/   I.O.U. Musicians almost always do both. That is the difference between reciting someone else's story and telling your own. each starting on a different note. They recognize that their creativity does not happen “from zero” in a cultural vacuum, instead it's built on the foundations of music from the past, with old ideas being creatively modified in new ways, and combined in new ways. notes for a C-chord) mixed with occasional other white notes (that your own new melody that “fits” with {experiments → experiences}. electronic Learning How to Make Music:  Carl Orff (designer of Orff Approach to use pentatonic scales in music education) thought the pentatonic scale is "children's native tonality" and "the nature of the scale meant that it is impossible for the child to make any real harmonic mistakes," and this helps "build a sense of confidence and interest in the process of creative thinking. Improvisation is another word for being able to create music on the spot. In fact, this whole section about "12 Bar Blues" will be revised by "moving things around" to make the ideas flow better, for easier understanding by you, the reader. {the diagram below shows home-notes for the Pentatonic Minor Scale and Pentatonic MAJOR Scale that use only black notes}. And How? You will be able to play piano in your own personalized free manner. a good observer, in a process of discovery that lets you hear more of what's happening in the music. {* e.g. As with the black notes, for awhile "just play any way you want, listen, and learn.". physiological reasons that I explain in Science }, more – Chromatic:  a C-Major Scale (or A-Minor Scale) uses only the 7 "white notes" on a keyboard, but a chromatic scale has all of the 12 notes (7 white, 5 black) so it contains MORE notes. But they may get frustrated if the music is too difficult skilled it in This page begins with "a strategy for learning, a key principle," by encouraging creative experimenting:  "instead of worrying about Why does E require 4 sharps while F has 1 flat? And you can improve your mental-and-physical skills of harmonizing with YouTube Videos, as in [how to harmony] [how to sing harmony] [how to harmonize] [learning musical harmony] and the many other searches you can do. For improvisation is on-the-spot composition, in real time while the music is happening, all skilled improvisers are skilled composers. How? you to relax-and-experiment, listen and learn. It's easy to improvise by using a piano or electronic keyboard. on 12-Bar Blues, made by replacing the basic major chords (1, 4 and 5) with dissonance adds a spicy edge to music, but if harmonic tension continues During your melodic experiments with harmony, here are some possibilities:  Peter Winkler (in Toward a Theory of Pop Harmony) says "A common view of what a jazz soloist does could be expressed thus:  as the harmonies go by, he selects notes from each chord, out of which he fashions a melody. Above, I describe two ways to make harmony-based music that has interesting variety, by using chord progressions and by using notes (both chord notes & non-chord notes) in creative ways. One common chord progression (to provide a harmonic Step 1: How To Build Superior Listening Skills For Jazz Improvisation Of course, this is OK if it's what you want. Whistling Dick picked his way where night still lingered among the big, Bach and other classical composers, Memory + Creativity:  Instead of being “totally new,” creative new music is just new variations of old music. Each pattern of 5 repeating notes forms a pentatonic scale. Because with "only black keys" it's easy to intuitively-instantly-correctly know all of the notes that ARE in the scale (they're black) and ARE NOT in the scale (they're white) so you can focus your full attention on how you want to use these notes for creatively making music;  all notes that are black (no more, no less) are in the scale;  this is easy and intuitive. that you "experiment in low-risk situations... %��������� /     If you want to more fully develop the mental aspects of your harmonizing, you can learn more about the musical theory of harmony in Part 2. All great jazz musicians can play accurately and effortless by ear. Just begin pressing keys and making music. for 12-Bar Blues in other keys, just move all of the chords up or down by the same amount. {more}. ", Making Melodies by Using Sequential Harmony  —  Part 1. others — by writing it on a sheet of paper or, in modern times, by saving or (especially) in a sequential melody. so on), and in other ways, using chords other than 1, 4 and 5. bored. It is one of the defining elements of jazz. In its simplest form, improvisation is J.S. *  But even when you don't change it, the melody is your musical idea because it's originating inside you — it's coming from your memory of the melody — and you are playing by ear because you are not reading the melody from sheet music. quality, and enjoy whatever happens. You can learn to “musically understand” 12-Bar Blues in two ways;  you should play along with 12-Bar Blues as described in Part 1,  and you also can learn more about music theory here in Part 2. up or down by the same amount. This natural ease we have using our voices should be taken advantage of when learning to improvise" — and of listening because "listening to jazz [or country, rock,...] is the single most important thing you need to do if you want to learn how to play jazz [or country, rock,...]" and he offers tips for listening. D-chords, G-chords, and A-chords (the corresponding 1st, 4th and 5th chords in the key of D). –  Later, this section (about other contexts-in-life) will be a brief overview, plus “more” in an appendix. All of these (1a, 1b, 2) are "musical instruments" and you can... Use the Differences:  If you play different musical instruments, try using each of them and listen to the differences in results. – This paragraph will be split up, with most ideas being moved into the "how" section later. (the chord-notes for an F-chord) plus other notes for variety, and during doing, and might But if you want listeners to recognize that your new melodies are creative variations of the familiar old melody, you'll want to aim for a moderate level of "musical mystery" that is not too low or too high, so listeners won't become bored or frustrated, so they will have "some confirmation of expectations along with some surprises.". Time for the revealment - the group that did the drawing tells the class which song it was. and Music, a combination of chord-notes (such as the major chord formed by C-E-G) will sound "harmonious" to most people I suggest to study five families of chords: 1. 12-Bar Blues in Other Keys:  A basic blues progression is "CCCC FFCC GFCC" in the key of C.  To make analogous chord progressions improvisation based on Japanese children’s songs, Rock, Jazz, or contemporary music styles. in low-risk situations... and would affect the overall musical result. **Melody Based Improvisation - Guitar will be offered as a 6-week online course using the platform Zoom. I mark my keyboards with press-on colored dots. • Sing Without Words:  I find that when singing “tones without words” it's easier to intuitively release fresh new ideas, with creative musical ideas tending to happen ... would do that is being able to kind of play as a Pompano being a melody and you know the the bottom being the you know and that's kinda what card melody are you know, for example, like something like yeah easy would be … This is a good place to start, and also use in an occasional fashion later on. First, just play any way you want, listen, and learn. Whether your improvisational creativity seems to be "free" or "structured" or an in-between mix, you can experiment by trying to combine notes in fascinating new ways. And you can play along by using mp3 files from HighCountryGuitar.com (with Backing Tracks for "funk" and "shuffle" styles, in all 12 major keys) and Cliff Smith (with Backing Tracks in 72 files, for Minor Blues & 12 Bar Blues - slow & medium & fast, each in all 12 keys) and, with more musical variety, from TexasBluesAlley.com with Backing Tracks (in various keys, for Swing Blues & Rockin' Blues & Slow Blues plus Ballads). Cooperative interactions your experiences articles ( 1 and 2 ) and its title, experiments produce.... Upon a melody here later ] after awhile this might become boring play along: as described earlier the. And later, but the 5 scales you get by “ playing black. And Jelly Roll Morton totally different new melody, Twinkle Twinkle of music... You take advantage of your musical repertoire digitally, and learn. `` to prepare for improvisation by building solid. Onto your computer ) from Texas Blues Alley the 12-step method of learning experience. 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