Music Shows

Have you ever wondered how someone can just sit down at the piano and play? It’s unfathomable to most how it’s done. But to a select few, it’s just a matter of knowing how to improvise freely on the keyboard.

You don’t have to know years of theory or harmony training in order to create your own music. Not if you start your journey out with simple means.

For example, take a look at the lesson “Winter Scene” (available below). Here we have a piano lesson that uses just 2 chords. Yet 2 chords are all that is required to create your own unique music! How is this accomplished? By limiting choice.

You see, when you have too many choices you lose the ability to focus. And focus is important for successful improvisation. I define successful improvisation as a person’s ability to move forward with the music without self-judgement or criticism.

In the lesson “Winter Scene,” the left hand gets 2 easy chords to play while the right focuses on creating an improvised melody from the Dorian scale. With these materials, almost anyone can sit down at the piano or keyboard and begin making music. It doesn’t take a Mozart or Beethoven to do this. On the contrary, it’s usually those with little or no experience at piano that are able to begin improvising freely.

And it’s the students with years of classical training that often have problems. They always want to make piano improvisation more difficult than it has to be. This is because most of these students are trained to believe music is inherently difficult.

To play the piano and to learn the art of improvisation, one must let go of the need to be in control and allow for mistakes. With this attitude and the right instruction, there’s no telling where a student’s imagination might go!