Before starting this lesson I advise you read our Introduction To Improvisation and Your First Improvisation lessons first. You will also need a copy of This Free MP3 that is used as a backing track for this lesson (this file was updated 05/03/2017).

Note: The backing track starts with an eight beat count in.


This improvisation lesson will be very similar to our Funk Improvisation Based On A Groove lesson in that you will be working with a four bar pattern where the first bar of groove is given to you. As with that lesson, I will be discussing how to approach creating a part. The difference this time is that you will be playing in a 'rock' style and obviously a different starting groove is given. The exercise looks like this:

The sheet music for the exercise

This kind of improvisation exercise is a little easier than those that give you a rhythm as a starting point as you don't need to spend time working out a groove. I will talk through some ideas for constructing a part for this piece on this page and most ideas presented will be very similar to those discussed in the First Improvisation Lesson. First of all scan the four bar sheet music and make sure you understand everything. The piece is in 4/4, as indicated by the time signature. It is at a tempo of 120bpm and is in a rock style. Bar 1 is the groove for the piece, bars 2 and 3 that have the 'cont. sim.' mark are telling you to play a similar part to bar 1 and bar 4 is a fill. The triangular note head played on the right hand is a Cowbell. If you don't have a cowbell on your kit, the bell of the ride is a perfectly good substitue. It is highly unlikely you would see a cowbell used in an exam situation, I just thought I'd mix it up a bit with this lesson.

First of all make sure you can play the groove. In this case it is the same as This Level 0 Groove but with the right hand re orchestrated. In most grade 1 and 2 improvisation exercises you will be given a groove that will be very similar to those covered in through level 0 and level 1.

As discussed in the previous lesson, I recommend following an 'A B A C' structure for these four bar improvisations. Have a read through the linked lesson if you are unsure what this means, a recap is also given in the First Improvisation Lesson. With this structure the given groove will be the 'A' part and that will be played in bars 1 and 3. So you need a 'B' part next.


For the 'B' section it is usually best to play a slight variation on the 'A' part. A list of ideas for this were given in the previous improvisation lesson so on this page I am going to focus on ideas that are a bit more specific to this exercise. In terms of style, most of what you have learned in level 0 and 1 will fit very nicely in a rock piece. However, the cowbell on the right hand means things like open hi hats that are very useful for creating a variation aren't as much of an option as they were. Some ideas for creating a variation, other than just adding/removing kicks or switching to a second groove, are listed below:

  • Add decorative eighth notes to the right hand
  • Add a crash accent.
  • Place an open hi hat between the quarter notes with a left hand.
  • Displace one of the snares by an eighth note.

Listed below are some options for the 'B' section that use the ideas given above:

Four options for the B section

Another idea you can use was discussed in the previous lesson. That was to listen to the backing track and see if the other instruments are doing anything different in the second bar. In the funk version of this exercise I explained how this worked with the backing track, this time I will leave you to try and figure it out.


Finally we need a 'C' section, which will be the bar marked 'fill' in the sheet music. There are a variety of options here but something that is appropriate to the rock style would be to use simple rhythms or rolls around the kit. The fill could be any length so go with a pattern you are comfortable with. As I said in the previous lesson, a simple idea played really well is always far better than a great idea played badly. Below are four possible options for a 'C' section.

Four options for the 'C' section


Hopefully you can now improvise a four bar piece in the rock style when a groove is given as a starting point. As before, I'll finish this lesson by giving you two examples of full parts that could work with this exercise.

Full Phrase 1

A full four bar phrase for this improvisation


Full Phrase 2

A full four bar phrase for this improvisation


TASK:

  1. Create your own part for the improvisation exercise presented at the start of this lesson.
  2. Play your part to the backing track and see if you think it fits well.
  3. Think about different ways you could approach this exercise.

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