Improvisation (also known as improvising) is the act of making something up as you go along -- an act with which we all have a little experience. Remember playing House or Doctor as a child, letting the game go wherever your mind would take you? That was improvisation. No rules, no boundaries, just the limitless potential of your imagination.
Similarly, musical improvisation is the act of creating a new version of a song while performing it, a technique found most often in jazz and fusion (but can be traced back to renowned classical improvisers like Handel and Bach). Of course, it's a little more complicated than an imaginative children's game. Though improvisation is a highly creative and flexible technique, it requires great skill on the part of the musician. A musician involved in an improvisation must have a detailed knowledge of chord structure and complicated scales and modes. The musician must also have an intuitive ability to structure a song on the fly; great improvisation thrives on its ability to sound not improvised but rather wholly composed. That illusion, the ability of a song to seem anything but spontaneously made up, is part of improvisation's allure.
There are two basic forms of improvisation: structured improvisation and free improvisation. Structured improvisation, though a contradiction in terms, is the most common of the two. In this form, musicians will use a pre-determined series of chord changes, usually held down by the rhythm section, as the song's base. The lead instruments in the improvisation (also pre-determined) then have the freedom to create new melodies from these pre-determined chords. The flexibility of this improvisation form is dependent on the flexibility of the chord changes, and the musicians involved must be able to play exactly what they hear in their heads, as some complicated changes may not allow for large deviations.
Free improvisation, on the other hand, is far more like a game of House or Doctor -- it has no rules. Instead of focusing on harmony or melody, free improvisation focuses on the feeling and texture of the music and the way the instruments complement each other. This form tends to be far more experimental and rarely adheres to one style or genre or music -- it is, quite simply, what it is. Notable musicians who play have used free improvisation include Lennie Tristano, Ornette Coleman, and John Coltrane, among others.
____________________________
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Piano Player's Toolbox of Cool Techniques
Include short, descriptive, keyword-loaded copy that begins with your domain and includes a call to action or offer that a user will read and want to visit your web site. You may wish to include your phone number. 200 characters or less is the ideal length that ensures your submission will reach the maximum number of sites. Longer text is ok but may cause failed submissions for some sites.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Intervals: The Distance Between Any Two Notes
__Intervals
Intervals are deceptively easy little things. To define them, they sound extremely rudimentary: intervals are simply the distance between two notes or pitches. Play a note on your piano. Now play another one. The distance between those two notes is the interval. Upon closer inspection, however, we see that intervals are far more complex than that. There exist several different types of intervals, all of which can be altered in a number of ways, and understanding the nature of these changes is at the very core of a solid music theory education.
Intervals are defined or named by two characteristics: the interval's number and the interval's quality. The interval's number describes the number of staff positions that sit within the intervals: a second, a third, etc. For example, the interval number for a C and an F would be a fourth because there are four notes between those two (including the C and the F themselves). Likewise, a C and an E would be a third, a C and a D would be a second, and so on.
The interval's quality is a bit more complicated. Interval quality describes the specific type of the intervals in addition to the number; intervals can be perfect, major, minor, augmented, or diminished. But not every interval can be of every quality. While all intervals can be augmented or diminished (by adding or subtracting a half step, respectively), only unisons, fourths, fifths and octaves can be perfect; a perfect fourth is five half steps, a perfect fifth is seven, and a perfect unison is zero (since a unison represents the same two notes). Similarly, only second, third, sixth, and seventh intervals can be major or minor; like augmenting or diminishing, this is achieved by adding or subtracting a half step from the intervals.
But be careful. Since major and minor intervals are created by altering the intervals by a half step, augmenting and diminishing works a little differently here. Instead of simply adding or subtracting a half step, augmented intervals (in this case) are a half step more than the interval's major, and diminished intervals are a half step less than the interval's minor. Let's consider third intervals, for example. Major third intervals are four half steps and minor third intervals are three; in a fourth interval, that half step down that creates the minor would create the diminished. But for these intervals we have to go a half step below that, making a diminished third two half steps (which actually creates major second intervals, but that's a story for another time).
___________________________
Intervals are deceptively easy little things. To define them, they sound extremely rudimentary: intervals are simply the distance between two notes or pitches. Play a note on your piano. Now play another one. The distance between those two notes is the interval. Upon closer inspection, however, we see that intervals are far more complex than that. There exist several different types of intervals, all of which can be altered in a number of ways, and understanding the nature of these changes is at the very core of a solid music theory education.
Intervals are defined or named by two characteristics: the interval's number and the interval's quality. The interval's number describes the number of staff positions that sit within the intervals: a second, a third, etc. For example, the interval number for a C and an F would be a fourth because there are four notes between those two (including the C and the F themselves). Likewise, a C and an E would be a third, a C and a D would be a second, and so on.
The interval's quality is a bit more complicated. Interval quality describes the specific type of the intervals in addition to the number; intervals can be perfect, major, minor, augmented, or diminished. But not every interval can be of every quality. While all intervals can be augmented or diminished (by adding or subtracting a half step, respectively), only unisons, fourths, fifths and octaves can be perfect; a perfect fourth is five half steps, a perfect fifth is seven, and a perfect unison is zero (since a unison represents the same two notes). Similarly, only second, third, sixth, and seventh intervals can be major or minor; like augmenting or diminishing, this is achieved by adding or subtracting a half step from the intervals.
But be careful. Since major and minor intervals are created by altering the intervals by a half step, augmenting and diminishing works a little differently here. Instead of simply adding or subtracting a half step, augmented intervals (in this case) are a half step more than the interval's major, and diminished intervals are a half step less than the interval's minor. Let's consider third intervals, for example. Major third intervals are four half steps and minor third intervals are three; in a fourth interval, that half step down that creates the minor would create the diminished. But for these intervals we have to go a half step below that, making a diminished third two half steps (which actually creates major second intervals, but that's a story for another time).
___________________________
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Did you know our National Anthem was composed by a prisoner of war?
It's true.
Francis Scott Key was a prisoner aboard a British warship when he penned the immortal words of The Star-Spangled Banner. He had gone aboard a British ship to obtain the release of another American, but was detained overnight by the British. At the dawning of the day he was so thrilled to see the Stars & Stripes still flying over Fort McHenry that he wote a poem on the back of an envelope to commemorate the memorable occasion. The poem was later set to the music of a tune probably written by a British composer.
For the full story, please go to Our National Anthem.
Francis Scott Key was a prisoner aboard a British warship when he penned the immortal words of The Star-Spangled Banner. He had gone aboard a British ship to obtain the release of another American, but was detained overnight by the British. At the dawning of the day he was so thrilled to see the Stars & Stripes still flying over Fort McHenry that he wote a poem on the back of an envelope to commemorate the memorable occasion. The poem was later set to the music of a tune probably written by a British composer.
For the full story, please go to Our National Anthem.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Learn To Play The Piano Using Chords
Come on over to http://www.playpiano.com and sign up for our free newsletter on piano chords and chord progressions!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Learn to play Chord Piano with ChordPiano.com
http://www.chordpiano.com learning to play piano doesn't have to take years -- with chords you can actually be playing simple songs in just a few days.
Learn to play Chord Piano with ChordPiano.com
Include short, descriptive, keyword-loaded copy that begins with your domain and includes a call to action or offer that a user will read and want to visit your web site. You may wish to include your phone number. 200 characters or less is the ideal length that ensures your submission will reach the maximum number of sites. Longer text is ok but may cause failed submissions for some sites.
Learn to play Chord Piano with ChordPiano.com
http://www.ChordPiano.com Learning to play piano doesn't have to take years -- with chords you can actually be playing simple songs in just a few days.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
If you aren't already a subscriber
then please subscribe to our FREE
e-mail newsletter on:
Piano Chords & Chord Progressions!
