Musicality World

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/time-to-practice/
Are you prevented from sitting down with your guitar or at the piano because there just aren’t enough hours in the day? There are pockets of time we can utilise to practise in an entirely different way – without our instruments. This may come as a shock, but it’s true! Check out these ideas for practising and improving your musical form while you’re on the go.
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/time-to-practice/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/learning-jazz-improvisation-with-bob-habersat-and-paul-levy/
Bob and Paul from Shed the Music joined Musical U to introduce their improvisation boot camp. Let’s find out how they’re making jazz real! https://www.musical-u.com/learn/learning-jazz-improvisation-with-bob-habersat-and-paul-levy/

He was known for producing compositions on the spot, a quality that would mark him as a prodigy for the rest of his life. Aside from Mozart, Liszt also riffed off Wagnerian operas while Brahms crafted musical segments from scratch as he played the piano.

Even today, classical musicians are getting on the “improv” train. Gabriela Montero, for example, plays piano pieces based on real-time suggestions by her audience. Likewise, Hilary Hahn has earned critical acclaim for her on-the-spot interpretations of pieces such as Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major.

Watch Hilary’s breathtaking violin improvisation, here demonstrated in tandem with celebrated pianist Haschka:

If these aren’t enough to inspire you to improvise, get this: classical musicians who improvise are more likely to engage listeners. People love spontaneity, after all, and few things are more compelling than an artist who’s willing to authentically express themselves through their art. Besides, isn’t that why you play music in the first place: to touch people in a way no other artist can?

Now that we’ve got you nodding, the next step is to start improvising. But how exactly do you improvise? Do you play your instrument over and over again, hoping inspiration will strike? Or is there a structured approach you can use to make the most of your improv session?

While we don’t believe in a strictly rigid way to improvise (because, as Gabriela Montero pointed out, that would defeat the purpose of improv), there are things you can do to make improvisation easier and more productive.

1. Pick a piece to base your improv on

As obvious as this first step sounds, it’s also the most crucial one. How well you know a piece can make the difference between your audience giving you a standing ovation and them leaving the concert venue on a sour note (no pun intended). If you’re improvising for the first time, you can start with an “easy” existing classical piece. The less harmonically complex, the better.

It’s a great idea to start with a piece you already know to give yourself a familiar foundation to work with.

For now, don’t worry about blowing people’s socks off with the most technically difficult piece. Your objective at the moment is to get used to the process of improvising. As you become more comfortable riffing off existing pieces, you can progress to improvising entirely new works.

2. Practise a melody

Melody is a good starting point for improvisation. Since melody is one of the first things people notice when they hear a piece of music, changing it up will definitely grab the attention of the listener.

Start by choosing a major, minor, blues, or pentatonic scale. Play the notes on any of those scales in any order. Listen for patterns as you play, and add, subtract, or rearrange notes depending on what will make the piece sound more pleasant to the ears. By familiarizing yourself with the placement of different notes on different scales, it’ll be easier to come up with an on-the-spot melody later on.

This technique is effective for building tension and releasing it to engage and surprise the listener. To really step up your melodic improvisation game, it’s a great idea to learn about specific intervals and the moods they convey. For example, while a perfect fifth adds a consonant, bright spot to your solo, a strategically-placed diminished fifth interval (also known as the Devil’s Tritone) can lend a hint of doom and foreboding to your melody.

Want to step it up another notch? Try taking a portion of an existing melody and transposing it into a different key, or rearranging the order of the notes!

3. Change up the rhythm

Another good starting point for improvisation is rhythm. Whether you play percussion instruments or not, knowing how to improvise on rhythm is a handy skill. Take an existing piece you can play, and try adjusting the rhythm or inventing your own. Change straight rhythms to swung, short notes to long, and add triplets or interesting rhythmic articulation. You’ll be surprised how different a composition you can create with all the same familiar notes!

When trying out different rhythms for a certain piece, incredible results can be achieved with the strategic use of rests – well-placed silence engages the ear and creates anticipation. Try shortening certain notes or omitting them entirely to put a new spin on a rhythm.

One nice thing about improvising on rhythm is that you can do it anywhere and anytime, with or without your instrument of choice. You can clap your hands, stamp the ground underneath your feet, or slap your thighs. As with melodies, listen carefully for anything you can use in future pieces.

4. Challenge yourself with harmony

Harmonies may seem challenging to improvise, but they don’t have to be. All you have to do is pick a key and experiment with playing only within that key, or practise by introducing harmonies you don’t normally hear in classical music.

For example, if you’re a pianist, you can play only the white keys or black keys for a melody in your right hand and a harmony part in the left. If you’re a guitarist, you can pick chords from the key of the melody, or try a common I-IV-V chord progression. Once you’re comfortable with the basics, you can start improvising on more difficult (or less common) harmonies.

5. Perfect your pitch

Most musicians take their sense of pitch for granted. As long as one can play the notes in their head, one can churn out a passable performance – or so the thinking goes.

Actually, having a sense of pitch is one of the most important qualities you can have as a musician. Not only will it allow you to hear out-of-tune notes, but it’ll also lend a richer layer to your performances. Plus, if you make a musical mistake on stage, you can easily cover it up with an improv based off your sense of pitch.

To start improving your pitch, use a digital tuner and practice matching pitch with your singing voice. Set the tuner to play a target note (like C, for example), keep the note in your head, and sing the note. If you’re singing too high or too low, the tuner will tell you, and you can adjust your singing accordingly.

The more you practise this exercise, the more pitch-sensitive you’ll become. The more pitch-sensitive you are, the more you can match the notes in your head with what the audience hears, and the more likely you can improvise listenable pieces.

Experiment with Improv

Luckily, there’s more than one way to make an improv. After all, that’s what improvs are, by definition: creating an entirely new work from scratch, based on your existing knowledge of music.

Record all your performances (including your improvisations!) and listen back to them. Watch out for places where you could switch notes up, vary the rhythm, and make other artistic changes. Keep the recording files so that you can track every improv you’ve done and see your progress. Listen to your recordings, adjust your improvs from there, and let a music-savvy friend give you a second opinion.

The post 5 Ways to Start Classical Improvisation Today appeared first on Musical U.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/musical-improvisation/
An important part of developing your musical skill lies greatly in the ability to improvise. In fact, improvisation allows musicians to engage their feelings with rhythms, explore different ideas, and contribute their art to the world. We’ve gathered a list of famous quotes about musical improvisation. Read on and find the inspiration you need to grow your musical improv skills. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/musical-improvisation/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/get-familiar-with-the-minor-pentatonic-scale/
Similarly to the major pentatonic scale, the minor pentatonic is a staple of rock and blues. And can be a great way to begin improvising in any genre of music! https://www.musical-u.com/learn/get-familiar-with-the-minor-pentatonic-scale/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/learning-guitar/
Learning the guitar is both fun AND challenging. There are so many great songs that you can play and Musical U wants to help you practice with purpose. Follow these 6 simple steps to help you strum your way to success. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/learning-guitar/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/instrument-practice-techniques/
You probably already know how important regular practice is for improving your skills as a musician. How can you make the most of your practice time and take your musical skills to the next level?

Try out these 4 practice techniques from the Musical U Team! https://www.musical-u.com/learn/instrument-practice-techniques/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/make-improvisation-easier-with-limits/
Improvising music is normally either overwhelming – or boring. The trick to getting the best of both worlds? Avoid overwhelm and escape the strict patterns by improvising based on “constraints”. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/make-improvisation-easier-with-limits/

March will be jam-packed with new interviews, podcasts, tutorials, and modules all centered around the much-desired skill of musical improvisation.

This week saw four new additions to our arsenal of improv resources: we discuss what it means to improvise a solo, pick a master improviser’s brain for his tips, look at how silence can be used as an effective improvisational tool, and explore the art of improvising with rhythm.

Solo on the Spot

We’re willing to bet you’ve heard your fair share of mind-blowing solos in your lifetime.

It may surprise you to learn that many of them were likely improvised!

In Musicality Means: Improvising A Solo, we dive into the art of generating a solo on the spot, exploring how it’s done in different genres and on different instruments, the obvious and hidden benefits of adding this skill to your musical toolbox, and how you can start learning today!

Improvising a solo is a surefire way to wow an audience and add excitement to your music shows. Artists have been doing this for hundreds of years, and will continue to for hundreds to come. Best of all, this skill doesn’t only apply to melodic instruments – countless incredible drum solos have graced the ears of audiences worldwide. Watch Stephen Taylor demonstrate how he approaches playing a drum solo!

While it may seem that a musician is effortlessly improvising a solo, they are actually using their ear to listen to the music and incorporate their improvised solo into the harmony. Michael Lake from Altobone.com discusses the subject of developing your ears to become better at improvisation. The lesson and practical exercises that he teaches are perfect for helping you get your ear into improv shape.

While we often think of jazz music when talking about improvisation, nearly every genre of music has elements of improv. For the rock and rollers in the audience, Six String Madness has laid out a step-by-step method for beginning improvisers. Going through their recommendations will certainly help you the next time it is your turn to solo in a jam.

Just Improvising

Our first podcast interview episode for Improv Month sees us talking to Nick Mainella, master jazz improviser and host of the 10 Minute Jazz Lesson podcast.

Nick shares the exercises he finds useful for improvising, how he encourages shy students to have a go at improv, and the mindset that is conducive to improvising freely and confidently.

Don’t sleep on How to “Just Play”, with Nick Mainella, even if you don’t play jazz – the concepts and tips Nick discusses are applicable to every genre and instrument you can imagine!

It was such a pleasure to have Nick on the show and to hear about his musical journey. One thing that really stuck out in our minds was how early he began to take private lessons. While many of us begin in a group music class, he talked about how much there is to gain with one-on-one teaching. Sage Music can help you decide which is right for you.

Can’t find a private teacher near you? No problem! Streaming technologies have progressed so rapidly that online music lessons are easy to find all over the internet. Nick explained some of the big differences when learning online, and how he changes his teaching style to fit with the technology. If you are still wondering if online lessons are right for you, Music Advisor has a handy pros and cons list.

While Nick is known for his jazz expertise, he also teaches the blues. For many, the blues is the easiest place to begin improvising, and Nick encourages his students to begin their journey here. For a crash course in blues for beginners, check out Fire Inside Music’s comprehensive lesson.

Creative Silence

The notes you don’t play are just as important as the ones you do.

The presence of some thoughtfully-placed rests can mean the difference between a pleasant yet boring melody and a powerful, dynamic musical statement.

Learn how to create the latter with How to Use Rests Creatively When Improvising, in which Learn Guitar Malta’s Robert Callus teaches you how to add interest, rhythm, and suspense to your playing through spontaneous silence.

Using rests is a great way to add phrasing into your musical creations by interrupting the lyrical lines. This is true for both improvised and prepared pieces of music! Check out Rob Knopper’s tutorial on adding phrasing to an audition solo.

The famous Impressionist composer Claude Debussy stated that “Music is the space between the notes” when talking about the importance of phrasing. This is just one of the great tips that Scott from String Joy presents on his site – with his tips, your phrasing is sure to take some big steps forward.

While we have been talking about how pauses and rests are important for improvisation, they are also an essential element to composing music. After all, isn’t improvisation just writing music on the fly? The Music Teach talks about this and other secrets of good composing and improvising.

Spontaneous Rhythm

With so much of music being focussed on a melody or a chord progression, rhythm sometimes gets unfairly overlooked.

However, rhythmic improvisation is just as valuable as the melodic sort, and it’s certainly not just for the percussionists out there. In About Improvising Rhythm, we explore the amazing things you can do with only the dimension of rhythm, and how Musical U can get you started in navigating the world of rhythmic improvisation.

While rhythm is often underappreciated, especially when talking about improvisation, it is the secret ingredient that can help you add interest and connect ideas in your improv solos. Ben Plant Guitar talks about learning rhythmic motifs and applying them to your music.

A great way to start improvising with rhythm is to take an existing melody and make small changes. Take out a note, add an accent, or change the rhythm. As Steve Treseler explains, learning to improvise with riffs is more engaging and fun than just talking about music theory!

Musicians are great at developing little tricks that help them to remember complex lessons and incorporate them into their playing. Jon Michael Smith is no stranger to this tactic! Watch as he uses something as simple as fruit names to improvise on the guitar. With a little brainstorming, there is no limit to how much this method could help you develop your rhythmic improvisation.

Music, Off the Cuff

We hope this week’s material has given you some new ideas of what constitutes improvisation, and new ways that you can try your hand at this skill – be it through improvising a solo, improvising a rhythm, or improvising with rests.

The post Solo on the Spot, Just Improvising, Creative Silence, and Spontaneous Rhythm appeared first on Musical U.