Video: My personal thoughts on improvisation in general

[Derek]

I thought there may be some value in attempting to discuss improvisation in general. Hope you enjoy the video!

[goldentone]

I very much enjoyed your video, Derek.  I applaud you for doing this in hope of communicating what is possible to open up the horizons of improvising.  You really do a great job.  I have some developing thoughts in response.  I hope they gel so I can respond soon.  This could be a really interesting thread, especially if those of us who choose to contribute do so with audio or video as well.

[ajspiano]

I should spend more time on the improv board..  interesting things happen here.

in (scattered/indefinite) response.

I think what I'm getting at in my video is that there are fundamental musical elements, such as pitch, rhythm, harmony..  and that improvisation is the exploration of these elements. And that's the how, you change or vary the fundamental elements...  and with every change, you respond to the change with a new change..

I think you can learn to do them all separately.. In the video I talk about varying the element "pitch" in a very simple form. I meant to do it with an entirely fixed rhythm (but failed) - added to that you can practice varying "rhythm" with a fixed "pitch"...  likewise you can explore with a fixed pitch in one place and varying pitch in another place resulting in a variation on "harmony".. then as your confidence builds you bring concepts together..   for a more experienced improviser it seems very simple and thoughtless to vary a whole range of things at once and over multiple lines..  so perhaps that's why we get caught up with examples..  not realising that we probably used 187 different musical concepts all at once..  we perceive them all simultaneously and subconsciously so can't really explain what's happening much better than just saying "like this exact series of notes"

I would add..   just before the 10 minute mark I accidentally demonstrate the idea of pitch variation with a fixed rhythmic motif quite well with something that sounds closer to real music.. when I talk about exploring a motif and turning something that you may find in a written score into your own music.

[quiescen]

Great video! I liked what you had to say about making anything sound musical. It's true.