Introduction:
Google’s definition – “Improvisation, also called Extemporization, in music, the extemporaneous composition or free performance of a musical passage, usually in a manner conforming to certain stylistic norms but unfettered by the prescriptive features of a specific musical text.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2022)
Basically, improvisation is when a musician plays without any sheet music or plays something brand new, it can based around a note, chord, rhythm, scale or from what ever they’re feeling in the moment. This is a really good skill to obtain because it allows you to play from anything that you’re given, like a scale. It can be really useful to understanding your instrument a lot better, because there’s a lot of practice and theory behind it. www.bcmeaconference.com. 2022. No page title. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.bcmeaconference.com/uploads/2/4/3/6/24360110/__azzara_dmti_handout.pdf. [Accessed 13 January 2022].
Improvisation is typically used in live performance, and it tends to leave the audience hyped up or at the edge of their seats. When the audience is used to hearing a song being performed in a certain way, it tends to grow old after a while and people get bored. Improvisation can spice it up a little, so they stay interested, or it can just make you look really cool, when you ask the audience to give you a little melody to improvise around and then they look really impressed when you improvise something really cool over it. This also allows you to connect deeper with the audience, in a way, because you can ask them for a note, or scale or feeling etc, to play around and then it’s like a game between you and the audience.
Fundamentals:
Although improvisation sounds really cool, there’s a lot of practice and theory knowledge that it takes to be on an advanced level. Having a basic knowledge of music theory is essential.
Knowing your circle of fifths can be very useful during improvisation. For example, the circle of fifths tells you what notes and scales can be used in each key, including its relative minor. This means that you know all the chords (and voicings), all the scales and the scales/chords in the relative minor, so you have all of those to play around with during improvisation. Chord voicings are really easy to understand, it’s just the chord in different formations, i.e. c major in its root is C E G, but in it’s second inversion it’s E G C, and then you can keep changing them around and playing them however you want, because as long as it still has those notes in it, it’s still a C major. Then the scales can help with a melody improvisation. You can run up and down a scale, but that gets boring very fast, so you can really play any note, in any octave, as long as you know what notes your scale consists of. (MUSICAL U. 2022. Twelve Tips for Learning to Improvise Music. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.musical-u.com/learn/twelve-tips-for-learning-to-improvise-music/. [Accessed 13 January 2022].
Having a strong sense of dynamics and timing is, also, extremely important. If you keep falling out of time, it can seem like you don’t understand your instrument that much and it takes away the impressiveness, kind of, because it can sound unprofessional if you can’t stay in time. Then again, you can always play it off as playing in Rubato, but you still want to work on timing for more complex improvisations, like band improvisations. Dynamics is essential to expression. Understanding dynamics, and using them correctly, can really transform a piece from pretty to soul felt emotional. When playing, you want the audience to feel what you’re trying to convey and dynamics can really push the emotions on to them.
Although, music theory has a lot of rules etc, Jazz musicians use a bit of music theory and then have the ability to play wherever they want to. However, this means that you need to have a very deep understanding of each key so you’re able to fall back into the rules, but it is very freeing to know that you can go wherever you want to for a little bit. (Improvisation in music – How to do it | Simplifying Theory. 2022. Improvisation in music – How to do it | Simplifying Theory. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.simplifyingtheory.com/improvisation-in-music/. [Accessed 13 January 2022].
Inspiration for improvisation:
Improvisation is all about expression and the best way to be expressive, is to push boundaries. For example, in Jazz, they have a term called “playing outside of the box”. This means, you can play any note, no matter what the key is, essentially saying that, there are no bad notes. Playing “outside of the box” means that they’re free to feel the music and just play in complete emotion and expression. However, doing this means that you have to have a strong understanding of every key, scale and its relative minor, because you’re going to have to be able to bring it back into the right key and start playing “inside the box” at some point, otherwise it just sound messy. Basically, musicians get inspiration from a little melody, scales, notes, emotions, art, colour and just about anything really. Jazz players typically use harmonic, melodic, motivic or modes to improvise too. A Passion For Jazz. 2022. Jazz Improvisation. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.apassion4jazz.net/improvisation.html. [Accessed 13 January 2022].
For example, Robert Lervin improvises around colour and ornamenting, meaning that’s where he gets inspiration from. Lervin also uses a different method of practicing pre-hand, so he has several different ides to go to but he leave the decision making until last minute. This is a really good way to step up to improvisation because it leaves you feeling a little more confident, like you always have a melody to fall onto if you slip up. Performers like Chopin and Liszt really push their students to improve their improvisational skills because it can develop their expressiveness and it creates a sense of uniqueness in what ever they play.
Inspiration can also come from an anecdote. An anecdote is basically a little story, which is a good way to go about it because you can really put yourself into the scene and explore how you want to express the anecdote. An anecdote kind of allows the audience to connect with the piece of music and kind of place them self into the story too. For example, if you created a piece around the story of leaving friends behind to move into a better life, if you express it really well, you’ll draw in an audience of people who can relate and really feel the story, which results in you being able to gain a larger audience too.
Practicing improvisation:
Improvisation starts with knowing your basics in music theory, so go learn scales! Scales and chords all fit into a key, so learn your keys and get comfortable in them. After, you can play around with different chord voicings and hear how they change a piece. Once knowing your chords, chord voicings, scales and key, you just need to practice them and take it slow so you can program your longterm memory, and really focus in on your mistakes.
Embracing your mistakes is really important. Zoning in on your mistakes show you what you’re struggling with, is it your finger placements, switching between chords, arpeggios, what ever it is, that’s what you need to practice more! Fixing your mistakes means that you can eliminate those small mistakes, which can be detrimental to how you’re playing. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes because mistakes actually allow you to develop.
Play with a metronome, working on your timing is so important because that can be the difference between sounding really good, compared to sound messy. You can practice by playing in 1/4 notes, 1/8 notes and then 1/16 notes, which just allows you to deepen your rhythm but also timing. At first, play with a metronome at like 60 BPM, so it’s not too slow but not too fast and, so you have time to think and plan where you next want to move.
Playing around people who can play really well is, also, a great way to learn. Throwing yourself into the deep end allows you to be corrected and get advise from people who have been playing a long time and have different tips to give you. It, also, allows you to just have an opportunity to push yourself, like express yourself and play with others.
Listening to music and just internalising the melodies allows you to understand the harmonic progressions, harmonic rhythms and the skills to be able to improvise around the typical patterns used. Once you understand these, you can play around with the space, let the silence speak too.
Why improvisation is important:
Improvisation can help you develop your sound as an artist. Once you start improvising, you kind of adapt a specific sound and this can help you advance as an artist because it makes you unique. For example, a lot of Ludovico’s music uses arpeggios and that’s typically his trade mark. It allows a “one of a kind” experience, because it’s never been performed that way before.
Chopin and Liszt constantly push they students to develop their improvisational skills because they say “it’s an integral part of being a complete performer”. It can be used to be expressive, which is essential to being a successful musician.
It’s very risky, because it’s all in real time, with leaves the audience in their seats. Many pieces of music can get repetitive and tire easy, but a little bit of improvisation can really help push the boundaries so it sounds fresh and new. Pushing the boundaries means that you can also be really free with it and expressive, meaning that it can be a great outlet or way to connect with the audience.
Conclusion:
Overall, improvisation can really help your live performances and confidence within your instrument. For example, if you know your instrument really well, well enough to improvise, it means that if you mess up on stage, you can easily fall back into place so you’re not as nervous. Improvisation, also, just allows you to be more free and expressive, and therefore have more fun.
Improvisation is like playing completely from emotions and its freeing.
Logon Vle Books. 2022. Logon Vle Books. [ONLINE] Available at: https://r4.vlereader.com/Reader?ean=9780199830589. [Accessed 12 January 2022]