Exploring Improvisation in Small Ensemble Performance

Obviously, we're exploring improvisation here, and it's a spontaneous thing. This is all about:

• Getting small ensemble performance
• Performance without a conductor
• The joy of creating music together in that first session

Purpose of Improvisation

What we don't want to do is turn this into a seminar on how to improvise, or for your students to see improvisation itself as a separate skill. This is using improvisation as a means to an end, it's about developing them as performers.

Keep It Concise

You want to try and keep the tutorial on how to improvise to the barest minimum and not turn it into a lesson itself. At the same time, we know that the actual means of improvisation may itself be a block. If a student is sitting there with their instrument thinking, "I just literally can't do this," then you'll not get far in the session just by saying, "Oh, it's great. I've given them the musical conveyor belt. We'll try anyway."

Overcoming Writer's Block

The trick is to find a succinct way of explaining the concept of improvisation and how to overcome writer's block. One of the things that holds any musician back from improvising, and therefore going on to compose, is a perception that they must come up with a melody and an accompaniment.

Shifting Perspectives

We're brought up with the idea that music is composed in these traditional formats. Your students may have heard this and thought, "Well, how on earth could I do that?" We need to move away from that great music, as it is, and get them thinking about the real nuts and bolts of musical creation.

Starting Simple

Encourage them, if they're worried about improvisation, to start with:

• A repeated note
• A repeated pulse

By setting this up as the conveyor belt, students can ease into improvisation. If they're playing something like a repeated D within a pulse, they are already, by the way, improvising.

Building Melodies

From that repeated note, get them to think about adding notes either side:

• Maybe by step,
• Upward or downward.

For example, if they're playing a repeated D, they can explore moving up or down a note.

Encouragement to Explore

If they seem hesitant and it's not going anywhere, you could encourage them to:

• Expand their note above,
• Go up 2, go down 3, whatever feels right.

A little demonstration can help them understand that this isn't about writing an elaborate melody. It's not about getting a manuscript pad out or using a notation program; it's just about keeping it flowing.

Using Examples

To help convince them, consider using an example of a great composer, such as Chopin.

• Share the E minor Prelude: You could simply find it on YouTube and play it for them.
• Highlight how he creates this wonderful prelude just by changing one note at a time.

Removing Structural Constraints

Whichever example you choose, break it down for them. Help them remove themselves from the constraints of:

• Harmonic structure
• The necessity to modulate
• The traditional ideas of melody and accompaniment

We are not encouraging them to improvise a whole sonata form or even a ternary form. Instead, we just want to foster:

• A journey of musical direction
• A journey of pulse and phrase

Through these approaches, you can help your students embrace improvisation as an exciting part of their musical journey.