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Improvisation can be described as playing "off the cuff". When you improvise, you play right on the spot, with little or no previous preparation. It's easily possible to make up a solo for a song that you are hearing for the first time, if you know how to improvise.
As you listen to a song, your mind will invariably create sounds that you would like to hear with the music. Since you are into the guitar, then you probably hear guitar sounds in your head. If you were able to instantly find all the notes you hear in your head, you'd be able to play some awesome guitar! This is the principle behind improvisation and you'll be happy to know that there are tricks to doing it, and those tricks are not that difficult.
Much of this relies upon training your ear to be able to recognize a handful of sounds and relate them to the key you're in. Eventually, you will hear a riff in your head and be able to go right to it on the guitar.
When you hear a section of a piece of music, it will be in a certain key (also called the tonal center). You should be able to quickly identify the tonal center, and that tells you where to place your scale(s) on the guitar.
Just learning the scale isn't enough. You need to be able to recognize the individual notes of the scale and what part they each play when you use that scale.
To restate this, when you hear a blues tune, for instance, you should be able to pinpoint the root of the song right away. Knowing the root tells you which scale you can use and, therefore, tells you where to play on the guitar. At that point, if you are familiar with the scale, you will hear familiar ideas come up in your head and be able to make them come out of the guitar!
To learn improvising requires that you work on two distinct areas:
Coincidentally, I have pages on these subjects prepared for you. Click on the appropriate links above or on The Guide bar at the left of any page.