Lesson 17 of 27PianoAdvanced

Improvisation - the next level

1:33

James takes piano improvisation up to grade 8 level, moving beyond the blues scale and dominant seventh voicings into more advanced harmonic territory.

Part of the courseRockschool Piano Grade 827 lessons (2h 49m)

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What's in the course

27 lessons (2h 49m) · 2 free

- 01. Welcome to the online course
  1:46
- 02. Meet James Beckwith
  1:42
- 03. Meet Ross Stanley
  3:30
- 04. Meet Marina Haywood-Lieberman
  4:32
- 01. These Are The Days, Jamie Cullum (Performance)
  3:28
- 02. Straighten Up And Fly Right, Diana Krall (Performance)
  Free lesson
  4:08
- 03. Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen (Performance)
  5:19
- 04. Nosso Samba, Noam Lederman (Performance)
  3:18
- 05. Freightshaker, Simon Troup (Performance)
  3:20
- 06. Mind The Gaps, Kit Morgan (Performance)
  3:41
- 01. These Are The Days, Jamie Callum (Lesson)
  12:45
- 02. Straighten Up And Fly Right, Diana Krall (Lesson)
  15:34
- 03. Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen (Lesson)
  11:22
- 04. Nosso Samba, Noam Lederman (Lesson)
  14:48
- 05. Freightshaker, Simon Troup (Lesson)
  18:29
- 06. Mind The Gaps, Kit Morgan (Lesson)
  19:07
- 01. Improvisation - the next level
  You are here
  1:33
- 02. Advanced blues form
  6:23
- 03. Advanced blues demonstration
  2:09
- 04. Advanced improvisation techniques
  8:08
- 01. Intro to scales, arpeggios and voicings - why they're useful
  Free lesson
  2:49
- 02. Scales - Grade 8
  3:05
- 03. Arpeggios - Grade 8
  5:24
- 04. Chord voicings - Grade 8
  2:04
- 01. Site reading with the "KAT TRAP" method
  9:04
- 01. Course outro
  0:49
- 02. About Rockschool & exams
  0:55

Lesson transcript

Improvisation for Piano and Keyboards: Level Three

Hey, I'm James. Today we're looking at improvisation for piano and keyboards at level three.

Understanding the Concept

By now, you know that at grades six to eight, you're starting to:

Really get a good technique
Develop a good sound
Become familiar with:
- Dominant seventh voicings
- The blues form
- The blues scale
- More basic levels of improvisation

What we're going to do today is kick this up a level and take it into more advanced areas of understanding.

The Role of Improvisation

You may have noticed that in the Rock School pieces for piano and keyboard, there aren't actually any improvisation sections.

This is okay because you get to:

Work on playing someone else's solo
Get good technique
Master everything in a cool way

However, being a piano player, like a guitarist or any other instrumentalist, it's really important to develop your own musical voice and sound when going out into the real world.

Why Improvise?

To be able to improvise effectively is crucial. While it's great that the pieces are arranged the way they are, we also want to learn how to develop our own voice.