Do you know any tips on how to improvise?

How to improvise on trombone?

• I am going to audition for my schools jazz band and as part of the audition we need to try to improvise. I have never done this before and have no idea how to approach it. We have to play the piece he gave us and then also try to improvise it. Any tips on how to start out would be really helpful.

• Answer:

  Well the same as any other instrument, except it's a little hard on trombone because of the technique. There are a bunch of different levels of improvisation. What I'd recommend for you is to learn the scales. For most songs you can probably get away with using a single scale, in the key signature of the song, major or minor depending on the song. It won't sound terribly interesting, but it will reduce the amount of "wrong" notes. One thing you should do it take the "head" (Main melody) of the song and look at how it fits in the chord progression. Play it through a bunch, and eventually take the melody and "fool around" with it. This should give you an idea of how to approach improvisation. Get a recording and listen through a few times. Then just play the "head" of the song over and over again over the recording (for most songs it should fit). Then start fooling around. Some tips are definitely use your ear, take it slow but be confident, be bold but not arrogant. If you tell me what the song is I could possibly help you out a little bit more.