Here you go now to try and dip your toes into improvisation. It might seem scary, but the more you do it the more comfortable you will feel about it. Many people wait way too long before giving it a go and then feel uncomfortable because they can play a lot better than they can improvise. It is great fun when you get into it, and I love watching people learning this, it's so cool when you realise that you can do it, the smile says it all!

Video Lesson

Improv Tips

Here are a few little tips to help you get get off to a good start:

• Use the space - be happy to leave a few bars and let your brain catch up. eventually you don't really want to be thinking about what you are doing at all, but in the early stages you are going to have to!

• Don't play too much - play a bit then have a little rest. play a bit more. playing without any breaks sounds silly. Try and play how you speak, with punctuation and full stops!

• Keep it simple - many great players play amazing solos with very few notes (think BB King) so aim for that not to play fast and do flashy stuff. You are learning. KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid!!

• Listen - listen to what you play and what is going on aroud you (ie your backing track or the mate you are jamming with!)

Backing track is on the Really Useful Play Along Tracks, it a free download sample. But you might also want to check out JamBlues which is a collection of Blues backing tracks in lots of keys for you to jam with!!

More songs anyone? BC-197 • Easy Songs For Stage 9

HELP!!!!

If you need to ask a question about this lesson - there is a topic set up specifically to help you with this lesson. To help you find it easily you can click the following link and it will take you right the topic. You'll be able to see questions that other people had and ask your own questions! Hopefully one of the very helpful members of our community will be there to help you soon, I do go there and answer stuff too - but there are just too many questions for me to answer alone! So click this link to get help with this lesson!

Justinguitar Beginner's Products

I have four great beginners products that will help you make the most of this course. Most popular is The Justinguitar Beginners Songbook which contains 100 songs arranged by difficulty that perfectly match up with each level of the course. Many people told me they like books more than web pages so we've made The Justinguitar Beginners Course Book (comes with 2 x CD's too!) and many people found being online to watch the videos a pain so we offer The Justinguitar Beginners Course DVD which also means you can watch the vids in much better quality. Together they complete the whole online course and are perfect when there is no internet connection!! Also very popular is Practical Music Theory for those that like to know what they are doing and why!! It covers very basic theory in an easy to digest way and puts it onto the guitar! They are all available in Bundle Packs too where you can save a bunch of money!! Buying products and making donations help keep the site free and growing! :)