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Hi I’m Joseph. I just wanted to make that thread to talk to you about my passion. Playing piano and improvising. I play piano since I’m 7 years old. Now many people told me that they have no clue of where to start to improvise with their musical instrument. I always give the same answer. Forget about what you think improvisation is. You see too many musicians think in some way or other that improvisation is filling the most notes in on bar. So the most common consequence is that the improvisation sounds like going up and down the scale. Up and down. You’ll be surprised how that natural reaction is set deep in our subconscious. We got to fight that, ok? How? By understanding that improvisation is first rhythm. Now that is especially true if you want to play jazz or blues music. You gotta have that groove first, gotta have that swing, that rock and roll thing first. Then you add more notes.
So here an exercise I love. It’s to play the chords I want to improvise on and then play the fewer notes I can. Be sure that the note is in the chord at the beginning. If you have a chord change and both of them have a common note (let’s say F and C chords have C in common) then keep that one note until the next chord. Now, we are going to work on the groove. You can play the single note as much as you like but the solo has to be hip. It must swing. In fact you must have fun doing it. Make it the most beautiful possible you can. Playing on one note will give you the time to feel what you are doing, to dance on your music (yes I always dance on my music. If I don’t there’s something wrong). Work to be right on the rhythm. When you feel you get it, add another note. By example, you will play on c and e-flat on the blues chords. Then 3 notes. Then 4 notes.
This technique works on any style. Blues, jazz, trance (there is more and more live and improvisation music in electronic music). It’s just the rhythm style that changes.
If you have any questions, don’t be shy, ok? I’ll be happy to help you. Hey, I’m there for you :0)
Have fun practicing. It’s the only thing that counts (except having fun in a gig).