The following suggestions are made with beginning improvisers in mind, though they are good general principles for everyone.

1. Think ahead. Learn to hear a melody in your head, visualize how to play it on the instrument and play it– all within a split second or so.

2. Seek ultimate variety in melodies, phrase length, ammount of rests and notes, and note patterns. Play with expectations. Allow yourself to be surprised, too.

3. Practice scales and patterns. These are the building blocks and the cannon fodder.

4. Learn harmony. Track the chords as you play tunes, or at least be able to do so easily if you want to. A familiar tune should be like a drive through a familiar city. At each moment you know exactly where you are and you can picture the route you’ll take to your next destination. You also know many possible routes you might choose to take.

5. Play “ideas” not notes. Just as we should think a note or two ahead so as to be prepared, on a grander scale, we should endeavor to play a sound we conceive in our head. This is different from just rearranging notes and patterns we’re familiar with. Rearranging notes and patterns is one way to think when improvising, but if it’s just playing riffs with nothing to balance it out, it can get old pretty quick.

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PRACTICES

Play over a drone. Good for intonation and coming up with ideas. Also, more fun than playing alone.

Get as familiar as you can with the styles you want to emulate.

Make up scale variations and technical exercises using patterns you’d like to get better at.

Sing melodies and play what you sing.

Thursday, April 16 from 9:00-10:00 pm
Lilly’s
Chicago, IL – MAP

$6 cover. 21+ since it’s a bar.

Nick Africano, a fellow Mac grad and singer-songwriter (he also played in a band called Over/Under with my Orange Mighty Trio bandmate, Mike) makes a Chicago appearance and I drop by to play some tunes with him. Nick is doing an extensive tour and this is part of it.

For info on Nick, go to http://www.myspace.com/nickafricano

March 10 at 10:00 pm
Zack and Adam
Lilly’s
Chicago, IL – MAP

$6 cover. 21+ since it’s a bar.

The Zack and Adam “two man band” featuring fiddle tunes, and various combinations of guitars, dobro and weisenborn.

Friday, May 16 from 11:00 – Midnight
Lilly’s
Chicago, IL – MAP

Cover: $6. It is 21+ since it’s a bar.

Adam Ollendorff and I take part in the string night at Lilly’s, which features bowed string acts.

March 28 from 8:00-9:00 pm
Zack and Adam
Lilly’s
Chicago, IL – MAP

$6 cover. I get to try something new– a set that includes fiddle and also songs I’ve written that I sing, with a new collaborator Adam Ollendorf on dobro, guitar, and “weisenborn.”

Sunday, March 16 at 7:30 pm
Cedar Cultural Center
Minneapolis, MN – Map

As the Cedar says, “Who else but Piper’s Crow to pipe in the onslaught of local celebrations of all things Irish, in this special Saint Patrick’s Eve show?”

Tickets: $14 advance / $16 day of show.