How to Improvise Music on Any Instrument

Improvising on any instrument requires knowledge of several things. It also takes a lot of practice to become good, and to develop a listenable voice. The main ingredient: melody.

While some instruments, such as wind instruments, lend themselves mainly to melody, others like stringed instruments can be more rhythmic in nature. If you've been playing the clarinet, for instance, and learning to sight read music notation on it for several years, you will probably already have a good grasp of melody in your head.

Guitar players who often start out by learning easy chords and strumming, however, won't have that benefit. Piano players usually get a good sense of both, but tend to lean on melody if they've only been sight reading.

Listening

So how does one develop a sense of melody? The answer lies not in your own fingers, but in others'. While that may sound absurd, the best place to discover your own sense of melody is by listening acutely to the melodies of other players. It need not be on the instrument of your choice either.

All music has some melodic content to it. A great exercise is to put on headphones and listen to any song, concentrating on melodic elements within the song. You should try to sing the melody to yourself. Easy popular music may be the best place to start for beginners, but at some point you'll need to expand your reach to longer instrumental solos.

Instrumental music in any genre is best. Artists like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Sansietch have entire albums filled with one guitar melody after another. Classical artists such as Vivaldi and Bach have wonderful creations that will start your mind on the way to hearing, and singing melodies in your head. And that is the goal. In order to really create melodies on the spot, during play, you need to be able to hear them in your head.

Can you create improvisational melodies without that? Certainly, but until they come out of your own mind they will be unlikely to have much feeling, and unlikely to spur feelings in the listener.

Developing Knowledge