Hi everyone, you might find it interesting to watch my non- improvisational (100% composed) pieces ua-cam.com/play/PL5xFYBjgo5M1kklD7GD9huWtsMBT4zn9K.html&si=LZDtZV5L1wJV6GoL not anything great at all, but I think it’s a fascinating comparison.
Learning to improvise is a long journey full of ups and downs. I'm still learning after 27 years. It's often frustrating but with hard work, studying and introspection you can break through platforms - which is very rewarding process. The biggest challenge of improvisation is to figure out what to practice so that it helps you to come up with truly fresh ideas as you're performing and you'll not just repeating the same licks all over again. I'm still trying to figure it out. I love that you sound like yourself and not like somebody else. Expressing our true selves is the point of music in my opinion.
Improvisation is such a fun and creative way to approach music, trying to manifest the ideas in your ear and mind. I do it a lot on the guitar and it is kind of like my own musical therapy. Studied jazz for a while, but these days I'm more interested in creating my own music, mostly through improvisation as well. Enjoyed the video, keep going!
the best way to approach this is to keep on playing. The best guitarists today continue to practice and learn from their fellow musicians. Every day you’ll become better and better and keep in mind learning the guitar is never ending and the more you learn the more you can do. 😊
I think your great I love your tone it’s a naked tone not many players are brave enough I can hear the wood of your guitar and only the greats can achieve this I really loved your reggae track you found a great melody Thank you for sharing
People play Guitar with different goals and modalities...these are all respectable...and they change over time. The importante thing Is that playng Is a pleasure and never something you have tò answer tò others about
Thanks for sharing your journey. After 50 plus years of pursuing music i submit: Always seeing yourself as a beginner will keep your musical journey alive, not thinking I'm really good at this.. check out Tori Slusher who is an eye opener or if you really wanna see really good at improvising guitar Allan Holdsworth.
I don’t think those people are good I think they’re amazing, makes sense they are paid to do the thing they do. It’s ok that you class yourself as beginner, I believe beginners can be good too, you should believe that. Let’s keep improving!
Feeling this now 😭 I LOVE guitar…but I just started learning 4 weeks ago, and I feel useless. I wish so much that I got into music as a child, but as you said to have the bravery to admit we will have to resign from playing anything as far as solos and fretboard knowledge. Thank you SO MUCH for posting this video :) makes me feel like I’m not alone among all these guitar players with alien fingers speeding up and down the fretboard haha
I’m still really learning, if you just started you have an advantage, ironically you can save yourself a lot of time by not going down the avenue of feeling rushed to be able to ‘perform straight away’. I wish I would have not spent 5 or so years wasting my time on tabs while my knowledge wasn’t going anywhere. Whatever you choose I hope you enjoy your guitar journey, good luck.
@ thank you so much :) I look forward to more of your videos! They embody this sense of normal-ness that I’ve been searching for. For a while I thought I was incapable of learning. Thank you a million
Hi Miss Jenny !! My name is Ben and I am from Australia. I have watched your channel for the last few months ,noticed how much you have progressed, especially with your improvisation approach to soloing. I Think you are great and I enjoy how you share your thoughts on the way you play the way you do.. it's a shame you're in the U.K. And I'm in AUS. As We both have the same outlook and approach towards playing the guitar, very unique and not wanting to conform to the stereotypical expectations of being a guitarist in both our cases. I'd love to have a Jam together sometime if it's ever possible I Am in your part of the world, or you in mine... I ENJOYED Your personal tutorial, Keep up the great work and I'll continue watching your channel in support of you and your musical journey. Take care and keep playing !!! It's good for the soul. !!! Ben.....
@@richardsheridan2624 Hi Ben, thanks for your support, encouragement and watching my channel, means a lot . I would love to have a jam with you if we’re ever in the same country. Truth be told I always wish I was good at and enjoyed something more lucrative than guitar, but it’s the only thing that ever stuck, when I try to walk away from it, it’s like the guitar jumps out of the bin and sits in my room again looking at me - proverbially of course. Since this is the case I thought I may as well do ‘something’ with it other than keep it a lonely secret affair 😂 sigh 🤣
Try to emphasise strong notes, ie the chord notes for each chord you play over. Also add vibrato, bends and some legato to some of these notes. Thirdly: Make pauses now and then to emphasise what youve just played. Finally: you have a nice fragile melody that I like, keep up the good work, youre not done yet!
What most guitarists really want to achieve more than anything else is an individual identity/style/sound. To my ears you have most definitely achieved this on your guitar in your own way through patience, dedication and a commitment to self improvement. Keep going your own way at your own pace, that’s what I do now. Art 4 Arts Sake! 🙏😊❤️
@ No idea my diddly friend. I think I first heard the phrase in a 10cc song. I’m going to start busking myself soon. How often do you busk and do you have any professional tips for me? 🙏😊❤️
@ Haha, yea it’s a famous phrase lol. Anyways how exciting that you’re going busking. I feel like the only tip I have is never go to Oxford lol. But let me know if you have any specific questions.
@ That’s great . I’ve been in bands in the past as a Bassist but this will be the first time let out in public with my Widdley Diddley 6 string weapon. 🙏😊❤️
Baffled by some of these comments. People giving advice to a person who didn't ask for it or need it. Thank you for your video and explaining your improvising concept. Subscribed !
Good job Jenny!! Yes, it’s kind of hard to describe and explain improvisation. Try to play or practice with your eyes closed. This forces you to listen actively. There are tons of backing tracks to help you improvise. Improvising is like speaking/talking. There are pauses, accents, phrasing, tonality. Use bends, slides, vibrato. It’s ok to use scales or parts of scales. Yes overthinking causes you to slow down and think about it, where to go on the fretboard, what the next note will be. That’s where active listening comes in. Thanks for sharing Jenny!! You play very well!!!
I learned to improvise from scale shape. If i know the key of the song like c major. I can just use the c major scale shape throughout the song. I just noodle around in the scale shape and repeat the moves that sounded good and ditch the movements that sound bad. after noodling around for some time you kind of know what certain note or movement sound like and predict if it will blend in well with the chords playing in the background. You dont need to think about the note names or name of the chord in the back ground. After noodling around for a while your fingers just move to the good places from memory.
Keep playing ❤ we all have our roadmap to improvise on an instrument. I understand your point you’re making. Try using arpeggios with different rhythms and work that with your pentatonic or Kansas City blues scale
Interesting. I tend to think in relations between notes instead of note names. I can start anywhere on the neck, decide on a mode, and know in which shape the chords in the key overlay vertically, as well as knowing which shapes precede it, and follow it horizontally, where the chords' root notes are, the thirds, the fifths, and so on. The improvisation is moving around that tonal center as you said. Been learning to play the guitar since 2006 and it took until 2023 for me to get to this level of understanding it. My next goal is to get a feeling for the 12 bar blues changes, and to figure out a key by ear, so I can play in a blues session with other musicians.
Improvisation is more true when you are just learning to do so. Most of the people we consider “good improvisers” end up playing alot of licks and riffs under their fingers or something in their style that has already been well carved out.
I hope you only take this as constructive criticism from one music lover to another, but you're not really good at improvisation. You're just a beginner. Please don't quite though! Not a doubt in my mind that sooner rather than later you will be really really good! You need to work on developing a motif and working off of that motif
Exactly. But this comment will either be disregarded totally, downvoted, flagged or met with a disingenuous, red herring response to save face and convey what is likely false humility.
She is a good improviser. You seem to not know the difference between the minds musicality and the hands musicality. She needs to play more and strengthen her hands. The notes are correct and well chosen and it is played in a timely manner. Her hands though are not very athletic, which is great because that means she’s smart enough to be great and just needs to keep going. You are not using your imagination and blaming her for it. I hear what she’s going for, and she’s got what it takes. To this lady: keep going, know that you can do it, and know that you will thank yourself for not stopping and never becoming proud. If there is one thing to be maintained, it is your taste for the sublime. Live in this beautiful Earth you live in and immerse yourself in a world of beauty, and strive for something better than perfection. Also, take this proverbs to be one side of the equation. Systematize and be exact. There is beauty in logic, order, and self imposed deadlines and rules. For the creativity side of things, there is honestly no better advice than just do it. Don’t lie to yourself and set deadlines. Over time, your music will become a part of you and all music that is a part of someone is good music, because there is nothing more beautiful in art than the human soul.
To be fair, she didn’t say she’s the greatest improviser in the entire planet. I think really good at improvising is a fair assessment. Not arrogant. Maybe she will get even better as she keeps doing it. A lot of people literally aren’t able or comfortable to improvise at all.
Very interesting approach and thank you for taking the time to describe it. I find it fascinating to hear other people how they think musically because I am always looking to unlock something in my understanding. Usually this is some aspect of discovering something that's been there all along but not quite noticed in a light that some language describes. I started on drums when young and didn't begin serious tonal study until much later and getting a handle on concepts was a challenging first step. I've come to believe that we base so much on the major scale because it is a very close approximation to the harmonic series that we find within sound naturally. That we carve diatonic scale out of 12 chromatic notes is somewhat arbitrary but certainly practical as it works well with the number of fingers we have. It's all sound, after all, and these systems have been developed to allow us to play together and they do that quite well. The abstractions we use have advantages in flexibility and addressing ambiguities that come up in theory. Enharmonic note names would be one example. Another would be the ease of transposition. Context matters and that was the mysterious part to me when looking at sheet music and a keyboard and trying to make sense of how it all related. To move in real time from one context to another seems easiest within an algebra of musical abstractions. Maybe my favorite example of this so far is picking a random note to start a phrase but thinking "flat 3rd" and then understanding that I can make a choice that fits chromatic, dorian, aeolian, phrygian, and have a handle on those having a sound and feel that I can recognize and reach for. I'm still just beginning but this approach has led me to find new plateaus along the way and am excited for what's to come. My hope is that immediate recall of note names on the fretboard will fully fall into place in the coming year as I am still limiting myself to a handful of keys. Learning the guitar is possibly the most wonderful thing that I have done for myself. It's a good friend.
Hello, thanks for your insightful comment. I’m glad guitar and music brings you so much joy and happiness & I’m glad you have found a personal way to understand what those before us have systemised for us (vibrational frequencies) I think that’s the goal of everyone who wants to understand music, and we’re all on a path to finding our own way to do that.
@@MissJennyGuitar It's been a process for sure. I think I am 5 years in (2 on guitar) and just starting to feel the beginning of satisfied with some improvisational aspects to my own playing. I've only listened to a small amount of your playing, just discovering your content with this video today, but I believe that I've heard hints of the uniqueness in your style that you mentioned as an advantage to your approach. I am excited to listen more. Not meaning to be too naval gazing about it but I relate to the personal need to get a handle how we think. I've had talented friends say "don't overthink" yet then I would play without thinking and it would sound so unappealing to me. It's only the beginning but to find our own path to play naturally is a really nice reward. Happy to have found you here.
I think you have a great melody sense but it would be great if you incorporated more articulation into your playing. Things like slides and bends and hammer ons and pull offs or even using octave shapes to play through scales in a more horizontal way would really make your playing come alive.
very interesting. I can just imagine the melodic nature of playing without structure, but as you said, it takes a very long time. Do you practice technique at all?
I like the fact that you honestly admit that it took you a decade to master the notes on the keyboard, and also that you've been religious about practicing in the past 10 years. I'm 67 years young and have always played sporadically, so am pretty much still only a chord guy. But I haven't given up on soloing. What I enjoy doing, or trying to do, is playing the chords of the song, and trying to throw in a few notes here and there. On the solo parts, I'm more paying attention to the number of the note in the scale (1-7) rather than the letter of the note. It's somewhat limiting because to move up and down the keyboard you really need to know the notes as landmarks at least. Maybe not all, but at least the ones for scales C, G, A, E and D for example, because a lot of songs are in those keys. Anyway, thanks for the video - I find it quite inspirational and motivating.
@@jackbenimble999 Love your comment, and your approach to soloing. Also, there’s no such thing as just a ‘chord guy’ chords and rhythm guitar are hard, if not harder than soloing, and more important I’d say. I don’t think I’ll achieve freedom of the fretboard when it comes to rhythm, I will forever be relying on a practiced repertoire/ looking up songs, something that bugs me as much as someone who struggles to solo.
i think what happened is that your ear probably got really good at just hearing the tonal center and the more you practiced finding those notes the easier it was to kind of find where to go next or like you hear something in your head and you can just go to it
It’s probably a mix of strategies, I think that when I’m fretting one note the other viable notes around it ‘light up’ so I can pick from them, and sometimes I do pick from them by hearing where I wanna go before going there.
Interesting point! When I have had time to look at and contemplate the backing track I do do the chord changes, such as in this playlist of compositional solos ua-cam.com/video/XcIM5fK2E9c/v-deo.html, here I stick very rigidly to the chord changes in fact. But in live improvisation on the street there is no grace period to consider the backing track, maybe it appears on the video of the backing track, maybe not. Improvisation is just that, using the tools to pull of something nice sounding even if not totally ideal, so no most of the time I don't do the chord changes in improvisation - I don't have good enough ear training to hear them and I don't like staring at the phone screen. Some people play the chords changes in solos, some don't, I don't think it's necessary for a good solo.
@@MissJennyGuitar Some people over obsess about hitting the chord tones and it limits their playing. I think that the most straightforward way to solo is to pick scale that fits the whole song or a section of the song and then use your ear to try to make it sound melodic over the chords. Once you get good at it, you will hit those chord tones when you need to, without even thinking about chord changes. And you should never be afraid to play outside of the key if you feel like it. It's also good think about the solo as a whole. What kind of dramatic arc is the solo going to have? A good melody has a certain amount of repetition mixed with new ideas. You can play some short idea, then repeat, and then play some new idea as an answer to the first idea. Or you might start with the idea, and then play a variation of it. Or you could play variations in different octaves or start from a different scale degree. Or you could phrase it differently. The possibilities are endless
Hey Jenny you know the old sane right: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall"? Practice!. Your technic is fine for sure but any way anyone does it is Practicing be it scales, riffing off triads or even arpeggiating chords from the CADGED System. What ever works for the player as long as they can play with other people. Be Well
@@MrYatesj1 Hey Mr Yates, exactly, it’s all about practice, we all have to find the approach that works best for us individually. I would never say this way is better, it’s just that I’ve never heard anyone do it this way before, I’m sure someone has, but I’ve never come across anyone, so I thought it may be interesting for people to hear.
Have you listened to any of my stuff? Like properly listened, not to just a few seconds, to form an informed opinion or just going off this explanation? When someone cooks you some food do you decide whether you like it or not based on how they told you they made it? Or do you taste it and decide yourself? Maybe it isn’t the best and I accept comments like I need more technique but it certainly isn’t noodling. Some parts of my playing lack direction more than others because it’s improvising, so sometimes there is a clearer motif and sometimes I’m passing time or stalling before another direction comes to mind. With improv you have to appreciate its imperfect nature because someone is making it up on the spot, or else what’s the difference between a composition and improv. If you think it’s noodling then you know nothing about guitar.
You are at most only sufficient at playing notes on a guitar. I'm not sure you understand the musical effect of different sequences of intervals. So you are definitely a beginner. But if you keep practising and study the music of professional artists... For a few thousand more hours. You might become merely "good" at improvisation. Then to become "really good" you'd have to have some special talent as well as more experience.
@@justingreen8006 I would invite you to listen to the videos of me actually playing, and not just focus on my explanation as it’s hard to explain everything in one video. Please leave your comment about my playing under that particular video instead of here. Can you do me a favour and rate them as bad/ sufficient/ good (I already know the technical stuff I’m lacking, so no need to go into detail). Thanks
i think you're being harsh, i think she's good and is playing interesting lines. i would want to jam with her and I think she's beyond just being comfortable at improvising.
Good is subjective…I’ve been playing 40 yrs so good to me may be different than to her or newbies…she is doing ok, likes it, respects the guitar and learning, so I support and say good luck on the lifelong enjoyable journey of becoming a better guitarist
Hi everyone, you might find it interesting to watch my non- improvisational (100% composed) pieces ua-cam.com/play/PL5xFYBjgo5M1kklD7GD9huWtsMBT4zn9K.html&si=LZDtZV5L1wJV6GoL not anything great at all, but I think it’s a fascinating comparison.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, methods & perspectives! & most of all for playing music. Cheers & happy playing!
What a good honest breakdown, really enjoyed because you pretty much said my story with the guitar thank you
Learning to improvise is a long journey full of ups and downs. I'm still learning after 27 years. It's often frustrating but with hard work, studying and introspection you can break through platforms - which is very rewarding process. The biggest challenge of improvisation is to figure out what to practice so that it helps you to come up with truly fresh ideas as you're performing and you'll not just repeating the same licks all over again. I'm still trying to figure it out.
I love that you sound like yourself and not like somebody else. Expressing our true selves is the point of music in my opinion.
Improvisation is such a fun and creative way to approach music, trying to manifest the ideas in your ear and mind. I do it a lot on the guitar and it is kind of like my own musical therapy. Studied jazz for a while, but these days I'm more interested in creating my own music, mostly through improvisation as well. Enjoyed the video, keep going!
the best way to approach this is to keep on playing. The best guitarists today continue to practice and learn from their fellow musicians. Every day you’ll become better and better and keep in mind learning the guitar is never ending and the more you learn the more you can do. 😊
Great channel, thanks for posting.
So glad I was recommended this channel. Great stuff 👍
Entertaining, inspiring and informative.
Thanks for all your hard work 😊
@@gibcor Aww thanks mate, really appreciate this.
@@MissJennyGuitar really nice to hear about your approach to improvising. Thanks for sharing 👍
I think your great
I love your tone
it’s a naked tone not many players are brave enough
I can hear the wood of your guitar and only the greats can achieve this
I really loved your reggae track you found a great melody
Thank you for sharing
People play Guitar with different goals and modalities...these are all respectable...and they change over time. The importante thing Is that playng Is a pleasure and never something you have tò answer tò others about
Thanks for sharing your journey. After 50 plus years of pursuing music i submit: Always seeing yourself as a beginner will keep your musical journey alive, not thinking I'm really good at this.. check out Tori Slusher who is an eye opener or if you really wanna see really good at improvising guitar Allan Holdsworth.
I don’t think those people are good I think they’re amazing, makes sense they are paid to do the thing they do. It’s ok that you class yourself as beginner, I believe beginners can be good too, you should believe that. Let’s keep improving!
Feeling this now 😭 I LOVE guitar…but I just started learning 4 weeks ago, and I feel useless. I wish so much that I got into music as a child, but as you said to have the bravery to admit we will have to resign from playing anything as far as solos and fretboard knowledge. Thank you SO MUCH for posting this video :) makes me feel like I’m not alone among all these guitar players with alien fingers speeding up and down the fretboard haha
I’m still really learning, if you just started you have an advantage, ironically you can save yourself a lot of time by not going down the avenue of feeling rushed to be able to ‘perform straight away’. I wish I would have not spent 5 or so years wasting my time on tabs while my knowledge wasn’t going anywhere. Whatever you choose I hope you enjoy your guitar journey, good luck.
@ thank you so much :) I look forward to more of your videos! They embody this sense of normal-ness that I’ve been searching for. For a while I thought I was incapable of learning. Thank you a million
Hi Miss Jenny !! My name is Ben and I am from Australia. I have watched your channel for the last few months ,noticed how much you have progressed, especially with your improvisation approach to soloing. I Think you are great and I enjoy how you share your thoughts on the way you play the way you do.. it's a shame you're in the U.K. And I'm in AUS. As We both have the same outlook and approach towards playing the guitar, very unique and not wanting to conform to the stereotypical expectations of being a guitarist in both our cases. I'd love to have a Jam together sometime if it's ever possible I Am in your part of the world, or you in mine... I ENJOYED Your personal tutorial, Keep up the great work and I'll continue watching your channel in support of you and your musical journey. Take care and keep playing !!! It's good for the soul. !!! Ben.....
@@richardsheridan2624 Hi Ben, thanks for your support, encouragement and watching my channel, means a lot . I would love to have a jam with you if we’re ever in the same country. Truth be told I always wish I was good at and enjoyed something more lucrative than guitar, but it’s the only thing that ever stuck, when I try to walk away from it, it’s like the guitar jumps out of the bin and sits in my room again looking at me - proverbially of course. Since this is the case I thought I may as well do ‘something’ with it other than keep it a lonely secret affair 😂 sigh 🤣
Try to emphasise strong notes, ie the chord notes for each chord you play over.
Also add vibrato, bends and some legato to some of these notes.
Thirdly: Make pauses now and then to emphasise what youve just played.
Finally: you have a nice fragile melody that I like, keep up the good work, youre not done yet!
What most guitarists really want to achieve more than anything else is an individual identity/style/sound. To my ears you have most definitely achieved this on your guitar in your own way through patience, dedication and a commitment to self improvement. Keep going your own way at your own pace, that’s what I do now. Art 4 Arts Sake! 🙏😊❤️
@@garrybrown8029 Love it, isn’t that the MGM phrase that’s normally in Latin?
@ No idea my diddly friend. I think I first heard the phrase in a 10cc song. I’m going to start busking myself soon. How often do you busk and do you have any professional tips for me? 🙏😊❤️
@ Haha, yea it’s a famous phrase lol. Anyways how exciting that you’re going busking. I feel like the only tip I have is never go to Oxford lol. But let me know if you have any specific questions.
@ oh and I forgot to say I haven’t been for a about a month now but I’ve been busking for a year and a half and been nearly 100 times.
@ That’s great . I’ve been in bands in the past as a Bassist but this will be the first time let out in public with my Widdley Diddley 6 string weapon. 🙏😊❤️
Go Jenny and keep on "Smooth" Rockin' in the Free World!
Baffled by some of these comments. People giving advice to a person who didn't ask for it or need it. Thank you for your video and explaining your improvising concept. Subscribed !
Good job Jenny!! Yes, it’s kind of hard to describe and explain improvisation. Try to play or practice with your eyes closed. This forces you to listen actively. There are tons of backing tracks to help you improvise. Improvising is like speaking/talking. There are pauses, accents, phrasing, tonality. Use bends, slides, vibrato. It’s ok to use scales or parts of scales. Yes overthinking causes you to slow down and think about it, where to go on the fretboard, what the next note will be. That’s where active listening comes in. Thanks for sharing Jenny!! You play very well!!!
@@LowEnd-DropC Thanks for your comment, yes of course it’s ok to use scales, all the best players use scales and intervals.
I learned to improvise when i stopped thinking about the chords and note names. I just noodle around a scale shape and feel the music.
I learned to improvise from scale shape. If i know the key of the song like c major. I can just use the c major scale shape throughout the song. I just noodle around in the scale shape and repeat the moves that sounded good and ditch the movements that sound bad. after noodling around for some time you kind of know what certain note or movement sound like and predict if it will blend in well with the chords playing in the background. You dont need to think about the note names or name of the chord in the back ground. After noodling around for a while your fingers just move to the good places from memory.
Keep playing ❤ we all have our roadmap to improvise on an instrument. I understand your point you’re making. Try using arpeggios with different rhythms and work that with your pentatonic or Kansas City blues scale
Interesting. I tend to think in relations between notes instead of note names. I can start anywhere on the neck, decide on a mode, and know in which shape the chords in the key overlay vertically, as well as knowing which shapes precede it, and follow it horizontally, where the chords' root notes are, the thirds, the fifths, and so on.
The improvisation is moving around that tonal center as you said.
Been learning to play the guitar since 2006 and it took until 2023 for me to get to this level of understanding it. My next goal is to get a feeling for the 12 bar blues changes, and to figure out a key by ear, so I can play in a blues session with other musicians.
Thanks for sharing.
Improvisation is more true when you are just learning to do so. Most of the people we consider “good improvisers” end up playing alot of licks and riffs under their fingers or something in their style that has already been well carved out.
What about hearing ideas in your head first…then playing what you hear in your head…on any instrument.
I hope you only take this as constructive criticism from one music lover to another, but you're not really good at improvisation. You're just a beginner. Please don't quite though! Not a doubt in my mind that sooner rather than later you will be really really good!
You need to work on developing a motif and working off of that motif
Exactly. But this comment will either be disregarded totally, downvoted, flagged or met with a disingenuous, red herring response to save face and convey what is likely false humility.
She is a good improviser. You seem to not know the difference between the minds musicality and the hands musicality. She needs to play more and strengthen her hands. The notes are correct and well chosen and it is played in a timely manner. Her hands though are not very athletic, which is great because that means she’s smart enough to be great and just needs to keep going. You are not using your imagination and blaming her for it. I hear what she’s going for, and she’s got what it takes. To this lady: keep going, know that you can do it, and know that you will thank yourself for not stopping and never becoming proud. If there is one thing to be maintained, it is your taste for the sublime. Live in this beautiful Earth you live in and immerse yourself in a world of beauty, and strive for something better than perfection. Also, take this proverbs to be one side of the equation. Systematize and be exact. There is beauty in logic, order, and self imposed deadlines and rules. For the creativity side of things, there is honestly no better advice than just do it. Don’t lie to yourself and set deadlines. Over time, your music will become a part of you and all music that is a part of someone is good music, because there is nothing more beautiful in art than the human soul.
To be fair, she didn’t say she’s the greatest improviser in the entire planet. I think really good at improvising is a fair assessment. Not arrogant. Maybe she will get even better as she keeps doing it. A lot of people literally aren’t able or comfortable to improvise at all.
Very interesting approach and thank you for taking the time to describe it. I find it fascinating to hear other people how they think musically because I am always looking to unlock something in my understanding. Usually this is some aspect of discovering something that's been there all along but not quite noticed in a light that some language describes. I started on drums when young and didn't begin serious tonal study until much later and getting a handle on concepts was a challenging first step.
I've come to believe that we base so much on the major scale because it is a very close approximation to the harmonic series that we find within sound naturally. That we carve diatonic scale out of 12 chromatic notes is somewhat arbitrary but certainly practical as it works well with the number of fingers we have. It's all sound, after all, and these systems have been developed to allow us to play together and they do that quite well.
The abstractions we use have advantages in flexibility and addressing ambiguities that come up in theory. Enharmonic note names would be one example. Another would be the ease of transposition. Context matters and that was the mysterious part to me when looking at sheet music and a keyboard and trying to make sense of how it all related. To move in real time from one context to another seems easiest within an algebra of musical abstractions. Maybe my favorite example of this so far is picking a random note to start a phrase but thinking "flat 3rd" and then understanding that I can make a choice that fits chromatic, dorian, aeolian, phrygian, and have a handle on those having a sound and feel that I can recognize and reach for.
I'm still just beginning but this approach has led me to find new plateaus along the way and am excited for what's to come. My hope is that immediate recall of note names on the fretboard will fully fall into place in the coming year as I am still limiting myself to a handful of keys. Learning the guitar is possibly the most wonderful thing that I have done for myself. It's a good friend.
Hello, thanks for your insightful comment. I’m glad guitar and music brings you so much joy and happiness & I’m glad you have found a personal way to understand what those before us have systemised for us (vibrational frequencies) I think that’s the goal of everyone who wants to understand music, and we’re all on a path to finding our own way to do that.
@@MissJennyGuitar It's been a process for sure. I think I am 5 years in (2 on guitar) and just starting to feel the beginning of satisfied with some improvisational aspects to my own playing. I've only listened to a small amount of your playing, just discovering your content with this video today, but I believe that I've heard hints of the uniqueness in your style that you mentioned as an advantage to your approach. I am excited to listen more. Not meaning to be too naval gazing about it but I relate to the personal need to get a handle how we think. I've had talented friends say "don't overthink" yet then I would play without thinking and it would sound so unappealing to me. It's only the beginning but to find our own path to play naturally is a really nice reward. Happy to have found you here.
I think you have a great melody sense but it would be great if you incorporated more articulation into your playing. Things like slides and bends and hammer ons and pull offs or even using octave shapes to play through scales in a more horizontal way would really make your playing come alive.
very interesting. I can just imagine the melodic nature of playing without structure, but as you said, it takes a very long time. Do you practice technique at all?
I like the fact that you honestly admit that it took you a decade to master the notes on the keyboard, and also that you've been religious about practicing in the past 10 years. I'm 67 years young and have always played sporadically, so am pretty much still only a chord guy. But I haven't given up on soloing. What I enjoy doing, or trying to do, is playing the chords of the song, and trying to throw in a few notes here and there. On the solo parts, I'm more paying attention to the number of the note in the scale (1-7) rather than the letter of the note. It's somewhat limiting because to move up and down the keyboard you really need to know the notes as landmarks at least. Maybe not all, but at least the ones for scales C, G, A, E and D for example, because a lot of songs are in those keys.
Anyway, thanks for the video - I find it quite inspirational and motivating.
@@jackbenimble999 Love your comment, and your approach to soloing. Also, there’s no such thing as just a ‘chord guy’ chords and rhythm guitar are hard, if not harder than soloing, and more important I’d say. I don’t think I’ll achieve freedom of the fretboard when it comes to rhythm, I will forever be relying on a practiced repertoire/ looking up songs, something that bugs me as much as someone who struggles to solo.
Watching your video from India.
Your video from Recommendation.
Interesting approach to guitar solo.
Which country you are from?
@@Corehinduism Thanks for watching, I’m from the UK my friend
i think what happened is that your ear probably got really good at just hearing the tonal center and the more you practiced finding those notes the easier it was to kind of find where to go next or like you hear something in your head and you can just go to it
It’s probably a mix of strategies, I think that when I’m fretting one note the other viable notes around it ‘light up’ so I can pick from them, and sometimes I do pick from them by hearing where I wanna go before going there.
Also, play the chord changes...
Interesting point! When I have had time to look at and contemplate the backing track I do do the chord changes, such as in this playlist of compositional solos ua-cam.com/video/XcIM5fK2E9c/v-deo.html, here I stick very rigidly to the chord changes in fact. But in live improvisation on the street there is no grace period to consider the backing track, maybe it appears on the video of the backing track, maybe not. Improvisation is just that, using the tools to pull of something nice sounding even if not totally ideal, so no most of the time I don't do the chord changes in improvisation - I don't have good enough ear training to hear them and I don't like staring at the phone screen. Some people play the chords changes in solos, some don't, I don't think it's necessary for a good solo.
@@MissJennyGuitar Some people over obsess about hitting the chord tones and it limits their playing. I think that the most straightforward way to solo is to pick scale that fits the whole song or a section of the song and then use your ear to try to make it sound melodic over the chords. Once you get good at it, you will hit those chord tones when you need to, without even thinking about chord changes. And you should never be afraid to play outside of the key if you feel like it. It's also good think about the solo as a whole. What kind of dramatic arc is the solo going to have? A good melody has a certain amount of repetition mixed with new ideas. You can play some short idea, then repeat, and then play some new idea as an answer to the first idea. Or you might start with the idea, and then play a variation of it. Or you could play variations in different octaves or start from a different scale degree. Or you could phrase it differently. The possibilities are endless
@@jimphilidor9031 Love all the ideas, brilliant.
Hey Jenny you know the old sane right: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall"? Practice!. Your technic is fine for sure but any way anyone does it is Practicing be it scales, riffing off triads or even arpeggiating chords from the CADGED System. What ever works for the player as long as they can play with other people. Be Well
@@MrYatesj1 Hey Mr Yates, exactly, it’s all about practice, we all have to find the approach that works best for us individually. I would never say this way is better, it’s just that I’ve never heard anyone do it this way before, I’m sure someone has, but I’ve never come across anyone, so I thought it may be interesting for people to hear.
Miss Jenny, . . . . . . . You beautiful 😍
Well, that just sounds like what is called "noodling" to me, sorry.
Have you listened to any of my stuff? Like properly listened, not to just a few seconds, to form an informed opinion or just going off this explanation? When someone cooks you some food do you decide whether you like it or not based on how they told you they made it? Or do you taste it and decide yourself? Maybe it isn’t the best and I accept comments like I need more technique but it certainly isn’t noodling. Some parts of my playing lack direction more than others because it’s improvising, so sometimes there is a clearer motif and sometimes I’m passing time or stalling before another direction comes to mind. With improv you have to appreciate its imperfect nature because someone is making it up on the spot, or else what’s the difference between a composition and improv. If you think it’s noodling then you know nothing about guitar.
@@MissJennyGuitar Hit a nerve there?
@@talkingbread2012 Yeah don’t you know, the N word is a trigger word for any guitar player. I suspect you’re not a guitar player though.
@@MissJennyGuitar It is very obvious that you are only a poser! So sad! I'd guess that one half of your 90 viewers think that your noodling is great.!
@ It’s better than you can do guaranteed.
You are at most only sufficient at playing notes on a guitar. I'm not sure you understand the musical effect of different sequences of intervals. So you are definitely a beginner. But if you keep practising and study the music of professional artists... For a few thousand more hours. You might become merely "good" at improvisation. Then to become "really good" you'd have to have some special talent as well as more experience.
@@justingreen8006 I would invite you to listen to the videos of me actually playing, and not just focus on my explanation as it’s hard to explain everything in one video. Please leave your comment about my playing under that particular video instead of here. Can you do me a favour and rate them as bad/ sufficient/ good (I already know the technical stuff I’m lacking, so no need to go into detail). Thanks
Like the more recent videos, like The dub reggae one, obviously don’t fish out the really old ones.
I think you didn’t become good, just comfortable
@@hiroprotagonitis Ouch!
i think you're being harsh, i think she's good and is playing interesting lines. i would want to jam with her and I think she's beyond just being comfortable at improvising.
@ Appreciate it 🧡
Good is subjective…I’ve been playing 40 yrs so good to me may be different than to her or newbies…she is doing ok, likes it, respects the guitar and learning, so I support and say good luck on the lifelong enjoyable journey of becoming a better guitarist
Off to a good start though
lol this is supposed to be good ?
lol yes