I thought I would post a few thoughts here as the forum seems to have gone quiet . One of the hardest things I find is right hand improvisation . It seems like a very thin line between playing something half decent and not knowing what to play . I would be most interested to hear how other players learn to improvise . It is gradually dawning on me that the more you know , the more you can improvise . This is a bit like saying the more french words you know the better equipped you are to speak French . On one level this is obvious but it was never obvious to me why learning scales made you a better improvisor . Now I think of a scale as a pool of notes that sound good together and you can just stick to one scale and play the scale in as many different ways as possible ( up and down changing direction in different places , triads and inversions , thirds ,fourths (eg C-F , D-G , E-A etc for a scale of C major) , Choosing any 2 notes and varying the rhythm , thinking of a 1 bar rhythm and varying the note choices etc. etc.) It seems that the more things you have doodled around with the more you can sub consciously draw on the next time you play. Anyway that's enough for now - I would be most interested to hear how everyone learns this stuff.

I don't do a lot in improvisation... but there are a few tricks. You could do what they call vertical improv, where you follow the chords up, by doing a related scale, ie: if you are in C do a C scale or an A minor scale, or arpeggiate. Then when the chord moves to G7 do the same... (G7 scale etc.)
One thing I found very helpful was to play the root chord scale or arpeggio over a 2-5-1. For instance you would play Gm scale over Gm, Gm over C7, and then C over Fmaj7. I practise this in all keys.
The Podcast available on this site, "Improvising over 7th chords", really helps too. As you probably would not do a lot of tension type improvising over most of the chords in a chord chart, but 7th chords open up for a lot of variety.

Gib

Hi Gib

Thanks for your reply- I understand the concept of vertical improvisation and switching scales but didn't quite get the bit about the "root chord scale" (not quite sure what that means) over a 251 . In the key of F for example you can play G Dorian over the 251 but playing C major over this would give a sharp 4th (B natural) or is that the intention? Perhaps you could clarify this .

Thanks

Brainy