Piano improvisation: The rules give us freedom

"Learn everything, then forget it all." - Charlie Parker

"Don't play what's there, play what's not there." - Miles Davis

"It has been said that the best improvised music sounds composed, and that the best composed music sounds improvised." -- www.apassion4jazz.net

Would you like to learn to play a song on the piano?  I am trying to understand something about piano improvisation.  We can work on these together.

The first thing to understand is that music is built on  mathematics. Let’s take the major scale of C.  Think of the note C as 1, D as 2, E as 3, and so on.  So what we learned in school as Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do can also be thought of as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-1.  Now let’s try to understand what a chord is.  A triad chord can be thought of as 1-3-5, or three notes that skip one note in between.  In the key of C, the C chord would be 1-3-5, or C-E-G.  The next chord over top of D would be 2-4-6, or D-F-A. The third chord would be 3-5-7, or E-G-B, and so on.  Now let’s have a look at these triads as you would see them on staff paper.

You will notice that the first, fourth, and fifth chords are major, the second, third, and sixth chords are minor, and the seventh chord is diminished.  Now let's see how these chords would look for both major and minor keys.

Would you like to learn how to play a song on piano very quickly?  Look at the first chord in the major scale.  That’s a C chord.  Play that on the piano.  It looks like this:

Now be clever and find the G note, then play the G chord:

With those two chords, you should now be able to play this easy song.  Just play the chords you learned and sing along.  The chords are written over top:

Oh, you're playing piano now?  Good for you.  Everyone should be able to play something.

Now let me get back to my issue.  I am working on improvisation.  This means knowing what to play over certain chords in a song. Here is an interesting link about improvising over chords.  When I’m playing a C chord or the Am chord, I can safely play the notes C, D, E, G, A.  With F or Dm, I can play F, G, A, C, D.  When I’m playing G or Em, I can play G, A, B, D, E.  With G7, I can play G, A, B, C, D, E, F.  On any of the triads in the scale, I can play the corresponding modes (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aolian, or Locrian).

Now, it is one thing to understand all this theory for improvisation, but it is another thing to make it happen. In theory if you understand the “rules” and are not afraid to experiment, you will eventually find that you can have freedom to explore and improvise within those boundaries.  When we see and hear someone who has great freedom in improvisation, it is very likely because they understand in some way the mathematics of the game.  Check out this page for more on jazz improvisation methods:  http://www.apassion4jazz.net/improv2.html.

When you get practiced up, see what you can do with this.  Have fun!

Here's another good link for you!  http://www.jazzstandards.com/index.html

Music to Expand the Soul and Bless the Inner Life

I've made a breakthrough with my piano playing.  I've been working on jazz standards for 16 months with piano.  I had played basic chords for many years, but then last year I had two lessons from a friend of my sisters -- a very good pianist with a masters in piano performance -- and he helped me with piano voicings.  I wrote out the arrangements I would use for several songs, and developed a certain technique.  The aim was to keep the finger movements to a minimum, to keep everything tight.  I struggled through my first public performance last May (at the Balalaika), but I got through it.  Since starting this project, I've worked up over 100 standards, and I'm learning more every day.  I love it!  I've got plenty of songs by Rodgers and Hart, Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Jimmy Van Heusen, and others.  This is a real treasure trove of music!


So here's my breakthrough:  I had been plugging away on piano in my little room near Raleigh, NC, for several weeks.  And all of a sudden the other day I started moving up and down the keyboard on some piano solos.  Wow!  I try to keep everything in the chord, and definitely avoid going out of the key, and then go back to the melody notes from time to time, especially at the end of a phrase.  I figured that I could leave out the root from the right hand since I was playing it with the left.  And now I'm just amazed how this is working! After all these months, my fingers are finding the melody (I can remember how hard that was before) and playing notes around it.  And this is coming naturally.  I think it's a matter of time spent at the piano.

For those of you who have been improvising on your instrument for years, you may not think much of this.  And those of you who don't play at all may think that playing an instrument will be forever out of reach.  But I say that for all of us, learning musical skills is a way for us to improve our lives in so many different ways. The struggles bring out the best in us, and when we finally master some skill that has eluded us, we can bask in the joys of our newfound selves.

I really want to write books and sing songs all the time. I will keep spending time doing these things.  I wish I didn't have to worry about the money.  I have centered my life around making money for so many years, and despite the things that money has provided me, it has left me with a certain emptiness and longing. They say you only live once.  Why not a life filled with music?  As music expands and develops in our lives, so does our inner being. We grow with every new song, every improved skill, every development in sensibility.

My friend Marcos_Saback, an amazing guitarist now back in Brazil, talks about "la vida" as he drinks red wine.  La musica es la vida.  Let us raise our glasses, and allow the wonder of music to create a life of joy and beauty within our souls.