Improvisation
Thank you for stopping by to learn about improvisation. Remember we offer a $10 introductory lesson at the Colorado School of Music. We teach a variety of instruments ranging from piano lessons, guitar lessons, vocal lessons, voice lessons, violin lessons, viola lessons, drum lessons, percussion lessons, ukulele lessons, trombone lessons, tuba lessons, euphonium and other orchestral instruments. We have students come from Denver, Lakewood, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Morrison, Littleton, Golden and Evergreen. Contact us to come and try a lesson. www.coloradoschoolofmusic.com info@coloradoschoolofmusic.com or 303-526-9865
The art of improvising is one of my favorite parts of being a musician. Improvisation can be defined as something that is improvised or created in the moment. When I think of improvising with music, I think of being creative on the spot or at will. This means you are creating something spontaneous and it is for the most part not preconceived. If you have ever gone out to see some live jazz or blues music more than likely you have seen musicians improvise. There is a lot of preparation that goes into being able to improvise well. The more tools you have to improvise the better. When I say tools I’m referring to different scales, arpeggios, chords and phrasing ideas. The more comfortable you are with your different tools for improvising the more likely you will play things you like in a musical manner.
There are different concepts to try to get yourself started on improvising music. The first concept is called call and answer. This is a way to create phasing. If we think about a telephone conversation, one person talks and then stops talking and waits for the other person to respond. This continues for the whole phone conversation. If I called a friend and say what are you up to, and they respond I’m practicing my guitar. The call is “what are you up to” and the answer is “practicing my guitar.” How this relates to music and improving is you would play a short musical phase and then stop that musical phrase and then play a second musical phrase to answer or compliment the first musical phrase. This does not have to be complicated to be effective. You could play something as simple as the notes G to A back to G as your call and the answer could be the notes D E then G. There is a lot you can do with just these few notes. Remember how you attack a note and the dynamic of the notes can be very effective in the improvising process. Another common concept to improvising is repeating what you play. For example lets say you the notes D E and G and its phrased as a triplet. If you like how this sounds then do it again and then maybe again and even a fourth time. You might decide after the second or third repeat you may change just one note of the phrasing of the notes to give it a little bit variety. As mentioned before your dynamics are very useful when improving along with your different tools. It always a good Idea to listen to musicians that do this as a profession and borrow ideas you like from them.
Learning to improvise can be a life long journey. The better you get a it the more fun it becomes and the more you’ll probably want to get better at it. Please contact us to come in for your $10 introductory music lesson from one of our great instructors or myself to learn further about improvisation and music education. We offer guitar lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons, violin lesson, Ukulele lessons, vocal lessons as well as some orchestral instruments and more.
