Article#1 - Play badly!

Most guitar teachers would agree that it is a lot easier teaching kids to improvise than adults. The reason for this is that adults hate doing anything badly - they are conditioned to 'do it right' or 'do it properly'. Kids, on the other hand, seem to take the attitude - 'this is fun, what a lot of strange noises I'm making!'

The truth about learning to improvise is that you have no real choice:

You have to spend a fair amount of time doing it badly before you will start doing it well!

So, once you have learnt a few scale patterns and practiced them until you can produce a reasonably rhythmic flow of notes, then start improvising. You'll be doing it badly at first - because there are just so many tiny details to learn to control and these can only be learnt experientially - but do it anyway!

So do it badly, but do lots of it, think like an eight year old - play badly with total enthusiasm for all the wrong sounds you're making!

Then, as you listen to the results, you will begin to hear isolated bits that don't sound so bad. Repeat those bits and make them habitual. Discard the worst bits and move on. Don't agonise like an adult - one thing is for sure, you won't get worse by doing it - you will only improve.

Another point is that you can't really learn to improvise on your own. Lead guitar works when it is heard against a rhythm backing. Ideally, find a friend who is prepared to spend some time playing a few simple chords for you to play along to. You can take it in turns to swap lead and rhythm guitar roles.

The next best thing is to use backing tracks. There are a loads of sample backing tracks available free on this site!

These tracks have been specially recorded to go with the Improve Your Improvising! course and are arranged to allow you to branch out into playing in different keys, different tempos and different musical styles from blues through country, rock, funk and reggae to Jazz.