How to Start Jazz Improvising

Dr. Bob Lawrence
6 days ago
4 min read

Discover . Learn . Play

A Beautiful Friendship, Improvisation. Cedar Walton — Discover, Learn, and Play Jazz

How to Start Jazz Improvising: Unifying Arpeggios and Scales to Build Melodic Mastery

Jazz Piano Skills – Podcast Episode Recap By Dr. Bob Lawrence

Another fantastic month of jazz study is in the books here at Jazz Piano Skills, and what a month it has been. Over the past three weeks, we have taken a deep dive into the beautiful jazz standard A Beautiful Friendship, exploring it through our three essential Jazz Piano Skills camps: harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, and improvisation development.

This structured approach—tied directly to our Seven Musical Facts—ensures that every tune we study becomes a comprehensive lesson in jazz musicianship. If you have been following along, then you already know how important those seven facts are in governing our conceptual clarity and in guiding our physical development at the piano.

Today’s episode continues that mission with an essential topic for every jazz student: How do we prepare to begin improvising?

And more specifically: How do we see arpeggios and scales not as separate skills, but as two elements of one essential musical dimension—melody?

Let’s recap the key ideas from this important lesson.

The Seven Musical Facts Revisited

Every Jazz Piano Skills lesson is anchored in our Seven Musical Facts. They simplify the vast world of jazz into a clear conceptual framework that fuels our physical development:

Music is sound and silence (major, dominant, minor, half-diminished, diminished).
Sound is produced harmonically and melodically.
Harmonic sound = chords and voicings.
Melodic sound = arpeggios and scales.
Arpeggios and scales move in only two directions—up or down.
Melodies use chromaticism to decorate arpeggios and scales.
Rhythm makes everything interesting.

These seven facts are the foundation for how we study tunes, develop improvisation, and approach every skill at the piano.

Arpeggios + Scales = Melody

Every jazz musician has heard the advice: “You need to practice your arpeggios and scales.”

Good advice—but incomplete.

Arpeggios and scales are inseparable. Two sides of the same coin. Two elements of a single musical skill: melody.

Arpeggios outline the chord tones.
Scales fill the space between those chord tones with passing tones.
Together, they produce the raw material of improvisation.

If you want to improvise, you must practice these two elements as one musical motion—not as isolated technical chores.

How to Begin Improvising: The Core Requirements

To begin improvising effectively, you must develop:

1. A functional command of arpeggio and scale motion

From the root through the 13th of all five primary sounds:

Major
Dominant
Minor
Half-diminished
Diminished

2. The ability to visualize and apply entry points

Every melodic idea begins on one of these tones: 1–3–5–7–9–11–13

Each of these tones produces different melodic colors and tensions. The more fluently you can access them, the richer your vocabulary becomes.

3. The use of triad shapes to generate melodic motifs

For every chord tone (root, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th), you extract the triad embedded in the chord-scale relationship and turn it into a motif using:

Arpeggio motion
Scale motion
A simple approach tone from the scale

This process creates motifs that are musical—NOT merely mechanical patterns.

Building the Model: The C Family of Sounds

In this episode, our goal was to “build the model airplane”—a complete step-by-step improvisation blueprint—using the C family:

C Major (Lydian)
C Dominant (Mixolydian)
C Minor (Dorian)
C Half-Diminished (Locrian)
C Diminished (7th Mode Harmonic Minor)

For each sound we:

Practiced ascending arpeggio motion (root → 7th).
Practiced ascending scale motion (root → 7th).
Built motifs from entry points using triad shapes.
Merged arpeggio and scale motion into a unified melodic line.
Explored the entire sound from root → 13th.

The result? A powerful, repeatable process you can apply to every key… and to every tune.

Why This Approach Matters

When you work this way, you quickly discover:

How clearly you see the harmonic structure.
How well you truly know your scales.
How easily can you generate melodic ideas on command?
How your improvisation becomes musical—NOT random and not theoretical.

This is not about “licks,” memorized lines, or shortcuts. This is about developing the musical vision required to create authentic jazz melodies.

Members: Make Sure You Use Your Materials

Jazz Piano Skills members should now download:

Illustrations Packet
Lead Sheets Packet (5 sheets for the C sounds)
Play-Along Tracks

These materials are essential for maximizing your success with this lesson. They give you the visual, conceptual, and sonic tools needed to explore each sound thoroughly and correctly.