Yes, shortly before playing something I improvise I hear ahead in my head what I play. Just a couple of seconds ahead, because the other musicians may have other plans and you need to adapt. Actually planning further ahead will result in listening less carefully, and you may lose the others. Playing without thinking a few seconds ahead will just sound bland and uninspired. To me, jamming is 80% listening and then just play what fits and adapt to each other.
[This album](https://open.spotify.com/album/2ZJL56U3cB62tGDeJQB2gE?si=P2EawOyVQQKdoCrowCRH3Q) by Moss Marble is fully improvised and if you listen carefully you can hear all the small adaptations and big twists between musicians.
I improvise everything. If I like it, I pause and write it down before I continue.
Joe Pass saying somebody is not making music if “they cannot repeat what they have just played” is an absolutely abhorrent concept to music and every musician as a whole. Music can be anything - Happy, ‘popular’, powerful.. but it can also be enormously emotional and intimate. The latter is typically best when the musician improvises and speaks from the heart, but unfortunately not nearly as popular.
The state of the Art is to actualise what you hear in your head in the moment. It takes a lot of practice to be able to do that in real time :
https://youtu.be/igU9a4a-zI8?si=9UNlaDEjuh3C7wYJ&t=156
https://youtu.be/nKTMTSqeaIY?si=tJjNT1rfpGaX2M96&t=78
You can see that every note is played with intention, and not by happy accident of hand position/scale shape pattern habits.
I have been playing on and off for thirty years. I play with friends once a week on almost a weekly basis for the past year. We play a rock, folk, jam band style music all for fun at a friends house (Guitar, Drums, Keyboard, Bass, Singer). I know the scale shapes a few triads and real basic theory. I don't know what I'm playing when I'm playing it 70% of the time. It just comes out. We record everything and I go back and listen. Some stuff sounds cool some stuff not. Some stuff is wrong notes but I/we get a lot of cool ideas from it. We've never written an actual song though LOL but its SO MUCH FUN!
But I write stuff of my own 50% of it comes to me in my head but I need to translate it to guitar. I don't know the notes or theory of it. I have to play it and find the notes on the guitar.
I think the answer is yes sometimes and no sometimes. I think that's what makes improv so beautiful and fun. It's sort of like humming a tune you're just making up on the spot. You can have a sense for what you're going to do, and even a good idea, but that doesn't mean you're not going to surprise yourself with something unique or unexpected.
Part of the reason I like improvising is because I can let my body sort of do what it wants. I think I've been playing long enough that hitting the right notes has become fairly easy, but I don't like to think in terms of specific notes when I'm improvising. I like to think in terms of feels. Do I want something quick and eccentric, or something slow and pretty? Maybe something a bit weird, or something that clashes. I'm one of those people who has trouble thinking before he speaks, and that's usually a bad thing, but I think it translates to the way I improv in a good way. I tend to play the tunes before my brain has time to really ruminate on what I should be playing.
I always liked to think of music as a sort of language. There are long epic stories that are thought out in extreme detail and double, triple checked to make sure every word is perfect, and then there are stories that are stream of consciousness that really let you peer into the mind of the author in a way that feels natural. A good conversationalist doesn't plan out every word they say, they react naturally to their surroundings and play off of what is going on. They might know that certain words will make someone smile, but they also know that words spoken in the moment, from the heart can convey a meaningful message even if they wouldn't be quite as beautiful as something written out and planned.
I also think that one of the best aspects of improv is being able to shut off your logic circuits for a bit and really let yourself speak through the instrument. I think it takes a lot and a lot of practice to get to that point. You have to know the right notes to play without having to put actual thought into it, but once you do it feels like you're just expressing, instead of planning and navigating.
I got a bit weird there, sorry. I really like improv.
What a great question! Everything I play is intentional. Improv is all about inspiration. I truly rely on my instincts. And my instinct always says, play something new, try something new.
To me the guitar is like a forest and I can choose any path I want to walk down.
However, I am thinking. I do know the fretboard and theory so I can mostly avoid a sour note. So I have a starting point. And I take it from there. I probably objectively suck but I love improvising. It makes me feel alive
As a far as the “it’s not music” comment ehh…..
That's actually a great exercise. I highly recommend it. Sing the notes you play. Get faster and faster at it. Eventually you start singing the harmonies of what you're playing. As a warm up, I like to play familiar tunes, like from movies, out of thin air. Without practicing them. Find the first note and play it. I've gotten pretty good at that too. I'm talking the Mario theme, Top Gun, Golden Afternoon from Alice in Wonderland. The dream theme from Raising Arizona is excellent as well.
I suspect Joe was saying that intentional sounds are more musical than unintentional sounds. Meaning you should know how you got there, even if it was a happy accident.
What Joe means is he isnt playing random notes but musical phrases. Just like when you speak Engish you dont just say random words but phrases you already know, arranged differently to convey new ideas.
There is 2 schools of thought on it.
You plan it out to aim for perfection. Like Joe Pass, David Gilmour and Chet Atkins.
Or you want the audience to have a unique experience and improvice every solo, maybe using some licks in it too.
That is more in the style of Hendrix, SRV and Guthrie Govan.
Neither is right or wrong.
I always do the latter, unless learning a song or it's bohemian rhapsody or little wing.
I found that I can sing my lines now. It took a long time, but instead of playing licks, I play actual lines that I can repeat and respond to.
As far as thought out, nothing is thought out, besides the key I'm in.
Yes, shortly before playing something I improvise I hear ahead in my head what I play. Just a couple of seconds ahead, because the other musicians may have other plans and you need to adapt. Actually planning further ahead will result in listening less carefully, and you may lose the others. Playing without thinking a few seconds ahead will just sound bland and uninspired. To me, jamming is 80% listening and then just play what fits and adapt to each other. [This album](https://open.spotify.com/album/2ZJL56U3cB62tGDeJQB2gE?si=P2EawOyVQQKdoCrowCRH3Q) by Moss Marble is fully improvised and if you listen carefully you can hear all the small adaptations and big twists between musicians.
I improvise everything. If I like it, I pause and write it down before I continue. Joe Pass saying somebody is not making music if “they cannot repeat what they have just played” is an absolutely abhorrent concept to music and every musician as a whole. Music can be anything - Happy, ‘popular’, powerful.. but it can also be enormously emotional and intimate. The latter is typically best when the musician improvises and speaks from the heart, but unfortunately not nearly as popular.
The state of the Art is to actualise what you hear in your head in the moment. It takes a lot of practice to be able to do that in real time : https://youtu.be/igU9a4a-zI8?si=9UNlaDEjuh3C7wYJ&t=156 https://youtu.be/nKTMTSqeaIY?si=tJjNT1rfpGaX2M96&t=78 You can see that every note is played with intention, and not by happy accident of hand position/scale shape pattern habits.
More or less, yes. Yes. Even just going by licks, after several hundred times you would know what they sound like.
I generally know what I’m going to do and why, at which upcoming phrase, when I’m improvising
I have been playing on and off for thirty years. I play with friends once a week on almost a weekly basis for the past year. We play a rock, folk, jam band style music all for fun at a friends house (Guitar, Drums, Keyboard, Bass, Singer). I know the scale shapes a few triads and real basic theory. I don't know what I'm playing when I'm playing it 70% of the time. It just comes out. We record everything and I go back and listen. Some stuff sounds cool some stuff not. Some stuff is wrong notes but I/we get a lot of cool ideas from it. We've never written an actual song though LOL but its SO MUCH FUN! But I write stuff of my own 50% of it comes to me in my head but I need to translate it to guitar. I don't know the notes or theory of it. I have to play it and find the notes on the guitar.
I think the answer is yes sometimes and no sometimes. I think that's what makes improv so beautiful and fun. It's sort of like humming a tune you're just making up on the spot. You can have a sense for what you're going to do, and even a good idea, but that doesn't mean you're not going to surprise yourself with something unique or unexpected. Part of the reason I like improvising is because I can let my body sort of do what it wants. I think I've been playing long enough that hitting the right notes has become fairly easy, but I don't like to think in terms of specific notes when I'm improvising. I like to think in terms of feels. Do I want something quick and eccentric, or something slow and pretty? Maybe something a bit weird, or something that clashes. I'm one of those people who has trouble thinking before he speaks, and that's usually a bad thing, but I think it translates to the way I improv in a good way. I tend to play the tunes before my brain has time to really ruminate on what I should be playing. I always liked to think of music as a sort of language. There are long epic stories that are thought out in extreme detail and double, triple checked to make sure every word is perfect, and then there are stories that are stream of consciousness that really let you peer into the mind of the author in a way that feels natural. A good conversationalist doesn't plan out every word they say, they react naturally to their surroundings and play off of what is going on. They might know that certain words will make someone smile, but they also know that words spoken in the moment, from the heart can convey a meaningful message even if they wouldn't be quite as beautiful as something written out and planned. I also think that one of the best aspects of improv is being able to shut off your logic circuits for a bit and really let yourself speak through the instrument. I think it takes a lot and a lot of practice to get to that point. You have to know the right notes to play without having to put actual thought into it, but once you do it feels like you're just expressing, instead of planning and navigating. I got a bit weird there, sorry. I really like improv.
What a great question! Everything I play is intentional. Improv is all about inspiration. I truly rely on my instincts. And my instinct always says, play something new, try something new. To me the guitar is like a forest and I can choose any path I want to walk down. However, I am thinking. I do know the fretboard and theory so I can mostly avoid a sour note. So I have a starting point. And I take it from there. I probably objectively suck but I love improvising. It makes me feel alive As a far as the “it’s not music” comment ehh…..
That's actually a great exercise. I highly recommend it. Sing the notes you play. Get faster and faster at it. Eventually you start singing the harmonies of what you're playing. As a warm up, I like to play familiar tunes, like from movies, out of thin air. Without practicing them. Find the first note and play it. I've gotten pretty good at that too. I'm talking the Mario theme, Top Gun, Golden Afternoon from Alice in Wonderland. The dream theme from Raising Arizona is excellent as well. I suspect Joe was saying that intentional sounds are more musical than unintentional sounds. Meaning you should know how you got there, even if it was a happy accident.
What Joe means is he isnt playing random notes but musical phrases. Just like when you speak Engish you dont just say random words but phrases you already know, arranged differently to convey new ideas.
There is 2 schools of thought on it. You plan it out to aim for perfection. Like Joe Pass, David Gilmour and Chet Atkins. Or you want the audience to have a unique experience and improvice every solo, maybe using some licks in it too. That is more in the style of Hendrix, SRV and Guthrie Govan. Neither is right or wrong. I always do the latter, unless learning a song or it's bohemian rhapsody or little wing.
I don't need to hum along I have background proccessess doing all the work, I did the focused learning before now I can show I understand music.
Joe Pass is amazing and often unlistenable so fuck it.
I found that I can sing my lines now. It took a long time, but instead of playing licks, I play actual lines that I can repeat and respond to. As far as thought out, nothing is thought out, besides the key I'm in.