Monday, March 21, 2005

How Would You Finish These 2-Bars?



On my many journeys to the San Diego library looking for books to help me learn composition, I stumbled upon a piano improvisation book. I forget the title, but at the back of the book, there were exercises that prompted the pianist to complete 8 or 16 bars of music with only the first 2-bars filled in.

I found this to be very interesting and one of my first introductions to the power of limits. With only the first 2-bars filled out, it was easy to complete the rest of the melodic phrase.

What's really unique about this little exercise is that many will try to censor what comes out of them and go back to change notes that they already have put down. My next post will show you how I finished the top part (melody) using 8-bars.

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