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Improvisation is a key for self learning. It is not the sole domain of arcanely educated jazz musicians. It is something more like an accelerated process of trial and error.
There is nothing intrinsic to the worthiest aspets of music which require "knowledge" or "understanding." These are conditions which can enhance the primal experience, but they will never be its substrate.
This is may be why the Academic Serial movement of the early 20th century was a noble, overly intellectualized failure. Music is of the ear, and pseudo-rationalist templates, which "look good on paper," have yet to do anything but impotently defy it. Nevertheless, I recommend you study it.
We will immediately leap on the notion of tension and release and employ the tools we've always had available, chords and scales, to generate an opportunity to both learn and relax every time we pick up an instrument.
This can be a can opener for changes as complex and challenging as Giant Steps, but it will never lose sight of the importance of seeing and hearing as a child.
Thus we will start with nothing but an easily fingered Fma7 to Cma7 progression(also known as a vamp), and see how far that can lead us. below are the chords:
Below is a Cma7 chord. You can play all the other strings open with a simple strum. The 3rd finger is a C, the 2nd finger is an E, the open G string and the open B string fulfill a complete spelling of C MAJ7 chord.
Movement between two rudimentary chords is sufficient to establish the fundamental rhythmic balance of tension and release. With the addition of more chords we are allowed to enhance this into larger structures with more elaborate orientations, but the fundamental organic quality of tension release starts here. Practice the movement between any two chords relentlessly, so that you develop rhythmic dynamics. In other words, a groove, or vamp. This notion will return when we look at jazz.
HOW IT’S FINGERED
| [E] |
[A] |
[D] |
[G] |
[B] |
[E] |
| * |
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| * |
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2 |
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| * |
3 |
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| * |
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SEEHOW IT'S SPELLED
| [E] |
[A] |
[D] |
[G] |
[B] |
[E] |
| * |
* |
* |
* |
1 |
* |
| * |
* |
* |
2 |
* |
* |
| * |
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3 |
* |
* |
* |
| * |
* |
* |
* |
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* |
| * |
* |
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Now get ready for some fun. Do you see how the 2nd and third fingers "hop" over to the adjacent strings to the Fmaj7 chord? "Add" the first finger and you're home free to a core improvository structure.
Now that's just a fancy way of saying do four beats of one and then four beats of the other. As you get bored, start finding other voicings that work for you.
Think about the Fma7 as tension and Cma7 as release. You will later find in the chord building section that Fmaj7 is the same as a G9 without the root. Generally, we can get away with eliding either the root or the fifth from our voicings. If you are playing with a keyboard, s/he will love you for it. They tend to peg the root in the left hand anyway.
John Denver fans may notice that this is the verse structure of Leaving on a Jet Plane.
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