Melody from chords

Hello once again fellow twanger. I'm back with a "get that guitar out of its case and play it" pep talk, and I'm going to show you what I reckon is the best way to start inventing your part as you go - otherwise known as improvising. I recently came back from a two day workshop at a regional high school, and the overwhelming majority of players said what they wanted most was to learn the secret to improvising.

First of all, I'll try to define what I mean by 'improvising'.

Because it requires a chunk of time, I'd have to say improvising is a process. It is the process of stringing together various elements of music on the fly, as they say. The most basic would be playing a single note melody line to a predetermined chord progression; a more complex form would be combining single notes with double stops and chords.

The main thing to remember is that the chords are calling the shots. In this example I'm about to go into, the chord is D7.

What does that mean to say that we're going to play along to a D7? There vast majority of players and teachers will start going through all the scales that you should use. I don't recommend that myself. My brain just doesn't think in scales, I guess because a long time ago I realized that music isn't scales, it's chords. I wouldn't know where to begin improvising thinking scales and modes. Scales and modes are not music, they are the raw ingredients. Chords and time turn scales and modes into music.

Go to the lesson at http://planetalk.thatllteachyou.com/less_melchord.html

Next time I'll show how to deal with two chords.

In other news, my book PlaneTalk keeps on going out to World, revealing the 'trick' to seeing the music laid out the whole length of the fretboard. One recent customer told me he ordered it because he'd read some nice things about it at a guitar discussion forum. Here are a couple of messages from that thread:

"I purchased Plane Talk about six months ago and have to say it is by far the best book I have come across. I do have Fretboard Logic, but I like Plane Talk much better. It is clearer an easy to follow. I have learned more from this book than all the other ones I have. Plus, the slide rule is a GREAT tool. Highly recommended!-- Mark."

And...

"...Believe me, it is WITHOUT DOUBT the best general guitar instruction/theory book I have ever come across in my 36 years of guitar playing: The best by a long shot!!!...you WILL derive great benefit from Kirk's approach to music in this book. Buy it with confidence. I can't recommend it highly enough. -- GuitarJIM"

It was very satisfying to read such nice comments on a forum I didn't even know existed. So, if you're one of those who is still looking for that last piece of the puzzle, drop into http://planetalk.thatllteachyou.com to read more about it.

There is a new lesson at http://guitarforbeginners.com, a movie/tab/midi lesson of some simple finger style playing.

That's it for this week, twang on!

Kirk
http://kirklorange.com