Most of us know what it's like to sit down and practice the all-important fundamentals like technique, theory, ear training, sight reading, tunes etc. for many hours at a time. Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of the creative part that may have lured you into improvised music in the first place. It helps to shake things up once in a while. I'd like to suggest an exercise that is not only fun but also really gets the creative juices flowing.

Sit with your guitar and take a few deep breaths and try clearing your mind of all thoughts. Make sure there are no distractions if possible. Begin to play slowly listening intently to the timbre of each note with no concern for a tonal center, chord structure or meter. Try not to judge what you play; it could be single notes or double stops up to full chords. Continue to leave lots of space observing the sound carefully. Maybe the 4 notes you just played could be repeated on a different pitch level using similar intervals. Try to go by intuition and let the music go where it wants to go. Call and response is a nice objective or simply play one idea and back it up with a similar statement. Don't be concerned with a tonal center or chord progression. For 10 minutes or so you are attempting to get away from having to adhere to a set structure and just letting go.

Maybe you hear a long sweeping passage from the high to the low range of your guitar. Go after it without a care about what the notes are. Go with a direction. Try ascending similarly or playing close chromatic things, anything you want! Chances are that you will be pleasantly surprised by some things you are doing and might want to stop and write them down. This is fine but may interrupt the flow; try to keep going as to not lose the clear non-judgmental mindset. Playing with abandon is what you're after. Maybe you imagine for a moment that you're a saxophonist playing legato cascading notes. If the notes come out less than articulate you can go back later and devise a way of getting around the fingerboard better but no time for that now… on to the next idea.

Jim Hall has a great exercise that he does which is very similar only he de-tunes the guitar randomly. Some strings get raised, others lowered, so it is totally foreign to him each time. He thrives on surprises! The only thing that he knows for sure is the sound that will come out when playing along the length of one string, and often he does just that. Then he may repeat that group of intervals on another string to form a sequence. I've also heard him play a line across all 6 strings and laugh in contentment at how good it sounded. Then he moved the melodic line up several frets keeping all of the intervals more or less intact. He joked afterwards saying that what he played sounded better than on a regularly tuned guitar. What a great exercise if you feel stuck in a rut!

There is a way to play "free" that still has some structure. That structure may be repetition, call and response ideas, directional types of lines, use of constant structures or sequences. It can also be textural types of structure or sonic effects.

Jim Hall has said that there are certain performances of free music that fail to draw him in, likening it to two guys playing a game of tennis with no net! In my experience for most listeners to enjoy improvised music there needs to be some kind of structure, as opposed to random sounds that don't relate to one another. All of the studying you've done as a musician will be the glue holding these ideas together. It certainly helps to know what all the intervals will sound like before you play them. After learning to recognize and play the intervals on all string sets this exercise can go to another level.

It's a good idea to practice playing free improvisations with another player for at least one tune during a rehearsal. Start the session with a free improvisation to get into "deep listening mode." Reacting in this way with another player can be a tremendous learning experience.

Most important of all do this exercise a little bit each day. It will make it easier to "throw the switch" on demand into letting go and playing without restraint. Picture it as a muscle that needs to be developed and it will be there for you when called upon. Often after these free play sessions I come away with a new concept I had not thought of before or an idea for a new composition.

I hope this makes a difference in your playing and helps you become aware of your capabilities when you can get out of your own way and just let the music dictate the direction.

Best wishes,

Steve Herberman