How Does Improvisation Work?

Can I Learn to Do It?

There are main 3 ways in which a pianist can use improvisation in their playing:

- Melody
- Harmony
- Rhythm

If you understand how these areas work, and know how the original is supposed to sound, then you can learn how to improvise them. It’s like acting or doing a comedy sketch, you really need to know how to play the music correctly before you can successfully improvise with it.

Melody Improvisation

If you are going to work with melodic improvisation you can either decide to play most of the original music and only keep a few familiar phrases to identify the piece, you could play around with improvising just the odd group of notes here and there, or you could create something in the middle. Listen to what you’re playing. Does it still sound good? Is it still recognizable as the melody you’re supposed to be playing?

Harmony Improvisation

Here you have greater scope to improvise because the melody line will carry anything that you change in the harmony and still leave the listener feeling that they heard the tune they expected to hear. You could add more depth to the base line, or remove the base line. You could add a counter melody that works with the main melody. You could use the basic harmony chord structure and improvise this using such things as passing notes and suspensions to create a completely different sounding harmony that was originally composed.

Rhythm Improvisation

With rhythm improvisation you can play around with different styles of rhythm. Perhaps your romantic love theme could turn into a dance tune by quickening the pace a little. Cover artists often use this technique in order to put their own mark on a song made famous by another singer.

Apart from these structured forms of improvisation that deal with music already composed, you can also improvise using your knowledge of music themes and structure to create something completely new - a real time composition. This allows you to create a new melody line with harmony as you play and each time you sit at the piano to use this free form kind of piano improvisation you will compose something original.

Any piano player can learn to improvise using the above techniques but in order to perform an improvisation that’s fresh, but it takes practice. If you use melody, harmony or rhythm improvisation methods then you need to practice to ensure that you don’t fall into the trap of playing the tune the way it’s usually played. If you’re going to free form improvise then you must know how to bring a melody and harmony together with a rhythm in order to create something that sounds as if it’s always been that way. You are making it up as you go along, but the end result needs to sound flawless and that takes hours of free form practice in order to ensure that you don’t bring discord into the music by using a combination of opposing chord - unless, of course, that’s your intention!

For wonderful courses in improvisation and other related subjects please go to Improvising & Other Good Stuff!

Copyright June 17, 2011 by Duane Shinn. Do not use without permission!

Improvising on the piano involves several factors, but the most notable factor is the creation of a new melody while using the same chord progressions. In essence you are composing a new song, but the new song uses the same chords in the same order as the original song. Improvising is used in all genres, but it is most used perhaps in jazz, where a new melody is created several times in one song. Typically the lead sax or trumpet player will improvise for a period of time (on the same chord changes), then another member of the group will improvise for a period of time, and so on.

Arranging a song is somewhat different: you might keep the same melody, or alter it to some degree, but you might use different chords and different styles in the process. It’s a little bit confusing at this point, because the same type of thing could be happening in improvisaion. One musician will see it one way, and another musician another way, but that’s as it should be — it creates an endless flow of new and exciting music.

When I was a teenager I owned a record album titled “This is Pat Moran” which I absolutely loved and couldn’t get enough of. Pat Moran was known as “the little girl of jazz” not only because she is short of stature, but also because she was so young — playing with seasoned jazz artists twice her age. She came from a musical family and studied classical piano at Phillips University and then at Cinncinnati Conservatory of Music with the goal of becoming a classical concert pianist. She was so gifted with improvisation abilities that she soon switched to jazz, formed a group and played in jazz clubs in New York (including Birdland, home of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Monk, Dizzy, and others) Chicago and Los Angeles. She played for a stint with the Terry Gibbs big band, but most of the time fronted the Pat Moran trio and vocal quartet. She has played with jazz greats such as Ray Brown, Shelly Manne, Scott LaFaro, Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel, and many others.

After I was married we moved to Oregon to pursue my Masters Degree at Southern Oregon University and to my delight, discovered that Pat Moran was really Patti McCoy, who lived in Ashland close to the University, and played occasionally in concerts and regularly at church. With my heart in my throat I knocked on her door one day and introduced myself as a fan. She invited me in, played a couple tunes for me, and gradually we became good friends. When it was time to do my Master’s thesis, she agreed to work with me in producing a book and a cassette on the history of piano jazz. It was a great experience, and my professors of course were delighted. We later transfered the cassette interview with Patti to CD and it is still available at Piano Improvisation From Ragtime To Contemporary. In it we take a walk through the history of jazz piano, with me asking her questions and she responding and playing many examples of different types of jazz, including boogie, ragtime, swing, be-bop, Garner style, and contemporary styles such as Chick Corea.

Here is a video of her playing an old gospel song “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder” at a church in Los Angeles pastored by another great gospel musician, Andre Couch:

To repeat, you can get the full interview which includes lots of Patti playing various kinds of jazz at Piano Improvisation From Ragtime To Contemporary