There’s a lot of mystery surrounding how jazz musicians improvise melodies that sound so fresh and exciting. For a beginner, it can seem very daunting to even be able to make up something simple.
While there are many different books and courses available on the topic, I’ll focus in this article on three ways you can start exploring the world of jazz improvisation.
3 Ways to Kick Start Your Jazz Guitar Improv Chops
Embellish Melodies -Take a melody that you’ve played and start adding a few notes around the main melody notes. The key thing is to memorize the original melody so that you can that as a basis for your embellishments. Start off really simple by adding one or two notes every few bars. Focus on adding notes for the long melody notes.
Playing Arpeggios - Learn the basic arpeggios for a jazz standard, focus on simple one-octave triads or 7th chords first and play these over a backing track for the song. To practice, you can also play the melody of the song for two bars and then play arpeggios for the next two bars. By alternating back and forth, you can keep track of where you are in the song.
Rhythmic Variations - Play the melody of the song you’re learning and don’t add any new melody notes. Instead, change the rhythm of the melody. You can repeat the same note a few times or displace the notes rhythmically (play some notes earlier and some notes later). This creates variations that will lead you to more epic improvisations later on!
Back in KL after 29 days on the road for my first ever solo Europe tour!
It was filled with epic performances, teaching, travels and friends.
Thank you to everyone who made my first ever solo Europe tour so beautiful. Special thanks to Yin for coordinating the whole tour logistics and planning.
[Highlights include]
10 performances 6 guitar classes 1 six-hour recording session 2 YouTube video recording sessions 1 radio interview 3 newspaper appearances met 2 amazing guitar luthiers
...and during some chill-out time, attended:
1 musical in London (Matilda)
5 concerts (Djavan, Elvis Costello, Cold Porter, Shibusashirazu Orchestra and a school holiday children's performance too!)
Fingerstyle Guitar performances featuring Thomas Leeb, Jon Gomm, Mike Dawes, Alex Kabasser and so many epic guitarists at the annual Thomas Leeb Guitar Bootcamp in Austria
Went for 2 rides on the Nocky Flitzer mountain ride in Austria
Also, I visited the George Lowden Guitar Factory in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland for the first time, had an epic tour by Johnny Lowden & performed for the amazing folks there with Mickey Murphy.
Performances all over including in the UK (Brighton, Blackburn, Darwen) Northern Ireland (Newry), Haarlem (near Amsterdam), Turrache Höhe (Austria) and Berlin (Germany).
Uber happy!
Thank you everyone!!!
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Follow the 2013 Solo Europe Tour live on twitter @azsamad & instagram @azsamad
[Quotes from the audience at Number 39 Hopstar Brewery Tap]
"We get a lot of good music in Darwen, and especially at 39, but nights like this are rare. Thanks very much to Richard Moss (always a pleasure) and Az Samad (a treat), and for Gary and 39 for a special night." - Nigel Lewin [permalink]
A great night of music by two very talented musicians. - Derren Lee Poole [permalink]
What an absolute pleasure... It was magical. Blew me away... Richard Moss & Az Samad were something else! What beautiful performances. You guys deserve much recognition, you have something very special. You moved me many times. It was a joy. - Leona Holden[permalink 1][permalink 2][permalink 3]
What an amazing night, so glad we came :) It was a priviledge to hear such emotive music, me and Nigel are glad we bought a C D, much luv from us x - Heather Hook [permalink]
Another Amazing night ....Thank you for sharing ..It was AWEsome xx - Andrea Holden [permalink]
The C Factor | Az Samad (Live in Austria at Thomas Leeb Acoustic Guitar Bootcamp)
Performing my medley of P. Ramlee songs at Amplified Bar, Newry, Northern Ireland:
From the house concert in Haarlem, Netherlands:
Duet with Berlin guitarist Matteo Alderete:
Duet with Northern Ireland guitarist Mickey Murphy at the George Lowden Guitars workshop at Downpatrick:
Az Samad in a duet with multi-instrumentalist Richard Moss at Sprout Cafe, Blackburn UK. This is the first performance of Az's 2013 Solo Europe Tour. — with Richard Moss and Az Samad at Sprout Cafe.
From the performance at Number 39 - Hopstar Brewery Tap, Darwen, UK with Richard Moss.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013 at 2:59PM 
