No matter what style of music you're interested in, learning to play fiddle tunes on the guitar is a great way to develop musical skills. Fiddle tunes provide common ground for people from all backgrounds to come together and play music. They're also a great vehicle for guitarists to develop their ears, technique, knowledge of music theory, and improvisation skills. In this column I'm going to talk about the last item on the list; improvisation.

While improvisation happens in lots of music, the two styles that are most often associated with it are jazz and bluegrass. There are lots of similarities between these styles besides improvisation. Both have a large standard repertoire; both claim the blues as an influence; both started in America, primarily in the South (for the sake of accuracy I should add that the fiddle tune tradition, which sometimes falls under the umbrella of bluegrass, has its roots in Europe).

There are also, obviously, major differences between jazz and bluegrass. One difference is how improvisation is conceived. In general, jazz improvisation tends to be based more on the harmony of a tune. Many jazz songs are recognizable from their chord progressions alone and most jazz musicians would recognize tunes like "Stella by Starlight" even if the melody wasn't being played. That's less true with bluegrass and fiddle music where the harmony tends to be mostly diatonic - meaning the chords are derived from one scale. For that reason, improvisation in a fiddle tune usually means creating variations on the melody while keeping the melody recognizable.

A good starting point for learning to play variations on a tune is to first learn a basic version. I'm going to use Arkansas Traveler to show how we can take a melody and add variety to it using some basic concepts. Step one is to learn and memorize the melody.

Step two is to learn at least one other version of the same song. The second version can be more complex but doesn't have to be. The important thing is to change a few things around without hurting the melody. The following version of "Arkansas Traveler" is a little more "busy," replacing some of the quarter notes with eighth-note passages, and adding a chromatic note in measure 12.

Learning just these two versions of "Arkansas Traveler" provides the foundation for improvisation. By randomly mixing and matching the different phrases of the tune you are, in a sense, improvising. As you learn more tunes and variations you'll have a larger pool of ideas from which you can draw.

Now would be as good a time as any to emphasize the importance of memorization in this whole process. Getting the tune off the page and into your head places it in your long-term memory where it's free to hang around and blend with other musical ideas residing there. After you've put enough music in there it's only a matter of time before new and surprising things start to pop out during your performances. Reading a tune from the page keeps it on the surface where it can't create that synergy. By freeing the eyes, memorization opens the ears. Try it and you'll see what I mean.

Repeat this same process with every new tune you learn so you keep planting new ideas in your brain. Listening to recordings of the tunes you're learning is not only a good way to get new ideas for your variations, it's also one of the most important things you can do for your overall musical growth. It's impossible to be a good musician without a commitment to listening on a regular basis.

These next two versions of "Arkansas Traveler" introduce some new ways to vary a melody and add interest to your playing. The main feature of version three is that it takes the melody down an octave. Whether you move the melody up or down, this is a good device to have in your arsenal. This version also has sliding notes in measures 1, 3, 5 and 10 to add a new texture. The chromatic notes in measure 4 could be transposed up an octave and used as a variation in one of the first two versions. Measure 14 uses crosspicking and would also be a nice measure to "cut and paste" into another version.

Version 4 throws in everything but the kitchen sink. Don't try to tackle this one unless you're ready for it. There are slides, chromatic notes, double-stops, notes up the neck, and crosspicking. Starting in bar 17 there is also something called "floating notes" which is an effect created by mixing open strings with fretted notes. All of these techniques can be used in other tunes you know or plan to learn.

As you continue adding tunes and variations to your repertoire you might start to feel like you're doing more memorization than improvisation. But with enough time, practice and listening, things will start to happen. The tunes you used to play the same every time will start to show up with some new twists. You'll have to trust me on this one.

Jeff Troxel is an award-winning guitarist, songwriter, and composer who lives and teaches in Cody, WY. He holds music degrees from Berklee College of Music and the University of Southern California. He has taught guitar at USC, the University of Laverne and Northwest College. Jeff is the 2003 National Flatpicking Champion and is currently on the faculty at Central Wyoming College. He writes a regular column for Flatpicking Guitar Magazine and divides his time between teaching and performing. www.jefftroxel.com