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IMPROVISATION

Throughout time people have got together with their musical instruments and made up tunes or ' jammed ' to suit their times and mood. This kind of music is not always formal or written down. The guitar is a great instrument for jamming, but first we need to know a few simple scales or series of notes, which we can use easily.

1. THE PENTATONIC SCALE

This is a five-note scale that has been around for a long time and can be found in many cultures around the world. It can be used to sound either happy or sad when playing around with the notes and suits simple guitar forms like folk, pop, and rock. It can be played to great effect with lots of rhythmic variety and changes in speed. Here is an example of a pentatonic scale:

2. THE PENTATONIC BLUES SCALE

The Pentatonic blues scale is an Afro American invention and came about when slaves mixed their own songs with those of their masters. These improvisations were sad and down cast and reflected the misery of their conditions. We call this style of improvisation 'The Blues'. Rock and Roll developed from this culture too, and has become most associated with the guitar. Here is an example of a pentatonic blues scale:

3. THE MAJOR SCALE

This is a sound we are very familiar with. It was probably the first written down scale in music and was made by the ancient Greeks they called it 'The Ionian scale' after a province in Greece. When we improvise on our guitar we can play up and down the scale and invent all sorts of tunes but because there are more notes simple improvisation with other musicians becomes difficult. Early jazz guitar players like Django Rheinhart used this kind of scale playing to great effect. You can hear how fast and complex the use of many scale notes can be in improvisation. Here is an example of a major scale:

4. THE MINOR SCALE

This is the same as the above but has several notes changed and produces a sad melancholy sound. Once again there are eight notes and quite difficult to use without some dexterity. Here is an example of a minor scale:

5. MODAL SCALES

These are a Greek invention as with the major scale above. They discovered that by starting from different points of their Ionian scale they could improvise sounds that reflected many different moods. Including the Ionian scale there are seven different ones all named after ancient Greek provinces. IONIAN, DORIAN, PHYRIGIAN, LYDIAN, MIXOLYDIAN, AEOLIAN and LOCRIAN.

They are great for improvising on all instruments here are the most popular:

THE DORIAN great for minor chords, widely used in Pop, Folk, Jazz and Rock:

THE MIXOLYDIAN great for 7th chords, Rock and Roll .

LYDIAN great for quirky jazz and off beat sounds.

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