How to Improvise on Guitar

Co-authored by Jennifer Mueller, JD

Last Updated: October 11, 2022 Tested

Many genres of music, particularly rock, blues, and jazz, are built around guitarists improvising, both in solos and throughout the song. Before you start trying to improvise, make sure you have a good handle on the basics of music theory, including scales and chords and how they work together. This knowledge gives you the foundation for improvisation that sounds musical rather than just like a random collection of notes. If you develop your ear, you'll gain a better understanding of how to replicate the musical ideas in your mind on your instrument.^{[1]
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Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Using Scales, Chords, and Arpeggios

1
Find a backing track to practice improvising over. A backing track includes a single note or chord played over a drumbeat or other rhythm. The backing track helps focus your improvisation. Backing tracks are available online for free. Check YouTube or guitar websites.
- Start with a backing track for a scale progression you know. For example, if you know G Major, look for a backing track with the G Major chord.
- If you're just starting out with improvisation, choose a rhythm that you like and are familiar with. For example, if you usually listen to heavy metal music, you might find yourself confused by when or how to improvise to a backing track with a bossa nova rhythm.
Tip: You can also use a metronome to keep you in time while you're improvising.
2
Start improvising using the notes of a single scale. You don't need to know every note and every scale on your guitar before you start improvising. Once you have one scale progression memorized, you can start doing simple improvisations with just the notes in that scale.^{[2]
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- Improvising on a single scale is also a good way to solidify your muscle memory of that scale progression.
- In general, you always want to return to the root note of the scale. If you end on another note of the scale, you introduce suspense or tension.
- Try moving the scale progression up or down your fretboard and improvise from that spot. You may find new possibilities simply from moving your hand, or you may find that one position on the fretboard is more comfortable for you than others.
3
Build the foundation of your improvisation with pentatonic patterns. The minor pentatonic pattern is a staple of blues songs and can also be heard in rock and country music. The best part about this and other patterns is that you can easily move them up and down the neck of your guitar and play them in any key you want. The relations between the notes in the pattern will always be the same.^{[3]
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- The A minor pentatonic scale pattern is played across all 6 strings, with 2 notes on each string. Because the lowest note on all 6 strings is played at the 5th fret, you can barre the 5th fret. Play your low E string, then fret it at the 8th fret. Move on to your A string and strum it with the barre on the 5th fret, then fret it at the 7th fret. Move on to your D string, then your G string, following the same pattern. For your B string, play the string with the barre on the 5th fret, then fret it at the 8th fret. For your high E string, only play the string with the barre on the 5th fret.
- Moving the pentatonic pattern to another fret results in a different scale. Just move all the other notes at the same intervals as the A minor pentatonic scale.
4
Match your pentatonic pattern to the song's chord progression. Play a recording of a song and follow the chord progression, simply strumming the chords. Then, start to improvise by arpeggiating the chord or adding phrases from scales.^{[4]
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- Following the chord progression of the song may also give you room to mix phrases from the melody of the song into your solo.
- Matching your pattern to the song's chord progression gives your improvisation a strong connection to the song itself. Now when you improvise, you're playing with the song, not over top of it.
5
Add variety to your improvisation with arpeggios and triads. Triads are 3-note chords that can add volume and depth to your improvisation. If you play each of the notes of a chord individually, you have an arpeggio. Arpeggios and triads can break up the monotony of a purely scales-based improvisation and create natural pauses.^{[5]
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- Something as simple as arpeggiating a chord at the end of a phrase can add a little more life to your playing.
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Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Developing Your Ear

1
Study and learn great guitar solos. You can probably think of a handful of names of guitarists past and present who you admire. Even if you're not skilled enough to play their solos yet, you can still look up videos of them playing and study their technique.^{[6]
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- Compare different versions of the same song. If you can find several videos of the guitarist playing the same song live, note differences in the guitarist's playing style and how these make the improvisation sound different.
- By watching great guitarists, you can also learn to identify different effects, such as vibrato, by ear.
Tip: Hold your guitar while watching the videos, even if you aren't actually trying to play along. You can try to replicate the position of their fretting hand or focus on getting the strum pattern right.
2
Transcribe solos from your favorite songs. If you know how to read and write music, you can use transcription to help your ear better recognize specific tones. While this process will likely be a bit slow-going at first, if you keep at it, you'll eventually be able to transcribe music by ear.^{[7]
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- When you're first starting out, transcribe the music as you hear it and then play your transcription. There will likely be mistakes! Just correct them and then keep going until the transcription is correct.
3
Train your ear to recognize chord progressions. When you're first starting out, it's just fine to look up the names of the chords in a song. After you've played guitar for a while, however, you should start learning to recognize common chord progressions by ear.^{[8]
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- Many popular songs only have 3 or 4 chords. Once you recognize a 3-chord or 4-chord chord progression in one song, listen to other songs and see if you can hear it again.
- You can find lists of 3- and 4-chord songs online. However, don't look at these if you're trying to train your ear. You want your ear to be able to automatically recognize the chords, rather than identifying the song from a list of songs you memorized.
4
Sing what you play to get your ear in sync with your fingers. If you sing what you play, it builds a stronger connection between you and your guitar. Because you are also producing the sound, your ear more quickly comes to associate that particular tone with the position of your fingers on the fretboard.^{[9]
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- If you have difficulty singing in tune, this exercise may hurt more than it helps.
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Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Perfecting Your Improvisation Skills

1
Improvise over recorded songs or live performances. All you need to jam with your favorite musicians is a song or a video. As the band starts playing, try to keep up with them while improvising on your own guitar. Listen to the musicians and try to find ways to complement what they're playing.^{[10]
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- Live performances may be more challenging than recordings. Musicians may vary their arrangement when playing live, or play an extended version of the song with longer solos.
- Ideally, the skill of the professional musicians you're playing with will boost your skills as well, inspiring you with new ideas.
2
Familiarize yourself with the rhythm and chord progression of a song. When you're playing over a recorded song, or with live musicians, take some time to get a feel for the song. The rhythm can tell you something about the mood and emotion you should bring to your improvisation, while the chord progression should give you some ideas for patterns and phrases to incorporate.^{[11]
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- To learn different rhythms, practice chord progressions you know using different rhythms. Notice how changing the rhythm impacts the mood of the song. Try playing a happy, upbeat, positive song to a slower, more somber rhythm.
3
Mix in licks from other famous songs. A phrase of 3 to 5 notes from a song everyone knows adds some life and humor to your improvisation. Because it's a memorized lick, throwing one in also gives you some time to think of what you're going to play next.^{[12]
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- To really mix it up, try using a lick from a song in another genre. For example, you might throw in a good classic rock lick into a country song.
4
Use string bending and vibrato to enhance longer notes. Balancing longer notes with shorter notes in your improvisation makes it more dynamic and opens it up. If you're simply playing an endless series of short notes, your improvisation will get monotonous. When playing a longer note, string bending and vibrato can add emotion to your playing and lend it drama and depth.^{[13]
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- Other techniques can also improve your improvisation technique. For example, using hammer-ons and pull-offs can allow you to play a trill or a series of notes in rapid succession.
Tip: If you're learning a new playing technique, focus on getting the technique down correctly first. If you try to use it when you're improvising it before you've mastered the technique, it might throw you off.
5
Record yourself and listen back. You may notice mistakes you make while you're playing, but you have to concentrate on listening to hear what really sounds great together and what doesn't sound so hot. Listen actively and take notes when something strikes you, either good or bad.^{[14]
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- Once you've listened to your recording a couple of times, you may want to play around with different phrases that you didn't think worked as well.
- Try to improvise again using the same chord progression or backing track with your notes in mind and see what changes the second time around.
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Tips

Try to practice improvisation at least 15 minutes a day to keep your muscle memory fresh and make quicker progress.^{[15]
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When improvising, you'll likely use the pinky on your fretting hand a lot more than you're used to. Finger strengthening exercises can help.

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Warnings

While you don't necessarily need to master music theory before you start improvising, significant understanding of music theory is necessary if you want to play strong, creative improvisations on guitar.

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