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Guitar Zen: Improv Strategies

Top 7 Pro Strategies for Soloing and Improvisation

Marty FriedmanTommy EmmanuelSteve VaiEric GalesEric Johnson

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Guitar Zen: Improv Strategies
Eric Haugen

Eric Haugen

Educator

multi genre

Genres

About this course

All of your favorite improvised solos have one thing in common — a creative approach and and an underlying strategy. In the same way movies rely on storyboard and scripts, musicians rely on a variety of creative strategies to guide their improvisations.

This Improv Strategies edition of Eric Haugen’s Guitar Zen series will teach you the top 7 creative strategies that the pros use, across all genres, to guide their own solos and improvisations.

”I'll show you the 7 soloing approaches and creative strategies that your favorite guitarists use all of the time. We’ll combine a creative approach with and underlying strategy to get the most out of the scales, licks and phrases that you already know.

We'll start by working on the two most important things; being on the beat, and in the scale. I’ll show you improv strategies like Motifs, Repeat and Add, Call and Response, the Dicky Bettes trick, Simple Sequences and Speak In Paragraphs — all simple to employ using what you already know.

You don't have to split the atom to create a powerful solo on the fly. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you can put these approaches to work and take your improvisations to a whole new level.”

You’ll have all of TrueFire’s advanced learning tools at your finger tips to personalize your workspace and learn at your own pace.

You can loop, slow down, or speed up any section of a lesson. Plus, all of the tab and notation is synced to the videos for the optimal learning experience. You’ll also get tab and standard notation files to print out, Guitar Pro files, and all of the backing tracks to practice with.

Grab your guitar, and let’s dig in with Eric Haugen!

What you'll learn

  • Apply simple melodic sequences to break out of linear scale playing
  • Use three-note descending patterns to navigate scales musically
  • Execute call and response phrasing in blues context
  • Create more interesting melodic movement using sequences
  • Develop strategies for when feeling stuck during improvisation
Release date: 02/28/2023 • 1h 21m runtime
intermediateelectric guitarsoloingimprovisation
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Sample lessons
Strategy 4: Call and Response
Strategy 4: Call and Response
Demonstration
Conversational Etude
Conversational Etude
Performance
Conversational Etude
Conversational Etude
Breakdown
Strategy 5: The Betts Stutter Trick
Strategy 5: The Betts Stutter Trick
Demonstration

What's included

24 lessons • 14 charts • 7 Jam Tracks

Guitar Zen: Improv Strategies
Hey, I’m Eric Haugen. Let go of your improv insecurities. I’m here to help you become content. We’re going to combine a creative approach with underlying strategies to get the most out of what you already know.

I’ll show you 7 very effective soloing approaches that you hear all the time being used by your favorite players.

We’ll start by working on the two most important things – being on the beat and in the scale. We’ll also look at improv strategies like Moving Motifs, Repeat and Add, Simple Sequences, Call and Response, Push and Pull, and Speaking in Sentences.

You don’t have to split the atom to make a solo. You’d be surprised how simple it really can be and feel really good.

Ready to drop in? Let's roll!
Before We Get Started...
How we should set our mind right, and then get our tone right for improvising.
Strategy 1: The Most Important Things
As long as we play notes that are from the scale, and they land on the beat, we're gonna sound good! That's all there is to it. We'll start things off with a performance and then I'll break it all down for you in detail!
On the Beat, In the Scale Etude
As long as we play notes that are from the scale, and they land on the beat, we're gonna sound good! That's all there is to it. We'll start things off with a performance and then I'll break it all down for you in detail!
On the Beat, In the Scale Etude
Let's walk through the simple and sturdy "On The Beat" solo.
Strategy 2: Motifs On Different Strings
Let's think of phrases as "hand choreography," which means we can relocate simple ideas to other strings to generate more music! We'll start things off with a performance and then I'll break it all down for you in detail!
Moving Motifs Etude
Let's think of phrases as "hand choreography," which means we can relocate simple ideas to other strings to generate more music! We'll start things off with a performance and then I'll break it all down for you in detail!

+ 17 more lessons

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Reviews

11 results

MS

05/21/25

Eric Haugen-One of the Best

I'm here to write a review for Guitar Zen-Improv strategies but also to rave about all of his guitar courses here on TrueFire. Firstly, Eric is such a chill instructor and that relaxation to teaching makes learning much less stressful. Love his Zen approach. Second, his improv course and other ones like CAGED are thorough and detailed. He takes the time to make sure that the concepts are easily accessible and have great etudes or other pieces to learn and reinforce ideas. Third, I love that he talks about understanding and doing it slowly and training your brain. Eric has a good understanding of learning and makes learning guitar a pleasure. Thanks Eric!

mikeslechcta

01/20/25

Well Paced Course with Attention to Detail

Hi Eric, I'm also taking your Zen-Improv course here on True Fire. As usual you are slow, detailed and give great explanations. I love your songs you choose to teach and apply what we have learned. I'm only on the Motif section at the moment but even that has taken me further than I have been all by myself over the years. I've heard many guitarists talk about motifs and I never really connected to what it was. Now I know what many guitarists do, they take the lick and move it different parts but keep the same intervals. Can't wait to do the rest of the course. Love it! Thanks Eric!

tomac

Verified buyer

12/18/24

My best Teacher

ajphotoltd

Verified buyer

12/10/24

Looking forward to this class

Have not taken this class yet but, if it's anything like his other classes it will be great.

Stephen

08/31/24

It's good, just like the others

All of the guitar zen courses are great and this is no exception.

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