Improvise to produce a note (4,2)
I believe the answer is:
make do
'improvise' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'produce a note' is the wordplay.
'produce' becomes 'make' ('make' can be a synonym of 'produce').
'a note' becomes 'do' (musical note, as in do-re-mi**).
'make'+'do'='MAKE DO'
'to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for make do that I've seen before include "Manage with what's available" , "not expect better facilities" , "Manage (with inferior resources)" , "Manage with. even if not satisfactory" , "Manage with something not fully satisfactory" .)