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Promising Tips That’ll Help You Improvise

  • Writer: Mr. D's Music School
    Mr. D's Music School
  • Aug 16, 2019
  • 2 min read

Updated: Sep 6, 2019

Have you ever found yourself singing or humming one of your much loved songs and added your own exclusive touch while taking piano lessons in Folsom? That is improvising! It is different from composing even though along the same lines. Composing is when you play original music and improvising is when you change or add to something in an already composed song or piece.

A lot of improvisation is required for the ones who play by ear or with a group or band. Piano players who are used to reading just notes and not inputting their personal ideas into the music they’re playing sometimes find it hard to let go of the ease of sheet music and wing it as we do while improvising.

It is not really that tricky to “make the plunge” and we are going to take a look at quite a few things that you can do to help that process take place simpler and without stressing out about it. The following are a few concepts that you need to be reasonably comfortable with prior to beginning to improvise:

  • Be familiar with the fundamental chord patterns and which chord notes to play with each measure.

  • Scales – be capable of playing scales in as many different key signatures as possible.

  • What’s a key signature – make an effort to be familiar with the minor and major key signatures as possible.

  • What the melody is in a song or piece – typically the right hand or the single note line in the music.

When we are dealing with improvising a melody, the following are three precise things to keep in mind that a melody can do:

  • Leaps – Skipping over quite a few notes or even octaves non-consecutively; used the least in melodic improvisation.

  • Skips – Skipping over a note or playing single notes non-consecutively; used frequently but less than “steps” in melodic improvisation.

  • Steps – Moving from one note to the next note consecutively, most used in melodic improvisation.

One more significant aspect of improvising is “phrasing”. It groups notes collectively with the intention that they flow as one well and make sense when you pay attention to them. It more often than not entailed two or more measures that have a sense of a starting and an ending, much like a paragraph is used in writing.

The simplest approach to pull all of this together is to begin with a very straightforward melody in a key signature that you’re completely at ease with. Create a melody that makes use of typically steps and singe chords in the left hand for each measure. Dwell on phrasing the measures and notes together with the intention that they make sense and flow collectively.

While taking professional piano classes in Folsom, your instructor will always guide you to keep in mind that it may not sound “good” or the way you would like it to when you initial begin and it may feel uncomfortable. As you continue to work on this a little each day, you’ll find that it gets simpler and simpler!

#PianoLessonsFolsom #Piano_Classes_Folsom

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