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

Thanks for the Music: All of You

[You know who "you" are, but you can always reference the list at the bottom.]

I would like to thank you.  Something compelled you to do it.  You taught me the definition of legato and staccato.  You led my junior high choir (1).  You sang beautiful solos and duets and trios in church (2). You showed me how powerful worship music can be (3). You coached me and let me sing my first solos in public (4). You bought me my first guitar (5). You gave me my first guitar lesson (6). You led as I sang in my first big church choir (7).

Thanks so much.  You were so much fun as you led our college choir, and took me on my first choir tours (8). You taught me music theory and piano (which I never mastered, not your fault) (9). You taught me classical guitar (10).

You deserve credit.  You were the first “real” choir I joined, where I learned major classical pieces like Mozart’s Requiem, and enjoyed beautiful musical moments (11).  You led this wonderful choir, and let me sing Handel’s Messiah first as a bass and another year as a tenor (12).

And thanks for your help as I went solo.  You gave me my first solo gig as a weekly strolling guitarist on a mountain in Tennessee (13). You didn’t tell me I was crazy (though you must have thought it) when I went down to Florida to try to find opportunities to play music (14). 

And you were there when I was on the move.  I sang with you when I was working in northern Virginia (15). This was a rather quiet period.

But my thanks continue.  You were my favorite choir director, and you taught me subtlety in music (16).  You were so much fun to be with, and you learned the difficult parts and blended and made a wonderful sound (17). You opened up the world of early music, and you taught me that good singing was all in the easy release (18). You showed me that there was more than one choir director who knew how to finesse and shape the music, and you were the best organist I have ever met (19). 

And thanks for the great times!  You were the first guitarist I worked with, you showed me what it was like to rock the joint, and you worked the open mics with me (20).  You taught me the music of Buddy Holly and The Beatles, and you showed me what it’s like to exercise discipline in learning your favorite music (21). You showed how to make excellent recordings, and you stirred together your music and social and family life in a great way (22). You knew every song ever written, you could play them on anything with strings, and you sang them with reckless abandon (23). You taught me Bossa Nova chords and rhythm, and showed virtuoso skill on the guitar (24). You blindly played piano better than any sighted man I know, and taught me that it should all be about having fun (25).  You played banjo with your claw better than anyone I’ve seen (26).  You pulled the guitar off the wall and turned the room into a magical place (27).

Thanks for all you have done.  You learned the difficult parts.  You watched the choir director.  You took cues from the pianist.  You sang the old tunes (28). You jammed with the band.  You played by ear.  You read all the notes (29). You loved us through your music.  You touched our hearts and saved our souls. You taught me that music is common to all of life, that there is a “music of the spheres” that brings into symmetry all the disparate and confusing aspects of our troublesome existence.  You showed us that la musica es la vida, that we would be lost without it, that it blesses and enriches our lives in ways that could never be understood (30).

Thanks for the music.  My life would not be the same without you.  We are notes on a page, you and I, sometimes getting closer, sometimes stretching farther apart, and yet sounding out to form the harmonies of life.  Sometimes we echo nature, and sometimes nature echoes us.  The mathematics and the physics of music could be measured by scientific instruments, but those devices could never capture the true nature of the sounds that we hear and make.  We are instruments, you and I.  Thanks for making music with me.  And don’t you know, there’s so much more wonderful music ahead!

(1) Mrs. Irvine Parsons.  (2) Judy Smith. (3) The choir of Faith Baptist Church.  (4) Virginia “Aunt Ginny” Wright. (5) My parents. (6) A student at TSBC whose name I forgot. (7)  Lucky Shepherd.  (8) “Prof” Don Ogden.  (9) What was the music professor’s  name? (10) A professor from the English department.  (11) Texas Bach Choir. (12)  Dr. Finster.  (13) The lady at the bed and breakfast in Monteagle, TN. (14) My family. (15) Loudoun County Master Singers. (16) Kathleen Bird. (17) CTK choir. (18) Edmund Brownless. (19) Simon Harden. (20) Dan Carter. (21) Bob Crook. (22) Angus Foxley. (23) Paul Kachur. (24) Marcos Saback. (25) Jogi Kirschner. (26)  Don Lupo. (24)  Anita at Balalaika.  (28) All the singers.  (29) All the players. (30) All my fellow musicians and music lovers.