SURREY MUSIC SCHOOL
  • Home
  • Small group piano age 4+
  • 1:1 Piano age 8+
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Testimonials
  • Our Philosophy
  • Buying an instrument
  • FAQs
  • Small print
    • Privacy Policy & GDPR
    • Terms of business
    • Safeguarding and conduct for online lessons
  • About Us
  • e-book - "learning the piano"

Music: composed and played by your child

Enquire about a space

We all have something to say: Inspiring creativity at the piano through improvisation

8/1/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
How do you feel when you create something? Be it a piece of art, a delicious meal, a website, a product, a piece of music, a blog post(!)…. How does it feel to create that thing?

We are all creative beings and being a creative being is not restricted to ‘creating’ in the way so many of us understand it. We don’t have to create masterpieces of art or music to be creative. We create our own lives by the choices we make, the friends we hang out with, the activities we pursue, the businesses or projects we build.
As well as focusing on creating a life and a business I love I also create art.  For me it feels so liberating to create something that came from inside me, not from anyone else, something that I explored, was curious about, thought about, discussed with myself and simply created. I love to look at it, touch it, share it with others and talk about it.  There’s a tiny place inside me where I feel joy and satisfaction.  Making art has also helped me work through some difficult emotions, more than making music.  Perhaps because I chose art whereas music was chosen for me.

Another creative love is to create music, that is to improvise.  Improvising is not playing music that someone else has written, but something I have created myself that has come from nowhere. I can’t share that so easily with others since it’s gone as soon as it arrived. Unlike art I find it harder to get myself to sit at the piano and create music, however when I do it’s such fun and I can get quite carried away, losing all track of time! This is a state of ‘flow’, which ‘is characterized by complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting loss in one's sense of space and time.’ (Wikipedia - see reference below)
Picture
It is hard for many of us to shift from ‘doing’, with visible measurable results and fitting into today’s culture of ‘busyness’, towards ‘being’ with no visible, measurable outcome and results. The result however is a vitally important internal one of well being and in music lessons can lead to truly musical experiences where both teacher and student lose themselves in the music, communicating only through it without words. Improvising is an opportunity where students can express feelings that they quite likely cannot verbalise.
we all have something to say, let’s make sure the opportunity to say it is given through the gift of improvisation 
Leading piano pedagogues have written about the importance of improvising in piano lessons for The Curious Piano Teachers and I have taken a few quotes to share with you.  See the full Curious post here.  

Picture
Bradley Sowash
Bradley Sowash says improvisation leads to:
  • Appreciating music as a means of self expression rather than only as a domain for right or wrong notes
  • Utilizing the whole brain by improvising on the one hand and in other parts of the lesson reading – so using left and right brain.
  • Becoming better interpreters of written music. That’s because rather than merely reproducing the notes on the page, creative students can better understand how they came to be there in the first place.
Forrest Kinney says:

  • For so many musicians (including me), creating music spontaneously is the most joyous musical act.
  • Creativity is a natural human desire, and many students will quit if they are not encouraged to create something unscripted. Don’t we all wish to be able to speak words freely without relying on a script? In the same way, I believe all musicians secretly wish to have the same kind of ability at their instrument! To improvise is to be able to “speak” music freely without such a musical script.
Picture
Forrest Kinney
  • It is a wonderful way to introduce musical materials such as scales and chords, and teach music theory in a lively way.
  • Improvisation allows us to play spontaneously from our own feelings, to play in an intuitive and personal way whenever we choose. Improvisation encourages us to listen deeply to tones from the beginning, and RESPOND to them. That is the essence of musical artistry: listening and responding.
Picture
Joy Morin
Joy Morin sums it up for me:

Neglecting music improvisation is a bit like being able to write, read aloud, and recite from memory in a language, but not being able to verbally communicate using that language.
Conclusion
So much of what we hear in the world of piano exams, piano competitions and yes, piano lessons, could be more musical. Could the way thorough this be by encouraging more improvisation in our lessons, to allow students the opportunity to connect to music on their own terms, expressing their own feelings and really developing their understanding of what music means to them. Would this lead to more enjoyable musical experiences for students and their families alike, would students be more motivated to play the piano because it’s ok to just sit down and improvise their own piece?

It is a tragedy if the opportunity to deeply enjoy and connect with music is lost through lessons that require students to simply play what others have written – we all have something to say, let’s make sure the opportunity to say it is given in the gift of improvisation.

Visit the improvisation page, play some tracks and experience it for yourself. 

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)
https://www.thecuriouspianoteachers.org/why-should-you-include-improvisation-in-piano-lessons
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Caroline Blount

    Director of Surrey Music School.  

    Archives

    January 2024
    September 2023
    January 2023
    May 2022
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017

    Categories

    All
    Benefits Of Learning Music
    Good Music Teaching
    Improvisation
    Kodaly Approach
    Music Exams
    Music Lessons For Children Guildford
    Music Moves
    Music Moves For Piano
    Online Piano Lessons
    Piano Exams
    Piano Lessons
    Piano Lessons Chertsey
    Piano Practice
    Piano Teaching
    Reading Music
    The Curious Piano Teachers
    Traditional Music Teaching

    RSS Feed

Location:
  • Boxgrove Primary School, Boxgrove Lane, Guildford GU1 2TD
  • Home
  • Small group piano age 4+
  • 1:1 Piano age 8+
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Testimonials
  • Our Philosophy
  • Buying an instrument
  • FAQs
  • Small print
    • Privacy Policy & GDPR
    • Terms of business
    • Safeguarding and conduct for online lessons
  • About Us
  • e-book - "learning the piano"