Mine sucks - but it's getting better all the time.

Every day I take a couple of minutes and try to refine/utilize some ideas... Stitch 'em together, and see if I can't get some sort of flow.... (And record it) Nothing too polished here, I made it up as I went (Obviously, it's why it's not very good music!) But I like to think that it's the ideas that are important, and the continuous attempt at making something original come of those ideas is a critical part of my practice day. Plus it's fun, just to see/hear what happens. I thought I'd share today's improv moment, maybe y'all might share an idea or two also?

Any thoughts on this topic are welcome.

Sounds good. I do the same thing. Some of my favorite musical ideas come from "mistakes" or unintended musical combinations when I improv.

It's all I do on my instruments. Your video there was awesome and exactly what I do. Unless I'm working on a specific tune, of course. But everything I have started as exactly what you're doing in this video: start noodling until something cool pops out, or something sorta cool but that you can work with.

But I'm not a jazz player either. I like to call it "jamming," and just free-flow improvising. The fingers just splotch out all over the place and you outline chords and add passing notes and fills and runs and variations and key changes and more random splortches and then, hey--that was cool, so you back it up and try to repeat that last part....Then you take a look at it and say--hmmm, I can move that up a fifth or or fourth and then I need a better bassline...

But about 90% of the time, I just freeflow jam on maybe a chord progression, and will keep repeating it and adding little things and taking out things until a whole melody kind of pops out.

I heard several little nuggets in what you were doing, Scott. Keep mining for them and rocking it out!

Sounds great Scott. I do the same thing as well. I find I stay in the same place most of the time so I try to get my right hand at least to other parts of the board. When soloing I always use this formula. Low,slow and grow. That way my solos have an increasing level of energy. That’s what I strive for....that’s not what happens. On trumpet in a jazz setting most of the time on Stick not so much yet. Maybe I’ll try posting a stick improv.

I'm like paiganO...well it's the basis of my whole life in music...improvising. I was playing guitar for 6 months when I realized I needed to learn how to improvise...almost 50 years ago...lol. It's really my strong side in music and that is exactly what I do on guitar, bass, stick and other instruments I like to play. It's natural for me to play this way...a lot harder to learn songs though...lol.

When I played saxophone, I made the mistake early on in my improv chops development to rely too much on my own imagination. My solos were adequate but lacked depth. Later, I dropped my ego for a bit and started incorporating phrases from other players. The phrases allowed me a broader vocabulary from which to build more interesting solos.

I am at a similar early phase in my Stick development. Noodling a bit too much from just my own imagination. Fun, yes. But I do find myself repeating a lot of ideas from session to session and not expanding much upon them.

Hey! Glad to see so many interesting replies!

After practice, the "improvising" aspect is away to get some ideas together, and see if I can't "spontaneously compose" while also just cutting loose and having some fun!

A couple of things I was trying for in this video on the melody side was imposing a quarter- note triplet in there somewhere, not starting every statement on "1" (giving an 8th note or 16th rest) and stretching out with my scalar notes via sequencing and an arpeggio. On the bass side, I was trying to incorporate a percussive slap, 4ths as diads, and some scalar sequencing while melody side stuff is going on.

Really, I am trying to do what I do as as a bassist or a guitarist simultaneously. Lots to learn and try out.

I'm the same. I improvise 99% of the time.

Not referring to the demo video
Improv is a lot more than just making stuff up, skipping around scale tones and noodling. Good improv relies on concepts of harmony, melody and rhythm to hopefully make a musically expressive statement. Why do Jeff Beck solos sound great? Herbie Hancock, Charlie Parker, BB King, Wes Montgomery? Studying these great improvisors and why there are highlights and themes in their solos is crucial. I study and teach these important concepts everyday. When I jammed with Pat Metheny, he said this about improv, "Be the player and the listener. Play a phrase and then as listener think where the music should go next, then play it" . This is how we have dialogue. So many tangible ideas.

Steve A

You're talking about Charlie Parker...well...just to give an idea about what I've done with the Omnibook. I was analyzing each note in relation about the chords at the bottom of it. It was amazingly surprising and I realized that he was using a lot of arpeggios on substitution chords...or...chords between the chords...even though they were not written on the chart. In fact these notes were tensions and played in the arpeggio style...it was unique in that area where Bebop is born. It was a huge job to analyse these solos but it paid off.