http://guitarsecrets.com/all_notes.htm
Check that site out.
When you have learned the notes, you just have to know this:
the major scale is this -> T T H T T T H
What that means? that if you're figuring out the C major scale, you go :
C (one Tone appart from:) D (One tone apart from) E (One Half-tone apart from) F (1 T. Appart from) G (1 T.Ap.Fr.) A (1 Tone) B (1 Half-tone) C
got the idea?
For exampe, the A -Major scale:
A (<- T ->) B (T) #C (H) D (T) E (T) #F (T) #G (H) A
This means that if you play a song that's in A Major (meaning that it has all of these chords) you can go nuts with that scale, identifying those notes on the fretboard and just letting yourself go!
now... if you are the one playing the chords, you should know:
First note : Major chord
Second note : Minor chord
Third note : Minor chord
Fourth note : Major chord
Fifth note : Major chord
Sixth note : Minor chord
Seventh note : Diminished chord
And that's pretty much it for scales!!!
Searching for info, you'll start encountering modes, the jonian, locrian, dorian, lydian , mixolydian , phrygian modes, and they'll confuse you, but they're just for classifying scales... (check my post on modes on Music Theory before commenting on that..)
And minor scales.. well ... easy
T H T T H T T
and if you pay attention, you'll notice that it's the same Major formula, but "dragged" six steps to the left!
If you start a minor scale from the sixth note of a major scale, it's that same scale!! that's called a "relative minor"
For example:
C - Major Scale: C D E F G A B C
A - Minor Scale: A B C D E F G A
D - Major Scale: D E #F G A B #C D
B - Minor Scale: B #C D E #F G A B
Minor scales have other ways around, some notes change sometimes (descending harmonic) and all that, but that's really not important, if what you need is improvising.
If you're into writing music... classical music, you should go deeper into minor scales. But it isn't such a big deal.
And if you have a minor scale, and want to know which major scales corresponds to, then start counting from the 3rd step! and that's it!
So... Improvising.
No one really deepens in this. All texts just say "go nuts! anything counts!"
not really.
What music are you improvising? Is it blues? Metal? acoustic? flamenco?
You must have that in mind.
When you're playing blues, you should learn a lot of licks that will florish your jamming
When you're playing metal, try landing on the root notes.
If you see your friend playing a chord, then, undo that chord , and if you're lost in the improvisation, just land on one of the notes of that chord.
Let's say you have a C chord, and you're lost, then you could just land on C, or on G, or on E! (C chord: C, E , G)and it'll sound great!
When you're lost always go back to the chords, play them for some while.. get the "feel" again
Finally , practice improvisation alone... when i'm alone in my room, all i do is improvise things
I already forgot almost all of the songs i knew :p
but practice is all that matters! just practice
sit in your room, get some relaxing music, marty friedman don't know which album but has some really relaxing themes, and start playing on top
Add to your improvisation Slides, taps, sweeps of the current chord, all of those will help it.
Well ... hope this helps...
