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Introduction

This course guide contains reference materials for the Fret Science: Improv 101 course. It is not intended to stand alone without the 4+ hours of video lessons that comprise the course.

The 55 course videos are designed to be viewed in order, from 0-1 to 9-1. For each video, this document contains a brief summary along with any key diagrams and descriptions of any exercises. You can use this document as a reference after watching a video (or after completing the course) to refresh your memory on the relevant concepts.

Most music books and courses contain a lot of music notation and tablature. This course guide (and this course) do not. Tablature has its place (and I’ll use it here and there to illustrate a point), but you won’t need it for this course. All of the examples in this course are explained in the videos with enough detail for you to figure out what to play by using your eyes and ears. In fact, none of the exercises require you to play anything specific. This is improvisation after all!

0-1 Welcome to Improv 101▶ Watch the video

Improv 101 is structured to help guitar players at all ability levels learn to improvise melodic solos over a wide range of chord progressions in any style. Each module contains six elements:

  1. A big picture lesson
  2. A music theory lesson
  3. One note to memorize across the fretboard
  4. A new mental model to apply to the fretboard
  5. Fretboard practice exercises
  6. Improvisation exercises with backing tracks

The videos are presented in a carefully chosen order, so that each video builds on the previous ones.

The Fret Science methodology is built on the rectangle and stack visualization method, which integrates the most commonly used triads, arpeggios, and scales into a unified whole. In this course, you’ll master the major and minor pentatonic scales, the major and minor blues scales, and the six commonly used modes of the major scale. You’ll learn how to find all of those scales under your fingers, no matter where your hands happen to be on the fretboard. And you’ll learn two powerful methods for easily finding great-sounding target notes right under your fingers.

0-2 Why is improvisation hard to learn?▶ Watch the video

There are two primary reasons why improvisation is challenging to learn. The first is that it’s hard to teach. Much like riding a bike or swimming, once you become good at improvising, it’s very hard to explain what you’re doing to someone else…there are core parts of it that you have to learn by doing it yourself.

But the biggest reason that improvisation is hard to learn is that there’s so much information needed to keep in mind to do it well. Good improvisers are aware of which chord is currently playing, which chord is coming next, which scales fit those chords, and where to find good “target notes” on the fretboard. Along with all of that, they need to have enough mental attention (or working memory) left over to be able to play with good phrasing.

The methods in this course are designed to minimize the number of things you have to hold in mind while improvising. The course is structured to provide you with small, manageable pieces to learn in every video, allowing you to digest and practice them effectively. New elements are added step by step, in a way that is designed not to overwhelm you, and everything in the course connects together into a robust framework for improvisation.

By the end of the course, you’ll likely still have a lot of practicing to do before you feel like a fluent improviser, but you’ll feel confident that you understand how it works, and you’ll know exactly what you need to work on in order to keep improving.

0-3 How to get the most out of this course▶ Watch the video

The eight modules in this course build on each other, so it’s important to understand each module before moving on to the next one. That said, you do not need to master each module before moving on. Moving through the course will help you build a comprehensive understanding, and you can always revisit and strengthen areas that need improvement later.

Keep these three things in mind as you go through the course:

  1. You only need to memorize the things I explicitly say are important to memorize. Everything else can be recreated on the fretboard from basic principles.
  2. When practicing, maintain a light touch with your hands and minimize tension as much as possible. Tension is the enemy of good phrasing, and it’s a sign that you may be working on something that is a little too difficult. If that happens, dial down the difficulty by slowing things down, taking a break, or adding a constraint that simplifies the task. I’ll share lots of ways to do that throughout the course.
  3. When you practice the materials in this course, play everything as musically as you can. Start with a good tone, vary your articulation, and make sure you’re putting some emotion into your phrases. If you're struggling to make it musical, try dialing down the difficulty as described above.

0-4 Essential tools: A looper▶ Watch the video

To get the most out of this course, you will need a way to play backing tracks in a continuous loop. These are the recommended tools mentioned in the video:

I recommend using Anytune for the course, but any of these will work well. As demonstrated in the video, using a DAW requires some extra steps.

0-5 Essential tools: A stem splitter▶ Watch the video

When learning to improvise over a new song, it is often helpful to be able to create your own backing track or isolate the guitar part. Both of these can be accomplished with stem splitter software. A stem splitter analyzes a fully mixed audio track (e.g., from a CD) and extracts isolated instrument parts.

Most stem splitter software can isolate drums, bass, guitar, and vocals, and the most up-to-date versions can even separate lead guitar from rhythm guitar.

At the time of writing, I currently use and recommend Moises.ai; however, there are plenty of other good options out available. You will not need a stem splitter to complete this course, but you’ll want one when you finish it!

Footnotes

  1. All links to Sweetwater and Amazon in this document are affiliate links. If you purchase a product via one of these links, Fret Science may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. ↩