Unlock Your Jazz Improvisation Skills

3 Easy Jazz Improvisation Exercises For Beginners

Getting started jazz improvisation can seem scary at first. That’s why it’s important to find jazz improvisation exercises designed specifically for beginners to help you get started. 

Whether you’re new to playing guitar in general, or just new to jazz… learning to improvise in this style can be daunting.

It’s partly because there’s no one “right” answer – there are a lot of ways to approach improvisation. So it can be hard to know where to even start.

If you’re used to learning things note-for-note, it can be hard to get comfortable “making it up” as you go. It seems like there are endless possibilities of what you can play. So you end up not even trying.

I’ve known players who were great at playing music that was written down already… but they completely froze up when it was time to improvise. It’s like a mental block.

It also seems super complicated, even when it doesn’t have to be.

When you start asking for advice about how to improvise, people want to throw tons of music theory at you to explain how to do it.

You come away feeling like you need to know every chord that exists, along with the 5 different scales you could choose to play over that chord… and then maybe you’re ready to try improvising.

Before you know it, your head is spinning. You’d need to have a computer for a brain to pull all this off! There’s just too much to think about. 

I’ve had students tell me they always wanted to learn jazz, but never took the leap because improvisation seemed too overwhelming.

I’ve got some good news for you.

Improvisation doesn’t have to be scary, complicated, or overwhelming.

You don’t need to know a bunch of theory up front in order to start playing good solos (sorry, jazz police).

If you know a single scale, or even a few notes of a scale, you can improvise! You just need to know how to get started.

Jazz Improvisation is a Skill

Here’s the problem with loading up on music theory first: 

Jazz improvisation is not about what you know, it’s about what you do.

There’s no way to think yourself into being comfortable improvising.

There’s no secret knowledge that will make you good at improvisation without trying it first.

And you can’t know how to do it until you jump in.

Sure, you won’t sound great at first… that’s impossible. But you can still make some music out if it.

You need to get your hands dirty – and be willing to explore a little bit before you’ll start to feel comfortable.

So let’s dive in.

I’m going to show you 3 easy jazz improvisation exercises for beginners that let you explore playing solos without anything more than a single scale pattern.

Before long, you’ll be able to feel comfortable improvising and creating your own melodies from any scale you like to play.

3 Jazz Improvistion Exercises for Beginners

For all of these exercises, I’ll be using the G Major Scale in the 6th string form.

That being said, you can (and should) use any scale you want to. This is about you learning to create melodies that sound good to you – so use a scale that you like.

To start out, I’d recommend that you either use the same major scale I’m showing here, or whatever scale you are the most comfortable with on your own.

As far as the examples go, I’ll be showing exercises in 8th notes, but that doesn’t mean you have to play fast.

Go whatever speed is comfortable for you, and allows you to pay attention to the exercises.

And remember – the examples shown are just examples, not something for you to learn and play.

The real exercise is in improvising, following the instructions below. The examples are just that… examples.

Exercise 1: Changing Directions

To start out, play up and down the scale moving by scale step only (no skips or jumps allowed… for now).

In his book Improvise for Real (Affiliate link), David Reed calls this “wandering the scale.”

Play up and down the scale, changing direction at random. Do what you want as you play, but in general I feel like the more direction changes, the better.

You want to really explore the sounds of the scale, in every step-by-step combination you can find.

Pay attention and really make sure you are only moving by scale step… we don’t want to skip any notes just yet. That comes later.

I make it a personal rule to be sure I play every note in my finger pattern at least a couple of times before moving on to the next exercise.

Finally, it’s important to keep your ears open, and pay attention to how the notes sound.

Be listening for any sequences or combinations of notes that sound good to you. I know it can be tricky when you’re only moving one note at a time, but still try to create some little melodies that you like.

This is an important thing for you to focus on in jazz improvisation if you’re a beginner. Making small creative choices, and listening to how the notes sound as you play them.

Exercise 2: Adding Skips

The basics of this exercise stay the same as in exercise #1. The big change here is that you also get to skip notes whenever you feel like it.

Basically, you can jump to any note of the scale, any time you want to…

… just make sure it’s actually a note in the scale and not something random. That’s the biggest thing beginners get wrong in jazz improvisation.

Their fingers “go wild” and they play a bunch of nonsense that has nothing to do with what they’ve practiced.

Keep listening for melodies you like – that’s the key to developing your improvisation language.

This should be a lot easier than in exercise #1 – since you can jump around, you have a lot more options for note combinations you can use.

This exercise is pretty much what improvising or playing a solo is… you’ve got everything you need to come up with melodies on the spot.

Exercise 3: Skips Only

This one is harder, so take your time.

For this exercise, you can only skip or jump to a new note… never move by scale step. As a general rule of thumb, if you play something that sounds like it resolves/sounds settled… you probably just played a step by accident.

This exercise is great for a couple of things:

Breaking up your old muscle memory. You’ll have to break out of old finger patterns because you aren’t allowed scale steps.

It gets you used to playing larger intervals (you can’t use them in solos if you never play them… so this is a good way to practice that).

Finally, this exercise really drives home the notes available to you in a given key or scale.

General Tips:

Visual Aids Help… A Lot

Personally, I like to use fretboard diagrams as a visual reference with my students. But some people prefer to have a scale written out in musical notation.

Use the diagrams on the major scales lesson to help you at first.

Or if you want something to download, check out my “Quick and Dirty” Guide to Major Scales.

Don’t be a hero on this.

You do yourself no favors by trying to make it harder on yourself… and then making tons of mistakes.

Use the visual aid that works best for you to keep yourself on track. When you don’t need it anymore…. you’ll know. And it won’t feel like you’re working hard.

Go Slowly

You’re building muscle memory here, so don’t try to rush through the process.

People are generally good at playing scales up and down, but not as good at changing directions or coming up with new melodies.

Beginners try to work on speed too early on when they’re learning jazz improvisation.

If you go faster than you’re ready to, you’re relying on muscle memory that hasn’t been built yet. 

Play the notes at a speed that lets you keep track of what you’re doing. And if you need to stop and think, then stop and think.

Don’t Add Rhythm Yet

This is hard enough as it is.

So don’t imply any rhythm or time for a little while… just work with your note choices. I promise there’s plenty of work for you there.

It won’t take long before you’re ready to add the timing and rhythm elements in. 

Keep it Interesting for Yourself

Let boredom tell you when things need to get more complicated, instead of pushing yourself to work harder. This is where a lot of beginners working on jazz improvisation get stuck.

They try to “push themselves” to do harder and harder things, without mastering the basics first. Work on something until it’s actually easy… then move on.

If exercise 1 gets too easy, move on to exercise 2.

If you’re getting bored with all of the exercises, play with adding in timing or rhythm elements.

Or find a backing track for the key you’re playing in.

The important thing is that you don’t push yourself to play harder and harder versions of these exercises…

… once you’re bored, find a way to add to the challenge for yourself so you can keep things interesting.

It’s a subtle perspective change, but it makes a big difference in how fun your practice sessions will be.

And on the flipside…

… if something is too hard, find a way to dial it back so it’s easier. Go slower, go back to an easier exercise, move to another area of the fretboard.

You want to keep keep things manageable so you want to keep coming back to play.

More Jazz Improvisation Resources for Beginners

Learning to improvise in jazz doesn’t have to be scary or complicated. If you do it right, it can even be the most fun part of your practice.

In his book Improvise for Real, David Reed argues that improvisation can be how you practice,  not just something you practice.

And I think he’s right.

The exercises in this lesson are adapted from his book… and changed slightly to fit my purposes in my own practice, and with my students.

Improvise for Real was an eye-opening read for me, and really helped me simplify my own thinking around improvisation. I’d highly recommend you check it out.

Click here to buy Improvise for Real (affiliate link), and see for yourself.