGINNING (a very good place to start)
If you haven't seen The Sound of Music in a while, rent it. Review the Do-Re-Mi song. It deals very well with the major scale and how the different notes FEEL to your ear within that scale. It isn't jazz-derived, but it is a fantastic way to train your ear while taking a tour of historic Salzburg. (Almost like studying in Europe!<g>)
So Mary, and other beginning improvisors, try some of these activities and let us know what your experiences are. They won't take you all the way, but you can do them with no experience and they'll give you the experience to take things further.
Now that these ideas are posted, you'll hopefully see some additional specifics and points of view from other posters. (I'll try to refrain from further arguing free improv and post-tonality)
Allen Cole
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