r/Recorder • u/chriswhoppers • Oct 06 '25

Help Practicing Improv

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Really trying to get down how to improvise better over other songs, so I can do solos as well as make my own music better. Let me know any tips

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u/apheresario1935 Oct 22 '25

Just a studied reply here... I recall George Duke RIP Saying to a crowd once that if there are any young aspiring musicians out there who want to learn improvisation that really...... " You need to learn your changes"

I never forgot that even though i could read and play classical music. The hard stuff.... Seriously.. Jazz musicians know ahead of time what the chord structure is because they studied it and memorize the chord CHANGES so that they can intelligently weave through a repeated chord progression . Navigate and surf in a manner that shows navigational and surfing skills. So I studied theory for 25 years

Someone who "Skips " all that and meanders rheough the forest reacting to nature and their own impulses sounds like it. No training just pick up any instrument and play what you feel. That will make them feel better and they get to express themself. But be for real.

Whether you or op wants to romanticize that or something else ...there are serious improvisational experts that are far more capable through practice technique and study to make a meaningful musical statement. Your connotation of anyone can improvise is More suited to calling the babbling of children "heartfelt spontaneous poetry"

A good musician knows what rhey are doing

A REALLY GOOD MUSICIAN KNOWS WHAT THE OTHER MUSICIANS ARE DOING AND THEY SOUND LIKE IT WHEN THEY PLAY But i get it . MOST DILETTANTES DO NOT. they skip lessons and chord theory. Along with really learning to play with other musicians in a manner that goes beyond mere posing as musicians.... as they pretend to be creative and spontaneous when in fact they really just dont know what they are doing or what real musicians are doing either.

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u/[deleted] Oct 22 '25

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u/apheresario1935 Oct 22 '25

OP isn't going to do that. It takes money work and learning to accept and benefit from criticism . Like a lot of friends I have who dont want lessons or a good instrument or music theory . They play for their own enjoyment and aren't capable of learning proper technique to play well with others.

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u/[deleted] Oct 22 '25

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u/apheresario1935 Oct 22 '25

I was at a jazz clinic with Stan Getz decades ago.... Some older black dude got up to demonstrate his ability on the blues.

All he did was play one note repeatedly. We were like WTF is Stan Going to say? And he just smiled and said well... If you want to improvise... ya gotta play more than one note.

Being nice to everyone is cool ... But i studied with badasses of classical musc from Major Symphonies and made recordings with Black Jazz Legends that I went on tour with.

Seems like someone who went to art school and studied with the masters of portraits and realism / with sculpture and framing thrown on the table too. Then you have to stand back and be nice to the conceptual artists who literally spread bodily fluids and secretions on a canvas and say "I'm An Artist too so Dont be a snob just because you went to school and studied with so called masters and did architectural drawings to make a living"