I plan to pick up Slap it by Tony Oppenheim tonight. But i had a question. Does it go over technique or is just a bunch of slap lines?

I was looking through the sticky about books and all i saw was improvision for jazz. Are there any general improvision books? Or is that too broad of a subject to be put into one book?

In general Improv is Improv the scales are the same. The rhythm for one style of music versus another will be different. One style of music will use certain scale more that others. The key is taking a whatever scale it is and play and listen and play and listen. Find the notes that you like for your style of music and which notes you don't.

But other things like phrasing, developing motifs, note sequences, use of chromatics, Blue notes are common to all styles of improv.

I plan to pick up Slap it by Tony Oppenheim tonight. But i had a question. Does it go over technique or is just a bunch of slap lines?

I was looking through the sticky about books and all i saw was improvision for jazz. Are there any general improvision books? Or is that too broad of a subject to be put into one book?

It includes both. I had no idea how to slap before I got it to work on with my teacher, and now I'm pretty good (I think, at least..:p )

alright cool. thanks guys. They didn't have Slap it at my local music store... so i'll have to order it online or somethin.

Go out and grab some Jamie Aebersold play along books. Those are wonders for improvising.

I'm wondering about the same thing , and what DocBop says is pretty much what I dint the best way . I dont know why , but when I'm fooling around , then my hands automatically seem to find the notes on the minor scale and start fooling around over there creating melodic metal basslines . So I guess the only advice a noob like me can give is that practice scales that interest you a lot , and soon enough , you'll start making melodies out of it..

Another suggestion I can give for what I do is set up a metronome....and select a note....and start playing that note at the start of each measure......one beat.....and while you keep doing that , work out an improv of adding 2 more notes in your mind....and then the next measure start adding those notes , and get accustomed to that one , while you think of some more notes to add....this helps me tremendously , for finding the appropriate groove for a song...