This is the first lesson on my site to offer a variety of play-along tracks as part of the supporting material in addition to lengthy transcriptions of soloing ideas. “Improvisation 101” is a mandolin lesson for students of all levels, from the beginners who are getting their feet wet in soloing to the advanced players who are looking for more rich harmonic and rhythmic ideas to add to their vocabulary. The lesson starts by providing a foundation in basic music theory looking at the key of G major and the associated scales and arpeggios that can be made with those notes. Then, in the exercise portion of the lesson I demonstrate improvising lines that are typical for how I approach playing through chord changes in both bluegrass and jazz contexts. These demonstrations are accompanied by the play-along tracks of rhythm guitar and upright bass, which you also receive as mp3s to practice with. There are 8 different play-along tracks over the following chord progressions:

1. G major (bluegrass)

2. D7 (bluegrass)

3. G to D7 (bluegrass)

4. G to D7 (jazz)

5. Am7 to D7 (jazz)

6. G to Am7 to D7 (jazz)

7. C major (bluegrass)

8. G C D G (bluegrass)

You will also receive the PDF transcription book with all of these solos written in the form of standard notation and tab. This PDF contains a link to a Google Drive folder with all video and audio content. (This video has been uploaded at a higher resolution making it 6.6GB, which may require downloading it to your computer for proper playback.)

Duration: 44 minutes