a guest post by Christina Hearn
Raise your hand if you DIDN’T receive much, if any, instruction on music improvisation techniques as a student.
Mine is up!
Our teachers’ focus was on teaching us to read and interpret music, and while there is nothing wrong with that, there is a creative side to music that many of us missed out on, including improvisation.
I don’t know about you, but it’s easy for me to fall into the same pattern of focusing on music reading and interpretation without showing my students the joy of creating their own music.
I want my students to have all the musical skills that I wasn’t exposed to, so I’ve sought to grow in not only the skill of improvisation but also in teaching it.
Thankfully, there are a lot of ideas and resources out there to help us.
Before we get into teaching improvisation, let’s talk about what it is.
When we improvise, we make something up on the spot.
Maybe we improvise in the kitchen by using the ingredients we have on hand to create our own meal, or we improvise in a class when our technology has decided to mutiny by coming up with a similar activity or visual aid using whatever is in the classroom at the time.
In music, we improvise by using our knowledge of theory to create a song or piece in the moment.
Basic Music Improvisation Techniques to Try
Give this a try.
Sit at your piano and play the following chord progression with your left hand: C, Am, F, G (yes, this is the Heart and Soul progression, but it’s a great one!).
Once you’re comfortable playing and repeating this progression using blocked chords, try using a pattern to vary it, such as broken chords, Alberti bass, or a rhythmic pattern using the fifths of each chord.
Once you find a pattern you like, use your right hand to create a melody using simple rhythms over this chord progression.
You just created an awesome song!
And you can help your students do this too.
Helping Students with Music Improvisation Techniques
So how do we lead students in developing this skill of improvisation?
While it does take practice like anything else, there are some steps we can take to help our students through the process.
Start with the black keys.
I tell students that the black keys are like magic—you can’t play anything wrong when creating a black-key melody!
It’s even better when you accompany them, which can take a little practice, but once you’re comfortable on the black keys, you and your students can jam.
After students experience improvising on black keys, take them to the white keys.
Have them use a C major or A minor pentascale and improvise melodies while you accompany them.
To help them practice improvising at home, record and email audio recordings of accompaniments they can play along with.
If you’re not sure what to play, remember to pick some chords (4 chords work well), pick a pattern, and repeat the progression.
Your student will create the melody part.
As students learn I, V/V7, IV, and vi chords, they can begin accompanying themselves with their left hands playing the chords, blocked at first, and the right hand continuing to play melody as they’ve been doing.
Now they can make their own chord progressions.
From there, help them learn and add in patterns and eventually inversions for left hand.
As they learn new keys, have them improvise in those keys to help them master each one.
Make it part of their scale practice.
The ideas are endless.
Helping Students Who are Nervous about Trying Music Improvisation Techniques
Some of you might be thinking, “I’m uncomfortable with improvising and teaching it, and even if I get past that, how will I help students who feel the same way?”
It’s very possible to have students feel anxious or nervous about playing something without music in front of them.
When I began teaching students to improvise, I noticed that my new-to-piano students had no problems with it—it was fun!
My current students or transfer students were quite hesitant though.
To help them, I encouraged them that they couldn’t go wrong (especially on black keys), and even if they did, it’s part of learning how to improvise.
I also presented it as fun.
Try just doing a little improvising here and there to help them become more comfortable and confident while improvising.
Do the same for yourself; with practice, you’ll improve too.
Is it possible to gamify improvisation (since this is Music Game Club, after all)?
I think so!
Learning improvisation is all about parameters—play only on black keys, play only the notes of a C pentascale, use a certain chord progression or left-hand pattern, and so on.
Why not put these parameters on slips of paper and toss them in a hat for students to choose?
Or create a “story starter” for improvisation—pick a key, a left-hand pattern, and a picture to accompany?
As teachers, we can come up with a ton of creative ideas.
Even More Music Improvisation Materials
Finally, if you’re still looking for more ideas, support, and materials, there are a ton of resources out there. Here are just a few to get you started:
- Music Game Club Improvisation Cards: https://musicgameclub.com/product/improvisation-cards/
Music Game Club has a great set of cards at different levels and rhythms to help your students put together improvisations over and over.
- Joy Morin’s Composition and Improvisation Prompts for Piano: https://colorinmypiano.com/downloads/composition-improvisation-prompts-for-piano/
Not sure what parameters to set or stories to encourage your students to tell? Joy Morin has created a resource that does it for you.
- Teach Piano Today: https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2016/03/06/a-foot-tappin-st-patricks-day-improv-activity-for-your-piano-student/ and https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2016/02/17/an-improv-pack-that-will-teach-your-youngest-students-how-to-get-creative-on-the-keys/
Trevor and Andrea Dow have a variety of free activities as well as books you can purchase that help students get comfortable with improvisation.
The activity above is just in time for St. Patrick’s Day.
Tim Topham has created a great resource for beginner piano lessons called No Book Beginners, which I highly recommend.
There are tons of great beginner-friendly improvisation activities throughout the plans, and you can get the first one free.
The TopMusic membership also has a bunch of courses, including a 4-chord composing course that you might be interested in for your students or even yourself.
- Forrest Kinney: https://forrestkinney.com/improvising-1
Forrest Kinney’s website has a ton of information about improvising, including books for purchase, such as his Pattern Play and Create First series.
These are studio-licensed, so you can use them over and over again for all your students.
- Faber Piano Adventures: https://pianoadventures.com/product/discover-beginning-improvisation-with-enhanced-cd/
The Fabers have a couple of improvisation books available if you’re looking for a hard-copy, bound book to use with your students. It has some fun theory work in there too.
I hope you’ve been able to gain some ideas to use in your studio to help your students do more improvising.
Have Music Improvisation Techniques to Share?
Do you already incorporate improvisation in your studio? How do you teach it and what resources do you like to use? Let us know below.
About Christina Hearn:
Christina Hearn is a private piano and voice teacher in Florida.
She has over 12 years’ experience teaching piano, voice, choir, and general music.
She loves being able to share her gift of music with her students and to continue to learn how to be a better musician and teacher.
She is very involved in her church’s music program and makes time to accompany other teachers’ students for recitals and competitions.
When she’s not working, you’ll find her reading, playing with her cat, or crocheting.
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ImPossibleMusicStudio
Website: www.impossiblemusicstudio.com
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