Learning About Improvisation from a Harpist?

Yes ... a harpist. And why not? It's a harmony producing instrument just like piano. The following is from an article on how to improvise for the Celtic Harp. I wanted you to see this because it's just as applicable for piano. Here's the article...

Learning to create a music improvisation on the Celtic harp is really easy. Not only that, but it is a skill that improves so many other areas of your harp playing. Here's an overview of what the simple practice of music improvisation can do for you:

~ Allow you to play anywhere, anytime, without music
~ Generate ideas you can use in arranging
~ Generate ideas you can use in composing your own music
~ Free you to respond completely to the person you're playing for
~ Allow you to play with many other musicians easily
~ Make playing the Celtic harp way more fun and easy
~ Teach you to be flexible and adapatable in life

There is a reason that music improvisation seems out of reach to many. Because of musical experiences in life that left us less than sure of our abilities and a culture that worships the few star musicians in any genre, most adult musicians (and especially beginners) believe they can't create their own music. They believe that music is a language understood only by a gifted few, and that it's too mysterious for those of us not born prodigies.

It isn't easy to discard a belief like that, so for now I won't ask you to. I'll simply ask you to set it aside, on a shelf in your mind somewhere, and just be willing to play and expeiment for yourself. It will get easier and easier; I promise! Ready? Click here to read the rest of this article.

Improvisation ... It's About Feeling

It really doesn't take much to improvise. A few chords, a scale to play in and that's that. But once these technical decisions are out of the way, we must allow our feeling to guide us.

Playing this way has many advantages. First, you don't have to worry about what you're going to play. You let your intuition guide you in this. The hands are placed on certain chords. The fingers move and the mind is in abeyance, waiting in surprise to see what the hands will discover.

You also don't have to think about what chords to use or how you're going to play them. When you take care of the technical aspects first, you free yourself to explore your materials. Of course, things can change and we must allow for this, but playing within a set of limitations will free the mind.

For example, in the improvisation exercise Monterey Beach, 2 chords are used. How they are played is determined and a Key is chosen. Now the improviser can relax and explore the possibilities available.

The other way of playing, the way where there are too many choices present, distracts the improviser from improvising. The mind must be free from these distractions so feeling can be expressed easily. Many students have a problem with doing things easily.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Visit http://www.quiescencemusic.com/ now and get a FREE piano lesson!

How To Create an Original Melody

Here's a method I use that works. First, sit down at your piano or keyboard and just improvise.

I suggest improvising first because music that is created in this way is at its freshest. It's not adulterated or thought up. It is pure inspiration.

Now, there will come times during improvisation where you may say to yourself, "this is nice and I'd like to develop it." You see, now you have an original melody to develop.

The trick is you don't need a lot of material to begin with. JUST TWO BARS IS ENOUGH to start you on your way. I usually work within 8-bar phrases so I know that the melody will usually end or repeat itself after 8-bars. I say usually because sometimes, the melody does not want to fit nice and neat into a predefined 8-bar phrase. But more times than not, the 8-bar phrase will serve you well

Now, to be able to grow the initial 2-bars of inspired melody into 8, you can either harmonize the melody with a few chords or just write out the rest of the melody as it comes. Once I have the first 2-bars, I usually have already identified what Key the piece will be in.

It then becomes a matter of choosing a few chords from the Key and the rest of the material is easily flushed out into 8-bars. In the piece "Rainforest," I use 2 chords for an entire 8-bar phrase ( 4-bars for G Maj. and 4 for E-minor) and improvise the melody on top

15 Tips on Learning How to Improvise

Just found this very cool article on how to improvise. Actually, these tips are written for the "worship" pianist but they're so good I thought it wise to share.

Some of the tips are for the more advanced player - but that shouldn't deter you from reading and discovering these improvisational gems.

Find the article at http://www.worshipinfo.com/quicktakes/tipsimprov.htm

Top 14 Tips for Successful Improvisation!

Some time ago, I wrote an article outlining what I believe to be the most important factors for learning how to improvise. And surprisingly, none of them have to do with technique. They are all attitudinal!

And there's a good reason for that.

You see, many students think that once they get a certain amount of technique under their belts, they'll be able to play piano like Keith Jarrett or George Winston. But that's just not true.

The real secret, and the one that will serve you best is to understand the main principles that will allow you to sit down at your piano with ease and allow the music to unfold. Sounds a little mystical I know. But it's true nonetheless.

Find this free report at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/tips.pdf

Improvising Around The Circle of Fifths

In my latest piano lesson, I try and show students how to improvise while playing the circle of fifths. The term circle of fifths is pretty self-explanatory but some students have trouble understanding it.

If you play a C Major scale and go up five notes, you get the G note. The key of G has one sharp in it. Go up another five notes and you get the D note. The key of D has 2 sharps in it and so on as you go up.

Anyway, when you play the chords using the circle of fifths you get a really cool sound - a sound that's perfect for the New Age style. Why? There's no Key center. It sounds like it could go on forever and like a circle, it actually could.

But the comprehensive article at Wikepedia on the circle of fifths explains it much better than I can.

Weekly Improvisation Prompts - Good Idea or Not?

In my never ending attempt to add value to my piano lessons site, I came up with this idea. Actually, it's not new. I introduced it a while back.

Basically, an improvisation prompt is something that will get you to the piano and playing "without thinking" too much about it.

Writers use them all the time to jump into the writing process. The good news is, we muscians can use them as well. Here's a sample of an improvisation prompt:

"Create an improvisation using Open Postion Chords from the book "New Age Piano Made Easy." Use these chords only - D Maj. 7, G Maj. 7. Use only the tones from the D Major scale to improvise your melody. Play for at least 3 minutes."

This is just an example, but you get the idea here. Is this something you might be interested in receiving on a weekly basis?

Keys to Successful Piano Improvisation!

Let's get right to it. What is the one factor that will have you playing the piano freely and easily?

It's not technique. Most students can learn the technical aspects of piano playing extremely well and still sound wooden and lifeless. In fact, the most technically advanced students can sound extremely sophisticated when you hear them. The quick as lightning runs - the facile arpeggios up and down the keyboard may dazzle the ear but…if the playing lacks spirit, the music will suffer for it.

It's also not theory. Knowing how to produce counterpoint or advanced harmonic techniques also won't make you a good improviser at the piano. It has nothing to do with this at all! The secret is... Click here to read the rest of this article!