Session 7: Improvising | Creating Bluegrass and Roots Music Solos

Session 7: Improvising

from: Creating Bluegrass and Roots Music Solos with Scott Nygaard

This lesson is part of the course Creating Bluegrass and Roots Music Solos with Scott Nygaard.

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About This Course

Learn to create interesting solos with this applied theory workshop. You’ll learn how to use scales and arpeggios to create melodic lines, about thematic soloing and improvising, how to create lines with a sense of forward motion, how to combine the melody of a song with fills, melodic variations, arpeggios, and more.

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Session 1: The Major Scale

In this video, Scott gives you ideas about practicing the major scale in different ways, so that you begin to learn not just the scale in sequence, but the different notes in the scale, where and what they are, and how they are related to the chords in the key. You get exercises that show you how to practice the scale from chord tone to chord tone, chord tone to scale tone, in short musical phrases known as patterns or sequences, and more.

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The Creating Bluegrass and Roots Music Solos Subscription Includes:

Eight 75–90 minute lessons that show you how to turn conceptual and theoretical ideas into great solos
High-quality video recordings of each session so you can review what you've learned and revisit them after the workshop has concluded
Notation and tab for guitar, mandolin, and fiddle
An applied theory approach to creating and improvising solos for bluegrass and roots music
Advice on practicing improvising, constructing solos in a group environment
Examples on how to use major scales and modes, pentatonic scales, arpeggios, blues scales and sounds, and more

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Session 7: Improvising

In Session 7, Scott talks about improvising, in particular the importance of practicing improvising and getting comfortable making “mistakes.” He also gives you lots of advice on how to practice improvising, with backing tracks you can use to practice simple one- or two-chord grooves as well as common song forms (eight-bar fiddle-tune form, 12-bar blues, etc.).

Use these Peghead Nation video Play-Along Tracks to practice more than a hundred bluegrass and roots songs and instrumentals. Includes downloadable audio MP3s.

Play-Along Tracks Main Page

Try starting with these songs

Blue Ridge Cabin Home ( G–C–D–G) Progression

There are also tracks for keys of A, Bb, and C

Bluegrass Chord Progression #1 ( G–C–G–D–G–C–D–G)

Your Love Is Like a Flower Key of A

There are tracks for keys of G, A, Bb, B, C, D, E, and F

12-bar Blues

Rocky Road Blues Bluegrass blues key of G

Western Swing Blues in A

Bluegrass Stomp Bluegrass blues key of D

Circle of Fifths