produced by playing a moving melody on one higher-pitched string, while leaving a lower note ringing on another "open", or lower-pitched (unfretted) string. The static bass note is referred to as a "pedal tone". The lower note drones or stays the same and the upper note moves, creating both simple harmonic and melodic motion. Traditional instruments which have fewer strings and a smaller range than the guitar use this technique. It can be heard in many musical styles in both Eastern and Western musical traditions including those with guitar.

This technique can be found both within Western tuning systems which use 12 semitones per octave as well as beyond in more complex Eastern tuning systems. Therefore before attempting to improvise a solo over a chord progression or a series of chords in a particular key, it is useful to practice playing simple melodies on one (upper) string to familiarize your ear with the intervals, or distances between those fretted notes and a static open, un-fretted (lower) string below it which is sounding simultaneously. Another advantage of this is that with each pair of notes you play, different intervals are sounded. Your ear begins to detect these and this is a basic form of ear training.

Staying in the right key

Suppose you are playing in a jam session as a lead guitarist and are playing with a rhythm guitarist. When playing with two guitars that are improvising you will have your rhythm guitarist play a set run in a certain key. For example, the rhythm guitarist might be playing a three chord blues riff in the key of B minor. You can often figure out the key that is being played by ear based on the first chord played. If you were to play a small solo, you should stick to a B minor scale such as the B minor blues scale. Any style of scale — modal, pentatonic, etc. — can be used and each one will give a different flavor to your improvisation. For example, the Phrygian mode has traditionally been the "Spanish scale".

Listen

The key to improvisation is to listen to the interplay of the rest of the instruments, and to add to that whatever sounds best. This is, unfortunately, a very neglected practice among beginning musicians, and, really, musicians of all stripes in general.

A common tendency, especially among those who have just begun to get a solid foundation in scale theory and technique, is to noodle around aimlessly on the fretboard with little or no regard for the shape of the song that is being played or the structure of the arrangement. This is a mistake, and it leads to music that no one wants to listen to; worse yet, it does nothing to develop the musician who plays it.

Listen to the music that is being played around you. Add to it only when it is necessary. You should begin to hear the lines that you want to play before you play them. What you are shooting for here is something akin to the old koan about sculpting: the figure is already in the marble, and you are just trying to release it.

It is also important to make sure that you do not take up too much "space" in the arrangement, which is to say, do not play so loudly that other instruments must fight to be heard. This is especially a problem for rhythm guitarists in jam sessions, who must be careful not to drown out soloists.

Well-known Improv Bands

• The Grateful Dead
• Throbbing Gristle
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience
• Led Zeppelin
• King Crimson
• Can (band)
• Phish
• moe.
• Particle
• The Disco Biscuits
• Widespread Panic
• Cream
• Dave Matthews Band

External Link

• Musical improvisation