How to start improvising - what do I need?

[Jesse Weitzenfeld]

Jeff - I think improvising would be the correct term. I'll use my dad as an example again. He can put on a blues backing track and just start soloing over it. It no particular song, just jamming to the rhythm track. He's always trying to get me to do the same while he plays rhythm guitar, but I have no clue where to start. He keeps saying, just play something, don't worry so much about it, but I don't even know where to start.

That reminds me of another crucial element of improvisation: fearlessness. If you’re going to learn to improvise, you have to get over your fear of making mistakes. You have to be willing to crash and burn…a lot. Because you will. That’s how you learn. And if you want to improvise at a high level, you’ll eventually have to crash and burn in public. There’s no way around it.

I believe this fear of making mistakes, which is a type of perfectionism, is what keeps a lot of people from learning to improvise. Your dad is trying to help you. He’s saying, “Play something.” He knows that once you’ve played something, you’ve started. Doesn’t matter if it’s wrong or right, it’s something. And something, you can work with. He obviously believes you’re capable of more than you realize…maybe he’s right...dads often are.

[bayAreaDude]

bayAreaDude,

Went to that site and the first EOTW listed there is 6-Aug-1974, Jersey City. I was at that dang show! Looks like a cool site, need to parse through it. Which version is the one you reference?

I like Eyes in general for learning to improvise with the emphasis on phrasing and patterns instead of scales. That Emaj7 Bm jam lets you almost forget scales and you can just play with the d/d# relationship and you're good to go. And like others have pointed out this lets you just test out ideas and you can crash and sometimes burn, just like Jerry.

That Jersey City one smokes. Did you have tickets to the rain out the night before? That whole show is good, and the version on archive is a nice audience tape that lets you hear their new at that time wall of sound - Phil's bass just jumps out at you and you hear so much energy from the fans - they really get into Uncle John's Band. Some cool info on that show here http://www.deadlistening.com/2008/03...t-stadium.html .

The 2/9/73 version is the first one they ever played and it comes out fully baked. That whole show is special with a few debuts of big tunes. I also like 10/29/77. Really, you can't go wrong with any of those top rated Eyes. 73,74,77 all stellar consistent years.

[jshane]

I suggest everybody watch these videos. Enjoy!

Victor Wooten at TED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zvjW9arAZ0

Here is another video about improvising with Victor Wooten doing his groove workshop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvKEpAYZjlE

This is a great concept for starting to improvise. I hope this helps some of you, the secret is……. Have Fun.

VICTOR is da bomb..... (and after all, the bass is just a really really really big mandolin, tuned wrong...)

[AlanN]

That Jersey City one smokes. Did you have tickets to the rain out the night before?

You betcha. I remember Weir came out on stage and sparks were jumping off the mics. After being there all day, talk about baked!

40 frikkin years ago....

[Manfred Hacker]

This is of course referring to bluegrass standards. Bluegrass is a great intro because you typically only use the I,III,V, and VI chords.

???
Am I missing something here?

[SincereCorgi]

???
Am I missing something here?

I think there he might have meant I IV V and vi (like, in Nashville numbers). You can play a lot of easy bluegrass songs with just those, most of the ones about cabins.