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Building a Solid Improvisational Concept Part 2 by Igor Saavedra
So, what about the “poetical” and “lyrical” aspects of improvisation, and how important are they within the improvisational context?
I already mentioned on the first part of this series that in my opinion “Improvising is composing in real time”, so what about “The Content” of this real time composition? What about the “story” you want to tell? Or maybe you haven’t noticed yet that what you really want to “tell” when you improvise is how good and skillful you think you are? If so, please consider removing this aspect from your artistic statement. 😉
In my opinion even though scales, licks, chops, techniques, etc., are such an important thing to manage, the lyricism is something even more important, because you can perfectly manage all the techniques and all the information available, but if you don’t know what to do with that “nothing but notes will come out of your instrument!”
There is a mountain of information regarding those lyrical and poetical improvisational aspects that I would be able to share with you, but I don’t want to extend too much and I’d rather go for the ones I consider the most important.
1) Express something to the audience: If you want to play for yourself stay at home, there’s nothing wrong with that anyway.
2) Consider the context, context is the key: There’s always a moment for everything, so you can start very slow and generate motifs that you’ll gradually develop through your improvisation. But depending on the circumstances, consider just “going for it” from the beginning as an option. So be aware of what’s happening around you.
3) Question and Answer: Generate melodical and/or rhythmical motifs taking them as “questions, and then “answer” those questions with another melodical and/or rhythmical motifs. Let your feelings take care of that answer…they never go wrong.
4) Amplify/Simplify: Take any melodical and/or rhythmical motif and expand it or compress it. The best example I can give you (while being in a quarter note time signature), is playing some melodic idea made out of triplets and then play “the very same idea” again using eight notes so to “Expand It”, or using sextuplets to “Compress it”. The sky is the limit for that, because many polyrhythmic and polymetric situations will start to show up when you begin to explore this specific aspect…, that imply you’ll need to develop extra rhythmical abilities for being able to do that proficiently.
5) Add/Rest: Take any melodical and/or rhythmical motif and add or rest some notes to it without varying the actual time signature. If you decide to remove some notes, let this empty space “breath”. This empty space will serve as a womb and also as a launching platform for your next idea.
6) Interpolation of the Melodic & Rhythmic contexts: It may sound complicated, but the concept is quite simple indeed. A) While improvising, take any recognizable rhythmic motif on the music piece you are playing (Rhythmic Leitmotiv) and start playing it with different notes and different melodic approaches. (One Note Samba is a good tune to start with) B) While improvising, take any recognizable melodic motif on the music piece you are playing (Melodic Leitmotiv) and start playing it with different rhythmic lines and different rhythmic approaches, I suggest short melodic lines for this case. (Footprints bass line is a good tune to start with)
7) Varying or modifying: First of all never forget that “Varying is not only adding or modifying, it’s also taking away!!” That being said, I’m referring specifically on this point to small nuances like vibratos, slides (glissandos), and bendings. These nuances can make a HUGE difference on your speech and have the power to “steal a tear” from somebody in the audience, or from yourself.
Next month, or better said, “next year”, on the last part of this series I’ll be addressing the esthetical and psychological aspects so to close this circle that intends to help you out on building a solid improvisational concept.
I wish you all a Happy New Year’s Eve, and also a Happy New Year!!
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Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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