How can I learn how to improvise on the piano?
Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 6:04 am
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Are there any decent books out there that can help me improvise songs? I play with my church’s team, and it would be nice to learn how to do some things on the piano.
Any suggestions, advice or book recommendations would be great! Thank you!! ♥
Your focus needs to be on several things:
1. Scales:
- two octave, both hands
- major, minor (harmonic & melodic)
2. Chords:
- typical and atypical chord progressions
- inverted chords
3. Theory:
- both of the above two items are included in this, but those will be practical whereas some of this will only exist in your head
- any book on music theory should work fine. Some are better than others, but that is completely arbitrary, different people learn different ways.
- pay attention to rhythm
- most importantly, form and analysis is going to be key.
-There will be a balance of three things from there
a. mentally mastering the theory and how western music works, focusing on form and analysis
b. Learning how that theory looks and applies to your instrument
c. mastery of your instrument
4. It’s finally important that you expose yourself to people who improvise well, and watch them play, see what they do.
- creativity can be greatly aided early on simply by mimicking other things you see and hear
- you’ll definitely need to be able to learn to play by ear, in the sense that you want to be able to reproduce the sounds you hear in your head. You’ll get better at this with practice.
I’ve been playing guitar, piano, and bass for about 15 years. I’m no virtuouso, but I can hold my own respectably.