Originally Posted By: JoanneCooper
Originally Posted By: MarioD
Here is what I posted on Joanne's blog:

"To add to Joanne's excellent blog input a song into Band-in-a-Box. Have Band-in-a-Box play the melody for the 1st and 3rd choruses (note that a chorus in Band-in-a-Box means the entire song - it's a jazz thing). Now if you are trying to learn by ear try to copy what you heard in the 1st chorus. If you are trying to learn improvisation jam through the 2nd chorus (in other words do not play the melody play something else). I use this method every time I improvise and it really helps."


Mario - Thanks that is a great tip. You could use a midi file to help generate a nice sounding back track with the melody included (as described here)

Create a backing track using realtracks and a midi file

Then you could delete the melody in the second "chorus" and see if you can play the melody from memory and by ear. This would really help if you didn't know the song particularly well. I am going to try it out with The Bee Gees "Massachusetts" . I am going to slow the play back right down for the first few time and slowly bring it up to full speed. Once I can play the melody by ear then I will improvise (using the melody as a basis for the improvisation). Thanks so much!


One of the most important things when improvising is the saying "heaven is one semi-tone up or down". That is if you hit a wrong note a right note is one fret up or down! Easy peasy!

I tell my students if you end a run on a wrong note, say a Bb against an A chord, just slide up to a B, the 9th, or down to an A, the tonic. To fool someone just play that rift again, i.e. end on a Bb then slide. They will think it is part of the song.

Oh crap, I just gave away my playing style. Oh well, enjoy!

PS - I have played "Massachusetts" about a million times! Good luck.