Improvising - following a progression???

You could write out the notes of each chord and make a sort of map for connecting each of the notes. For example: I IV V in E:

B E F#
G# C# D#
E A B

Now draw lines connecting the notes... Start by using the next closest note to the one you're playing. If you're playing E over the I chord, the closest note in the IV chord would be E as well, then you could go to F# over the V chord (it's just the next closest note to the one you're currently playing). Connecting the notes like this is like learning to walk before you run. It may seem easy or overly simple, but as you practice it, it will become second nature and your solos will always sound lyrical.

A method I learned years ago is called target notes. You "target" certain notes that give a chord it's distinctive sound or flavor.

For instance:

E Major Chord= E, G#, and B (the 1st, 3rd, and 5th tones)

E Minor Chord= E, G, and B (the 1st, flatted 3rd, and 5th tones)

So what you do is make sure to hit the distinctive note. If you are playing over an E Major chord, make sure to play the G# note. It is especially good to start or end a phrase on this note. But you can put it anywhere.

If you are playing over an E Minor chord, you want to include the G note in your phrase.

So, determine that distinctive target note. For a Major chord it is the 3rd tone. For a Minor chord it is the flatted 3rd tone. For a 7th chord it is the flatted 7th tone. For a 9th chord it is the 9th tone.

If you were playing over an E Minor 7th chord, it is good to include both the G note (flatted 3rd) and the D note (flatted 7th).

Believe it or not, when you solo like this you can actually hear the chord progression, even if there is no rhythm guitar. The distinctive target notes will make the listener hear the chords.

This method really works and will add tremendous color to your solos. Try it. :D

I am also challenged with this and have come upon some ideas
from all of those books I purchased that haven't helped one bit.

There really isn't much room for creativity in music. Sure, it might seem to be otherwise, but there's only 8 notes,
and once you specify a melody and chord, you're really limited. There are also very few chord progressions.

Most "creative" music is simply repeating phrases that they've memorized and gotten down pat.
"The same old song with a few new words and everyone wants to hear it" - Pete Townsend
You can also do the "jazz" thing and focus on the notes that aren't played.
(These are meant to be humorous)

So, where then is the "creativity" in music?
"Words and music, music and words" from Eddie and the Cruisers.
The real secret is the words: music is a form of poetry that you can sing.

We begin writing a song with an idea or topic or theme, which is stated in a repeatable phrase.
The words of the phrase are sung, which forms the melody.
The emotion of the phrase dictates the musical form: Major or Minor key, blues, rock, etc.
For the solo, you simply repeat the musical phrase on the guitar.

So, the technique of playing over chord progressions is actually backwards to how a song is put together.
There isn't a context that guides your choice of notes, so you can't really tell if it fits.

In summary, what I'm recommending is that you focus on the melody (repeatable phrase or hook) that goes on top of the chord progression you're playing along with.

or the fact that I have to concentrate so much on following the progression means my soloing becomes really generic and uninteresting.

Everybody's brain has a different way of processing information and some people get this a lot quicker than others. Probably the most important thing I have learn't about guitar (or any musical instrument) is that you just have to keep doing things over even if they feel like they are going nowhere but try make a little sense out of everything new you learn even if you still find you can't apply it to anything. Eventually your brain just figures it out for itself, I don't believe there is any possible way that somebody could give you a piece of advice to make your improvising suddenly sound better.

I spent a long time thinking there must be something that I am just not getting that once understood I will suddenly be out of the loop and start sounding better and more interesting. There are so many ways to play a musical instrument you couldn't learn it all in a life time, and everything you do learn will face contradiction at some point as rules are constantly broken... there is nearly always a safe way to play but never a right way.

The above posts are good advice, learn chord tones but don't expect them to sound great straight away, this doesn't happen until they are embedded in you and then you can start to play around with them, know the scales, practice arpegios just practice lots of different things but get them in your head so that they become second nature. Always record a backing track to play along with or use band in a box and just punch something in.

I used to spend a lot of time doing things like "for the next hour I am only going to play the note E". I'd then just play around with that note right across the fretboard, do it to a backing track to make it more interesting bend or slide into it, vibrato..whatever, just get the note implanted in my brain. Next day do A, next day B etc. Then play over a I IV V, gradually do the same with the 3rd's and 5th's, mix it with some scales and licks here and there and just about anything I could think of. If you get bored then make it interesting.

Doing this will probably still take a while before you see the benefit of it but I almost guarantee your brain will figure out ways to make it interesting after you have done it enough and your improvising will improve a hell of a lot in time.

Lee

There really isn't much room for creativity in music. Sure, it might seem to be otherwise, but there's only 8 notes, and once you specify a melody and chord, you're really limited. There are also very few chord progressions.

12 notes.

Using 8th notes only, in 4/4 time in 4 bars, using only the notes available on a 22 fret standard tuned guitar, you can combine those notes 1.41 x 10^78 different ways.

I can see how you feel restricted.
Most "creative" music is simply repeating phrases that they've memorized and gotten down pat.

Uh huh
So, where then is the "creativity" in music?
"Words and music, music and words" from Eddie and the Cruisers.
The real secret is the words: music is a form of poetry that you can sing.

Django, Herb, Wes, Charlie, and a few other gents are going to be really upset to hear they're not creative. Not to mention that guy Mozart.

"1.41 x 10^78 "

So how many combinations is that? And where did the 1.41 number come from. I'm always thinking about how easy it 'should' be - there's only 12 notes, you probably only use 7 or so at a time, how hard can it be? Being slow at math, is 10^78 ten times ten seventy-eight times? That's WAY too many options!

Yes, it's 10 times 10 78 times.

The 1.41 comes from the being the most significant digits after doing the multiplication.

Basicaly, if you want ot know how many ways you can comibine something and you can repeat, you just multiply it by itself that many times.

For example, if you have 5 items and you want to know how many ways youc an combine those 5 items in 3 different ways, it's 5^3 or 5x5x5 = 125.

For a guitar, you count up the number of unique notes on the guitar from the low E to the high C# (46). Now figure out how many notes we're talking about (4 frets of 8th notes in 4/4 time = 32 notes). Now multiple the first number times itself 32 times. (So 46x46x46x46x46x46x46x46.....)

And just checking now, I did the math wrong, it's really 7.43 x 10^54. Which is really so much more limiting :lol:

Crap...only 7.43 x 10^54. I might have to consider quitting under such restrictions.

1.41(4214) = square root of 2.

it's really 7.43 x 10^54.One of those combinations is "Achy Breaky Heart"... I don't think we should be including that :)

it's really 7.43 x 10^54.One of those combinations is "Achy Breaky Heart"... I don't think we should be including that :)

I think I'd take Billy Ray over Pete Doherty, any day. :lol:

You folks are still a bit off on the math... because you're forgetting rests and ties :)

All guitars have at least 19 frets (that's considered the 'standard' range), which gives you 43 different notes.

Using only rhythms based on eighth notes, the downbeat of a measure can be any of those 43 tones... or a rest. 44 choices.

Now the next eighth note can be a new note or a rest, which is 44 new choices. But if the downbeat was a note (which will happen 43/44 of the time), the second note can also be a continuation of the first note - in other words, the first note might be a quarter note instead of an eighth note.

I'm no mathematician, but I'm thinking the number of possibilities for note 2 will be N1+(N1-1)/N1. Roughly 44.98 choices. That would give you 1,979 ways to write a single beat using 0, 1, or 2 notes.

So the number of ways to write 1 bar of 4/4 time using nothing smaller than an eighth note will be about 16,384,497,320,000.

Measure 2 has even more choices - because the first note could be held over from the previous measure. Here you end up with around 16,748,409,200,000 choices. Yeah, a paltry 350 trillion or so more than measure 1, but I figure hey, it's math, let's go ahead and split hairs.

That means the possibilites for two measures is about 2.72 x 10^26. Roughly 27,000 times larger than the number of stars in the known universe. By the time you get partway through measure 6 you'll have a unique melody for every atom in the universe.

But you know, lawyers are everywhere. So you'll want to eliminate all the songs already written, and it would be best to do get rid of the exact transpositions in every key. Err on the safe side and subtract a few trillion. That still leaves plenty of material to keep the average composer busy for a while.

If you're still feeling restricted, you can use sixteenth notes. Or we can look at all the different ways a single melody can be harmonized :)

I think I'd take Billy Ray over Pete Doherty, any day. :lol:A good point well made :)

Noteboat -- nope, I'm talking using only a combination of 8th notes. Not "nothing smaller than an 8th note."

That means we have 36 places to fill and (on a 22 fret guitar) 46 things to fill those spaces with, in any order, and with repeats allowable.

The ( N1+(N1-1)/N1) type formulation is for combinations where you aren't repeating notes. But a full 4 measures of nothing but middle c is allowable. You can repeat notes. So it's a straight multiplication problem.

Number of choices (43 if you use "standard range", 44 if you use standard range plus 8th rest, 46 if you use 22 fret guitar, 47 if you use 47 fret guitar plus eigth rests) raised to the number of places to fill (36).

Now, if you want to add in the possibilities of larger notes, ties, and larger rests, the numbers get a lot more complicated. But if we set the lower limit at 44^36 we're safe (although every guitar I own has at least 22 frets, but what the heck :) )

That's WAY more than the 2.72 x 10^26 you calculated. I think you did permutations without allowing for repeated notes.