At this point we have come from looking at the new flute to actually playing it. We haven’t played anything yet that would wow and audience, but we ARE playing it. At the two level, the choice is easy. Either you stay on the note your on or you change to the other. With the addition of a third note you have a choice of two different notes and once you are on that note you have the other two.

I want to talk about phrases for a moment. When you are working with only two notes it does not limit your phrase to two notes. If you play the lower note followed by the higher note, you have a phrase that is two notes long using two notes. If you play the lower note followed by the higher note and go back to the lower note, you have a 3 note phrase using two notes. If you played both available notes rapidly back and forth for 20 times, you would have a 40 note phrase using two notes. So what I’m pointing out here is a the length of the phrase has nothing do do with how many notes are available. The idea of improvising is to take the available notes and arrange them in phrases.

If you played 4 short notes in a row, then let a beat or two or three go buy without playing you have played a 4 note phrase. For explanation’s sake, lets take the first 3 notes (lowest notes) on the NAF. For a G flute, the notes would be G, A# and C. Another way of expressing that is all holes closed, hole 1 (closest to the foot end) open and lastly holes 1 & 2 uncovered. If you come up with a four note phrase G, A#, C, G then add to it after a pause C, C, A#, G. You have the essence of improvisation. There are “rests” in music. The “rest” can be a few counts without a note or it can be a long note after a sequence of shorter notes. When you are improvising, you could start with the lowest note on the flute, playing a long tone. While you are playing that tone begin to listen for an “idea” of what note to play next. You can think in terms of which hole or holes to uncover next or a better way is to think of the sound or pitch you want next. If you practice with the goal of being able to “hear” the sound first then play the note you’ll be able to hear the next note and just “automatically” uncover the right holes. So we can think of what we want to play next during a period of no notes or a long note.

There is a tendency when playing the flute to start on the lowest note and use that note sort of as a home base. If you allow that to become a habit, you will find most of your improvising sounding the same or similar. As you practice try to pick one of the other notes as your “home base”. Start and end the song on it. You don’t have to end a song on the same note you started on nor the root note of your scale, but it is good to work that in to your practicing. Starting on a different note in the scale makes for some interesting melodies and it makes you think about what you are doing. I find it sparks the creative juices. As you try new ideas and phrases, you’ll come across some that sound pretty cool. Dwell on those and experiment with them. I have written many songs based on some phrase that came from experimentation. As you practice keep in mind there are several elements that make up a musical phrase. There is note sequence; the “melody” of the phrase. There is the timing or where the notes start in relation to the beat or count. There is the duration of the notes.  There is the length of the phrases. There is expression; how you  start and stop the notes. Also how you transition from one note to the next such as sliding or hammering on. All this is part of improvising. As you practice, don’t get bogged down on the details. Just let the sounds flow, but pay attention to the sounds you are hearing. When you hear something cool, stop and do that again. Work on it enough that you could probably do it again tomorrow. Also, try some variations on it. Add another note and see what it sounds like. Try playing slower and maybe faster. Three or four notes played fast repeatedly can sound really good as the chords change. You want to listen to and mimic the masters, but you also want to look for those hidden paths, the new “ideas” that come along and explore them. I do all sorts of not so good sounding phrases when I practice, but in so doing, I manage to stumble on some interesting stuff too and that I latch on to and develop.

Developing a library of phrases is a good idea, because you have things you already know are pleasing to the ear that you can put into the song as you strive for the unusual or new idea/phrase. In the following examples I will use three notes in varying phrase lengths. In the first just to illustrate that you can work with any order of notes, I will play only descending notes reverting to the highest note after the lowest note is reached. If you have 3 notes and you play a 4 note phrase then pause and start again from where you were or the next note in the sequence, you can create varying sound relationships between the note played and the chord in the background. Add to that the expression techniques and you’ll find pleasing music begin to emerge from simple principles. One could learn music theory and work from that aspect. What I’m trying to do hear is teach how to play by ear without regard for the actual note being played, and just focusing on the sound and how it makes you feel. So lets get to some examples. I will play a sample and then below it I will describe what I did. You can try playing just what I did or better, just apply the rules I followed and see what you come up with. As you experiment, listen to the phrases you are coming up with. At some point, you’ll hear one that someone has played in a recording. Sooner or later, your made up phrase will be like one that has already been made up or played.

So here is an example of a 3 note improvisation. I am not focused on sounding good nor even timing. I’m just listening to the backing and playing “ideas”.

Click for: Last thoughts and samples.

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