Improvisation - what is it?

Improvisation in Music

Hey, this is James, and today we're going to talk about improvisation.

Now, improvisation sounds like this big, scary thing that you probably don't know much about, but actually it's simply the idea of playing something that's not written down and something you made up.

Importance of Improvisation in Rock School

Within Rock School, a lot of the grades for piano and keyboard don't have improvisations that you can do yourself; you have to play written out solos. Now, this is great, but as a musician who's developing their own sound and language and looking to play with other people, it's really important to be able to develop your own sound and your own voice.

Through these videos, I'm going to show you how to:

• Go from the basics
• Develop a confident and simple way of approaching improvisation

What is Improvisation?

So I'll show you what improvisation is.

"I'm going to play, record, and improvise something on top of it."

That wasn't something which I rehearsed or something which I read; it was something which came out of the top of my head. This is basically what improvisation is.

Practicing Improvisation with Chords

Within the Rock School grades that we're working towards, there are pieces with chords above them. These chords represent the harmony that is written within the piece. Although you're playing music that's already written down for the exams, it's a great exercise to practice playing the chord tones, which we'll be showing you later.

Example of Chord Practice

For example, with a C chord, you may have something written on top of it in the score. But there's no reason why, with the backing track given within the Rock School grades, you can't play your own thing and explore and create using the template provided.

As an improviser, it's our job to play the harmony that is given out by the rest of the band. We're playing chords, scales, and solos on top of the bass and drums who are laying it down.

Sequence of Chords

There's a sequence of chords which normally happens with each piece. I'm going to show you how to approach playing these different chords and the varying harmonies on top.

Your job as an improviser is to take the harmony. For example, we have:

• Two bars of A minor
• Two bars of D minor

And develop something interesting over the top of this.

Creating Musical Stories

What we have is a sequence of chords that are telling a story and creating something interesting, allowing us to express ourselves personally.

This all may seem fairly intimidating. However, with some practice and following the exercises that I show you, you can go from being a beginner improviser to sounding confident and skilled in no time.