Wednesday, November 2, 2011

The Joy of Improvisation!

Wooooo, had a very fun teaching session today! :D

It's the best thing ever teaching someone to improvise because it's like a whole new world's opened up to them that they never thought they could venture into before! I felt the same when I started to improvise and make my own melodies. And even more recently this year when I delved into the wonderful world of jazz music.

Improvising has gotta be the best thing ever about music! It's so much fun I don't even notice how much time has passed and I don't even feel like I'm teaching. It's more like I'm just sharing my music and my student is responding to it by listening and playing it back to me in his or her own way. It's such a fun thing to do. I wish I was taught to improvise from the very beginning instead of having to figure it out blindly on my own for those few years!!!

Again, listening is the core of improvising. It's being still on the inside and focusing your creative vibes to create meaningful melodies on the piano itself (or whatever instrument you play). It's hard when you first start. You don't know what fits where. And sometimes it strikes me by surprise when I play something terribly dissonant even though I had thought of something wonderful in my mind. But the trick is to make the change as quickly as you made the dissonant mistake, by hearing, internally responding, and then producing something more accurate to what you initially created in your mind's ear.

The wonderful culmination of your 'jam sessions' is the moment when you can do all that and make all those internal responses almost immediately and without hesitation or doubt that the next thing you play will sound just like you 'heard' it inside you! That's the best feeling ever because you're then unstoppable. Your creative vibes are limitless. All the wonderful, beautiful things you make up in your mind can then be smoothly translated into audible tones in the atmosphere. It is one of the most exciting and exhilirating things I have felt and will continue to feel if I keep LISTENING ACTIVELY! 

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