Article Tags: practice scales improvising

Ever get bored practicie improvising? At times, I'll get in a rut for various reasons. It might be the particular scale, lick, backing track, chord progressions, my mood that day, or whatever. Here's a suggestion to break up your routine and make things more random. You can take this concept and use it with other media/things too.

This is inspired by my brother who instilled in me the habit of turning the volume down on the tv and having music on. In the YouTube generation, I step this up and have the tv, YouTube, satellite radio, and a video game going at once. Attention deficit much?

Anyway, try this. When having the tv on, its volume isn't that important, improvise for each character during their dialog. Try a different scale or key for each character--don't burden yourself keep it limited or choose 2-3 main people and have something for everyone else. When they talk you play. If there's a stretch without talking, try chords within the scale or key. To make this a bit more interesting, play along with the mood of the shows' plot. If intense play intense; sad play sad; happy play happy; etc. Almost like you're being a melodic foley artist with your guitar.

Have fun. This might change the way you watch Heroes.

Added on: 2008 10 21