What is improvisation?
Improvisation is a way of making up music on the spot using your voice, musical instruments or everyday objects.
Creating or playing music on the spot without a musical score. is important when learning to compose music, as it helps you explore ideas in your own musical Creating or writing a piece of music..
If you have ever made up a story, song or rap then you have already improvised!
How can we improvise?
Musicians can improvise in all kind of ways. The two most common ways are to improvise with:
- A pattern of sounds of different durations.
- Different pitched notes played one after another making a tune.
Watch: Improvisation game
The best way to learn how to improvise is to have a go.
Katie and Mr Brown are exploring ways you can improvise rhythms. See if you can have a go!
Mr Brown: You can improvise both rhythms and melody.
Let's start with rhythm.
The first games is called four beats of fame. We'll start by patting simple four beats on our thighs. Ready? and go.
Patting thighs
In the next four beats, improvise by clapping a rhythm. It can be simple or you can make it more complicated like this.
Katie: Mmhhmm
Mr Brown: Lovely. Now remember those four beats are for you to show off your skills with rhythm. Have a go Katie.
Katie: Okay.
Clapping rhythm
Aww that was fun! So it's all about having the confidence to give it a go.
Mr Brown: Exactly.
You can try playing this game with friends or a family member.
Remember, the important thing is to have the confidence to give it a go!
How can we use melody to improvise?
To improvise a melody (tune), you'll need either a musical instrument that can play different How high or low a musical sound is. . A guitar, keyboard, flute or your own jam jar xylophone will work. Or, you can try using your voice.
Watch: Improvising with instruments
Katie and Mr Brown show us an example using xylophones. They have chosen a selection of notes called the A musical scale with intervals that change between major and minor notes. Used especially in jazz and blues music. to improvise their own melodies.
Mr Brown: In some types of Jazz music, musicians will improvise using the blues scale.
Katie: What's that then?
Mr Brown: That's a collection of six different pitches the musician can chose from. We'll use C, E flat, F, G flat, G and B flat and all the way back up to C.
Katie: Aww even that sounds really cool.
Mr Brown: We'll play a similar game. I'll count us in and we'll take it in turns to improvise using the blues scale. Ready? One, two, three, four.
plays xylophones
Katie: Ahh that was so cool wasn't it? Very groovy.
If you don't have a musical instrument, you can use your voice and body percussion to improvise patterns.
Watch: Using body percussion to improvise
You don't need instruments to be able to improvise. You can use your body and your voice.
Here's YolanDa improvising a short musical composition by using body percussion.
Yolanda: Hi music lovers, Yolanda here.
You know music is all about creating different sounds and more often than not you have different musicians or instruments around to help you make those sounds. But what if you don't have different instruments with you?
I wonder if you could make music just using your body and voice. I think I am going to try and give it a go.
Makes sounds using voice and body
What did you think? I mean not bad considering it was only with my body and my voice.
Why don't you try and give it a go and see what sounds you can create?
Which musical styles use improvisation?
Some musical styles and traditions use improvisation to make up whole pieces of music on the spot!
One of the most famous examples is jazz. Musicians improvise to compose new pieces of music together. These pieces aren't written down and change every time they are performed.
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