---
title: 'How Improvisers Improvise'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=-G-GMaGR5rQ'
video_id: '-G-GMaGR5rQ'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 755
---

# How Improvisers Improvise

> Source: [How Improvisers Improvise](https://youtube.com/watch?v=-G-GMaGR5rQ)

## Summary

The video explains improvisation as spontaneous composition, comparing it to everyday conversation. It introduces five progressive levels of improvisation, from playing by ear to intuitive mastery, emphasizing that anyone can learn with practice.

### Key Points

- **Improvisation Defined** [0:02] — Improvisation is spontaneous composition, like having a conversation without a script.
- **Level One: Playing by Ear** [1:35] — Level one is pure intuition—playing by ear. Everyone needs this foundation.
- **Tension and Release** [2:19] — Tension and dissonance are not bad; balance between tension and release is crucial.
- **Semitone Resolution** [2:47] — You are always only a semitone away from resolving tension.
- **Level Two: Using a Scale** [4:04] — Level two: use a single scale or key to guide note choices—most songs fit one key.
- **Superpower of Scale Knowledge** [5:38] — Knowing major scales helps quickly identify the key of a song.
- **Level Three: Chord Theory** [6:30] — Level three: chord theory—match scales/arpeggios to specific chords, not just the key.
- **Level Four: Substitutions** [9:15] — Level four: substitutions and alterations to add harmonic color.
- **Level Five: Intuitive Mastery** [10:56] — Level five: intuitive mastery combining all levels, focused on tension and release.

## Transcript

the five levels of jazzz
improvisation improvisation in music is
the act of spontaneously playing
something that hasn't been previously
planned or composed in fact in many ways
it is simply composition sped up some
people find the idea of any kind of
improvisation to be pretty intimidating
but I think that anyone can learn to do
it because it's something that you do
all the time when you tell a story or
have a conversation and you haven't
pre-written or memorize what you're
saying you're improvising you've
probably got some broad ideas in mind
that you're trying to convey but it's
not worked out ahead of time you're just
talking you're able to draw from your
massive vocabulary and compose sentences
on the spot that make sense and convey
meaning conversely in music there are
only a few notes to choose from so it
should be a lot easier to play something
that makes sense and even sounds pretty
good but if you're in a band and it's
your turn to take a solo and you're just
supposed to make something up how do you
do
that now it should go without saying
that anything you play should be in time
in tune and with a good sound that's
just basic musicality and control of
your instrument so you just have to
choose what notes to play and what
rhythms to play and in my experience
working with new improvisers rhythm is
not that big a deal while notes tend to
be far more mystifying and intimidating
so that's what this video is going to
focus on and how you do decide what
notes to play depends on how far you've
progressed in what I think of as the
five levels of improvisation in music
and while the levels are sequential
they're also cumulative and even sort of
loop around on each other and while the
progression of complexity is probably
what you would expect the role of
intuition may not
be level one is all about playing by ear
and it's basically 100% intuition there
is a rare species of musician who are
natural improvisers they engage with the
music fearlessly and seem to
effortlessly come up with brilliant
musical ideas but maybe don't know much
about chords or Theory some people never
get out of level one and they don't need
to because they sound awesome most of us
aren't so lucky and need a bit more
study and guidance to improvise well
but everyone still needs level one
because there's nothing more important
in improvisation than using your ears
and basically everyone has some
intuitive understanding that some
choices in music are very consonant
While others have a lot of dissonance or
[Music]
tension but tension and dissonance
aren't necessarily bad in fact the
balance between tension and release is
really important in music
[Music]
and you may notice how some notes want
to go up to
resolve While others sound more
satisfying when they go
down and if you're not sure how to
resolve attention you should know you're
only ever a semitone away from a
resolution to attention
with practice and experimentation you'll
learn to hear and resolve these tensions
quickly but I do think it's important to
remember that there really are no
objectively right or wrong choices here
there's no forbidden or brown note
that's going to make something explode
if you play it wrong it's a bit like
deciding what to have on your sandwich
some choices are going to be more
traditional While others are going to be
more adventurous but you do you sure you
could burn the toast and most people
won't like that but the analogous
situation to that is more like playing
out of time with a poor sound rather
than an objectively bad note so fill
your ears improvising musicians need to
listen to bands and soloist from genres
that they want to play to try to figure
out what kinds of sounds fit and what
don't and back to sandwiches it's a bit
like learning what kinds of things
usually go well together and if you mix
it up well it really depends on your own
tastes if you find it interesting or
just kind of weird so try a note and see
if that works and go up or down a
semitone if you need to then try another
note and before you know it you'll have
tried all 12 pitches and probably come
up with a pool of notes that sound
pretty good and all of the sudden now
you're in level two level two use a
scale or key most songs are made up of a
variety of chords but more often than
not these chords are going to be related
to each other because they all tend to
come from one key or scale for instance
all these songs all have chords that
come from the key of G major so you can
just use the notes of the G Major scale
to improvise and whatever you play is
going to sound probably pretty good
depending on the type of song you're
playing you might find another type of
scale works well but level two is
basically about having an awareness that
you can often just use one scale to
guide your note choices for
improvisation and it's going to sound
pretty good now since this is level two
it really helps to know a little bit of
music theory like knowing the basic
pattern of major scales and how that
pattern relates to different kinds of
minor scales and to other kinds of
scales check my channel for videos about
these scales if you need to brush up on
anything and I even did one on how to
learn all your scales in all 12 keys in
just 24 hours with a really powerful
practice technique and method to track
your progress check the description for
links but in the meantime don't panic
because you don't need to know all these
scales to get started you only need to
know the scale you need to know to
improvise on a specific tune so how do
you know what scale to use first your
teacher or someone else in the band who
knows all the chords might be able to
tell you what scale to use or use those
ears that you developed in level one
just listen to the song and experiment
until you figure out what notes and
scales work best by process of
elimination there are only 12 notes to
try and 12 possible major scales they
can fit into and you can probably figure
out what scale works if you just try and
actually if you've put the time in to
learn all your scales really well you
can figure out what key you're in really
really quickly because certain notes
only fit in certain scales like if C
doesn't work but C does you can rule out
a whole bunch of scales and then you
only have to check a couple more notes
to quickly narrow down your options to
just one scale this might seem a bit
mystifying if you don't know your scales
well but this is just one of the many
superpowers you gain by learning all
your major scales more info on that in
the description as
well some songs will modulate to
different keys but it's the same idea
figure out what scale works in what
section and you'll have a pool of notes
to choose from at any time that are
going to sound pretty good and even Jazz
which tends to be really harmonically
complicated with lots of different
chords can even be thought of in terms
of level two that is different groupings
of notes that combine to create various
key centers and when you're comfortable
with that and ready to move to a greater
level of detail that brings us to level
three chord Theory now instead of just
thinking of a key that a piece or
section is in and using an appropriate
scale to improvise you're actually
paying attention to what chord is being
played at any given moment and what
scales and arpeggios work best over that
specific chord if you're playing the
blues rather than just using the blue
scale level three would require knowing
the arpeggios and scales of all the
specific chords used in the Blues and
trying to incorporate those notes into
your improvisations during those
specific bars the blues generally only
has three chord to worry about but this
is fundamentally a much more detailed
higher resolution understanding of how
to navigate improvising over a piece of
music and depending on the tune you
might have quite a few different chord
changes to consider this is a big
project because every chord type and
this is just a few transposes into 15
keys and has its own arpeggio and scale
type as well as notes that we tend to
classify as tensions which sound pretty
good but you know have tension and avoid
notes which sound dissonant and should
generally only be used as passing tones
level three improvisers also consider
voice leading and guide tones as they
move between subsequent chords and often
try to highlight those harmonic changes
when improvising such as in the Blues to
give you a sense of the difference
between level two and three here's two
choruses of me improvising on the blues
first and level two then level three
[Music]
level three is a big jump in detail and
we're going to do a deep dive on all
these topics and More in subsequent
videos so be sure to subscribe so you
don't miss them but for now just
remember that you don't have to learn
every chord and every key to get started
in level three improvisation you just
have to learn the chords and the song
you're learning and if you'd like to
have a conversation about these or other
musical topics I teach lessons online I
play trumpet but I've coached musicians
who play all kinds of instruments about
all kinds of musical topics we can work
on improvisation rhythms site reading
repertoire or whatever you like visit my
website bradh
harrison.com a member of my Channel or
joining my P patreon one of the perks is
access to a huge scale syllabus and a
set of playalong practice tracks
designed to help you learn all your
scales in no time a bunch of different
scales have already been published and
more are on the way check the
description for links to become a member
level four substitutions at this level
in addition to being aware of what chord
is being played and what arpeggio and
chord scale is indicated you're also
considering substitutions and
alterations to add even more color to
your improvisations if you're looking at
a major seven chord there are a few
options each with their own interesting
sound but dominant chords surely have
the highest number of common
substitutions and there are probably
even a few more that I forgotten here
we'll get into the details in other
videos but here's an idea of what some
of these sound like
[Music]
and you can even get into what is known
as Sid stepping or playing outside the
key which is basically what it sounds
like playing notes that aren't in the
key there's a lot to explore in this
topic but a good way to think of it is
playing something in a key just not the
key that's being played at the time
[Music]
[Laughter]
[Music]
the options for cord and scale
substitutions are nearly Limitless and
it really does bring us back to the idea
that there are no right or wrong notes
only Bolder or more conservative choices
and you get to choose what kind of
sounds you think are appropriate for the
music you want to play and finally that
idea brings us right into level five if
you've gotten here you've been on a
journey you've learned how to listen and
how to play by ear how to improvise in a
key how to choose scales and arpeggios
that fit the core to the moment and how
to add substitutions to add more
harmonic color to your improvisations
level five is the combination of all of
these applied in a new way that is
primarily concerned with tension and
release and as we alluded to earlier
this level is highly intuitive and it
can be because of all the work you've
done to get here if you were to ask an
improviser on another level what they
were thinking while they're playing they
can usually offer a reasonably clear
explanation appropriate to their level
of progress but in my experience truly
Advanced improvisers sometimes struggle
to answer such a question with any level
of specificity because they're wielding
so many different improvisational tools
they're so free from their instrument
that the ideas just sort of come out
they're just trying to get from one
harmonic point to another tension and
release is really Paramount in music and
really in most art in general and going
on this journey of learning through
these different levels is going to
inform your choices in ways that are
difficult to describe now I'm not going
to demonstrate level level five because
that sort of feels like the height of
hubris But be sure to listen to all the
great improvising musicians and you'll
find plenty of examples please let me
know in the comments what you think
about improvisation and any questions
you might have and get in touch with me
if You' like to work on any of these
things in a lesson I'll be releasing
videos digging into the details of jazz
Theory later this year so be sure to
subscribe too thanks to all my
supporters on patreon and all the
members of my channel here on YouTube I
truly appreciate the support please
consider becoming a member if you'd like
to support the channel and help me make
these videos more frequently thanks for
watching