These 3 NEGATIVE Guitar IMPROVISATION Exercises Will Change The Way You Play

0:00 Simple does not mean easy!!
1:15 Exercise 1
2:58 Played example 1
3:43 Suggestion on how to do it... and why it's called Negative Impro
4:07 Exercise 2
5:37 Played example 2 (with mistakes!)
7:28 Exercise 3
8:15 Played example 3 (+ all the times I get it wrong!)
9:03 How to practice all that
10:52 Why am I using the pentatonic

If you like this video, share, like, comment & don't forget to subscribe for more content!

FOLLOW ME:

[DDE_ADDICT]

the 3rd one forces the student to count and understand time, very cool

[philipgreenwood]

I try to start a solo on the lower frets, using the fat strings, so 5th and 6th strings. This escapes the bog standard penta box pretty well.
I detest the root note. It is the most boring of all, plus it ends a melodic phrase instantly. Swap it with the 5th or 3rd all day long as they're still chord tones but retain a bit of melodic movement.
The final swap is a killer move. For me, it's the most difficult as I improvise without a backing track (harmony is in my head, so I can modify it at any time). This forces the use of accenting, rhythmic displacement, and a much stronger rhythmic punch. I love it.
I completely endorse this video as being solid advice. More like this, please, as it's great 👍

[necudavamkazem]

Loved the video! Can't wait to try these all out

[guitarray]

Very interesting ideas! I like it and will try it - thank you!

[AlDunbar]

further to exercise 1, I note that my fellow guitarists (and even a mandolin playing friend) often start their solos with a run up from the tonic: E G A B D and then branch out into something more interesting. The common thread in Tommaso's exercises is to not keep doing the same thing. I heard one other "teacher" say that when you first pick up your guitar for, say, a sound check, that you try to play something you have never played before.

[gtaglia]

Mi piacciono molto queste idee! Grazie 🙌🏻

[madmac]

Failing valuable. I love that expression. So much value in mistakes so we can learn from them

[pfkmsandiego]

i have my students do 1 and 3 but the second one is something i don't really think about bc i've been playing for so many years and i feel like it's more of a beginner issue that i almost forgot about, but, also something i think just comes naturally with learning to express oneself on the guitar. but it's definitely a great focussed exercise to get a student thinking in that way. i have found over the years of teaching that my assumptions of what students will do "naturally" with the tools i give them is not always consistent. this a great reminder for me to have them just do the exercise to get them started down the path instead of expecting them to eventually find the path with the pathways i give them. thanks!

[Johncowk]

Another great exercise to develop the time feel is to force oneself to hit specific notes on the first beat of the bar. For example, a chord tone. This is also good to get better at jazz improvisation :)

[KarstenJohansson]

Exercise 3 seems like something Jeff Beck would ace. Raise your hand if you'd like to see Tommaso perform a solo using all 3 exercises simultaneously.

[aylbdrmadison]

The first one I've been doing for decades. I've also done the second one, but that's actually really hard, and so is an even better exercise (both are very good though ofc). When doing the second one, try to resolve purposefully to the 3rd, 5th, or 7th. I'm not going to be surprised if one of your tactics is to avoid doing that, and instead resolve to say the 9th, or the 6th though. lols

[acousticaayush]

This is something new. Great strategies

[nacuda]

Great lesson! How about something on counting/timing while playing? Meaning you always know where the beat is? Knowing where the 1 is in a song all the time. You don't get up on stage a count every song while playing. Some songs become ingrained. Sometimes you have parts you have to count in your head. How do you learn to count/timing so you don't have think about it, or as much? Counting 1, 2, 3, 4, out loud to yourself while playing? Tom Hess mentioned it in a recent post.

[aspirativemusicproduction]

Few years ago I decided to overlay(overlap) the minor, Arab, harmonic minor, blues scale and purposefully switch them while creating melodies. It's very satisfying adding different flavors to what otherwise may be another boring solo. It may be difficult to do at first but it may become instinctive if one put some time working on it.

[aspirativemusicproduction]

I have this to say. One has to learn to imagine the melody before play something with fingers. Otherwise it sounds like scale exercise. Patterns are helpful once you imagine where the melody goes. The problem with many solos is that they go nowhere. There is no story. No matter how technical it just gets boring.

[christopherheckman]

(1) These exercises remind me of rewriting poems without using a particular letter (i.e., lipograms).

"Mary Had A Little Lamb" without any S's:

Mary had a little lamb with fleece a pale white hue,
And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb kept her in view.
To academe he went with her (illegal, and quite rare),
It made the children laugh and play to view a lamb in there.

Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel called Gadsby, basically a protest against the "dissipated hopes and energies" in The Great Gatsby. The letter E appears nowhere in the novel.

(2) Being primarily a bass player, #1 is doable, #2 is problematic (although inverting the tonic chord can solve the problem), and #3 requires someone else to keep time. (I haven't played in a while; the group I usually jam with is in another city, and I haven't gone anywhere since Covid started. Commonly, Mike plays piano/keyboard, Steve plays guitar, and I play bass, so I'm the one keeping the "pulse".)

[stephensmith]

I’m definitely going to try all three and eventually just maybe… I will follow all three prohibitions simultaneously. Well that can be an aim…

[d.l.loonabide]

Playing good rhythm is tricky, Tomaso. If you keep working, it will get better. Don't give up now!

[tonydevosmusic]

Nr 3 is the hardest, only top players have a perfect time feel, most players confuse pulse with time feel.If you can’t play in the ‘pocket’ it’s all garbage, floating all over the place.

[pfkmsandiego]

teaching students solos and making students figure solos out on their own are two really awesome ways to make them better at writing and improve too. not that u didn't kno that tho hahaha