The Joy Of Piano Improvisation
April 28th, 2010
If you have never experienced the fun and joy of improvising on the piano, then you are missing out on a great experience. Imagine an artist who does not know how to draw or paint without tracing or copying another’s work.
That is unheard of. Yet, many piano players lack the ability to improvise on the piano! This is caused by years of rigid piano lesson/structure and a lack of proper guidance.
Many piano players rely on sheet music to be able to play, which would be like an artist only copying another’s art work and never creating something unique. Improvisation is a fun process. It enables the pianist to bring out the latent potential of creativity and expression inside them.
One thing that will help any piano player to improve on the art of improvisation is to allow unstructured creative time during one’s piano practice hours.
Time to just sit down and make up music on the piano is crucial. No agenda, no structure, no goals to accomplish. This process is extremely important in the world of piano playing.
In order to allow the inner expression to come out, one needs to let it reveal itself. A good example of this is in how young children play piano. If you can observe a child learning the piano do so. Very often, young children are able to reach a creative and fun play “scheme” without any guidance at all. Similarly, any piano player should allow 15-30 minutes of “free play” without worrying about hitting the wrong notes.
Traditional Piano lessons emphasize the ability to read notes. Reading ability is no doubt one of the most important skills any piano player can possess. This emphasis, however, has created some “lopsided” players who can only play piano by reading. Eventually this type of player will lose their interest and passion for music.
Many young children drop out of piano lessons as a result of struggling with music reading. Children who are younger than 5 or 6 are discouraged from traditional piano lessons due to the fact that they cannot yet read musical notes properly.
Music is commonly referred to as a “language.” There are many ways of learning language. Young children master the language skill by frequently talking and interacting with their peers and care-takers as well as imitating other people. The ability to read comes a little later in their life. A similar approach needs to be taken to foster the love of piano music among young children. Sometimes by just allowing young children to make up music on the piano without placing emphasis on playing the correct notes can be just as important.
Yoke Wong
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April 28th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Piano improvisation?
Alritght I just need to know some piano improvisation basics. I see some of my friends all the time sitting there jamin on the piano without having any piano lessons at all. Is there a reason for this???
April 29th, 2010 at 2:36 am
i found a nice website that should help you but i think you have to pay for it. you can google "piano improv basics" and search around for a bit but this site was the best i found and has videos to help you. hope this helps.
http://www.jazzpianolessons.com/
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April 29th, 2010 at 2:38 am
Go to http://www.musicplayer.com and click on forums and then Keyboard Corner. I’ve found that the people there are very helpful.
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April 29th, 2010 at 2:40 am
Hi Dumpster,
I wrote an aritcle on this very topic a while back. Here it is:
The first thing most students think they have to learn when playing keyboards is note reading. But not only is note reading unnecessary…it’s a hindrance when you really want to play piano like a pro. Why? Because pros use chords. And chords are much, much easier to learn than reading sheet music.
While chords will help you play like a pro fast, it all depends on the kind of chords you play. For example, most fledgling piano students think they will begin by playing triads. And for most piano teachers, this is the chord structure taught at the beginning. While there is nothing at all wrong with triads (all western music is built on this) it just won’t give you a modern sound.
A chord structure I have my beginning students learn first, the open position piano chord, uses both hands right away to create a modern sound!
The benefit of using both hands right away is that you can vary the tones between hands to create a rich, beautiful sound that can NEVER be accomplished with the simple triad. Why piano teachers have their students learn triads first, I’ll never know. But when you learn this chord position first, it allows you to create a open vented sound that is perfect for today’s contemporary styles. Jazz, New Age, etc.. These styles can be created easily using the open position piano chord.
The way to play these chords is relatively easy. It may take a few minutes for your hands to get used to because this chord structure really stretches your hands. Here’s how it works. The left hand gets the root note, the fifth, and the seventh. The right hand gets to play the third, seventh, and third again. So, if we were to play a C Major 7 chord, it would be spelled like this: LH – c, g, b RH – e, b, e. This looks a lot more complicated than it actually is and when you see it laid out for you on a keyboard diagram, you’ll immediately see how easy it actually is to play!
To play the piano like a pro, don’t start with triads; try the open position piano chord. You won’t be sorry!
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Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!