Chord Progressions for Improvization?

[TheoFly]

I am a bit burned out on the usual chord progressions that I can get my band mates to improv to. We usually do the usual I-IV-V blues thing, the "play over an E-minor chord to you puke" thing, and some sort of I-II two chord vamp for a while.

I would like to be able to suggest some new ideas. I don't really want to just pick a known song to use because then we all start trying to play the song and I think some of the creativity gets overlaid by the compulsion to cover the tune.

What can you suggest as additional chord changes that would be good practice to play over?

[KimblesNimble]

get a fake book/ real book and learn the standards - they will have all the changes you need

[DudeistMonk]

Yeah I'm in the same boat, I'm slowly picking up new ones as my guitarist throws them out there.... I'll be watching this thread closely.

We did a cool one last week that was C-B-Bb with a pre-conceived hook that brought it back around...It turned out real well...I've been listening to it all morning.

We also do a lot of 2 chord stuff like I-IV or I-IV or I-ii. I'm finding any combination of I-IV-V works like I-I-IV-IV-I-I-IV-V. You could also just lay down a really funky 1 chord deal and go crazy with it.

[mambo4]

+1 to fake books.

IMHO it's usually way more fun for the players than the audience when you jam or the same chords for a long time.

At the very least, I would pick some actual songs to jam to, if only the chords. Follow the jazz formula for structure: Play the song correctly, then improvise /trade solos, then return to the head, so you learn to improvise in a way that has form and context. Also, play the whole song : go from verses to choruses to bridges etc...to give the contour to the jam.