Improvising

 

Many people may assume that improvising applies only to jazz and popular music. They do not necessarily see it in the context of classical music. Therefore, people who are studying mainly classical music do not see the need to learn to improvise.

In the Classical era, that is, during the times of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven, it was customary that the performer (often the composer himself) would improvise the cadenza of a concerto. This was a free-form section towards the end of the first movement of a concert (e.g. piano and orchestra) where the soloist had a chance to show off by improvising a dazzling display of their technique and musical skills. (Nowadays almost all soloists play cadenzas written out by the composer.) Composers such as Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt were known to be fabulous improvisors. It's such a shame we have no record of any of it. After that, the idea of improvisation within classical music began to die out.

If you are studying jazz you will no doubt want and need to learn to improvise. Most people who play primarily improv love it and couldn't imagine doing it any other way. There is a great feeling to just "making stuff up on the spot." 

People who play classical music can also find the joy of improvising. Even if you never intend to improvise the cadenza of a concerto, you can become proficient enough in improvising to enjoy doing it with other musicians, or just on your own. In addition, it can become a wonderful tool which will affect your playing in positive ways.

Students of the piano (and, I assume, other instruments) become obsessed with playing the "right notes." The prospect of playing wrong notes often paralyzes them, making the learning stiff and joyless. Jazz players don't regard any notes as "wrong" but rather incorporate the "unintended" note into their riff and the listener would have no idea whatsoever that it was unintended. (I recommend replacing the term "wrong" with "unintended" across the board -- it's much less judgmental.) That's what improvising is all about. The ability to do this gives you the confidence that you can get through any situation. 

Of course if you are performing a classical piece in front of an audience, you are going to do your utmost to play the right notes. But what if you have a minor slip, or worse, a memory lapse? Are you going to just stop and start over? That would be hugely embarrassing. If you know the piece well enough (I address this in other posts), you can learn to improvise for a measure or two and continue. Most average listeners might never even know you had the slip. In order to do this successfully, you must practice this skill. Ironically, just knowing you can do this will decrease the likelihood of major memory slips, because you will be less anxious when you play by memory.

For my beginning students, I have them do some improvising very early on. First they just play single line melodies in the treble while I play a bass part with them. I give them a few general guidelines but mostly they are just free to explore. The main goal is that when they hear a note that sounds "bad" (i.e. dissonant against what I am playing) they learn to use it as part of their theme. If you think about it, a note that sounds dissonant is always one note away (either half step or whole step) from one that will sounds consonant, so you can resolve the dissonant note into the consonant one as if you intended it that way. Then, after they have learned basic chords such as I, IV, and V, they can improvise the right hand part while playing the chords in the left hand. (They will start with the Key of C but then move on to do the same thing in other keys. Being able to improvise in any key is critical.) Later they will proceed to use more chords and more complicated chords. The rest of the process is too long to explain here, but I think you get the idea. Then, when they are playing their classical pieces and something starts to go awry, I say "make it up." I do mean literally just play what you can, without stopping and trying to "correct" the notes, until you get back on track. Obviously, you will need to go back afterwards, determine what caused your problem, and work on it. But stopping and trying to fix in the moment actually teaches you nothing. Improvising your way through the problem, on the other hand, will give you extremely useful skills. 

Some people, despite loving playing the piano, have a hard time getting themselves to sit down and do what is often the hard work of practicing. For those people I suggest they sit down and just improvise for a little while, with the only goal being to have fun. After this "warm-up" they will hopefully feel the desire to continue with their practicing.

If you have never improvised before, I hope you will give it a try. There are books which help walk you through the process, but very few of them start with the absolute basics for a true beginner. Try to just "noodle around," as I call it, on your own. If you find you really enjoy it and want to do more, you can try to find a teacher who can help you.