Improvising at Home

Earlier this month we had our first piano party of the new session where students learned about Improvisation. At our piano party, we discussed what it is, it's deep roots in classical, jazz and popular music and introduced some easy ways to get started, then we jammed with a Rock Your Way Back to School improv. Improvisation is a terrific rhythm and ear training tool, and the goal of this piano party was to help take some of the potential awkwardness or shyness out of this creative exercise.

Today's blog post is looking at how you as a piano parent can support you piano kid improvising at home. What I'm going to share are some simple tips that even completely non-musical parents can use to create original improvisation with your piano kid.

Some things to know about Improv: 

  • Operates within a structure. Accomplished musicians rely on chord progressions, scales, knowledge of different genre styles, and tempo/rhythm structures to improvise. But total beginners can do it too within some smaller structures.
  • There are no wrong notes, so if something sounds too 'off' for your comfort, just go back to your structure and try something different.
  • Rhythm and timing are crucial. Even if your notes don't always jive, if you're on the same beat, you can keep it going. 

 How to try it at home: 

  • Improvise with rhythm first. As mentioned above, being able to stay together in terms of the beat is the foundation of collaborative music. To get started: 
    • Make a steady beat together. You can clap, tap your legs, the floor, or a drum.  Feel the beat in your body by bobbing your head slightly or swaying together.
    • Once you have a steady beat going, try some call-and-response rhythms. 
      • You can clap a rhythm & have your piano kid copy it back, or vice versa. 
      • Or clap a rhythm and have your piano kid answer it with something different. Always trying to feel the underlying beat. For example, if you clapped "quick-quick slow" your piano kid could answer back with "slow quick-quick." Gradually try longer and longer rhythms, but always keep a sense of that pulse you established at the beginning.
    • The next step could be to use different surfaces for your call-and-response rhythm. For example, you might continue to clap AND incorporate tapping on your legs and do a "clap tap clap tap." 
      • Start with just a couple motions, like a clap and a tap, but eventually you can use as many different surfaces as you are able to incorporate without losing the underlying beat. Be creative & have fun!  
    • Once you've mastered call-and-response beats, have one person keep the tempo or steady beat, while the other claps or taps rhythms that complement the beat. Use some of the rhythms that you discovered in your call-and-response time if you're unsure of what to try.
  • Improvise at the piano. Start the same way you did when clapping by each choosing a single note and playing it to a steady beat. 
    • Feel the beat in your body with a slight bounce of the head or just letting it sink into your body. 
      • Try taking turns with the beat, you play, they play, you play, they play etc. Can you keep the beat going? 
    • Once you've got the beat down, add a second note, each of you can choose a second note. Don't worry too much about it sounding perfect, if you want to hunt around together for two notes that you like the sound of great, if not, let the music be surprising. It's ok if it's weird!
      • Use call and response with your two notes, gradually increase the number of notes you're playing. 
    • When you've mastered call and response, have one of you choose two notes to keep the beat, alter back and forth between the two notes keeping a steady beat while the other improvises a melody to the beat. 
And these are the building blocks to improvising. Starting small and growing little by little. This process doesn't have to happen all in one day, I'd recommend to spend just a few minutes at the end of each practice and see what you're able to grow over time. As your piano kid progresses and learns chords and scales, these can easily be incorporated, and for non-musical parents, at that point, they can show you which keys will fit within the structure.

Improvisation is a valuable skill for musicians as we are often put on the spot to play something or fill in empty space at events. It is also a terrific creative outlet, and a way to jam and connect with other musicians without having to do a lot of preparation. And for piano students in particular, improvisation is a great rhythm and ear training tool. If you try some improv at home, I'd love to hear about it or see videos! And remember, the key is to making it have a lasting impact, is just to have fun jamming together.