Improvisation

[TheGroceryman]

Another strange question...

Improvisation, it seems this is one of my weaknesses. When im jamming with myself on my kit to a metronome, im just improvising. But i find that when i try to do like a solo/fill, sometimes just nothing comes out. It's just a bunch of fluff. Some of it doesnt even have a rhythmic value, and it just throws off my groove, and i get mad and off time.

How do you improve on improvisation? can you? is it just a natural thing? Do you "think" when you improvise?

Kind of obscure, i know.

[Wavelength]

Improvisation, for the most of the time, is taking the things that you know and combining them in new ways, hence creating new ideas. If you find that you can't play a fill while grooving, you don't know your fills. And conversely, if you find that you can't get back to the groove after a fill, you don't know your grooves.

To get started with improvisation, take teeny weeny baby steps first. One extra note in an interesting place is a plenty! Get comfortable with changing your groove in small increments and gradually start stepping off the tracks. Don't think in terms of groove versus fill, or groove versus solo -- everything should groove and create a time feel. So, start with a groove which feels nice and cozy, and twist it around but only as much as you can handle at the time.

Practice a lot of licks. Practice them to death. By this I mean that you should take one lick and really investigate its nature, its possibilites, its variations and permutations. Sooner or later you'll realise that the lick has transformed into a launch pad for your creativity. And just a bit later you'll realise that you have the ability to improvise using the lick and its variations... When that happens, start working on a new lick, and practice it to death, too.

Improvisation is all about knowing your stuff and putting it to use. It's not a magical activity of pulling utterly new ideas from your hiney. You most definitely have to think about it; otherwise you're just rambling or blowing chops. The thing is, the more you think about it and the more you practice, the more organic and automatic your improvisation will become. To become effortess in anything, you have to WORK.

Of course, sometimes magic does happen, and you play something you've never played before, or better yet, never heard anyone play before, and at that moment... you'd better be paying attention!

[lochday]

Couldn't say it better. Improvisation is playing ideas you already know and master because you have practiced them before to death: on the snare drum, orchestrating them on the kit, displacing them in measures of time, contracting or extending them, playing them as questions and answers, etc. It is hard work. That's why you'd better start, as Wavelength said, with just one very simple idea (one you can sing) and stay with it for a certain amount of time. Don't forget to count beats or measures because you must always know where your idea is in a measure or in a couple of measure, or when trading.
For example: ta ta ta ta poom poom poom poom, sing it different ways. Then write down different possibilities : inside one bar, in 2 bars, with bass drum or tom or whatever you feel is good...

[sciomako]

Kowtow to Wavelength.

By this I mean that you should take one lick and really investigate its nature, its possibilites, its variations and permutations.

In this context, is a lick just a groove?

[Wavelength]

In this context, is a lick just a groove?

I'd say that the groove is your home base, the safe zone, the constant that guides your playing (and is constantly guided by your playing!). The lick is a deviation from that, be it an additional stroke or two, a different bass drum variation, an individual phrase etc...