Piano Forum

When I'm improvising a theme I can only hear/think of left hand if the patterns are simple enough, like arperggios or w/e. But when I try being a little more complicated, "free form" on my left hand my brain just short circuits. Idk a classical example of 'free form' would be the first page of Chopin's nocturne op 62 no. 1, sometimes it's arperggios, sometimes its in strict rhythm or sometimes it's syncopated. I mean how do you get to improvise with a left hand as sexy as that? Better examples are also found in Scriabin's music. You guys know what I'm talking about right?

Now I could settle for "okay I'm just not talented" but even the world class Jaz pianists improvise over a strict left hand pattern, so I'm starting to think...is it really just too much for the brain and it's something left for composition? Or can I actually improve my left hand accompaniment skills?

idk man I'm just rambling but if you guys have any tips i'm all ears

For what it is worth:

My late Piano Teacher, Robert Weaver (Ithaca, UT Austin) taught me 30 years ago that there was no such thing as "Improvisation."  He said that the particular pianist was playing the same scale, broken chord, and arpeggiated passages over and over again. 

However, until the last few years, I was not able to quantify or qualify his teaching. I can delineate this concept now, "IN MY OPINION:"

1)  Before there was Jazz Improvisation, there was the Classical/Romantic Period practice of "Preluding."  That meant that one did, composed "Improvised a Tune," which summarized compositionally what the Audience/Listener was now going to hear.  Parenthetically, amongst Applied Musicologists, this has now become the rage in the UK.

2)  According to Dr. Kenneth Hamilton ("After The Golden Age", Oxford University Press), it was considered extremely rude for a pianist of this time period not to do so.  So, with the exception of Mendelssohn (who literally got physically ill when forced to), everyone complied.

3)  Subsequently, the only way audiences finally wised-up to this supposed genius is when they travelled to the next city on the performer's concert tour and then heard the artist play their so-called improvisation in exactly the same way.

4)  Before that (Robert Levin, Professor Emeritus, Harvard), there was the expressive device now known as "Arpeggiation and Tempo Modification."  In that keyboardists started out on the organ and harpsichord, every student since before the time of Bach was required to change things up by spreading chords and changing tempos

5)  Beethoven and Mozart were renown for taking a hand written melody from an audience member and then performing a short piece on the spot.  Speaking only for Beethoven, he then employed his magnificent skill of utilizing Secondary Dominants, and then went from there.

6)  Finally, the story goes that Bach once travelled a great distance to audition for the Kapellmeister of a Great Cathedral.  Once given a furnished hand written melody, he simply played (of course based on passed performance) a so-called Improvisation using only the Organ Pedals.  Consequently, the only other applicant who showed up for the audition simply got up and left.