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

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)

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.  

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.

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.

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