What is music? This has always been a question with a complicated answer. It is an art, it is a form of auditive content, among many other things. One of the most popular ways to define music is to define it as a “universal language”. A code or method that allows that when performed serves as a form of expression for any message, feeling or state of mind. To obtain the whole of anything that one may want to express we need to allow for some spontaneity, some unpredictability. What a better way to this when playing the piano than letting loose and improvising a little.
| “My participation in an improvisation workshop – I was ten years old – changed my life: from a simple material, you can create music that is different each time.”
States André Manoukian (French-Armenian jazz musician, composer, and television personality known for his work as a judge on the French version of “Pop Idol” and “Nouvelle Star“) |
Groove into Piano Improvisation: Jazz, Rock, Blues, and EDM
There is an extensive list of genres that have marked the history of modern music and are known and respected especially because of improvisation: jazz, rock n’ roll, blues and EDM are just some of the many examples of genres that have allowed for some of the best improvised pieces and performances to happen.
Exploring the possibilities of piano improvisation through resources, online videos, online piano lessons, blogs and online lessons is a very interesting conversation topic, and in this article we will dive into the topic of improvisation and talk about all the different aspects and things to be considered when learning how to improvise.
Kickstart Your Piano Improvisation
You decide to start improvising… but now, what? The first step to learn how to improvise, assuming we already know some basics of piano as an instrument, would be to listen to a lot of recordings of improvisations in the genre in which we want to be improvising.
The easiest way for most people to learn how to do something like improvising is through reproduction of patterns that have been previously interiorized through thorough listening and analysis. Once we have listened to a lot of improvisations, there is a set of “basic rules” that all genres have and must (or at least, are very recommended to be followed to obtain a satisfactory sounding improvised fragment or performance. These rules usually concern the melodic, rhythmic or harmonic side of the music.
Mastering the Basics: Key, Scale, and Tempo for Piano Improvisation
Now it’s time to actually do it! What are the technical aspects we need to know about it? Well, improvising is the time for you to showcase the knowledge and skills acquired through Skoove piano lessons. So it is very important that, to start with, you know the key, scale and tempo you are going to be improvising in. This is gonna be crucial for you to know what piano keys are limiting your improvisation to. Let’s say we have an accompanying track that is playing in C major scale at 120 bpm, we know we have to only use the keys that are part of the C major scale (white keys) when improvising and keeping track of the rhythm by counting 2 beats every second.
Once we know the key, scale and tempo, we have to start improvising thinking of our performance as something like blocks. We have to start creating little fragments or chunks of music that have a similar character and color. We do this by deciding a certain way we want a fragment to sound and what traits we want it to have and we start creating our music accordingly. By doing this we accomplish an improvised fragment or piece that has expressive diversity, which helps to make our performance richer and more catching.
Piano Improvisation: Practice Tips and Techniques
In order to be able to reflect our thoughts in a musical we need to have a certain set of skills, but don’t worry! This can be acquired through resources like online piano classes and books. Some other things that are known to be good for improving piano improvisation skills are:
- Practicing playing plain scales and arpeggios. This is something not very fun to do, however it is very helpful for piano players to develop the ability of playing in a specified subset of notes out of the piano and keep their improvisations in key and not play any dissonant or weird sounding notes.
- Paying close attention to the intensity while playing. As subtle as it is, how strong we play the piano really matters. It is very important to pay attention to the intensity so that we can adjust it according to the character or type of sound we wanna achieve.
- Doing an exercise that consists of improvising using only the notes in certain chords in a key. This allows that when later, we move to improvising with all notes we can keep a better track of where we are in our improvisation sequence and be able to return to the basics and play notes from the chord in case we get lost or fall off the tempo at any moment.
But at the end of the day, the whole purpose of improvising is to be able to add that “at the moment” intelligence and instinct to produce music. So, just let go, explore, try new things and don’t be afraid to miss a couple of times. Be secure of yourself and don’t be scared to try and translate your knowledge to other styles and try new things, what is the worse could happen?
| “His contemporaries valued him [Mozart] as one of the world’s leading keyboard virtuosos. And for them, what surpassed even his virtuosity was his ability to improvise.”
[via The Spectator] |
Key Takeaways for Piano Improvisation Skills
In summary, improvising is the way we have to fully let go and add the sporadic spark of instinct to our musical performances. And even though it might seem really challenging at first, there is nothing to be scared of, it is just very important to avoid overthinking and putting unnecessary pressure on ourselves. Instead, we should approach improvising in a more curious and playful manner. Each attempt, successful or not, provides valuable experience that makes us learn something each and every single time. With patience and consistency, we will acquire expertise and hone our skills to the point were we can play exactly what we have in mind in the precise way we want to play it.
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