A quick word before we begin…
This chapter is titled “Improvisation”—and I know that you, as the reader, might be reading through every chapter of the book. You might identify with the “Creative” Core. You might be passionate about improvising or inspired to dive into it for the first time.
But you might also be in the camp who were expecting to skip over this chapter—either because you’ve been disappointed when trying to learn Improvisation in the past, or it doesn’t seem to fit in with your musical life and Big Picture Vision.
If so, thank you for reading at least this much! And please don’t skip on just yet…
In this chapter we’ll be talking a lot about “improvising”, but it’s important to make clear at the outset that improvising is simply the one activity we’ve found most fluid and versatile for developing your musical creativity. In fact, I very nearly named this chapter “Creativity” rather than “Improvisation”!
Whether the activity of “improvising” is part of your own Big Picture Vision or not, we’ve found it is the most effective activity for developing your creativity across your musical life, including Songwriting, Expression, Performance, and more.
And whether or not you currently feel “creative” or aspire to be, we’ve seen again and again that exploring the creative side of music-making has proven, across so many different kinds of musician (including for example, classical musicians focused solely on Performance) to be deeply rewarding, fulfilling, liberating and ultimately indispensable. Once you open the door into creativity, using the approach presented in this chapter, you will never look back.
So if you’re willing to entertain the possibility and explore with me—let’s dive in.
Of all the applied skills of musicality, Improvisation can seem like the most magical.
The incredible, moving, sophisticated and subtle music we are so passionate about—even non-musicians can wrap their minds around how it might be possible to slave away for days, months, or years, to craft that catchy melody, that beautiful harmony, the groove that gets people dancing, and the track that is remembered through generations.
But to conjure something like that up, out of nowhere, in the moment and on-the-fly?
If I was going to let emoji creep into this book, there would be a head-exploding one here!
Throw in the Talent Myth, the idea of a “muse” or “divine inspiration”, and the way people tend to self-categorise as being “a creative person” or not… and it’s easy to see why Improvisation can seem particularly magical and mysterious to the average musician.
Interestingly, unlike some aspects of musicality which are rarely taught in mainstream music education, teaching Improvisation actually is quite common, especially in certain styles such as jazz and blues.
The trouble is that the improv methods usually taught can actually make you feel less creative. These fall into two main categories:
- Rule-based or pattern-based approaches. In these you study a lot of music theory to know what’s “allowed”, and then you choose notes and rhythms according to those rules or patterns. One example would be the ubiquitous rock guitar improv methods which teach the minor pentatonic fretboard pattern and say, basically, “noodle around with that and see what comes out”.
- Vocabulary-based approaches. In these you memorise licks, riffs and runs, perhaps drawn from famous solos from the past, and you reproduce these as your “improvisation”.
If you’ve tried either of these approaches you’ll know: they do sort of work. They enable you to play something that is a little bit improvised in the moment. But you’ve probably also experienced how limiting they are, and how robotic they can leave you feeling.
To put it bluntly: these methods rarely, if ever, deliver the kind of free, creative, instinctive and inspired improvisations that probably drew you to want to improvise in the first place.
The reality is we all have that creative instinct inside. If you don’t think you do right now, no problem. We’ll be unpacking exactly how you can know this for sure, get in touch with that creative instinct, and start to bring your own creative musical ideas out into the world.
We’ll also explore how “creativity is the vehicle, not the destination”. Meaning that improvising, or more generally “being creative” in music, is not just an end goal in itself. It’s also a highly effective tool we can use to help us across a wide range of other music-learning activities.
As mentioned in Chapter 1: Musicality, Improvisation isn’t some far-off, advanced, or mystical ability. It’s something which can (and in our opinion should) You won’t find us using the word “should” very often at Musical U, but improvising stands alongside foundational skills like Singing and Audiation which are so beneficial, we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least strongly encourage you to take advantage of it :) be done from the very outset in learning music, and it’s never too late to start.
If you’ve been reading through the chapters of this book in order and trying the suggested exercises along the way then you’ll have noticed we’ve already snuck in quite a lot of improvising already! Inside Musical U this has proven to be a wonderful way to let musicians slip into Improvisation through the side-door, and many who hadn’t thought they had any real interest in learning to improvise have discovered just how fun, rewarding, and powerful it can be for your musicality and musical fulfilment. Now it’s time to explain our approach fully, and empower you to really focus on developing your creativity consciously and intentionally.
In this chapter you’ll learn the Expansive Creativity approach which we created at Musical U to enable any musician to develop the ability to freely express their own creative musical ideas in any situation.
It is a musician-centered approach, meaning that our creativity isn’t something bolted-on to existing music, following strict rules and conventions. But rather, in the spirit of our Musical Inside And Out Pillar Belief, the goal is to let you create music instinctively inside you, and be empowered to express it outwardly—not just through an instrument, but by Singing, writing, or with any other form of musical expression such as clapping or dancing.
The traditional improv methods referred to above are normally purely Head-based (e.g. letting music theory dictate which notes are “correct”) or Hands-based (e.g. relying on muscle memory to reproduce licks, riffs, or other “vocab”). Like everything we do, Expansive Creativity is based on the H4 Model, meaning it draws on your Head, Hands, Hearing and Heart, forging connections between them, and developing your holistic musicality.
If you’ve been through Part II of this book and started working with the pitch and rhythm building blocks covered there, you’ll find these can be a huge help in constructing your improvisations. Any Ear Training you do will increase the ease with which you can bring your musical ideas out into the world, and Integrated Ear Training is naturally a perfect match for Expansive Creativity as they have the same H4 underpinnings.
If you haven’t read Part II or begun Ear Training though, that needn’t hold you back from diving into this chapter. The approach you’ll learn here is intentionally designed to let you get in touch with and channel your creative instinct, even without having developed your ears yet.
Overview
In this chapter we’ll begin with “The Improviser’s Mindset”: four principles for how you can start thinking about music and creativity, which will help to break down limiting beliefs and set you free, creatively.
Then we’ll introduce the Expansive Creativity framework, designed to enable a limitless expansion of your natural creative instinct, by equipping you with the concepts and techniques which allow the ideal balance between “staying safe” and exploring freely. Its three components (the Play-Listen/Listen-Play loop, Constraints and Dimensions, and Playgrounds) are what will allow you to start improvising creatively right away, in a way that feels personal, instinctive, and satisfying.
We will also cover how to practice improvising using Expansive Creativity, and connect it with all your other activities, in a spirit of “Improvise to Learn”.