Improvisation

Hey all,

I was wondering if any of you could give me some advice on improvising? I am totally self taught where that is concerned. So if any of you have any advice, techniques, ideas etc. please share them!

Piano, or.....?

Well one thing that's always fun to do is to add a Hemiola into whatever you're doing.

Improvising for me was always easy, I'm not trying to brag, but just coming up with whatever I feel like was always fun and easy for me. I'm no expert but IMO it opens up alot of doors for you if you just break the form and try something new, and if you mess up, use that to your advantage. Maybe the mistake will spawn something new?

Improv to me is just letting loose and having fun

Piano, or.....?

Well, I was talking about violin, but the principles are basically the same, right?

Yes and no. You get the ability to "easily" create harmony with your melodies with piano... and seeing as I've spent maybe a total of 10 minutes of my life around a violin, I'm pretty sure you can't do the same on it.

As far as improvisation itself is concerned, I'm not sure how to explain to start.

Personally, I started with very standard chord progressions (and the melody on top of it), namely Amin, Gmaj, Fmaj, and Emaj. That was... years ago. Then I started messing with what could be done within that same progression, and then started playing with what could be done within the scale of Amaj, and then progressed to using chromaticism to move between chords, and then... I dunno.

Most of it started with experimenting and "discovering" harmony... what works and what doesn't. Plenty of my beginning stuff worked predominantly in the Amin/Cmaj scales, and then later added Cmin/Emaj. And then most of it started sounding too stereotypical "new age" piano, so I worked with some of the Jazz progressions, using chromaticism to select the root note for chords, and then I just started "discovering" stuff on my own, mainly by trying stuff I've never played around with before. Once I got into a familiar pattern, I immediately left it.

Sure, that led to plenty of atonal-like stuff, but once i moved back to tonality, I had a better understanding of what _could_ be done.

Hopefully that helps a bit.

• Listen. (to what you're playing; what others are playing - react/interact appropriately)
  
• Aim. (have a clear direction and know where you're headed)
  
• Don't wank. (nobody likes a charlatan)
  

Don't wank. (nobody likes a charlatan)

The most important bit of advice anyone can give you :musicwhistle:

The most important bit of advice anyone can give you :musicwhistle:

Yes - but didn't people love Liszt?

Yes - but didn't people love Liszt?

uh.. :)

Are you saying Liszt was wanky? Don't push your opinion

But he was. Read any historical record.

Opinions opinions, people don't know how to keep them to themselves

How about you learn to use your brain, and then get back to trying to say anything?

Already learned

Anything

improv. I've found that since I have learned to improvise, I have become a much more confident person, and a better composer, because that is what you're really doing : composing on the fly.

I started way back on the piano. Amin, Fmaj, Dmin, Emaj. it's really easy, because at that point, any white key goes. it's fun and easy to play with things. however, I find another good place to start is on jazz scales.

a jazz scale, if you don't know goes like this : tonic, minor 3rd, 4th, flat 5, natural 5, flat 7, tonic. on C, that looks like this :

C, Eb, F, F#, G, Bb, C.

play with that. a good way to start in the early goings is to pick a basic melody, and go with it. do it over four bars. then the next four bars, either repeat it verbatim, or end on a different note, or some small variation. third time, do something a lot different, but with the same sort of stuff in it. then, on the last four, repeat the main. that is the easiest way to get started. if you know someone who plays the piano, get them to play a 12-bar blues for you. any decent pianist knows how. then just try stuff.

the thing about improv : it's improv. it's hard to "learn". you need to screw around, and you need to wank, until you get some ideas in your head. once you have those ideas, you can reuse them in the form of various licks. then, you will start to develop your own style. I know, also, that several styles (including my own, but it's changing now) begin by finding something easy to do on your specific instrument. I know that I play the clarinet, and on my A dorian, I can go between A-G-F# really, really fast, because it is an easy button switch. so, I do that, up and down those notes, very quickly in certain sections. therefore, I have that kind of fast, repetitive style.

I think that the most important thing you can possibly do in improv is to listen to jazz. and lots of it. you can't play something if you've never heard it.

hope this all helps.

...a jazz scale, if you don't know goes like this : tonic, minor 3rd, 4th, flat 5, natural 5, flat 7, tonic. on C, that looks like this :

C, Eb, F, F#, G, Bb, C.

:)

...a blues scale, perhaps?

To say jazz scale doesn't really mean anything.

I started way back on the piano. Amin, Fmaj, Dmin, Emaj. it's really easy, because at that point, any white key goes.

Try playing a G over that E major chord then, that will not sound good :)

yes, blues scale. whoops.

also, in passing, it's fine. (the G of Emajor, I mean.) I'm just saying, it's a very nice and basic way to do it. I actually really like that chord progression for basic stuff, because G# is the harmonic of Amin, so It sounds awesome to hover there on the last chord.

Opinions opinions, people don't know how to keep them to themselves

Or they don't want to, and that's why there are forums to begin with. :D

:D

A good idea is to play a chord and then sing a tune. Then try to play on your instrument the tune that you just sang. When you improvise on changes it's good to study the harmony by singing and playing the arpeggios of the chords. All that can help unifying your mind and your fingers.

Once you can play what you sing you can start playing what you hear from solos, to earn some vocabulary. Vocabulary is very important, but remember that your improvisation should be communication, and not a display of vocabulary.

Try playing a G over that E major chord then, that will not sound good :)

Actually that's the "hendrix" chord. E7#9.

[re: EMaj7] Actually that's the "hendrix" chord. E7#9.

Almost. :)

Actually that's the "hendrix" chord. E7#9.

It actually makes for a good V chord....adds some tension....

I do have to agree though, unless you know what you're doing, a b3 doesn't work very well in a major chord...

~Kal

When I improvise, I don't worry about chords and all of that stuff. I really just play what sounds good. It I make a "mistake" and change the direction of where I was originally planning to go with it, I just adapt the direction to fit it and nobody is the wiser.

I think that the best way to start improvising is to consider the way you think about a simple melodic line, as when you compose.

What do you do when you want to start composing anything?

I think, you'd start from a melody, that could be a series of ritmic figures,

or just an arpeggio from the tonic to the dominant or anything else,

but u start first from the melody and then you get from there the armonies.

So, i think you should just take your instrument, think of a key you like a lot.

I like F major, it reminds me the gold yellow of the sun, those great days full of light, warm, summer, or my time with my friends or family...

Something i really feel dear to me, my city...think of that, and then start with something.

Give you some parameters, like i will start my F maj in with A, C, F...then i keep pressed F

and then i go with a little scale to C and then whatever it comes, but LET YOUR HEART SPEAK you will feel better.

Think that music is nothing but another language in which, there are words that make sentences,

there are meanings to those words and there are affermative, negative or interrogative sentences,

and you also have periods, and grammar to link all that.

So just think that you want to give somebody, even yourself, a sense...and you must think first about yourself..

since if it has non sense for you, then will be hard that it is understandable for anybody else.

Once you have got that, then just let it go.

One day it will be not that great, the day after you'll see a little improvement,

and as long as you keep trying...as when you train yourself with anything, you will see your improvements.

I also suggest you to record yourself, so you can pratically see where you make mistakes and on what you have to work on...

But, there's no written rule for improvisation, there's not a tecnique; you can't write rules for improvisation, since there are many different styles,

many different things that go on with that, just because all is linked to what your heart tells you. If you like pop, you'll find it into listening

to that music and getting that "vocabulary" but as with any language, once you have the words, and you know the meaning of them,

you can start automatically "talking" in music, as you do when you are a child.

Before being able to read, you can talk, you know the words and you know their meanings...

why??

Because your parents talk to you, the TV and the Radio tells you words, so you listen and you start talking...

same thing with music, you listen to classical music, you start thinking those melodies, those armonies, those expressions, those words...

and you begin working on them and making them yours, with your own way of "speaking", preferring some sentences, to others...

as you do with a language. so listen to a lot of music, take a score and read it while u listen to it, then do it again just in ur mind, then go play it and so on...

practice that way, then start some easy melodies on all the keys you like,

if you are a composer you know how to go with armonies and linking one key to another. go for that...

but DO IT...it will go automatically, nothing is wrong. all is good. somebody as something to say?? whatever.

Just express what are your inner thoughts.

this is the best advice i can give you, and i apologize if i made any non sense in it, english is not my language, so if anything or everything makes no sense,

i'll be super happy to try to work it in another way to make it more clear :)

Best wishes! and have fun!