Book Recommendation on Improvising

[galante]

I would like to learn to properly improvise on the piano, but I can't find a physical book that will help me improve my skills. I know of Carl Czerny's book "The Art of Improvising" (not full name but not important), but the only translated books in English I can find are online on IMSLP or Scribd. This sucks because I prefer not to have a screen right in front of me to read a book. It hurts my eyes. TBH, I could print it out from a printer, but that's just a waste of paper and ink. So can anyone recommend me a physical book that I can buy on improvisation?

[brogers70]

https://www.amazon.com/Pianists-Guide-Historic-Improvisation/dp/0190920408/ref=asc_df_0190920408?mcid=105d0095b02338faa5feaaea94bde17e&hvocijid=5623964845483134506-0190920408-&hvexpln=73&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=721245378154&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5623964845483134506&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9213575&hvtargid=pla-2281435180258&psc=1

[kosulin]

If you buy a physical book, it is also made of paper and ink, i.e. the same waste.

Mortensen, John. Improvising Fugue. A Method for Keyboard Artists (Oxford, 2023)
Whitmer, Carl. The Art of Improvisation (Forgotten Books, 2013) - the Witmark, 1934 original is available for free online
Neumann, Frederick. Ornamentation and Improvisation in Mozart (Princeton, 1986)

There is also free pdf The Art of Improvisation by Bob Taylor, but it is jazz-oriented.

[pianistavt]

I would like to learn to properly improvise on the piano, but I can't find a physical book that will help me improve my skills. I know of Carl Czerny's book "The Art of Improvising" (not full name but not important), but the only translated books in English I can find are online on IMSLP or Scribd. This sucks because I prefer not to have a screen right in front of me to read a book. It hurts my eyes. TBH, I could print it out from a printer, but that's just a waste of paper and ink. So can anyone recommend me a physical book that I can buy on improvisation?

A few questions:
BTW, I've been improvising since I started learning piano at age 12.

What style do you want to improvise in - classical or jazz?
The foundation of improvising is harmony / theory - - have you studied theory?
Also, do you sit down at the piano and tinker? - - carve out a melody, try to put some chords to it?

Here's an example of how I improvise these days,

[galante]

What style do you want to improvise in—classical or jazz?

I actually would like to improvise in both styles, but because I'm a classically oriented pianist, I want to put all my focus into improvising in the classical style.

The foundation of improvising is harmony/theory. Have you studied theory?

I have a limited knowledge of theory. I would say an early intermediate knowledge of theory, but I believe that I'm kidding myself. Anyway, I don't have any teachers that teach me proper theory. So, sometimes I go to a library and study theory myself. Actually, could you also give some book recommendations on theory too, please?  It really would help a lot. If you're wondering what music grading system I have, it's called AMEB.

Also, do you sit down at the piano and tinker? Carve out a melody; try to put some chords to it?

Sometimes, but not currently, because I am focusing on practicing and getting good at pieces to expand my repertoire. I have done some interesting stuff on piano, I guess.

[dizzyfingers]

Sometimes, but not currently, because I am focusing on practicing and getting good at pieces to expand my repertoire. I have done some interesting stuff on piano, I guess.

I think many would agree with me - and surely you can see this - you're going to learn the most about improvising by doing it.  So carve out some time in your weekly practice schedule to improvise.  I'm guessing a book on improvising might be okay for jazz, or lessons even, but not for classical, which is more Anything Goes.  Really, is it hard to imitate Mozart?

[ted]

Improvisation means many things to many people. Were I young again, silly hypothesis I know at seventy-seven, I would have asked myself questions about its deep personal core before taking much notice of what teachers and other people told me about it. As it was I became sixty before really sorting out my creative direction in regard to it but, as they say, you can't put an old head on young shoulders. When I record and listen to my sounds these days I generally ask myself these questions. Does it move me ? Is it a meaningful reflection of some part of my psyche ? Does it contain intellectual depth ? Is it likely to steer me into new territory, open new gates and paths in my musical landscape ? Is it, at least to my own ears, in some sense of the word, beautiful ? Does it surprise ?

Truthfully, these properties, the ones which really matter to me, have nothing whatever to do with how closely my sounds resemble music of the past, the magisteria of classical and jazz or patterns and processes called theories, which latter through good luck I have managed to avoid all my life. Improvisation, especially in our lucky era of digital home recording, offers truly immense rewards, particularly with increasing age.

Despite appearances there is nothing of the iconoclast in me, but reading the posts so far, the casual reader might suppose spontaneous creation at the instrument can be attained in similar fashion to solving differential equations, and I submit this is a long way from the truth. Improvising with the objective of imitating anybody else, past or present, in whatever idiom, is living someone else's dream, and I for one don't want to do that. 

[lelle]

^I guess it depends if you want to improvise as a completely free vehicle for your inner self, or if you are interested in being able to improvise that emulates established styles such as baroque, classical, romantic. For the latter, there are rules that you can learn to convincingly capture the stylistic elements. For the former, just go nutssss