Improvisation

By taking a look at the semantics of “improvisation” we can deduct that improvisation means creating something new spontaneously and independently.

However, common practice shows that what we think of when speaking of bass improvisation is jamming with other musicians, or giving a certain song a jam-like feeling.

Improvisation should generally lead to more elegant, more sophisticated music – you should not improvise just for the sake of it, to show off your skills.

Develop Solid Foundations

In order to be able to improvise, you need to have a very solid foundation of basic skills. That means you should develop your knowledge of drum rudiments and basic rhythm patterns to a level where you can play them from muscle memory.

Also, if you do not want to mess the jamming session or the whole song you are playing up, you should be able to keep time consistently. You can develop your sense of rhythm and time by practicing with a metronome and paying attention to your pace.

When you improvise you are breaking out of your daily bass practice routine. That means that you have a great responsibility for the flow of the song – when you are out of your comfort zone you are more likely to make a mistake, dragging the whole band with yourself. On the other hand, experience with improvisation will also develop your skills in return.

Be Open to Anything New

Improvisation takes a lot of curiosity; you have to forget your usual chops. My favorite phrase implies that improvisation, and bass playing in general, should always be fun: remember that you are not working the drums – you are playing them.

Approaching improvisation as something will playful will make it easier for you to try out new things. Even if I said previously that improvisation gives you a lot of responsibility, if you have developed the foundation needed, then you have nothing to worry about – trying out new things will only make your skills more advanced and will only broaden your perspective.

Learn to Improvise With Different Instruments in Different Genres

In the early stages of my bass playing career, there was a phase when I got stuck with improvising only blues shuffles with a single solo guitarist. After a while, my playing became monotonous and I could not develop myself because anything I tried to play had a shuffled feeling to it.

In order to make progress, you should find musicians with different instruments so that you will be able to work with different tone characters and different playing patterns. Also, for the same reasons, you should probably not stick to a single genre.

Take Your Skills to a Next Level

Your first improvisations will usually consist of bass fills chained together. That way, you will develop certain patterns that you will most likely repeat too often. These are like words that you say in every second sentence. By paying a little attention, you can identify these rhythmical motifs and find out why you are playing them so frequently.

Shaking up these motifs and finding a few alternations to them will richen your musical vocabulary. After a while your improvisation will accompany your music rather directly instead of just being just a series of bass licks fills. To achieve that, you have to learn to pay attention to your fellow musicians and make your adjustments to your patterns according to what they are playing.