Improvisation is a wonderful, creative and fun part of playing music.. but it can be very intimidating and hard to know where to start.
Here is an exercise to get you started. Follow these simple steps and you'll be improvising in no time!
Just to note, this exercise is suitable for early intermediate players and above.
- Choose a mood/feeling. What do you want to express today?
- Choose a key signature (eg. G or D etc.)
- Choose 1 simple chord progression and 1 simple alternative chord progression, stick to 2 or 3 chords, maybe 4. If you were in the Key of C you could, for example, choose C-F-G as your main chord progression and Am-G-F as your second chord progression. You must think about your chosen key signature and time signature when you choose your chord progression. Your key signature will tell you what chords you have to choose from and your time signature will dictate how you structure these chords. If you choose 3/4 time, you might want to choose 3 chords in a line of your progression whereas if you choose 4/4 time, you might want to choose 2 or 4 chords in a line.
- Choose if you will play your chords and block or broken chords
- Think about if you will play your chords as triads, 5ths, octaves, single notes or otherwise. Your time signature will dictate this, depending on whether you've chosen block or broken chords. Playing 5ths, 3rds and octaves (or any two note chord) will fit well into a tune in 4/4 time as two is a multiple of 4, arpeggios will also fit well as they are a 4 note chord. Choosing triads can often work well with songs in 3/4 time as they are a chord of 3 notes. This only counts if you are playing broken chords. If you are playing block chords, this doesn't apply.
- Slowly explore your scale with your right hand (eg. a G scale if you chose the key of G)
- Play random notes in this scale, explore what little melodies you can create- take time with this, don’t rush. Explore harmony, be playful, have fun.
- Find and choose 1 specific short melody from this exploration + repeat.
- Establish your left hand chords and add your them underneath this. This may take some time to combine them and get a feel for the rhythm and beat you're establishing.
- Stay with your first left hand chord progression for a while, keep the left hand constant.
- As you play, what can you change? What can you express? Maybe changing rhythm of the right hand melody? Can you change one note? Maybe you will take away one note? Maybe you will add in one new note? Don’t be afraid to make mistakes here or to make sounds that you do not like. It’s all about giving yourself permission to explore, to find new shapes, to express a feeling through the new notes you find or through playing the same ones over and over again - At this point you could skip to the second last point
- Now maybe take some time to think about the left hand. Would you like to change this? You could change your chord type, maybe changing a 5th to an arpeggio or a triad to a 157. Or you could make things more simple and change to single notes in the left hand.
- Perhaps now is a good time to introduce your new alternative chord progression. It can be very effective to change your chords halfway through a piece of music, it shifts the harmony as well as the feeling of the piece.
- Keep things simple as you make this change, keep your right hand the same or maybe take the right hand our for a while.
- As this new pattern/progression becomes more comfortable, look at your right hand and see if you can change any note or add a new one.
- To finish, maybe you get more dramatic and loud or maybe you get more quiet and simple. You could change to just doing chords in both hands and remove the melody.
- Finally, you could end by slowing down, by finishing what you have to say, staying with simple chords, fading out or ending on a high. Repetition can be good here.
This exercise is just one way of doing things, of course these suggestions are just that - suggestions, and not rules by any means. This exercise can be a good place to start when improvising so you can learn some rules/guidelines before you break them.