Teaching improvisation has its challenges. In an attempt to make the student feel at ease in an improvisation lesson, teachers often say 'there are no wrong notes'. This statement is problematic. By stating the rules don't apply to improvisation (because it is not possible to follow them while improvising) you make improvisation inferior to composed music. More so you put composers on a pedestal and can make the student think that only god-like humans can create really good music. Furthermore, it is simply not true that improvisation is only the achievement of complete creative freedom. Improvisation always takes place in a specific musical context for which you can fully prepare yourself.
(Paraphrasing C. Humphries, 2009)
This chapter is a collection of exercises that each tackle a different difficulty. Since it is necessary to first break down the music into small challenges, before starting to build an actual stage-ready interlude.
Pianist Kristina Juntu suggests the following steps when improvising based on an existing score: transpose motifs, invent exercises, simplify, look for the skeleton of the music and try to build-up small phrases. The start of improvising is basic. In a later phase modulation or even changes in the meter or harmonization are added. This chapter will focus on these basic skills partially described by Juntu.
A lot of the practice ideas are inspired by different pedagogical sources on classical improvisation. Others are completely designed by myself based on my experiences in the practice room.
‘It is a myth that creative work should be entirely original. While it is true that you cannot copy, you absolutely can recycle.’ -J. Hill
I adapted most exercises in this way so that they have an existing composition or style as a starting point. Since the goal of this research is not to build improvisation skills in general, but specifically to interlude based on two existing pieces. Following exercises serve to expand an active musical vocabulary inspired by the chosen pieces. This way the newly acquired vocabulary can later be used in the interludes.
Not all exercises are applicable to all compositions. To be able to choose exercises that work for the chosen piece, it is necessary to analyze this piece before practicing. A simple example: in the case of a tonal piece the player needs to know what the tonality of the piece is before starting the harmony related exercises. In my opinion it is important to begin with exploring as many exercises as possible with the chosen composition. The exercises and experiments are divided into five different groups. The order of the exercise pools is relevant, because the next pool continues building on the knowledge retrieved in the previous one. The collection of exercises can be explored by clicking on the buttons below.