How To Ad-Lib, Or Improvise

How To Ad-Lib, Or Improvise

There are mainly two ways to approach a freer form of expression in a song. These are “ad-libbing”, and improvising. More details on those distinctions later.

You can develop both of these methods by either:

1. Hearing it in your head and just diving in.

2. Practicing beforehand so you have a number of licks, riffs and ideas at your disposal.

I would, of course, recommend the second option:)

When you are more prepared, and when it’s appropriate in the song, you then have some tricks to draw on.

Once you leap in, your instinct might very well not only use them, but develop them naturally. This increases your lick and riff repertoire.

It helps to have a basic knowledge of music and rhythm to do this. Ad-libbing is, in essence, “playing around with the tune”, usually in a dramatic or emotional part of a song. Or during the outro, to further express emotion.

It’s usually quite simple, using blues links and/or rhythmic patterns.

“Improvising” is what jazz, rock, blues and, sometimes, folk musicians do when they, essentially, play around within the chord patterns of the whole tune, making up new melody lines, riffs and rhythmic ideas using the harmony and chords of the song.

So it’s much more complex than ad-libbing, where one is usually extrapolating over a few bars here and there.

Both can be practiced and developed simply within a singing session, described in more details below in the “Create your own singing lesson” article.

It also helps if you have a basic idea of how music is constructed. If you want to get a sense of freedom into your performance, and “find your own voice”, then a certain amount of basic knowledge is paramount.

You’re no longer rigidly sticking to the tune, you can hear what the other musicians are doing and are part of the whole picture, rather than the lone voice alone at the front of the stage.

This opens up enormous opportunities for you, the singer, and the choices you can make within the song.

Even if you choose to simply stick to the song, which is perfectly valid in it self, of course, your phrasing will be more finely tuned and subtle. And even if an audience doesn’t know what you’re doing, they’ll feel it and hear it intuitively.

Another reason to practice ad-libbing and improvising is that it takes your performance into another sphere, to “11”. A heightened emotion, and feeling.

Using the drum tracks

You can learn to do it all by ear, but if you don’t know where to start and it’s all a complete mystery to you, you can train your ear by listening to the chords and practicing syncopation, i.e. rhythm.

A way to do this is to practice with the drum tracks included in this program. Once again, as described in the article “Create your own singing lesson”.

As you listen to your chosen drum track, start by singing just one note along with the track. Try to feel the rhythm in your body. Tap your foot, click your fingers, whatever feels right.

Then add another note. Then another. Before long you have a tune.

Then sing along to your chosen song. There are two ways to go this.

1. Ad-libbing:  Listen to the chords and the beat. Pick a phrase from the song, an emotional part. It could be just one or two words. Sing it throughout the song, drawing on the way you were practicing with the drum track.

2. Improvising: Do the same thing as with the drum track, but let the tune you’re making change with the chords of the song. This is improvising. You can use syllables for this: be, le, la, de, doh, duh, me, mah anything.

Remember that the spaces within the and-lib or improvising are just as important as the notes. You’re telling a story, let it unfold.

Drum tracks:

(links)

Related articles:

Create your own singing lesson

How to feel rhythm

Learning to like your voice

Overcoming fear and performing truthfully

Understanding your voice

Good voice bad voice

Let yourself suck!

Being in the center of a song

Being authentic on stage