Lesson video

Hi everyone, I'm miss Friar and welcome to your music lesson for today.

We are going to be looking at lesson seven in unit three, blues music.

We're going to go straight in to a clapping improvising game now.

Really simple, I'm going to clap a four-beat rhythm, and then I want you to respond with a four beat rhythm, but you cannot copy the same one as me.

You have to improvise your own completely okay? So I'll do an example.

I might clap this rhythm.

And then you would respond with, okay? So you're going to fill in the gaps, we're going to do call and response, but as a question and an answer, so you can't clap the same thing as me.

Okay, here we go.

I'm going to go first.

One, two, three, four.

Good.

Your go.

Good great, if you ended up clapping the same one as me, don't worry, it can be quite challenging to think really creatively about different rhythms, but that's why it's good to practise it.

Let's make it a bit more challenging, shall we? Let's make it an eight-beat rhythm.

So we're fitting two bars of rhythm in.

So we're looking at two bars of rhythm.

Here's an example.

Here's an example.

Here's an example.

And then you would respond with an eight-beats rhythm that was different because you would have improvised there.

Try to see if you can include some swung rhythms, like the shuffle blues that we've been looking at.

Long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short, or maybe you've some triplets.

One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three.

Something like that.

Okay I'm going to go first, eight beats improvised bluesy rhythms off we go.

One, two, three, four.

Good, my go.

Your go.

Let's do one more here we go.

Good and we've finished there.

Very good, really good stuff.

Great starting activity.

Getting us thinking about bluesy rhythms and how we need to improvise them, which we know is often done in blues music.

Great start to today.

Let's go on and carry on with the lesson.

Let's make sure you've got everything you need for today's lesson to go really well.

You are going to need a piece of paper, a book if you're working from to make notes, and the worksheet if you've go back to go with the lesson.

You're going to need a pencil and a pen of a different colour so that you can mark and make notes.

And then for today's lesson, you're going to need either a keyboard or piano, if you've got one at hand, your preferred instrument, so maybe an instrument that you already play, or the instrument that you used for last lesson, when we were playing through a blues head and blues improvisation.

If you need anything on that list, please pause the video now, go and get it and then come back and we'll carry on.

Okay so the structure for today's lesson, what we're going to do step-by-step is this.

The first thing we're going to do is look at why there is even improvisation in blues.

And we know there is, we did it last week, but why and how has that become a part of blues music? Then we're going to review what we think makes a good improvisation.

So what it should sound like and how we're going to get to that point.

We're going to recap the blues scale.

It's really important you remember that, otherwise we're not going to be able to make our improvisations very successful.

And then we're going to be really brave today and see if we can have a go at improvising for a longer period of the blues music.

Really exciting stuff, right? Let's look at why we're improvising at all.

I love this quote.

I think it says a lot about how to be successful in an improvisation.

"Improvising is like a spoken conversation, "you just need to know the words." Okay, so when you're having a conversation with somebody, you're chatting to a friend, or you're talking to your family or whoever, you don't think about what you're saying, you don't think about each individual word and how you're going to put them together, and what order you're going to put the words in, and how they're going to sound, or how quickly you're going to say them.

You just do it, it feels really natural.

And that's what improvising becomes when you practise it and practise it and practise it.

It just becomes something that amazing blues and jazz musicians do, because they know the words, they know the notes of the blues scale.

They know the rhythms that really work, and so they can just play them freely in this blues conversation of question and answer.

I really like thinking of improvising like that.

Okay, let's read through why, why there's improvisation at all in blues music.

From the beginning, the blues has been a largely improvised music.

After the abolition of slavery, poor African American farmers, so poorer communities, would often gather together on each other's porches and in churches and in their homes to jam for hours.

My first question, do you know what is jamming? Write your answer down.

Take a little time to think about it.

Take 30 seconds.

Okay let's check out the answer.

So jamming is where musicians would get together and just spontaneously play music.

It became more of a social gathering for these communities and these farmers, and it became something they really enjoyed doing with their neighbours and family members.

Well, next question is, at the time they didn't have printed scores.

Okay, so written notated sheet music or scores.

So how do you think they played music together? Writing your answer down.

Okay, let's have a look at my answer.

Pause the video if you need more time.

If you're ready let's carry on.

My answer for this is, they would make up tunes and lyrics on the spot.

Okay part of improvisation.

So early blues musicians couldn't always read or write music.

So there was no point in writing any music down or printing out a score, they didn't have printers at the time.

So they developed this amazing listening skills by learning traditional songs from other musicians.

So because the only way to learn popular songs, so they would be passing the music down through oral traditions.

So their neighbours, their communities, their older siblings, their grandparents, their friends, parents, they would teach them songs from from ear.

So they would just hear and they would watch musicians play the music, and they would just copy it and memorise it and practise it and copy it and the same, with improvising and the same with making things up on the spot is they all taught each other, the famous songs, the traditional blues songs, the work songs and the scales was all by ear.

And so because they had that natural ability, it just became easier to spontaneously make things up on the spot, and start to jam with one another 'cause they could hear all the chords and all the notes in the music.

Absolutely incredible skill I certainly wish I was better at improvising, something I want to spend more time practising doing.

And really impressive to watch a professional blues musician do it live.

Okay, so that's why there's improvisation in blues.

We've explored that.

The second part of our lesson is what makes a good improvisation.

So what we're going to do, is we're going to watch this video clip here okay.

So here's a young band, a young blues band, and they are performing "Bags' Groove", the Miles Davis version that we saw in the last lesson.

So the two questions for you is, one: What do you think was successful about his improvisation? And the person I want you to look at, the student is this student here, this second trumpet player, okay? So they will all have a go at improvising.

I want to focus on his, just 'cause it's easier to review one person.

So what do you think was successful about his improvisation, and how could he have improved his solo? 'Cause it was a solo improvisation.

Try to answer the questions, thinking of key blues musical features.

So think about everything we've learned in the unit so far, what are key musical features we expect to hear in blues music, and has he successfully shown these in this video? Okay, let's watch.

One, two, fall on, two, three.

Okay, so it was that last performance we were focusing on.

I will play just his improvisation again in a minute.

I mean, all of them do a brilliant job, especially 'cause it's live in front of an audience, and they are improvising for the full 12 bars.

So it's the full 12 bar structure they are improvising for, and that is what we aim to do in our own practise.

So what was successful about his improvisation and what could he have done to improve his solo? Let's watch this trumpet players, 12 bar blues improvisation again.

Good stuff okay pause the video now, and take two more minutes to check your answers.

What was successful and how could he have improved that improvisation? Okay, let's have a look at my ideas of what I thought was successful and how he could have improved, and see if they matched with your answers.

So in terms of what was really successful, I think his notes were really clear.

You could hear it phrasing.

Okay, so that was a nice sort of two-bar phrase.

He used swung rhythm.

So you could hear the long short ta-ta, ta-ta, which was really lovely.

He repeated some of his musical ideas, which remember we said, it's still good to do, even if it's improvisation and making it up on the top, we like repetition.

And I think he played really confidently.

Which again is really great to do in front of a live audience.

If you've got any of those great.

If you've got anything different, I'm sure it's still good answers.

Remember it's your opinion of what you think is there good improvisation.

So please go and share your answers with your teacher.

Number two, how could he have improved it? I think some of the notes were a bit too long, especially the one at the end.

I think his last note was either two, two and a half bars.

And I think we could have put some more interesting rhythms into that.

Thinking of rhythms, I think he could have also maybe played some fast ones.

He used swung quavers, ta-ta-ta-la, ta-la.

but I think putting some runs in, ta-la-ta-la ta-la ta something like that, could have improved his improvisation.

And I think in doing faster rhythms, he would have then used more pitches of the blues scale.

He's ready to use more of the scale now rather than using the first half of the notes, which I think is what he focused on.

If you've got similar ideas great, if you want to make notes of what I've written, 'cause there's some key advice there in terms of improvising, please pause the video and do so, or let's carry on.

Okay, we have looked at why there's improvising.

We know now what a good improvisation looks like.

We're going to really quickly spend some time just recapping that blues scale.

You have to have that completely under your fingers or know exactly how it should sound, to then be able to improvise for a longer period of time.

If you remember from the last lesson or you're with us on the last lesson, I showed you three versions of the G major scale.

G major, G pentatonic, and the G major blues scale.

Take 20 seconds now, I'm going to time you, write down what you think the notes are in the blues scale.

So just write them as letter names.

G will be your first one, 'cause it's in G, and then write up what they think they are.

Okay it's a hexatonic scale.

So there's a clue of how many notes you should have.

Try and remember, write it on your piece of paper, 20 seconds off you go.

Okay, we're going to check now in, five, four, three, two, and.

So the notes we're looking for in the blues scale are those ones at the bottom.

G, B flat, C, D flat, D, F, G.

If you've got those great job, and great memory skills from the last lesson.

G, B flat, C, D flat, D, F, G.

Okay and they are the notes that we base our improvisation around, because we know it's going to fit really well with the rest of the band.

But that's a reminder of what it looks like, if you're playing on a keyboard or piano or an app.

In the last lesson I showed how you can successfully play the blues scale with a keyboard app.

I'm using GarageBand, there's loads of others that you can choose from, if you'd have been about working from an iPhone, or if you're working from a tablet or something like that.

But our notes are G, B flat, C, D flat, D, F, G.

Flattened third is the blue's note.

Flattened fifth is the blue's note, and flattened seventh is the blues note.

Because G major should have an F sharp.

Well done if you're starting to recognise where the flattened notes are in that scale, really impressive stuff.

So there's our blues scale written out for the keyboard.

Before we can really move on to longer improvisations and looking at how to do that, we must practise that scale.

So I want you to pause the video, and spend five minutes just playing up and down the scale, up and down the scale.

Even if you feel like you've never already, go and practise it, because you almost need to know it so well that you don't have to think about where the notes are, so that you can just focus on how the notes feel when you're playing you're improvisations.

Off you go.

Okay, we are already, we're at the final stage of today's lesson, where we're going to be making some music and creating some of our own longer improvisations.

So remember our brief was, that the teacher in school is going to get you in a band and perform "Bags' Groove".

In the original "Bags' Groove", and in the version you just saw in the video of that younger jazz and blues band playing, they didn't just play improvisations for two bars in between the blues so like the "Bags' Groove" had.

Each player took in terns to play 12 bars of improvisation, and that is something I'd like us to walk towards doing so.

So quite a lot of information on the screen here.

And I am going to demonstrate each one for you in a moment, but let's read through them so it's really clear.

Number one, use the notes of the blues scale.

So if you are in the middle of your improvisation, you've done four bars or you've done two, and your mind starts to go blank, the one thing you can do is just run up and down this blues scale notes, even if it's that in a swung rhythm, until you calm down and pick up your confidence and can start then maybe mixing the pictures up.

Remember, a really key way of making this improvisation really stylish for blues is to play it in swung notes or in triplets.

Okay if you play it really straight, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh it will fit, it will be in time, but it won't sound very bluesy.

Three, build it up.

Start with two bars, then four, then eight.

And if you create a phrase that you really like, and you play that three times and a few of the parts you just make up, great that's absolutely fine.

That leads on to number four, repeating ideas.

It's okay to repeat phrases or repeat certain pitches, but it's not okay to play the same thing over and over again, that isn't an improvisation.

Try mirroring phrases, create your own call and response or question and answer.

And finally, take it really slow, okay? Start with a really slow tempo, turn it right down and practise improvising.

And then when you feel confident and you've got your fingers or bows or vocals or whatever you're using around the notes of the scale and how to play them comfortably on the spot, then you can increase the tempo and you'll be able to play them confidently.

Okay, I'm going to show you each of these steps now on the piano, so you can see exactly how they work.

Okay let's go through some of those techniques and stages of how to create a longer improvisation.

So the first step that I told you was always good to do was if your mind goes a bit blank, and you're partway through an improvisation, is to go back to the notes of the blues scale that you know really well and just run up and down them, or even parts of it in an interesting rhythm.

Okay, so you could just tell the scale, and if you draw a bit of a blank or if you're not sure you can just run up and down that scale in a swung with rhythm.

I guess you're just running up and down and you're in swung rhythms. And that was the second point, using swung rhythms or triplets.

So using swung rhythms and triplets.

Okay, but we'll also give it that really bluesy feel.

Even if you use the same really notes of the scale, But you use all those kinds of rhythms and patterns, that's going to still sound like a blues improvisation.

The other thing remember is to build it up.

Don't go in thinking I'm going to make a 12-bar blues, it's going to be amazing, it might be, and if it is brilliant.

But if you're not sure do it in stages.

So start with two bars.

Two bars then build up to four.

And if you like that as a little ref, or as a little idea you could repeat it.

Okay so it's just similar rhythm, I just moved it further up the scale.

So now I've got four.

From four you can go to eight.

So it's now, my next set of four.

And then you build it up.

One of the other strategies is to mirror phrases.

So unlike I did with this phrase, I mirrored that with a similar rhythm, but in different notes.

And I could repeat the tone.

And then mirror it up but in a lower pitch.

And that's the question and answer or mirroring phrases.

Remember start really slow that was quite quick.

You might want to the tempo to be even slower.

Okay so just start really slow and build your way up.

Enjoy exploring this, just have fun with it.

It doesn't matter if you make any mistakes, it's all part of improvising and your confidence will grow more and more, the more and more you do it have fun.

I wanted to share with you a video of Tim.

Tim's been in some of our previous videos.

He's a brilliant guitarist, and has spent quite a lot of his time, practising , improvising, and playing interesting licks and using certain guitar techniques around improvising on scales.

This video is going to show you how you can use more of a broad range of your fingerboard and frets so that you've got more access and more movement, which will make your improvisations more interesting, and you've got a wider range of notes to use.

This would be the same G major blues pentatonic scale, but extended again with the blues notes in.

All this is doing is shifting two frets back and two frets forward from the original area the pentatonic scale was.

And I'll show you where they are.

They are a set of.

We're going to go.

This allows you to use more of the neck and can later on link further scales to where you're going.

So the difference from this, is to include two frets down, same notes and once you get to here, I'm going to move to a box position.

Two frets up again, same as here, but we're going to go.

up to here, and then into the box.

Back to home, real extension, G.

Great, so that is I think a really simple but effective way of giving you more of a range of notes.

You've got a longer scale to run up and down, more of the neck of the guitar to use, to then improvise with.

So I suggest if you are a guitarist and you want to try an extension of how to improvise using more of a range of notes, you use that extended scale with your improvisations now.

Okay so in a minute, you're going to pause the video and go off and put this all in practise.

You are going to be improvising four or eight-bar melodies.

So it's what we're building up.

So start with four, then go to eight, and if you can be amazing, carry on and see if you can do the full 12 bars.

Remember, think of the techniques we've gone through, use the blues notes in the scale, use song rhythm, take it really slow and build it up.

I'm really excited to see what you come up with.

Pause the video now and spend at least 15 minutes doing this.

If you want to take longer, absolutely fine.

It takes a while and practise lots of practise, to build your confidence up with improvising on the spot.

So well done.

I'm sure your improvisations are sounding really good now, and you're confident around those blues scales.

What you're going to have going doing at now, is putting it in the context with that to 12-bar blues.

It's about having ideas and getting a feel for certain patterns, and then getting confident in improvising over the top of the structure.

So we need to practise it with that structure.

So you're going to have a go now and play in a long run improvisation with a part of the band.

So you could either get somebody in your pair or your group to play the shuffle drum pattern to, do, do, do, do, do, do.

Or if you've recorded it and you want to play it live over the top, brilliant.

Perhaps you want to do the same thing with the walking bass line and the chord progression.

Have it recorded on a phone or the device, and then you play your improvisation on your instrument over the top, or you do the same thing in a parallel group performance, to get your band ready.

By the end of this task, you will really start to feel like a blues band.

So enjoy it, take time to practise this and please make sure you go and share or record these performances, off you go.

I hope you've enjoyed today I certainly have.

And please, don't forget to go and take the quiz so that you can show me everything that you've learned about improvisation and why it's so important in blues music.

Hopefully, I'll see you in the next lesson, take care, bye.