So You Want To Learn To Improvise?

The art of improvisation is no different from any other artistic discipline - it is, as is often said, 95% perspiration and 5% inspiration. Unfortunately the quickest way to reach the inspiration is through the sweat of hard work. In short, improvisers are as much made as born. There is no doubt that people have a predilection that leads them to play freely with musical elements as soon as they acquire them, and there are others who have all the technical mastery in the world, but to whom ‘messing around at the piano’ simply never occurs. I was quite clearly in the former category much to my teacher’s chagrin. As soon as I learnt my rst arpeggio I was up and down the keyboard trying this and that. It seemed natural to me to take the concepts I was learning and experiment with them, and, in doing this, I stumbled across a whole range of sounds and shapes that were appealing and interesting.

As my technical skill increased then so did the nature of my experimentation. Fortunately, I had the most wonderful Bechstein piano with extraordinary resonances, so I could conjure the sounds of the harp or banjo as well as the deeper darker ‘orchestral textures’ for Brahms and Debussy. For improvisation, the piano was a great friend offering a range of sounds that would fascinate and delight at any time. In the end, I probably spent an equal amount of my time improvising or ‘extemporising’ as I did practising, and, in a sense, despite my teacher’s protestations, I was ‘practising’, practising improvisation.

So for this book the intention is to map the journey made in those rst days when the instrument was new to me. Not to accept the limitations of knowledge as a barrier to improvising, but as a starting point so that skills are acquired at every step of the learning process. All too often in modern piano playing improvising is seen as a skill that is ‘instinctive’, one that you either have or you don’t, or alternatively one whose acquisition can only be achieved when a certain level of skill is reached. By then it is often too late! It is, in fact, just like sight-reading or scale playing or piece learning, a series of acquired skills that develop over time suf ciently, in this case, to ‘free the mind’ from the constraints of notation. In other words it requires steady and patient practise, and an immense intuitive knowledge of harmonic movement, melodic construction, and structural awareness. That improvisers do this at will does not mean it is effortless, it simply means the effort has accumulated over many hours and now the rewards are being garnered.

It often dismays me when I see practitioners, even brilliant ones, talking about improvising, explaining how they just make it up from nothing – they clearly don’t. They always start somewhere with something, and I have tried to offer starting points for improvising throughout the book. All points where I myself stepped off the notation trail and decided to explore the new possibilities the notes suggested to me.

One more thing to bear in mind – in encouraging improvising I would earnestly entreat all students not to overlook the acquisition of technical skill. The stronger your technique, the more possibilities will become available to you. You will notice as we proceed that there are many pages of apparently ‘innocuous’ exercises; these should be practised until ‘effortless’ in the true sense of the word so that the construction of ideas ‘on-the-spot’ that is the object of this book becomes the focus of the later exercises, not the stumbling around trying to ‘remember’ what chord comes next. What comes next is inspiration, the elusive 5% that makes all the rest worthwhile. Good Luck.

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PART 1: Elementary to Intermediate (Grades 1-5)

CHAPTER 1: Beginnings Page Five-Fingers using Black Notes 6 Five Fingers using White Notes 8Tonic and Dominant 12Five-Finger Positions using the whole keyboard 12

CHAPTER 2: The Triad VocabularyTriads 16The Major Scale 17Triad Vocabulary in C Major 19Primary Triads and the Dominant 7th 20Chord Progressions 2112-Bar Blues Chord Progression 23

CHAPTER 3: InversionsFirst Inversion and Second Inversion 25Inversion Studies for both hands 26Second Inversion Improvisation 27Harmonising the Major Scale 29 Cadences in Three Positions 30

CHAPTER 4: Triad HierarchiesC Major Triad Vocabulary Revisited 33Triad Hierarchies 34Secondary Chords and Relative Substitutes 35Major Key Chord Progressions 38Lead Sheets and ‘Comping 39

CHAPTER 5: SeventhsThe Complete Seventh Chord Vocabulary 44‘Doo-Wop’ and ‘Pachelbel’ with Sevenths 46Scales With Sevenths 46Passing Notes and Non-Harmonic Tones 47Voicing Seventh Chords 48A Word About Sevenths 51The Interrupted Cadence 52

CHAPTER 6: The Blues About The Blues 53 The Flattened Seventh Chord 53 The 12-Bar Pattern 54The Blues Scale 54Three Hand Blues 59

CHAPTER 7: An Excursion in Minor KeysMinor Scales, Triad Hierarchy and Inversions 60Harmonising the Minor Scale and Substitutions 63‘Doo-Wop’ and ‘Pachelbel’ in the Minor Key 64Ground Basses 66Minor Key Progressions: ‘Spanish’ and ‘La Folia’ 67Adelita 68

PART 2: Intermediate to Advanced (Grades 5-8)

CHAPTER 8: Getting to Know the Circle PageThe Circle of Fifths 70Anti-Clockwise (The Circle of Fourths) 71Clockwise and Modulation 72Anti-Clockwise Minor Keys 74Clockwise Minor Keys 75Secondary Dominants 76

CHAPTER 9: Extensions & SuspensionsSuspensions 79Retardation 82Applying Suspensions and Retardations 83New Chords, New Cadences 85

CHAPTER 10: More About HarmonyHarmonic Rhythm 88Passing Chords 89Pedal Points 90Diminished Seventh Chord 92Scales and the Diminished Seventh 96Crossing the Circle 97The Tonic Minor 98The Unique Importance of Chords II and VI 99

CHAPTER 11: Riff s, Refrains and OstinatiRefrains: Strategies for Memorisation 101Ostinato 103Ostinato Exercise 105Extensions 107Melodies from Extensions 110

CHAPTER 12: VariationsBach: Goldberg 113About Melody 114Chopin Prelude in Cm 115The Chromatic Descending Bass 117Ideas for Practising 123

CHAPTER 13: PractisingPhilosophy 126Practice 126Harmony 127Melody 129Structures 131Textures 131Blues, Jazz and Popular Styles 133

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CHAPTER ONE: BEGINNINGSFIVE-FINGER IMPROVISATIONS BLACK NOTES

One must start somewhere, and, ideally, as soon as possible. So, once the student has suf cient hand co-ordination to play individual ngers and to hold a fth, you can commence. This exercise can be done without notation, but I include it here for your teacher who can advise and help if required.

Simply place your left hand on the black note pattern fth nger on the F and thumb on the C either as a block chord or rock between in a gentle but steady even rhythm. Practise this until it is comfortable.

Now, with the right hand, play the two notes C and D near the C above middle C. Create a sentence using these two notes – use words if you need to, so there is a sense of phrase: ‘how are you today?’ play it with the same rhythm you would speak, perhaps with a little exaggeration: so you might say: How Are Yoouu To Day?

Then choose the three black notes either lower or higher than the C and D: answer your question using these three notes: ‘I am feeeeling very well my friend’

This is simply ‘call and response’. It will allow you to build little phrases (tunes) over the simple left hand accompaniment. Perhaps choose a partner, or your teacher, and enjoy the musical conversations you can have creating phrases without words: so using the sound of the tones themselves. Play gently and softly to begin.

Now we can add a further element to the left hand. This time rock as follows: F C F D, and repeat: so moving your thumb out every other time to play the black note above C. This gives us a gentle ‘ostinato’, a useful repetitive device we will hear a lot more of before this book is over. Practise this until it is nice and uent: slow and gentle.

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