Keeping the Groove in Improvisation

Welcome to Keeping the Groove in Improvisation! Keeping the groove and keeping it "in the pocket" so to say, are essential skills when improvising, especially in funk-rock, funk or fusion, where rhythm is of prime importance. What I want to cover in this tutorial is a simple yet very effective tool for improvising that will help you immensely when soloing over a rhythmically varied background. There are a few pointers first however. First of all, you should be fairly comfortable with all the major note values, and both how to alter them, and how to rhythmically superimpose a rhythm. You will learn all about that in my Timing and Note Value Alteration tutorial. Furthermore, you should know your way around the fretboard, and be able to find any little lick or idea in all the various positions across the neck. You can find some very helpful exercises on that in my Unlocking the Fret Board and Pentatonic Finder tutorials. Finally, you might also want to check out the tutorial from which the first examples are derived, which is a natural follow-up to the above mentioned tutorial, and a great "sidekick" to this one. It's called Expand Your Improvisation With Line Alterations. All the above tutorials should take care of any potential "gaps" in your fretboard knowledge. So now, let's get cracking with this tutorial! First of all we will get warmed up by doing some rhythmical superimposing as per the tab below. Check out the video, then head on over to Part 2!