Question to Derek

[countrymath]

Hey Derek...

I heard that you're a metal head.

Do you know how to shred? I mean, to you play keyboard solos?

[Derek]

I love listening to metal, but I've never felt that interested in writing or playing keyboard solos that would work with the music. I played guitar in a death metal band for a few years, and I also tried playing keyboards with the same band. I did not enjoy it.

[countrymath]

hum... I see.

One more thing...I'm listening to our improvs. and you rocks. There's a improv. on your youtube channel where you play some Chopin-like music. You just did that by ear?

[Derek]

Yessir, absolutely. All my improv is spontaneous/by ear.

[countrymath]

But...how?

I mean, I ever heard that classical music is the best way to accquire tecnique. All the great pianistas/keyboardists on pop/rock music has classical formation.

I really want to learn improv. I can play some chopin and bach stuff, but I cant use this tecnique when improvising.

[lostinidlewonder]

I'm sure Derek couldn't do it when he started playing piano for the first time. Improvisation grew out of the general ability to play piano for me, once I played various styles, memorized a lot of pieces, rhythms, building blocks of music, listening experience etc, improvisations could flow out without too much of a focused attention as to what notes to play and the direction the piece moves.

I think master improvisers develop this attribute, they can control what they do more so, but it might not actually be a necessary element of improvisation as a whole but rather a category of improvising. I love the freedom of improvisation like a meditation not trying to conform to a particular style or system, others like certain styles depending on their musical past and experience. Certainly it is very rewarding learning improvisation styles I love improv based on Cocktail lounge music, another rhythmic system I love is the Bosa Nova!

There is another side of improv where you let your minds eye hear sounds and the hands react. But this is a very fuzzy area to explain because the mind slips between the two when you attempt to train it. When you hear something in your minds eye then your hands play it, often the hands do not exactly create what your mind imagines so when your ears hear this it alters what the mind thinks about in the future! So the hands can effect the sound in  your mind and the mind can effect the hand. This tug of war is very interesting but not something I have fully understood through my own improv exploration.

[Derek]

But...how?

I mean, I ever heard that classical music is the best way to accquire tecnique. All the great pianistas/keyboardists on pop/rock music has classical formation.

I really want to learn improv. I can play some chopin and bach stuff, but I cant use this tecnique when improvising.

lostinidlewonder is right, I didn't start out improvising like I do now. It is a very gradual process. In a nutshell, though, I started by learning a single scale, G# minor, and making up simple riffs in it over octave chords. Sometimes the riffs would come out all at once, sometimes I'd "build" them. At the same time I practiced "noodling." Also, from the very beginning I recorded myself and listened to these recordings. They were not terribly good, but I really enjoyed that I was creating my own music. I think listening to the recordings created a "positive reinforcement" whereby whenever I made something cool, I didn't realize it til I heard the recording, and this gave me more confidence. Eventually I sought advice on improvisation and met Ted here on pianostreet. He gave me a lot of advice/tips and encouragement on improv and it turns out that was exactly what I needed. I think I'd probably just be another one of the millions of new age kiddies out there if I'd never met him! I grew up in what I think was perhaps the last generation that trusted in its elders rather than its iPhones and ever-present Google for learning and information. Thank God 

"How" is really difficult to answer in a single forum post. Feel free to pm me if you'd like to chat more about it!

[chopinatic]

For anyone starting improvisation its tricky, no one can just improvise amazingly and make it sound how they want it to sound straight away! I found pretending to be the composer themself, or using similar chords or patterns they use helped me develop a more "classical" sounding improvisational technique. With everything tho, its about trial and error, practice and more practice!