im·prov·i·sa·tion [im pròvvi záysh’n, ìmprəvi záysh’n]
n
1. improvised piece or performance: something performed or done without any preparation or set text to follow
2. creating and performing simultaneously: the skill or creative process of creating and performing something without any preparation or set text to follow
In my opinion though its really hard to have pure improvisation on guitar and have it sound good. Usually you have an idea of what you're going to play or you have an idea of what your going to base it off of. I usually take a scale or something and mess around with it or I take something similar to what's being played. I hope you understand what I mean...I'm just trying to say its almost impossible to have no preperation before playing...even when someone like Timmy improvs he has an idea on what he's going to be playing
everydayDMBfan_18 wrote:In my opinion though its really hard to have pure improvisation on guitar and have it sound good. Usually you have an idea of what you're going to play or you have an idea of what your going to base it off of. I usually take a scale or something and mess around with it or I take something similar to what's being played. I hope you understand what I mean...I'm just trying to say its almost impossible to have no preperation before playing...even when someone like Timmy improvs he has an idea on what he's going to be playing
just listen to any good jazz guitarist, then you will know what true improv is. the ideas are there but they come up while playing. they play whats in their head basically, solos that are too thought out before hand are usually robotic sounding and mechanical
I have seen the man in true form...when he was doing the Strength in Numbers deal....at Telluride they would start off with a song and break into a 45 min true full band improv, and Bela is amazing...there is an instantanious link from his head to his hands and his stuff is always so tasteful.
Sorry, didn't mean to steal your thread 8)
Another great improv guitarist...although I am sad to say is now dead...is Danny Gatton, who Rolling Stone Magazine rated the best "unknown" guitarist of all time.
Hey fire...have you been having problems with what people are calling "improv" lateley?
I can't believe that we would lie in our graves wondering if we had spent our living days well, and I can't believe that we would lie in our graves dreaming of things that we might have been...
I can't believe that we would lie in our graves wondering if we had spent our living days well, and I can't believe that we would lie in our graves dreaming of things that we might have been...
True improv is not impossible to achieve.. And I think there is some merit to talking about jazz guitar being a place for high-incedence of it. I've played jazz guitar for years, and I routine would walk-in and play the entire set without having but perused the part. There isn't any time to think ahead more than a couple notes (which is inevitably what improv really is). And, I can easily sit down and just play you a song that's an hour long, but it might not be the most amazing thing you've ever heard. The CD I was making was entirely made of songs on-the-spot.. I think the skill (or talent maybe) comes from just having played a lot. You know what sounds like what and you know how to get from A->B and maybe sometimes you'll stumble on a C, but you'll get back to A eventually.
Don't mistake theming in a improv as being "rehearsed" or "thought out".
i like Coltrane...