Why improvising feels so hard — and why it isn't really about the guitar at all. You'll see how the real bottleneck is your brain's working memory, and how this course is built to ease that load so you can play something expressive right from the start.
What follows is this lesson’s section of the Course Guide — you can read it here or in the full guide →
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.
Discussion (4)
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The essence of what a teacher in any field must communicate is what skills to learn and HOW to make skills instinctual. There is no excuse a teacher saying anything like " Oh, I learned that so long ago that I can't explain how I learned it." I am confident that will not be so in this course.
It's definitely always my goal to explain things as clearly as possible. With improvisation, I have the advantage that I learned how to do it late in life after a lot of research, and I documented what worked and what didn't along the way.
Every word in this video rings true. The goals are ambitious, but it's clear Keith Martin has put a tremendous amount of thought into not only mastering the guitar himself, but also into developing a thoughtful, effective way to teach it. Looking forward to seeing how Fret Science teaches the subject.
Thanks, Tony! 🎸🧪🤘