Is this a normal classical improvisation !?

[lisztarian]

   Hello Dear pianists,


               I have been playing the piano for six years and I am 21 years old. I unfortunately started at a very late age, but I am cutting my way through classical music as fast -and as good- as I can. I love to improvise most of the times despite not studying music professionally at a conservatory. I did not study improvisation but I do not know how I am improvising. I just simply, play. This is one piano improvisation that my friend recorded me playing but unfortunately the camera had low battery so the video is cut near the end where things where getting quite intense. Please give me your generous insight as to whether what I am doing is (not so bad), or (way too wrong taking into consideration classical improvisation.


 Here you are the link:

     

   

[Derek]

I enjoyed this very much. You play with a lot of intensity and have a wonderful feeling for 19th century bravura and Liszt-inspired style. I hope you continue to share your work with us! As for "normal, "I'm really not sure what a normal classical improvisation would be. Everyone who did it in the past is dead, so it is really up to us today to decide what a normal classical improvisation is. Personally, I hope there never is a "normal" because it is possible to be so unique with it, no matter what style you choose.

And there's definitely no rights or wrongs in improvisation. One would have to first establish what that would be! For me, the only "right" is whether an improvisation sounds good, and this one does.

[lisztarian]

 Thank you Derek for you beautiful way of writing you opinion. The reason I choose the word "normal" is simply because I never studied music professionally and hence I never took improvising lessons, harmonies...etc! What I do is simply play and honestly sometimes I have no idea how I do it. Although the video is somehow long (13 minutes) yet when I was playing, it passed just as fast as 1 minutes, although the improvisation was about 25 minutes, but unfortunately the camera's battery just went dead! All in all, that is the reason why I used the term "normal" because I cannot tell which is normal or great, and what perspective one should notice while playing/listening to an improvisation. Thanks a lot for your kind opinion! It means a lot for me !

[pianowolfi]

I like this very much, it is very expressive, and it has a tragic touch. Especially I like those moments where you seem to listen, to ask how it will go on, as if you are listening inside, and you're just open to what comes to you  

As to the question "is this a normal classical improvisation?":

I think that you are in some parts of it listening to your inner voice, and in some other parts it seems like "normal classical" because there are classical elements in it that you have heard and learned and you are working and experimenting with them. That is, of course, "normal". Classical improvisers also have riffs, patterns that they use as starting points, elements that others have used and that they use in their own works. Bach did that, Brahms did that too, Dvořák and Beethoven and many others. In my daily work as an accompanist I encountered many works by famous classical composers where they "quote" consciously or subconsciously (that's often difficult to discern) other composers. I can't even count anymore those many many cases where somebody like Dvořák uses the so called Tristan chord in his own work, clearly being fascinated by it, but losing nothing of his own voice by doing so!

I like especially your "oriental" part towards the end, where you are expressing something that comes particularly from your part of the world and you seem like having a musical dialogue with it.  

[ted]

Yes, I agree with Wolfi, you take off into something quite powerful at about 12:00. Pity it didn't go further, as I sense ideas were starting to flow at this point. Liszt ? No, I think this piece has an Eastern pungency which is absent in Liszt. Khachaturian might be a bit closer. But in the end, emulations of famous musicians, clever as they might be, are not what improvisation is about. In the best improvisation we are totally but  unforcedly ourselves. That is what makes it big enough and deep enough to last us a lifetime, and why we never reach the end, because we never cease to surprise and delight ourselves. We can never know ourselves completely.

I also want to hear much more of your improvisation. Especially I want to hear more of Faisal coming out, in both physical playing forms and musical content. But of course I am being impatient. These things grow slowly and organically over decades and cannot be hastened. Always make time for your improvisation, no matter how busy your work and performance schedules. In the distant future it will reward you immensely, as nothing else in music can ever do.  

[lisztarian]

Thank you (Pianowolfi) and (ted), this improvisation was actually a very interesting hint from my professor Stefan Kutrzeba. He is a man of tremendous musical imagination and technical capabilities. He asked me to do this improvisation after three years of working with him. His idea in three simple words is "Idea-Image-Technique"! It is very difficult to write down his words in short sentences, or even PAGES! He has his own website which I believe has the largest amount of musical information written by one person. He always focuses on having a musical idea before doing anything physical, then creating an image of that idea -both musical and philosophical one-, then one should have the proper technique for that certain image created by an idea. He goes back to the school of Th. Leschetizky, which thus means, going back to Liszt himself. If it wasn't for this great man, I would have not continued to play piano or taking seriously -his definition of serious playing is not as most other musical personalities-. Let you guys take a look onto his website and you will absolutely love it.

https://www.pianoeu.com/


I thank you for your kind words. Hopefully there will be many more improvisations to come!