basic improv

[I_cant_play]

hi everyone.

I've been playing an acoustic guitar for about a year and a half and now I wanna learn how to improvise. I started messing around with the minor pentatonic, the first and second boxes (the second being identical to the major pentatonic). It's going pretty well but considering I don't have a teacher, would anyone have any general advice they could give me cause I don't wanna have any bad habits later on from the mistakes I may be making now.
Now, I'm pretty much just doodling on the scale and switching from one box to the other. I'm just trying to teach my picking hand to automatically pick the string that I'm fretting because I often hit an open string which is not good. Is there any sort of specific approach to this or am I on the right track?

thanks in advance

[luecke]

sounds like youre headed down the right path there ... if you havent done it already, play a simple repeating chord prog and record it, then you can play it back and practice playing along with it. listen for what notes from the scale fit best with each chord and try to use them at the appropriate time ... but best of all, try to find someone else to practice with. you guys can share ideas and get used to playing along with someone else live (which can be much harder than playing along with a cd for some people) ... just dont give up when it gets hard, no one said this is easy

[I_cant_play]

:cool:

cool man thanks. I'm gonna keep at it. One thing that's kinda frustrating is that in the pentatonic scales there isn't that many minor intervals. I really love that sad sound. Everything I play sounds happy and I love depressing songs lol:rolleyes:

anyway...thanks man :D

[GuitarGriff]

If you mix in the major and minor you can get the sad sounds.

If you're in Am Pentatonic I've found that these notes just on the top few string can sound pretty dark/depressing:

E:---5-7-8--------------------------------
B:---------5-7-8--------------------------
G:----------------------------------------
D:----------------------------------------
A:----------------------------------------
E:----------------------------------------

Mix em up, you can try something like:

E:---7-5---8-5---7-5----5-----------------
B:--------------------8-------------------
G:----------------------------------------
D:----------------------------------------
A:----------------------------------------
E:----------------------------------------


That very famous opening to the song Shenandoa his this 3 note phrase which (The first one on the high E string). I've also heard the Beatles use it alot and Pink Floyd too but moved to different keys, which in Am pentatonic would go 8-7-5 on the E string:

E:-3-2-0------------------------0---------
B:------------------------------0---------
G:---------or----------or-------0---------
D:------------------------------2---------
A:------------------------------2---------
E:--------------3-2-0-------3-2-0---------

The third little thing I believe is the opening to the chorus in the Pink Floyd song "Us and Them." I'm not sure if theirs is in the same key though. Anyway, try messing with some of this stuff, it's cool.

[GuitarGriff]

Note to self: Don't put words in tablature lines... It messed up my beautiful chord

[deftones]

if you used the code tags it would have been fine.

[Griffin_Page]

You want a sadder sound? Add that augmented fourth and make it a blues scale. The basic box is here:

|-----------------------------------------12-15
|----------------------------------12-15-------
|------------------------12-14-15--------------
|-----------------12-14------------------------
|-------12-13-14-------------------------------
|12-15-----------------------------------------

Or, just go full minor.

|-----------------------------------5-6-8
|----------------------------4-6-8-------
|---------------------3-5-7--------------
|--------------3-5-7---------------------
|-------3-5-6----------------------------
|3-5-6-----------------------------------

Thats an E Blues Scale and a G Minor (Aeolian) Scale.

[kai_subfusc]

a major's relative minor is the same scale.. so technically..both have the same sound...heh
(eg. A maj scale and F# minor scale are the same
so is C maj and A min... etc etc)

i find those intervals of one semi-tone gives quite moody sounds...
dunno.. i guess its as much your order of notes as the intervals..

[I_cant_play]

sweet thanks for the answers. I actually noticed some of those extra notes that can be added to the pentatonic scales when I was trying to figure out Metallica's Fade to Black solo by ear. A Bm pentatonic is used but some extra notes are in there so I kinda figured it's not a sin to go out of the scale.

thanks everyone I'm gonna keep at it. :D