Piano Improvisation Lessons - 3 Methods to Master the Techniques of Improvisation
Saturday, January 9th, 2010In this article we will look at piano improvisation lessons and 3 steps you can take to master some basic improvisation techniques. It doesn’t really matter what kind of piano lessons you take or even how often. What is important is what you do during your practice. The three steps below will help you implement the improvisation skills you are learning
1. Practice: It is a given that in order to improve on anything, you need to practice. And yet a lot people think that they can master something without doing the necessary work. Learning to improvise is no different than learning to read or to play a piece of music perfectly. Without plenty of practice, improving is simply not going to happen.
What’s amazing about practice though, usually improvement is like magic. One day something impossible suddenly becomes something that you can do. You don’t notice the subtle shift as long as you are making an effort at consistency in your practice.
2. Small Sections: Breaking things up into smaller bite size pieces can really help a lot. Your brain can process small amounts much easier, so working on little sections at a time will make it easier for your brain and fingers to grasp something.
When you want to learn how to improvise, using this same theory will work best for you. Choose a type of improvisation and master that skill before moving on to a different kind of improvisation. Before you know it you will know multiple ways of improvising and you’ll always have something you can play at the piano.
3. Repetition: Repetition is one of the best ways to learn something quickly. This will naturally get a skill embedded into your memory and your fingers so that pretty soon you’ll be able to do something without even thinking.
Your goal should be having the piece you’re playing be as natural as breathing to your fingers. If you repeat something enough times, pretty soon you should be able to play it in your sleep; that is when you know it is time to move on to the next section.
This article discussed piano improvisation lessons and how to master the techniques using these 3 methods. Practice makes perfect, breaking things into smaller sections and repeating, repeating, repeating. If you focus on these three methods you will be improvising pieces of music in no time at all.
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