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<\/a><\/p>\nChildren with a more of a musical background are naturally more likely to develop deeper musical skills, they are exposed to more frequent music listening, they are more likely to practise better, having a professional supervising you is, of course, a great advantage.<\/p>\n
For all the others – just attending your instrument lessons is simply not enough to understand music.<\/p>\n
If we take a look at the way children learn any language for instance\u2026<\/p>\n
It is through imitation, making mistakes, repeating what they hear, and of course through games and playing with other children. It certainly is not through a factual reasoning, organising verbs, conjugations, adjectives and consciously worrying about structures.<\/p>\n
e could easily call all this a form of learning through improvisation and composing.<\/p>\n
It is the earliest form of trial & error and in the case of young children, it is an adult who provides feedback.<\/p>\n
As we grow older, we learn to provide that feedback for ourselves as we get better in our respective skills.<\/p>\n
One thing that comes with ageing is the sense of more responsibility.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, this can prevent us from being free to make mistakes and experiment openly.<\/p>\n
For example, let\u2019s take an educated adult, 35-year-old, learning a new skill.<\/p>\n
The chances of this individual being free to make 100s of mistakes publicly and openly are small.<\/p>\n
Even though that would be a quicker way to learn – for instance with new languages etc.<\/p>\n
We live in a society that doesn\u2019t embrace failure as a part of success, and where end results count much more than stepping stones necessary to get to our goal.<\/p>\n
In music, this could be detrimental. It is important, if not crucial (!) to experiment.<\/p>\n This is how all the music came to life.<\/p>\n I believe that there are so many reasons why it is important to improvise and compose.<\/p>\n Above all of them, it expands our knowledge, understanding, emotional depth and creativity in music.<\/p>\n It also strengthens our sense of assumption in music flow, our sense of music structures, it awakens an imaginative world inside us. It will also translate to other structures in other forms of art. So many structures in art repeat and reinvent themselves.<\/p>\n Below I would like to share a few ideas on how to start your improvising & composing journey. It would be fantastic if you could try as many different ways as possible – without any music scores!<\/p>\n Imitation: Try imitating a certain style.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say you heard a few Mozart Piano sonatas, and you decide to listen to a specific recording.<\/p>\n You can always go as general as you want: concluding which tonality we are in, what is the time signature of the piece, trying to sing exactly what you hear.<\/p>\n You can also try to hear a few bars, stop the recording and try to continue your own material.<\/p>\n This can be a very small unit – let\u2019s say two bars.<\/p>\n It won\u2019t feel natural immediately and in fact, won\u2019t be beautiful either but very soon it will feel so easy and the quality will develop.<\/p>\n You could try this with any song or piece. Some jazz classics such as \u201cAutumn Leaves<\/a>\u201d could be a great start.<\/p>\n It is a song that we all know, that has a somewhat predictable harmonic progression but is so brilliant that it leaves enough space for everyone to find their own language and expression.<\/p>\n Simply imitate what you hear, and try finding it on the keyboard.<\/p>\n![\"man](\"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/man-performing-on-the-piano.jpg\")
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