YOUR IMPROVISATION

QUIZ ANALYSIS

What is your #1
Improvisation Mistake?

See what these results mean inside…

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Congratulations and Thank You!

Thanks for making the time to take the What's your #1 Improvisation Mistake
Quiz.

Hi - I’m Yaakov Hoter, creator of this quiz.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve helped literally thousands of guitarists improve their
improvisation skills and reach new levels of musicality. In that process I have
noticed there are 4 main types of mistakes that people are making that hold them
back in their improvisation.
That led me down the path to creating this Assessment, so you can get instant clarity
about YOUR #1 Improvisation Mistake and learn how to overcome it.

So, let’s get to your results!

Yaakov Hoter.

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Your #1 Improvisation Mistake

Based on your answers and the little I know about you and your situation, your #1
Mistake is what I call The Colt Clinker.

Here’s What That Means

It means that you don't have the full set of basic skills to improvise freely yet. You
are not happy with your improvisation and you don't know what to do next to get
out of this rut.

You may want to play freely over the changes, improvise melodically with
interesting lines, play faster and close the gap between how you play right now and
how you wish you could play…

So first of all, you must know that, no matter where you are in your journey, you
definitely can make it to your destination.

With patience and persistence, you can do it!

There are two aspects to playing the way you really want to:

1. Skills (chords, accompaniment, technique, arpeggios, triads, form)

2. Art (making beautiful music).

The secret is that perfecting the skills must come BEFORE working on creating pure
art! You must give yourself the chance you deserve by not skipping steps or
jumping ahead; you only end up wasting time, perhaps even years, that way.

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Okay, you may ask about natural talent:

People like Django Reinhardt or Bach just have the skills intuitively.

They knew how to teach themselves and go beyond anything anyone else could
have taught them.

But for us mortals, mastering skills is a MUST!

It creates the steps on the ladder that let us climb up to the level of really making
beautiful music.

Skipping that stage is like trying to get to the top of a ladder with rungs missing.
You’re bound to fall off.

Don’t let that happen.

And believe me-

YOU CAN PLAY THE WAY YOU WISH TO.

Most of the musicians that you love are not geniuses like Django and Bach.

Neither am I.

I just did the hard work to master the core skills and I enjoyed every step of the
climb!

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Common “Colt Clinker” Improvisation Mistakes

You may have tried to follow some video lessons, learn some licks or scales, finding
the one scale that fits with most of the chords or you may have tried to move from
one chord to another and got lost.
But there are two crucial things missing….
THE FORM and… THE SHAPES.

It seems that you can't follow the harmonic structure and keep the form of the
song– which is the ONE THING you can't start improvising without.
And you also don't have a constructive set of shapes to follow the form with.

Until you have mastered at least a few basic triads or arpeggio shapes that you can
keep the form with, creating musical sentences that connect chords in a melodic
way, you will continue to feel stuck and unable to really improvise creatively within
the chord changes.

I have students who had been stalled in this situation for years. It didn't matter how
many licks and tricks they picked up. As long as you don't have a clear foundation
of a set of shapes that you can play over, moving from one chord to another,
connecting chords while creating beautiful sentences and motifs, you will always
feel insecure and will lack confidence when you try to take a solo, improvise freely
and compose on the spot. In some cases, it could even lead to lack of motivation to
play the music you love so much…

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Here’s What You Can Do About It

Thankfully there are some simple things you can do to avoid this frustration and
build a solid structure for your improvisation.

It all begins with having a Full Spectrum Learning Plan that addresses these 2 key
areas:

● Skills – a sufficient set of shapes to feel free with your fingerboard while
keeping the FORM and the

● Anatomy of Melody - the secret ingredients for melodic composition

so you can play beautiful solos with the shapes you've learned…

Your Learning Plan should have the ideal balance of skills, such as triads, arpeggios,
scales and licks, which will give you confidence on your fingerboard, and the
knowledge of how to use these skills in a melodic way to create beautiful
improvisation over songs, right away.

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Your Next Steps

Now you might be wondering…

What are the basic shapes I need?

How do I create beautiful melodies with them, connecting chords, instead of a
meaningless set of notes? And how do I do it without going crazy and without
it taking over my entire life?

Well, this is what I do all day, every day - help guitarists like you fulfil their dream
and play amazing solos.

And I just happen to be hosting a special session on this very topic soon.

And because you’ve taken the time to take this quiz and tell me a little about
yourself and your situation, I’d love to invite you to that session for FREE…

We’re going to be covering the basic skills and shapes you need to have and how to
use these skills in a musical way over songs, right away.

GET YOUR FREE LIVE SESSION TICKET

LINK IS IN YOUR EMAIL INBOX

And to help you make the most out of this live session, I have something for you to
get prepared, in the meantime…

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In the following pages you'll find a lesson that has a few layers in it, so it fits all
levels of playing. It'll help you improve your improvisation right away, no matter
where you are at on your learning journey!

• Layer #1 – The Form

Any song has a form. A chord progression that you must follow, knowing
exactly where you are at any moment.

• Layer #2 – The Shapes

These are the shapes you follow the form with. You can start with as few as
three triad shapes, learn them on ONE area of your fingerboard and start
improvising! Think of it as a minimized instrument…

• Layer #3 – Melodic ideas

These shapes are only the framework for your solo around which you
compose all your melodic ideas. The sky is the limit to how far you can go
with it…

• Layer #4 – The Anatomy of Melody

Many players talk about improvisation as telling a story. And ALL the stories I
know are composed of sentences. Each of them has a clear start and end.
And many of the sentences relate to one another, like motifs. Implementing
these ideas will help you create a STRUCTURE to your solos…

In your Results video, I showed this to you briefly.

Here we have the time to get deeper….

>>CLICK HERE TO VIEW YOUR VIDEO LESSON<<

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FORM and SHAPES

Relating all your licks to these simple shapes allows you to be playful and move
from one chord to another by creating melodic improvisation.
For example - you can create a beautiful improvisation over the blues by mastering
only three triad shapes. Your first exercise would be to learn to follow the form with
them. Next – we'll be using these shapes as the framework of your improvisation.

12 Bar Blues in G with Three Simple Triad Shapes

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The secret is to make it simple – use these shapes as the framework for your solo
but feel free to play around the triad notes (like by adding half-tone approaches or
enclosures).

Melodic Idea #1 - Half Tone Approach (HTA)

There can be many variations on half-tone approach exercises. You can start on the
beat or on the offbeat. You can play it once or twice for each note and so on.

Here are a few variations:

Half-tone approach on the beat:

Half-tone approach on the off-beat:

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Melodic Idea #1: Enclosure (EN)

An enclosure is when you "enclose" a note from two directions – below and above.
We usually use a half-tone below the triad note and either half tone or one tone
above the triad note.
Here are a few variations:

Simple enclosure:

Trill enclosures leading to one another:

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The Anatomy of Melody: Sentences and Motifs

Ideally, your improvisation should include ALL of the following:

• Your solo should be composed of sentences.

• Each sentence must have a clear start and end.

• You must separate your sentences with a pause, so your listener can digest all
the sentences.

• People LOVE repetition. Any sentence that you repeat twice becomes a motif.
(Motifs can include a rhythmic idea, a melodic idea or both).

That's not all, of course. There are many more elements to learn from guitar
masters like Django Reinhardt. But we can't learn it all now.
(Hint – you'll get some more when you join the upcoming live session).

But if you listen closely to your favorited solos – you'll find that these are basic
elements that any great solo has.

The following etude is a simple improvisation over the 12-bar blues progression,
that demonstrates ONLY the basic ideas I showed you here.

Try to implement these concepts over any song that you play and remember –
music can be VERY SIMPLE, but it must always sound good!

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Yours,
Yaakov Hoter

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12 Bar Blues Improvisation Etude

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