Let me ask a few simple questions:
Do you improvise at the piano?
Do you believe that you are capable of doing it?
Do you believe that you are capable of doing it?
Many piano students, even experienced ones, mistakenly believe that piano improvisation (ie the art of spontaneously inventing music at the piano) is something they cannot do, that perhaps it is reserved for a select group of special people, not THEM, those people "gifted" with the "talent" to do such things. This is an incorrect assumption. In fact, more often than not, every single person who sits down to play piano has within him or herself the potential to learn to improvise. His or her overall creativity and musicianship will benefit by it, and so will his or her enjoyment of music making.
There are many benefits to improvising, including:
1. Learning your way around the keyboard better
2. Expressing your playful, creative side
3. Learning to play with others more effectively
4. Improving your knowledge of how music works
5. Realizing that you can sound good without a lot of piano-playing experience
1. Learning your way around the keyboard better
2. Expressing your playful, creative side
3. Learning to play with others more effectively
4. Improving your knowledge of how music works
5. Realizing that you can sound good without a lot of piano-playing experience
Let's examine each of these items one-by-one:
1. Improvising helps you learn your way around the keyboard better.
When people improvise, they automatically have to think creatively about what they are going to play next at every moment. Improvising is a spontaneous "in the moment" process. As an improvising pianist you have merely your hands, the keyboard, and your own inner ear or sense for what you may want to do next. Working with these elements facilitates overall playing ability, hand coordination, and knowledge of the keyboard.
2. Improvising engages your playful, creative spirit.
Improvising takes away the glass wall that sometimes can seem to separate piano students from making music. In other words, improvising can be immediately fun! Instead of having to pass through the sometimes daunting hurdles of learning to sight-read or play by ear, the pianist can simply make up music. No experience required! I have found my students enjoy improvising no matter their age or level of experience.
3. Improvising helps you learn to play with others more effectively.
Improvising with others helps get you used to collaborating. It also poses the challenge of requiring the student to make up music while playing in time with the other musicians. This is a very useful skill to have, and one too often missed by the lonely piano student playing solo. What is more, improvising is a great social activity where the enjoyment can easily be multiplied by the presence of other people. Improvising with others can often lead to secondary social benefits such as being appreciated for your original ideas, getting good ideas from hearing other students, and gaining confidence in your own playing.
4. Improvising increases your knowledge of how music works.
When you improvise, you are automatically in a creative mode of thinking. The process of creating is especially useful in teaching you about how music works, because you are continuously trying out musical ideas. Some ideas will work well, some will need refinement, but the process of trying things out continuously grows your knowledge of music, and helps refine your own sense of what you enjoy playing. Just as a child learns to speak by practicing putting together sentences, the improvising pianist learns what works in the musical realm by practicing his or her musical syntax through improvisation. This is invaluable.
5. Improvisation shows you that you can sound good without a lot of experience.
When it comes to learning a new instrument, people are generally quick to ask one question for themselves: Do I sound good? If the answer to them is NO, they may never pick up the instrument again, sadly, because of the intense pressure they feel to avoid criticism from family and friends. If the answer is YES, they are likely to keep doing it. Even with the simplest of musical materials, one can begin improvising and sound good at the piano. This is partly because the piano does all the work of producing sounds for you. All you need to do is know what keys go together. Very often, I will see students in their first few lessons surprise themselves by improvising melodies that they like. This can further their appreciation for music making as well as help them develop confidence that they can play piano.
Your First Improvisation Exercise
Whether you have ever improvised at the piano, here is a simple exercise to get you started at improvising:
Play a C Major chord with your left hand (C, E, G played together with your pinky, middle finger, and thumb respectively)
Putting your right hand in C position (thumb on C, and each other finger plays the white key next to it), make up a melody with your right hand while your left hand holds the C chord.
Continue making up a melody while you vary your left hand by moving to the F Major chord (F, A, C played together with pinky, middle finger, and thumb as above) and the G Major chord (G, B, D with same fingering as previous two chords).