a guest post by Elizabeth Swift

Teachers, before I give you ideas to teach music improvisation in your studio, I’d like to share a personal experience. 

My piano journey began at the age of 7, where I mostly relied on sight-reading during lessons and even spent practice time sight-reading my older sibling’s piano books.

It wasn’t until I found a special teacher several years later who called me out on my shenanigans and challenged me to actually practice that I realized the importance of going deeper into music literature.

Now I was truly studying my repertoire, so that was great, but my terrible memory made performing a real challenge.

There were recitals where I just couldn’t get my music memorized, and I’d be the only kid up there with music in front of them. Over time, my reliance on sheet music became a significant limitation.

In college, I started to develop memory techniques, but I still felt terrified when asked to play off-the-cuff.

When I was student teaching in a choral classroom, I’d pray that no one had a birthday so I wouldn’t have to put the class through the pain that was me playing Happy Birthday by ear.

It wasn’t until I discovered the freedom and confidence to improvise, which happened while playing from chord charts in a worship band, that I began to improvise for pure enjoyment.

This newfound freedom led me to try composing my own music, which is now my primary source of satisfaction at the piano, surpassing even my love for sight-reading, haha!

So, teachers, I implore you to open up this world of improvisation for your students.

It’s not just about creating musicians who can play existing compositions flawlessly; it’s about nurturing their creativity, enabling them to find joy in musical exploration, and potentially uncovering a different type of artistry.

Let’s empower our students to experience the exhilarating journey of creation and unlock their full musical potential!

First let me mention these tips on improv that I’ve found helpful in my studio:

1. Don’t overthink the key.
   When improvising with students as I talk about in this article, I try not to overcomplicate the key.
   I like to simply identify which notes would be black in a given key/tonality.
   Here is a short video of how my 10 year old student, Sofia, explained the key of A Major before we improvised at a lesson.
   You’ll see how she knew exactly how to play in this key, but got bogged down when she decided to name the black notes.

2. Don’t worry about chord changes.
   Also, I won’t be talking about chord changes in this 5 day improvisation curriculum.
   I find that it is more freeing for my students to focus on the physicality of a given key or scale, and maybe even wander in and out of that, although often if I accompany my students I do give them the structure of changes. 
3. No Blues.
   Even though I teach my students blues scales and get them started with blues improv (and know that this is not my forte) the type of improvisation outlined in this article is much more about on-the-spot composing in any style, expressing ideas and fueling creativity.

Teach Music Improvisation for Every Day of the Week

Melody Monday
This is a session that combines a brief experience of picking out tunes “by ear” then improvising in a similar style or key.

• Alongside your student, pick out the important parts of a famous or chosen melody.
  
  • Keeping it simple, work together to find the notes. Imagine the first 9 pitches of Fur Elise, as an example.
    (You can always Google lists like “Top 10 Christmas Songs,” “Greatest Classical Music Works” or “Billboard Hot 100” for inspiration.)
    
  • Don’t be afraid to make mistakes as you work together, because your student benefits from seeing this process.
• Acknowledge/discuss as many additional concepts as is appropriate for the student’s level.
  • Position
  • Key
  • Major/Minor
  • Chords
  • Rhythm
• Use the melody you’ve figured out as the starting point for a 5 minute improv.  (I typically have students improvise just one hand at a time.) 
  • Fur Elise is the A section, and your student improvises the B section
  • Theme and variation: Fur Elise could become unrecognizable after a few ideations
  • Oops, we forgot how the first 9 notes of Fur Elise go, and we have just morphed into using only our own creativity
  • We are getting comfortable with chords so we can use both hands and lay some interesting layers underneath Beethoven’s notes 

Make-It-Your-Own Monday
I love both of these, so Monday gets 2 ideas! This one is easy and accessible for all students as we take an existing piece and alter it.

• Allow your student to choose a piece they’ve already been enjoying, maybe from their method or repertoire book.
• Help your student change the title to mean something quite different
  • Ode to Joy becomes Ode to Bananas
  • Mr. Haydn’s Theme becomes Mr. Panda’s Theme
  • Whirling Leaves becomes Crunchy Leaves
  • New Irish Tune becomes New German Tune or Old Irish Tune
• Talk about which musical qualities made the original title fit the piece (or vice versa)
  • Key: minor or major or something else
  • Style/mood: serious, fun, lighthearted, somber, happy, sad, lyrical, rhythmic, choppy, flowy
  • Texture: thick, light, vertical, horizontal, dense, sparse, closed, open
  • Chords: analyze these with as much detail as is appropriate for your student
  • Dynamics
  • Color: I like to talk about bright and dark, and some students are able to relate sounds to more specific colors as well
• What would you change to make the piece fit the new title?
• Experiment/improvise a section of “your new piece”
• Make up/change lyrics, if applicable
• Guide your student as needed

Here is a video I created that will show you how to take a composed piece (selection from my book, Saga Land) and alter it to change the characteristics using some of the ideas from above.

Teamwork Tuesday
This is either a fun imitation session, or a question and answer improv, where the student and teacher work together by responding musically to each other.

(If you teach groups, the students can do it with just a steady beat from you!)

It can be adjusted to the level of your student by using options like these:

• Elementary 
  • Decide on a 5-finger position (I like to relate it to other pieces we’re learning)
  • Do a quick ear warm-up so your student relates the set of pitches to the context of the key they’ll be in
  • Play a simple pattern, using only steps and repeated notes, and help your student play it back without looking, then move on to including skips as possible (starting on pitch 1 or 5 is the easiest to hear)
  • Encourage your student to create a pattern for you to copy, and make mistakes so your student feels permission to do so as well
  • Take turns creating short musical questions, and the other plays an answer (always tying in to appropriate lessons for their level and providing a light steady beat)
• Intermediate
  • Don’t tell your student what key you’ll be playing in, and begin a layer of chords. 
  • Have your student experiment until they figure out the key and begin improvising in one hand
  • Accompany your student with basic chords as you each throw motifs into the mix
  • The ideas can be imitated, or questions and answers created for an organic and rewarding improv (such a useful skill to have!)
  • As you both play off of each other, often the improv will morph into something different, and if we’re listening we naturally end together also, which my students always feel so proud about

Wordy Wednesday
This is one of my favorite ways to improvise and compose on-the-spot.

Use a sentence or phrase as the basis for a rhythmic and/or melodic motif.

• Let your student come up with a sentence or set of words unknowingly
  • Pay close attention as your student talks about their day/week
  • Ask your student about the weather 
  • Inquire about your student’s favorite sport or activity
  • Ask a pointed question like, “What’s your ultimate movie snack?”
• Point out and simplify the phrase if needed
• Repeat the phrase in a slightly exaggerated and rhythmic way with your student
• Clap the rhythm with your student
• Take the phrase’s rhythm and put it on one or 2 notes on the piano, then many notes (depending on the level of the student)
• Have your student repeat the phrase in different ways and in different places on the piano (theme A)
• Take a shortened version of theme A and make that theme B, then demonstrate how you can turn these 2 motifs into a whole section of music by playing them A, A, B.
• Depending on what’s available to your student, you can:
  • Stop there
  • Play along
  • Have your student come up with accompaniment/chords/LH
  • Extend the phrase form with AAB/AAB/AAC
  • Try “coding” this in your student’s notebook or notate in some fashion
  • Sing along as if their sentence is the lyrics, and finish the song together

Thunderous Thursday
The weather makes for an easy improv session that can instantly be adjusted to the level of the student.

On Thunderous Thursday, use the howling wind, the hot sun, the morning dew, the gentle rain, the melting icicles or the lightning storm to inspire unique sounds at the piano.

Depending on their level, students can be supported as they:

• Use the piano as a way to create sound effects: (I like to have students use their own creativity, as there is no wrong or right way to do this. But if you haven’t thought or taught this way before, or if your student needs more inspiration, these are some ideas)
  • Tapping or knocking on the fallboard
  • String strumming and/or prepared piano ideas like placing paper across the strings, if you have a grand piano
  • Low and loud sounds for thunder
  • Light and falling downward sounds for rain
  • Up and down or glissandos for wind (perfect visual and saves hands to have scarves around for this too)
  • Heavy and full multi-note sounds for sun
  • Sneaky light single-note sounds for drips
  • Light sounds with lots of pedal for fog
• Share weather-related paintings or photos from google to help out with the visuals, like these:

• Some students may struggle translating weather sounds into music, so starting by translating them into sound words might help (remember onomatopoeia?)
  • Boom, crash, bang
  • Drip, drip, splash 
  • Pitter-patter
  • Woohoo, whoosh
  • Crack, whack, gong

Fearless Friday
Throw the rules straight into the recycling bin and let the freedom of fearless improv be the wind in your hair! Make bold, fortissimo “mistakes.”

Create unabashed soundscapes.

Don’t edit yourself!

If students need a little push, try some of these tools:

• Paint sample color deck. I punch holes in mine and keep them on a metal ring. We use both the colors and the color names to inspire our improvising.
• Composition idea cards like Composition Story Prompts (left top) from Rainbow Forecast. I like to turn them upside down and have students choose 3. We either improvise in separate moments based on our cards, do AB and C sections of the same improv, or combine and overlap the ideas, depending on the student.
• Books or websites that offer Writing Prompts, Drawing Prompts, or even ask ChatGPT for prompts.
• Paintings are great visual inspiration (google images work well)
• Regular note name practice flash cards, chosen at random, to determine pentascale, scale, key, combination of notes, etc.
• Decide Now spinner app pre-loaded with any choices you can think of, like these:
  • Key names
  • Moods: sad, happy, nervous, excited, sleepy, calm, angry
  • Styles: choppy, smooth, short, bouncy
  • Animals
  • Various nature themes: still lake, rushing river, high mountain, dark woods
  • Colors
  • Students have their own endless supply of ideas, very often!

If this is your first time trying improvisation with your students, I hope you find this little guide helpful.

Of course, you can use these ideas any day of the week, with any level of student.

Some students love improv so much, they ask if we can do it at every lesson, which I’ll try to do!

Other students resist it at first but they warm up to it over time.

I like to do a quick improv at least once a month.

Aside from the obvious theory learning that’s happening, it grows ears, builds creativity, enhances spontaneity, and boosts confidence. 

Do you have fun ways to teach music improvisation?

I’d love to hear from you if you have questions or your own ideas to share!

Extra resource: https://forrestkinney.com/improvising-1
I adore the Create First! Duet 1 Book, which provides ideas for student improv that include a teacher accompaniment.

About Elizabeth Swift:

Ms. Swift began teaching piano to neighbors when she was just 13, and has been teaching ever since!

She taught secondary pianists at the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music while she double-majored in Piano Performance and Music Education, and soon started working in a local piano studio.

Before she graduated with her degree Elizabeth started her own private piano studio at a local church, meanwhile, training to teach in the classroom with an emphasis on choral music and general music education, grades K-12.

She also started a Kindermusik program for children as young as 18 months. 

Ms. Swift currently runs a diverse private piano studio in greater Cincinnati, Ohio, serving and learning together with a wonderful group of preschoolers to adults.

She incorporates all styles of music in her teaching and includes composition, improvisation, and other forms of confidence-boosting creativity and self-expression through the piano. 

After spending nearly a lifetime reading, teaching, and performing other people’s works, Elizabeth’s love for improvising and composing emerged rather late in the game.

In 2013 she offered to play keyboard on her church’s worship team, and before long she had made the transition from struggling through the chord chart format, to improvising as a satisfying and rewarding endeavor.

Since then she has realized her passion in improvising/composing/creating music that helps students connect to their instrument and their own passion with repertoire that is meaningful to them.

Although Ms. Swift’s favorite and beloved inspirations are her own piano students, she is often inspired by nature, travel, art, and poetry.

You can purchase her sheet music here.

Elizabeth is actively involved in her local music teaching organizations, currently serving on the leadership boards of both KTA (Keyboard Teachers Association) and OMTA-SW Ohio Music Teachers Association-Southwest).

She is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM) through MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) and a member of both ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and NLAPW (National League of American Pen Women). 

In her free time, you can find Elizabeth traveling, hiking, or hanging out in a hammock along with her husband, 4 children, and their two Australian Shepherds.

Other Blog Posts You’ll Love…

• How to Teach Chords to Piano Students
• Teaching Chord Charts in Your Piano Studio (Christine Passig)
• 7 Music Game Ideas with Magpie Melodies

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