In order to play fast, you need to hear fast.
A simple example.
If I want to get my guitar technique in shape quickly, I just turn on one of the fast guitarists (like Yngwie Malmsteen) and play one of his compositions. I always listen to a lot of the original until I can hear all the details with my inner ear. Then my fingers start to play by themselves.)
So, how do you tie this into improvisation?
An idea that struck me…
It’s not just the speed of musical hearing that’s important for improvisation – it’s the speed of musical thought!
What is that?
Without going into the wilderness, it is the ability to process and generate a certain number of ideas in a moment of musical time.
For beginners, this speed is equal to – 1 idea in 8 or 16 bars, or even 0 ideas.
For example, listening to some improvisations I hear immediately what will happen next, where the idea will go and I am not interested in listening to such a game.
When there are a lot of ideas, the flow is dense, then it is pleasant and interesting to listen to it.
I used to have moments when it seemed like the flow of ideas was over and it was hard to think of what to play next.
Today I rather choose from a huge number of ideas what to play, or what I am able to play, as the level of technique is almost always lower than the level of ideas, unfortunately.
Aim for an idea density of 20-30 ideas per 8 bars.
It’s certainly not math, but in this case you’ll be choosing rather than following hackneyed schemes.
And in the process of shaping and accelerating your thinking, of course, the sequence of ideas is important.
For example, by moving from steps to playing, then to passing auxiliaries, etc. you not only improve your improvisation skills, but you also increase the speed of improvisational thought.
That’s why it’s important not to grasp at everything, but to develop skills in a more linear fashion.
In doing so, it’s important to increase the number of ideas not just in your fingers, but also to develop your improvisational ear.
Listening to very fast styles like bop, fusion, etc. is great for this.
Try to follow the flow of musical thought and analyze it.
And traditionally you can’t do without analysis.
Analyze 1 improvisation every day, listening and making notes.
It may be hard to understand what ideas are used at first, but you will train yourself not only to hear, but also to see musical thoughts!
I really hope this idea will be helpful to you!
Have a quick thinking session!
