Congratulations! Today's lesson is a very special lesson.This is where the magic is.The X-factor.

This is where you get the opportunity to inject personality, emotion and expression into you playing. This is where you get to define your own unique style as a lead guitarist. Today I am going to teach you how to improvise. Incase you don't know, "improvise" means to make it up as you are going along. When you see a guitarist playing a solo, sometimes it's a melody that they had already prepared in advance, sometimes they are making it up as they go along. They do this by using a framework of notes called a scale. Do you remember when we learned the blues scale and the minor scale? Any of the notes in the scale can be played in any order and they will always sound good! How exciting! What that means is, once you've memorized the scale of notes, all you have to do is choose any of the notes in any random order and it will sound good! Think how liberating that is. It's like having a comfy pair of underwear which makes every movement a pleasure throughout the day! When you improvise, you don't know what note you are going to play next untill the moment you play it. This can be extremely fulfilling because it brings your attention into the present moment. Think about when you talk to a friend, what you are thinking and what you are saying happen at exactly the same time, as one single event. When you are relaxed, you are not thinking about what to say next, and you are not thinking about what you just said, and you didn't plan your speech before hand! It just flows out of your mouth. It's very much the same when we improvise a solo on the guitar. The scale is like a language. When we talk, we don't insert bits of Spanish, French, German, Chinese and English do we? No. We use language which will make sense, that is what a Scale in a certain Key is. This is a very spiritual concept because some people spend years learning how to meditate so their conscious attention is fully in the present moment. Not thinking about the past, not thinking about the future, but only aware of this moment. In the moment there is no worries, only peace. Regret lives in the past, anxiety lives in the future, but pure silence and peace lives in the present moment. Improvising brings you into the present. It's possible to improvise with chords also, so long as you are flexible enough to choose from a range of different chords which work well together. But in this mini-video-guitar-lesson, we are going to use the minor scale as the palette of notes to improvise a lead solo with. In the mini-video-guitar-lesson, I'm am going to show you a range of techniques which will help you add "expression" and "feeling" into your solos. This is your chance to make the guitar talk. I tell my student to "tell a story" with the notes they are playing. Have a subject in mind which you have some feelings about, maybe it is a woman or a man, maybe it is something you are excited about, maybe it is a situation you are frustrated about. Whatever it is, "speak" through the guitar, and inject all of your emotions into the notes you are playing and allow the guitar to tell the story. When you improvise, you need some backing music to play over, maybe another musician can play some chords, maybe you can record yourself playing chords, maybe you can play along to your favourite music. We have produced some backing tracks which are suitable for you to practise "improvising" over. They are in various keys in various styles, some are in major keys, some are in minor keys, some are Rock, some are Blues, some are Jazz. You can find these on the Archive. (if you are confused about keys, don't worry, you're not alone, I haven't explained it fully in this eCourse because it is quite a large subject. If you want to learn more about keys, go to the techniques section of the archive where you'll find a full-length-video-lesson which will give you a fuller explanation) So,,,, Would you like to connect to "The Force" young Skywalker? Would you like to learn how to play an un-prepared solo, only by asking "what key are we in lads?"_ , , Ok Good. (if you have been playing for some time already, you may already be able to improvise a solo. If so, I suggest you watch the mini-video-guitar-lesson anyway, because there are many different techniques, and you will probably find some new ideas. This 12-part eCourse is mainly aimed at beginner guitarists so some of it may seem obvious to you. However, stick with me, because each segment I send you will focus on different techniques, so there's plenty here for you to enjoy.) to Watch Your MINI-VIDEO-GUITAR-LESSON "How to Improvise with expression"_ (I suggest you do watch it!) click the download link above or below. Once you've watched the mini-video-guitar-lesson, BROWSE THE ARCHIVE at www.vGuitarLessons.com/archive . There's a large selection of solos to learn such as "Pariseanne Walkways by Gary Moore", "Samba Pati by Santana", "Hotel California solo by the Eagles". Also theirs is a range of backing tracks for you to improvise over. Also, if you have friends who are learning guitar, send them this link www.vGuitarLessons.com/course because I'm sure they will benefit from this eCourse also. Until next time, keep practising, and enjoy playing guitar no matter what standard you are at. I'll see you in a few days with the last segment of this e-course, 'how to get paid to play'. Ben Lowrey P.S. Remember I'd love to hear from you personally so if you have any feedback about our vGuitar Lessons, send it with a pic of you and your guitar to students@vGuitarLessons.com and we may put it on the homepage. P.P.S If a song you want to learn isn't listed on our archive, send me the track name and artist to requests@vGuitarLessons.com and I will find it, listen to it, figure it out, record a full-length-video-guitar-lesson and post it on the archive for you to download.