TAC Family Forums

Hi @MiRu ! first – welcome to TAC! It is great to hear about your guitar journey with TAC and the fun you are having along the way. Don’t get too wrung out over the improv challenge. I find some days an improv comes to me pretty easily and other times it doesn’t. There are no right or wrong ways to do them – they are improvs and spontaneous. Sometimes a particular backing track also doesn’t click with me. No biggie – improv to your own stuff!

That said, I had another look at the Slice and Dice lesson and backing track (I went through the 5 Day Skill Challenge myself not too long ago) and have a couple thoughts to offer:

1. On the improv backing tracks you are able to change the speed of the track. In the lower right corner of the tracks video look for a “1x” or a gear symbol. Clicking this will bring up a list of factors by which you can change the speed of the track. Sometimes if I slow the track down a bit it helps me to ” hear” what is going on in the backing track and therefore helps with my improv.

2. Somewhere in one of the lessons Tony suggests listening to a backing track and playing some of the notes from the improv scale provided to see what sounds nice to you. This is something that always helps me.

3. In another one of the lessons Tony also said the improv doesn’t need to use all of the notes from the scale. You may find a few you really like and use the throughout the track. Find the groove that speaks to you and work it!

4. Don’t feel like you need to fill up every beat of every measure with your improv. This is a trap I fall into in particular all the time. Let the backing track “breath” a bit during your improv. “Sometimes less is more” as the saying goes.

I will record an improv sometime tonight over the Slice and Dice track and post it here in 5his thread.

Hope some of the above was helpful. Keep on playing guitar and having fun! 😎🎶🎸

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by  Kitman.