Blues Solos That Bring the House Down!

Improvisation - or the spontaneous creation is a crucial element to art, no matter what form it is. Music is one of those art forms that nearly commands the musician to understand improvisation... whether it be blues, rock, rap, jazz, R&B, Hip Hop, Alternative, Country, Classical - the list is endless, someone had to start with a spontaneous thought - an improvisational line.

Learning improvisation from "traditional" schools like Middle School and High School is becoming a rare privilege, in fact most students couldn't even define "improvisation" if asked. Band directors for a large portion of these programs are seldom trained in areas requiring improvisation these days. So if the teacher doesn't know, how can they pass that skill on to a student?

In this new information age, the internet is becoming a great resource! From video's of the true masters to online lessons, a student that is really interested in learning this skill can certainly find more than enough resources and more than enough opinions on approach. The problem with some of this is that the "theoretical" approach can turn a great many of the young students off because of the almost algebraic approach to learning theory. Understanding scales is important, but if not taught in a meaningful way can become extremely mundane!

Here are a few suggestions that I offer as a teacher AND a student of the art of improvisation! Remember, music is a form of communication - a language! If you speak a language, most of what you learned early on was from listening!

1) LISTEN to as much of the music you are trying to improvise over as possible. From melody lines to solo's - this is a vital step! There are only 12 notes that we can choose from and only so many ways we can shape lines... chances are that someone else has done exactly that!

2) Transcribe what you hear... either on paper or by just shear memorization! When you are playing back what you hear, you're actually internalizing the lines and learning what the performer was thinking and feeling at the time he was soloing!

3) Get as many "play-a-long" recordings as possible! For the blues, you can Click Here - there are some great resources available on that link. For jazz, try Jamey Aebersold... he's been writing and producing play-a-long albums for over 30 years!

4) If you play a chordal based instrument, you'll be one step closer to understanding how the progressions of a song work. If you are a horn player, this is something that you're going to want to gain a working knowledge of. Piano is an excellent resource.

5) RECORD YOURSELF! You will always be your own worst critic, so it's vital to know what you're producing. Some of the greatest ideas I've tried at the time sounding simply horrid when I played them back!

6) Create a vocabulary of phrases in ALL 12 keys! You are if nothing else trying to communicate to your audience. What you say will either be valuable or be a waste. This is a language!

Miles Davis once approached Dizzy Gillespie about trumpet lessons to improve his soloing... Dizzy asked him if he could play piano - Miles' reply was "Nah man, I don't play no piano"... Dizzy promptly told him to come back when he did!!!

If you're passionate about your art, learn as much about it and its history as you can!!!

A great resource to help your improvisation for ANY instrument is HERE

Keith Fiala / Anna Romano

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