Lots of people associate the word 'improvisation' with jazz. Loads of notes, noisy and complicated! Well actually, improvisation can be anything you want it to be!
Improvisation is basically making music up on the spot with no or very little planning (so different to composition which is planned and then written down to be kept). It's a one-off experience... to be enjoyed in the moment.
But that doesn't mean no skill is involved! You can learn about all the different building blocks of music through learning how to improvise. Starting with the foundations of rhythm and melody and then adding in harmony, dynamics, articulation... all the good stuff!
Our Piano for Wellbeing sessions... both live and our online course... share the basics of improvisation in just 1 hour! But there is a lifetime of possibilities in improvising. This is creating your own music! If you want to learn to play music that other people have written but don't want to learn to read music you basically need to have a really good memory and a really good ear. It's quite hard work unless you're particularly talented in that area (which I'm definitely not!). But improvisation is infinite. It's an amazing skill to have and so, so satisfying. Actually, I read a study recently and I wish I could remember where, but participants were put in an MRI scanner with a MIDI keyboard... some had to improvise and some had to play pre-composed music. The reactions that happened in people's brains inside the scanners where participants were improvising were totally different to those playing composed music. You can feel it when you play. You're concentrating really hard but also totally relaxed and absorbed. An adult student said to me just yesterday, it's like nothing else. As relaxing as a massage, but your brain can't wander... it's creating something amazing!
So you might have guessed... I LOVE improvising and my students do too. It's such a wonderful experience... come and give it a go!