Starting impro for children

[hans]

Hi,

do you have any idea for the first steps to improvisation for my 10-year old daughter? She plays piano for 4 years now. Is there any book for children to recommend?

Thanks
Hans

[hans]

Good morning,

no idea? What do you think generally about improvisation as part of musical education of children? I've read that it in former times it was usually for all musicians to improvise, but that the most of todays musicians havn't got this ability.

Thanks
Hans

[debussy symbolism]

Greetings.

You could get her to play chords and an accompanying notes for a start, or just a melody. You might have gone over some chord structure such as tonic and dominant that she could come up with a melody to. It takes time. Or you could have her play what ever she likes, exploring. There is no method to improvisation, but theory does help in certain aspects of it(such as chord progressions, modulation, etc.) It is really up to you, but at first I think that you could have her play a melody to chords. Hope this helps.

[hans]

Hello debussy symbolism,

thanks for your reply. We have started in this way in december by playing simple christmas songs and trying to find the right tonika-, subdominant- or dominant-accords in the left hand. And now she plays a fixed line of accords and tries to find a melody in the right hand. Certainly, it's important to go into theory and also important to train the ear for intervalls. Ok, you are right, that it takes time and many self-experience of trial and error, but i hoped that there is any good book with special stimulus for children.

Greetings
Hans

[debussy symbolism]

You are very right about developing an ear. No matter how much theory you know you need an ear to improvise(Theory helps of course and is very important). As to books that deal with improvising, I may not be familiar enough with them to give advice however your student can play and write down chords of her liking(They don't have to be conventional) and improvise a melody on them. Hope this helps.