Does anyone improvise here?

[bravuraoctaves]

I was thinking about starting to practice improvisation on piano.

Whenever I try to improvise,  I end up either:

1) Playing something that closely resembles something I have played before
2) Playing random noise, i.e. incoherent rubbish.

How do you come up with what to play next?

Any tips?

[Brian Healey]

Don't be afraid to repeat yourself. Great improvisors repeat phrases all the time, but they blend them in seamlessly. If you study the improvisations of Charlie Parker and Bud Powell, you will see that they will often play a particular pattern many times throughout a solo. Sometimes you'l find they always play the same thing over a particular part of the tune. The best way to create unique-sounding, creative lines is to develope your physical voice, and let direct you. Sing phrases and play them back to yourself.

If you're talking about classical-style improvisation like that of Bach or Cziffra, then your approach will be little different. Practice improvising very simple melodies over very simple chord progressions. Also practice sort of randominzing your choice of chord progression, just not thinking about it and letting your hands go where they want. Try taking a simple motive or melody and reharmonizing or transposing it in creative ways. You will find that you can get very "out" in terms of harmony, but it will still sound cohesive because there is the motive to latch onto.

The best discoveries I personally made about improvising where through doing it. That is, trial and error in a way.

[Daevren]

People not really familiar with improvising don't understand what it is.

You 'just' play things youy already know, you already played before. Only in a different context, slightly changed, slower, faster, different acticulation, only the first part and then adding something else(in the same way, something you already know played anew).

Sometimes you hear something in your head, then you play it(of course you will need practice to be able to do that). Or sometimes you just follow your fingers instincively.

If you know in what key or with what scale you are playing things become alot easier. You will have only seven notes to choose from. Or start with a pentatonic scale. Almost any combination of notes from that scale will sound good. If you use a diatonic scale some notes should be avoided over some chords, because they will sound dissonant. That is ok, depending on the music style. But if you don't know what you are doing then you won't notice in time the dissonance in order to resolve it correctly.

I don't know anything about classical improvisation. But it is kind of a dead art, a lost skill. When I think of improviation I think of jazz or some indian music style.

[offenbach]

I have done quite a bit of this, but not sure if you are referring to Classical improv or more of a Jazz style. If you are playing pop music with a "fake book", just about all of the score you will be improvising with chords, runs, etc. If you are talking about Classical, you can basically do the same thing by playing the melody notes of the piece within the treble and chording in the bass. Also, many improvise using lots of runs and fill-ins, instead of holding for 1/2 and whole notes.

It's alot fun, and allows one to express themselves slightly more than just "playing what is written". It would be helpful to know what type of music you are interested in playing. I used to improvise much more than I do now. However, I did find that by being able to improvise, my sightreading technique improved greatly for other things.

Please let us know what type of music you are interested in playing.

Offenbach