Using Melodic Motifs

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Using Melodic Motifs To Improve Your Guitar Improvisation

One really effective way to develop your improvisational skills is to make use of deliberate constraints. This involves taking one specific element of your playing, and then improvising as much as possible using that one thing. This is a great thing to do because it forces you to get outside of your comfort zone of licks and ideas that you habitually use.

In this lesson we're going to take a look at how to apply this practice approach using melodic motifs. (These are short melodic ideas that you can use to create longer musical phrases). It's one of my favorite ways of working on my improvisation, and I hope you get a lot out of it too!

I should say here that this lesson is intended for guitarists who aren't already advanced improvisers. Because of this, I'm going to do my best to break things down into a step-by-step method. Let's get started with the first step now...

Step 1: Choose A Scale

For this lesson we're going to focus on the C Natural Minor scale. There's no particular reason why I chose this scale. But we need to choose a scale, so it might as well be this one. :-)

Here's a table showing the scale degrees and notes of this scale...

1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 1

C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

What we're going to do now is map out the notes of this scale onto a fretboard diagram. For this lesson we're going to focus on only the B-string and thin E-string. (You'll see why later on)...

Before you read any further, it would be a great idea to memorize the note locations shown on the diagram above. Although I've only gone up to the 15th fret, it would be a really good idea to learn the notes up to the highest position on your guitar fretboard.

All done? Great. Let's now choose a motif that we'll use for this lesson...

Copyright 2013 by Craig Bassett. All Rights Reserved.


Step Two: Choose A Melodic Motif

Now that you've memorized the notes of the scale, it's now time to choose a motif. When you do this yourself, you're free to use any motif you want. But for this lesson we're going to choose the motif of an ascending fifth. This means that you'll play a note, and then play a second note that is a fifth higher. For Example: If you played the first note of the C Natural Minor scale (C), and then played the fifth note of the scale (G), that would be called an ascending fifth...

1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 1

C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

OK. Now that we've chosen the motif, let's now move that motif through the entire scale...

Step Three: Create and Practice an Exercise

For this step we're going to create an exercise to practice. This will help us develop a few things...

The ability to visualize all the ascending fifth intervals in the scale. The ability to hear all the ascending fifth intervals in the scale. The ability to physically play all the ascending fifth intervals in the scale.

Although there are many different exercises you could create that would work, here's the one that I wrote for this lesson...

To get the most out of this exercise you should practice it over a C Minor chord. This will not


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only help with ear training, but will also make the exercise a lot more interesting to practice. :-)

Step Four: Create An Improvisational Context

For this step you need to put together a chord progression to solo over. Because it's beyond the scope of this lesson to explain how to do this, here's a progression that I recommend using for now...

Before you move onto the next step, you'll need to record this chord progression. It doesn't matter what strumming patterns you use, but make sure that you record yourself playing it for at least a few minutes. Once you've done that, then you're ready for the next step...

Step Five: Compose and Practice Some Licks

I've always found composing new licks a very helpful way of integrating new melodic motifs into my guitar soloing. I find that once I've mastered enough licks that use the motif, it becomes a permanent part of my playing and starts to appear in a natural way when I'm improvising.

Because we're focusing on the idea of ascending fifths in this lesson, this means that the licks you compose for this step should make use of ascending fifths. You don't have to only use ascending fifths, but make sure that they are used at least a couple of times in the lick.

Below is an example lick that I composed for this lesson. You don't need to learn it, but it will hopefully give you an idea of how you might use ascending fifths in the licks that you compose...

Example Lick: C Natural Minor


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Step Six: Improvise Using The Motif

In my opinion, this step is the most fun. It's also the most important, as all the other steps lay the musical and technical foundation for this step. So be sure that you don't skip it!

What you need to do for this step is improvise over the chord progression that you recorded for Step Four. The main focus of your improvisation should be using ascending fifths. Here are a few different things you might want to try...

Start every phrase you play with an ascending fifth. End every phrase you play with an ascending fifth. Use ascending fifths as much as humanly possible. :-)

By focusing so much on ascending fifths, you might find that your improvising sounds worse than normal. But stick with it anyway. The goal of this sort of focused improvisation is to integrate the melodic motif into your playing. You'll find that if you do it often enough, the motif will start to crop up in your everyday soloing.

Step Seven: (Optional) Create A Practice Routine

I must admit that I have OCD tendencies with my guitar practice. I really enjoy putting together structured practice routines that I follow to the letter. For me, I find them very motivating and they stop me from feeling overwhelmed.

So if you suffer from the same affliction, then this step is for you. :-) What I recommend doing is creating a practice routine that helps you master steps 3, 5 and 6. Here's an example of what you could do at least a few times a week...

Practice the exercise from Step 3 for 5-minutes. Practice a lick you composed for Step 5 for 10-minutes. Practice improvising using ascending fifths for 5-minutes.

A Few Last Words

That's all for this lesson. Obviously, we've just scratched the surfacebut I hope that I've given you at least a few ideas that you can apply to your own musical journey! Here are a few other things that you might want to do once you've mastered the material in this lesson...

Experiment with using ascending fifths on other pairs of strings. Experiment with using ascending fifths while staying in one position on your guitar

fretboard. Experiment with using the same seven steps on new scales, and new melodic motifs.

Have fun!


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Using Melodic Motifs