You Shall Start Like You End

Phrasing is at the essence of improvisation. We can compare phrasing to speech in which your ideas need to be organized in order to be understood by the listener. In today's lesson, we'll apply a simple concept to develop some interesting lines that will respond to each other. The idea is to start a new lick using the end of the previous one.

If you approach a lead with that concept in mind, your solo will sound more organized and will help the listener follow what you are trying to tell him musically. This can be used in any musical situations and at any level.

The backing track we'll work with is in E minor with a slight modulation to F# minor in the middle. We'll use some simple licks built on E and F# minor pentatonic. Once you are comfortable with this, use the looped backing to create your own lines.