Hierarchy of Rhythm in Improvisation

This is the Priority I consider for each type of beat occurrence, from Low to High Importance:

 

1. On the Beat                      // consistent with the tempo,
                                                 // e.g. 4|4, 12|8; when the metronome clicks

2. On the Bar                         // at the start of each measure,
                                                 // e.g. every 4th beat: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1

3. On the Pulse                     // consistent with the style,
                                                 // e.g. emphasizing beats 1&3 or 2&4: 1 2 3 4

4. On the Chord-Change   // for harmony and chord-based note selection

 

This hierarchy of the importance of beat-locations within music for improvisation illustrates when there is relatively more room for freedom of expression, and when there is more need to meet the expectations of the style.

 

In between the beats–think, when the metronome is Not clicking–is where virtually anything goes and can be made to sound good while improvising, providing you adhere to the hierarchy of importance and get back in key, or in chord, or in melody, or in scale either on the beat, on the bar, for the pulse, or, most importantly, at the chord change.  The longer you wait to get back, the "farther out" the line will sound.  Use good taste. How? Well, *Listen*, and change how you play until you like what you hear.

Tip for Covering Mistakes: 

If you pick the wrong pitch, keep playing short notes as if they're just passing tones in the melody until you get back in sync on the beat, or the bar, or the pulse, or–try not miss this one–on the chord change.  

​

Key, Chord, Melody, and Scale

These collections or sets of pitches are the primary notes used when improvising, or composing for that matter.

Key

The 'Key' is the designation of the scale, where the mode–e.g. major (Ionian) or minor (Dorian or Aeolian) etc.--specifies the pattern of intervals between the notes in the scale of that mode.

 

Tip for Visualizing Modes

Each mode can be visualized as the white keys on a piano keyboard played in sequence, beginning from a different tonic or root note for the key.  For example, the key of C major is all the white piano keys in order, starting with a C pitch.  If you start at the A pitch, the white keys form the Am minor (Dorian) scale.  Similarly, each mode can be built from the white keys, when you start at different pitches as tonic root notes.

 

Chord

A 'Chord' is 3 or more distinct pitches sounding at the same time.  (2-pitches together are called an 'interval', an octave interval has the same pitch name, an octave apart (doubled frequency)).

 

When exactly 3 different pitches occur, the chord type is called a 'Triad'--because it is comprised of 3 (tri) pitches.  Additional pitches can be added to yield 4-note chords, e.g. the dominant 7th chords, like C7 or Gm7, or Maj7 chords like DMaj7, or diminished chords like C#m7b5, or longer chords with even more pitches to add colorful tension, usually waiting to be resolved by something simpler, like 9th, 11th, and 13th chords.

The harmony is comprised of all the notes sounding at the same time, except the melody, which typically forms a chord of some sort.

 

Melody

The 'Melody' is a characteristic sequence of pitches and their note-durations that tells the story of the music or song.  The melody is typically mostly comprised of pitches within the key and mode (think major and minor) of the identified scale.  Notes that fall outside the scale are called 'Accidentals'. For example, in the key of C consisting of all piano white keys, the black keys would be called "Accidentals' in the melody.

In improvising, the Lead part takes the role of the melody within the rhythmic chordal harmony.

 

Scale

The 'Scale' as discussed above under Key is the sequence of pitches that form the mode, typically major or minor, of the music, based on the characteristic pattern of intervals between successive pitches.

 

Blues Scale

The Blues Scale brings in the the so-called accidentals of the major scale to form it's own pattern of intervals, which is spelled according to its major scale counterpart as root = 1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7  back to 1.  The pattern of intervals is root +3, +2, +1, +1, +3, +2 = octave.

​

So, while a major or minor scale has 7 distinct pitches, the Blues scale has only 6 pitches, adding the b5 to the Pentatonic Minor scale.

Tip: In Blues, any note from the Blues Scale will never sound bad.  

There are better and worse reasons for choosing pitches, even from within the Blues Scale, but if you limit your pitch selection to those 6 pitches and play them exclusively, and keep with the rhythm, it'll always sound fine at least, and as you learn, your Ear-to-Technique-to-Ear feedback cycle will lead to continual improvement and increasing time between mistakes. Similarly, for normal pop or country feel songs, the major Pentatonic Scale or major Blues Scale produces good sounding melodies and lead for those styles.  The pitches are the same in the major Blues Scale as for the (normal minor-pentatonic) Blues Scale 3 half-steps lower. So, the G major Blues scale uses the same pitch pattern as the E Blues Scale (G→1→Gb→2→F→3→E), but the root note changes from E to G.

 

Tip: Mistakes can lead to Something New.

The covering of "mistakes" can lead to new musical discoveries, showing you new pathways you hadn't discovered before, and also lets you figure out in advance how you're going to cover up problems either during live performances, or when recording a track.