Improvising

[danieln]

I have no idea how to effectivly improvise.  Could someone give me pointers on how to make a chord such as ... oh .. A minor seventh, to make it sound like a meloncholic jazz ..  lets say i had to go from A minor seventh to a D Seventh.  Any suggestions?

[solitudewithin]

Well, actually i dont quite understand what are you trying to achieve. But here's my shot on improvising. If you want to produce the sound you're writting us, like jazz, better find some piano solo cd's for a start. For instance pick Chick Corea or Billy Evans and others. Then try to take a simple pattern like I-IV-V chords and add the 7th. Try in 4/4 beat the pattern of : Am7 - Dm7 - Em7 and try to experiment with the sounds you make. Also study some of the basics of jazz-blues music like walking bass and blues scales and modes etc. Hope this help!

[liszt-essence]

You know what works REALLY well for me?

I sing when i sit behind the piano. And believe me, I can't sing at all but thats not the point! When I sing, the tunes come in my head, I search for them in the keys and I get my new melody. Works really well for totally 'out of the blue' improvising.

You want chords and stuff, I don't know that sorry

[dannyc]

Hi Danieln
When you're improvising, the best thing to do in my opinion is to play simple chord voicings in your left hand (always include the 3rd and the 7th of the chord)

So for your Am - D7 idea, go for a left hand voicing of C(thumb) A(2nd finger) G(3rd finger) E(5th finger) for the Am chord and a voicing of C(thumb) A(2nd finger) F#(3rd finger) D(5th finger) for the D7 chord - minimal movement and less for you to worry about so you can concentrate on the Right Hand which will be doing the work.
An alternative voicing might be ECBG / ECBF# - which brings in more extensions of the chords.

Improvising over the chords is all about chosing the right scale, in this case it's even better because one scale fits both chords. - BONUS!

A B C D E F# G A - which is a mode based around G major called A Dorian

you could include small "ghost" notes like Bflat and Eflat just to jazz it up a bit. (don't land on these particular notes on a normal beat, use them to get from one note to another.  Another important thing to remember is try not to make the solo sound like a scale, include arrpegio's, play in the 3rds using all the notes from the above scale. Try and make your improvisation GO SOMEWHERE i.e start quiet and get loud, start with few notes eg A G and E and then slowly add more notes, F# and C etc.. start lower down the piano and finish higher up, make your solo CLIMAX!!!!

The real key to improvising is listening though - find someone you like and "borrow" particular licks/musical quotes, learn them in different keys, invent your own based on these motifs and soon you'll have your own unique style.
Best of luck
Danny

[Derek]

Have you considered trying to imitate classical music at all? A fun way to begin improvising is to simply play octave chords in the left hand on some harmonic minor scale or other, and noodle in the right hand...or make up little memorizable riffs.  If you're already good with playing classical music try to use various bass figures like alberti, waltz...rolling triplets up and down triads...that sort of thing.  The key is..just jump in and experiment. See what sounds you like.  Also---RECORD YOURSELf. I can't stress this enough to some of the kids I talk to about improv. When you first try improvising it'll beveryhard to remember any of the noodles you came up with. Sometimes a cool noodle will pop out, even when you are abeginner, and recording yourself helps you to remember those noodles/riffs.  good luck!   

[hyrst]

One of the keys to learning to improvise is rhythmic patterns - one of the reasons our improvisations seem to go nowhere when we first try is lack of meaningful rhythm. 

Write out a basic chord progression for yourself, so you know what to move to next (e.g. the most simple being the I-IV-V-I).  Use the chords as blocks in the bass to start (then add differnet ways of breaking these chords up and moving between them when you are comfortable). 

Use the first few notes of the tetrachord in the right hand (or the 1st, 2nd and minor 3rd work well).  Invent a little rhythm pattern (maybe 2 bars long), and fiddle around with those top notes using the rhythm.  When you are comfortable with this, venture out a little more (e.g. more syncopation, more notes, runs between chord changes, moving up and down the piano, changing the melody line from treble to bass, etc). 

You need to have some idea of chords that progress to one another (most effective progressions either move up a 3rd, down a 2nd or move a 5th in either direction) and experiment with rhythms.  Then, play around and listen for what you like.  Repeat what you like. 

At first, you might not make much sense, but if you take notice of things you do like you can build on it.  Have fun :-)