This page links to notes on things to think about when tooling up for improvisation.  There are a few preliminaries to deal with first.

Unless you've got a really highly-developed intuition that enables you to feel your way ahead as you play, it's important to commit some basics to memory.

In particular, learn the common chord symbols and the notes that make them up.  So if someone calls out F minor 7, you should be able quickly to retrieve from your memory-bank the notes F, Ab, C and Eb.

Because if you can do that, well, at least you have four notes from which to build an improvised phrase that you can be certain will "fit" the chord.

Another element you should attempt to internalise is rhythmic interest.  People new to improvisation (and quite a few experienced musicians too) feel they have to make noises at any cost, and so they go noodle noodle noodle noodle noodle noodle *gasp for breath* noodle noodle noodle...and on and on.

A small number of notes (maybe simply notes from the chord) played as a short rhythmically interesting phrase will sound more like a thought-through jazz statement than any amount of frantic noodling.

Where do you find rhythmically interesting phrases.  By listening to good jazz soloists, of course.  But you already make interesting patterns every day - it's called talking.

A jazz solo is a kind of lecture, or sermon, or even an argument.  Just take a look at this and you'll see exactly what I mean.  The lesson is - if you can talk, you can improvise.

Finally, act the part of a jazz musician.  That is, imagine yourself to be the cool, fluent, all-powerful improviser you're aiming to become and sustain that persona as you practice.

You might want to do this out of sight of others, because it will usually look ludicrous.  But it can be a way of overcoming the barrier between the person you are and the musician you want to be (confession - you would not believe the years of strange posturing, grunting and attitudising I devoted towards becoming Bud Powell...)

One approach to improvisation is to relate each chord, or group of chords, to particular scales, from which melodic lines can be built to "fit" the harmony.

The buttons will take you to the story of chord-scale relationships reduced to the bare minimum.  These pages are not quite complete - some links lead nowhere, for example - and I'm inclined to rethink the whole approach anyway, but until I get round to revising this part of the site, they'll have to do.

Harmonising the scale: how to extract chords from a scale and use the relationship in improvisation

  II-V-I: the cornerstone of jazz harmony and improvisation

  Things to think about and things to try: including the cycle of fifths

  Augmented chords and scales: you can get a long way knowing just two scale types...

If none of this helps, don't worry - everyone learns differently and I'm the first to admit that my world-view is just as likely to confuse as to illuminate.

Fortunately there are many printed, recorded and online resources out there, amongst which will be the right system for you.  Visit the page and continue the quest.