Wade Cornell
Well-Known Member
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Here’s a simple one minute exercise that shouldn’t be much of a challenge. Improvisation starts with you and many/most of you have an innate ability to improvise. What’s often lacking is a means of transferring that ability to an instrument.
Exercise 1
Sing, hum or whistle “Happy birthday to you” without the words. You don’t have to be pitch perfect, but be aware of whether you hear in your head the correct pitch (even if you can’t match it). It should be obvious that you couldn’t begin to sing this simple tune if you couldn’t conceive of it in your head.
Exercise 2
Pick a random start note (other than the previous one you used/sang) and repeat the tune again. Did you find it difficult to hear the notes after your random start note? If this was easy for you, then congratulations, you can transpose by ear.
Exercise 3
This time repeat the tune at a very slow speed and add notes between that “embellish” and lengthen the tune. You can take this in any direction you like as a mournful tune, ballad, etc. Try to have a feel and story behind the notes. If you found this easy, then congratulations, you can improvise...simple as that! This is a basic “theme and variation” style of improvisation. It’s the first stepping stone towards a world of improvised music. You can make up a myriad of other variations for yourself.
This is NOT the same as jazz theoretical improvisation and is instead more akin to composition. The music comes from you. Those of you who are interested and found this exercise easy may wish to explore how to further engage your improvising potential. More exercises can be posted if enough of you are interested.
Exercise 1
Sing, hum or whistle “Happy birthday to you” without the words. You don’t have to be pitch perfect, but be aware of whether you hear in your head the correct pitch (even if you can’t match it). It should be obvious that you couldn’t begin to sing this simple tune if you couldn’t conceive of it in your head.
Exercise 2
Pick a random start note (other than the previous one you used/sang) and repeat the tune again. Did you find it difficult to hear the notes after your random start note? If this was easy for you, then congratulations, you can transpose by ear.
Exercise 3
This time repeat the tune at a very slow speed and add notes between that “embellish” and lengthen the tune. You can take this in any direction you like as a mournful tune, ballad, etc. Try to have a feel and story behind the notes. If you found this easy, then congratulations, you can improvise...simple as that! This is a basic “theme and variation” style of improvisation. It’s the first stepping stone towards a world of improvised music. You can make up a myriad of other variations for yourself.
This is NOT the same as jazz theoretical improvisation and is instead more akin to composition. The music comes from you. Those of you who are interested and found this exercise easy may wish to explore how to further engage your improvising potential. More exercises can be posted if enough of you are interested.
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