How to learn to improvise on the piano: improvisation techniques

Good mood to you, dear reader. In this short post we will talk about how to learn to improvise: we will discuss some general points and look at the basic techniques of improvisation in relation to the piano.

In general, improvisation is perhaps one of the most mysterious and mysterious processes in music. As you know, this word refers to composing music directly while it is being played, in other words, simultaneous performance and composition.

Of course, not every musician knows the technique of improvisation (nowadays, mainly jazz musicians, composers and those who accompany singers can do this), this business is accessible to everyone who takes it up. Some improvisation techniques are developed and consolidated imperceptibly, along with the accumulation of experience.

What is important for improvisation?

Here we literally list: theme, harmony, rhythm, texture, form, genre and style. Now let’s expand on what we would like to convey to you in a little more detail:

1. The presence of a theme or harmonic grid, on which the piano improvisation will be created is not necessary, but desirable (for the meaning); in the era of ancient music (for example, in the Baroque), the theme for improvisation was given to the performer by an outsider – a learned composer, performer or an unlearned listener.
2. The need to shape music, that is, to give it any of the musical forms – you can, of course, improvise endlessly, but your listeners will begin to get tired, as well as your imagination – no one wants to listen to approximately the same thing three times and it’s unpleasant to play (of course, if you do not improvise in the form of verses or in the form of a rondo).
3. Selecting a genre – that is, the type of musical work that you will focus on. You can improvise in the waltz genre, or in the march genre, you can, while playing, come up with a mazurka, or you can come up with an opera aria. The essence is the same – a waltz must be a waltz, a march must be similar to a march, and a mazurka must be a super-mazurka with all the features that are due to it (here is a question of form, harmony, and rhythm).
4. Style selection is also an important definition. Style is a musical language. Let’s say Tchaikovsky’s Waltz and Chopin’s Waltz are not the same thing, and it is difficult to confuse the musical moment of Schubert with the musical moment of Rachmaninov (here we mentioned different composer styles). Here, too, you need to choose a guideline – to improvise in the manner of some famous musician, composer (just don’t need to parody – this is a different, although also fun activity), or some kind of music (compare – improvisations in the jazz style or in an academic manner, in the spirit of a romantic ballad by Brahms or in the spirit of a grotesque scherzo by Shostakovich).
5. Rhythmic organization – this is something that seriously helps beginners. Feel the rhythm and everything will be fine! In fact – firstly – in what meter (pulse) you will arrange your music, secondly, decide the tempo: thirdly, what will be inside your measures, what kind of movement of small durations – sixteenth notes or triplets, or some complex rhythm, or maybe a bunch of syncopation?
6. Texture, in simple terms, it is a way of presenting music. What will you have? Or strict chords, or a waltz bass chord in the left hand and a melody in the right, or a soaring melody at the top, and below it any free accompaniment, or just general forms of movement – scales, arpeggios, or you generally arrange an argument-conversation between the hands and Will it be a polyphonic work? This must be decided immediately, and then stick to your decision to the end; deviating from it is not good (there should be no eclecticism).

The highest task and goal of the improviser – LEARN TO IMPROVISE SO THAT THE LISTENER WILL NOT EVEN KNOW THAT YOU ARE IMPROVISING.

How to learn to improvise: a little from personal experience

It should be noted that each musician, of course, has his own experience in mastering the art of improvisation, as well as some of his own secrets. Personally, I would advise everyone who wants to learn this craft to start by playing as much as possible not from notes, but on their own. This gives creative freedom.

From my experience, I can say that a great desire to select different melodies, as well as compose my own, helped me a lot. This was extremely interesting to me from childhood, to such an extent that, I’ll tell you a secret, I did this much more than learning the musical pieces assigned by the teacher. The result was obvious – I came to the lesson and played the piece, as they say, “from sight.” The teacher praised me for my good preparation for the lesson, although I saw the sheet music for the first time in my life, because I didn’t even open the textbook at home, which, naturally, I couldn’t admit to the teacher.

So ask me how to improvise on the piano? I will repeat to you: you need to play “free” melodies as much as possible, select and select again! Only practice allows you to achieve good results. And if you also have talent from God, then only God knows what kind of monster musician, master of improvisation you will turn into over time.

Another recommendation is to look at everything you see there. If you see an unusually beautiful or magical harmony – analyze the harmony, it will come in handy later; you see an interesting texture – also take note that you can play like this; you see expressive rhythmic figures or melodic turns – borrow it. In the old days, composers learned by copying other composers’ scores.

And, perhaps, the most important thing… It is necessary. Without this, nothing will come of it, so don’t be lazy to play scales, arpeggios, exercises and etudes every day. This is both pleasant and useful.

Basic methods or techniques of improvisation

When people ask me how to learn to improvise, I answer that we need to try different methods of developing musical material.

Just don’t cram them all at once into your first improvisation. Consistently try first one, the most understandable, then the second, third – first learn, gain experience, and therefore you will combine all the methods together

So here are some improvisation techniques:

Harmonic – there are many different aspects here, this is complicating the harmony, and giving it a modern spice (make it spicy), or, conversely, giving it purity and transparency. This method is not simple, the most accessible, but very expressive techniques for beginners:

• change the scale (for example, it was major – ominor, do the same in minor);
• reharmonize the melody – that is, choose a new accompaniment for it, “new lighting”, with a new accompaniment the melody will sound differently;
• change the harmonic style (also a coloring method) – say, take a Mozart sonata and replace all the classical harmonies in it with jazz ones, you will be surprised what can happen.

Melodic way improvisation involves working with a melody, changing it or creating it (if it is missing). Here you can:

• To make a mirror reversal of a melody, theoretically it is very simple – just replace the upward movement with a downward movement and vice versa (using the interval reversal technique), but in practice you need to rely on a sense of proportion and experience (will it sound good?), and maybe use this technique of improvisation only sporadically.
• Decorate the melody with melismas: grace notes, trills, gruppettos and mordents – to weave such a kind of melodic lace.
• If the melody has leaps into wide intervals (sext, seventh, octave), they can be filled with fast passages; if there are long notes in the melody, they can be split into smaller ones for the purpose of: a) rehearsal (repetition several times), b) singing (surrounding the main sound with adjacent notes, thereby highlighting it).
• Compose a new melody in response to the one that sounded earlier. This requires being truly creative.
• The melody can be divided into phrases as if it were not a melody, but a conversation between two characters. You can play with the characters’ lines (question-answer) musically polyphonically, transferring them to different registers.
• In addition to all other changes that relate specifically to the intonation level, you can simply replace the strokes with the opposite ones (legato to staccato and vice versa), this will change the character of the music!

Rhythmic method changes in music also play an important role and require the performer, first of all, to have a very good sense of rhythm, since otherwise, one simply cannot maintain the given harmonic form. For beginners, it’s a good idea to use a metronome for these purposes, which will always keep us within limits.

You can change rhythmically both the melody and any other layer of musical fabric – for example, accompaniment. Let’s say in each new variation we make a new type of accompaniment: sometimes chordal, sometimes purely bass-melodic, sometimes we arrange the chords into arpeggios, sometimes we organize the entire accompaniment in some interesting rhythmic movement (for example, in a Spanish rhythm, or like a polka, etc.). d.).

A living example of improvisation: Denis Matsuev, a famous pianist, improvises on the theme of the song “A Christmas tree was born in the forest”!

In conclusion, I would like to note that in order to learn how to improvise, you must… IMPROVISE, and, of course, have a great desire to master this art, and also not be afraid of failures. More relaxedness and creative freedom, and you will succeed!