I searched for this, and no-one has made a topic so I though I might...

How many of you sit down at your piano or pick up your guitar and just improvise? If so, how do you go about it? Do you think about chords progressions and wotnot? With me its just a random burst of notes :shifty:

For some reason, most of my improvisations just turn out to be soft, calming melodies. I have no idea why this is, maybe because its easy and sounds nice :thumb:

When i get a proper mic (i do plan on getting one) I'll try to post some up, until then we can all drool at Kyle :worship:

I'd love to hear it. I always wanted to compose something, but I never really had the time. Maybe you could inspire me.

When I improvise I am thinking of what will come next while playing and thinking when I should repeat a part that I improvised and could remember. When I improvise I take generally 10 mins playing. If I am not deep in it then like 2 mins.

@ruka: i don't have a mic... or a good one at least. the one i have doesn't work.

@nyu: mine usually last about 10 mins too. I find after i improvise, i can play my set pieces much easier... :shifty:

Yeah, It can help as a warm up; if is 10 mins improvising your fingers will be getting warmed for play something else.

Oooh, no fair! I'm jealous! ^^

I wish I could improv, but so far I can't. I dunno why. I've tried but nothing comes out. xD And I don't really know my chords, so I can't really plan it out.

I always improvise on my piano, it's just the funnest thing in the world. I pick random chords that just come to my head, and play notes that I think will fit that chord progression. It's usually either really slow, or pretty energetic rag time-esque improvisations.

I usually improvise on my guitar too, just because I can't bring myself to learn any songs. XD

haha.... improvising is fun!!! ^_^
I like improvising because i dont want to practise ...
But i dont really think mine sounds too good... :heh:

But when you improvise your still pracitsing in a way.... :ninja:

Got a point there

But when you improvise your still pracitsing in a way.... :ninja:


Got a point there

Really?? :unsure:.... but but!
I like improvising more than practising my pieces.

Guess what, you can do both!!! :P

wait wait!!!
So when im improvising im practicing?
ohhhhh! but i dont like practicing!

When you mean practise, your talking about scales and set pieces right? I think that no matter what you do on the piano, pieces, improv, or whatever its all practising. Isn't it? :ninja:

I think that no matter what you do on the piano, pieces, improv, or whatever its all practising. Isn't it? :ninja:
Yes.
>>; I used to play old time style fiddle music for the first year that I've been playing. Now I play Celtic. Switching styles was easy because I had still been practicing, whether it was a different style or not. Point proved.

Anyways, this was severely off-topic. :heh:

Atonal improvising on the marimba is the best! I could do that all day but I think my family would burn all my sticks and the marimba itself...

Yes.
>>; I used to play old time style fiddle music for the first year that I've been playing. Now I play Celtic. Switching styles was easy because I had still been practicing, whether it was a different style or not. Point proved.

Anyways, this was severely off-topic. :heh:

No, that was severly on-topic :heh:


Atonal improvising on the marimba is the best! I could do that all day but I think my family would burn all my sticks and the marimba itself...

Ahahaha :P

When you mean practise, your talking about scales and set pieces right? I think that no matter what you do on the piano, pieces, improv, or whatever its all practising. Isn't it? :ninja:

WOW.... i was practising without realising!
never thought of it that way.... that's pretty AWESOME!!! ^_^


Atonal improvising on the marimba is the best! I could do that all day but I think my family would burn all my sticks and the marimba itself...

XD
Marimbas are cool!

I can hardly practice because I have two birds and they won't shut up >.<

:topic:

Gag them, or put a lot of bird feed in thier dish.

:P

Actually, yes, improvising can be a good way to practice, but only to a certain extent to your skill on your instrument. And, you can't say improvising is practicing when you have to learn compositions for your repitoire (like myself). I actually started improvising when I first got my keyboard a couple of years ago; and I owe it to improvising for how quickly I had gotten acquainted with my instrument and music, in general.

Now, improvising is a complex thing, actually. Sure, you can say all it is is experimenting and fooling around with notes, but--once again--when you get to a certain extent, you really start to think about what you are doing, what you've done, and what you are going to do. I often "think" to myself what chords and melodies I am playing and same with my progressions and all that.. however, this does not mean I often meditate within myself and pull out extremely experimental music.

It's all natural, just go with it. =)

Too true. My piano teacher often improvises and as he plays, he tells me he thinks about whats key his in, what the relative key is. He thinks about chords and stuff as well. And it sounds awesome...

Actually, I can't improvise. When I was playing with the quartet there was a part in a piece where every one was s'posed to improvise... Guess what happened? I got silent, 'cause I couldn't improvise. It has happened before. It's not like I don't want to... I just can't play something if I don't see or hear it. Maybe I should learn that... I can't just go through 13 years of lessons twice without being able to improvise, can I?
And it's not just flute. I can't improvise with piano either. Before when I could use my voice I could with that, but that's it.