This page is in two main parts:
Part 1 — psychological principles for Making Music by letting yourself be creative.
Part 2 — logical principles of Music Theory — for making music by using harmony.
Part 1:
Making Music
by exploring possibilities withMelody, Harmony, and Rhythm
Experiment with Making Music:
just
Relax & Listen, and Learn.
You may feel more free to creatively explore different ways of making your own music if you experiment
in low-risk situations — when nobody (not you or anyone
else) cares about the quality or klunkers — and
listen carefully for feedback, to discover what does and doesn't
work well, to gain valuable experience. Instead of worrying about
the possibility of mistakes, just relax, listen, and learn. Learning
from Experience
Black-and-White Improvising with a Keyboard
You can improvise using a piano or electronic keyboard. No lessons are needed. Just begin pressing keys and making music.
Here are some easy ways to play in 7 keys (5 pentatonics, plus major and minor) with a keyboard:
• Play only the black keys. Look at the visual arrangement of the black keys, and notice the spatial pattern that repeats every 5 notes. These 5 repeating notes form a pentatonic scale that is used in most cultures, all around the
world.
While you're playing with the black keys, experiment with a variety of melodies, rhythms, and moods. First, just play any way you want, listen, and see what happens. Then you can try something different by doing melodic experiments: use
one note as a home-note for your melodic wanderings by starting with it, or using it a little more often in your melodies, or... After
awhile, shift to another home-note. Each home-note is a different pentatonic scale with 5 notes, and you can play with all of the 5 pentatonic scales,
each starting on a different note. You don't need to worry about making
a "melodic mistake" with a pentatonic scale, since everything
you do will sound fairly good, so you can just relax and play with the
notes in
different ways. But while you're experimenting and listening, you'll
find that some sequential combinations are more useful (for purposes of
enjoyment,
personal expression, aesthetic appeal,...) so listen for these combinations,
and have fun exploring the melodic and rhythmic possibilities.
• Or you can play only the white
notes. As with the black keys, for awhile "just play any way you want, listen, and see what happens." Then use "C" as a home-note, and you'll be playing in the key of C Major. Then try "A" as a home-note, and you'll be playing in A Minor. How can you know where "C" and "A" are? Look for C on
the colorized keyboard and then move two
notes leftward, using alphabetical logic, to find B and then A.
Novices and Experts: Both tips, playing black or white, can be useful for novice improvisors. If you're a fairly expert musician you may not get much from playing the white keys, although if you creatively experiment it could be a useful experience. But I think you'll be fascinated by the results of playing only the black keys, because (as explained above) it's impossible to make a mistake so it's easier to do relaxed experimenting, and because the limitations (using only 5 notes instead of the usual 7 or 12) can help you focus on finding melodies that can be produced by using only these 5 notes. Basically, it's "something different" and this can stimulate creativity.
Sing Along and Play Along
• You can sing along* with a
song from radio, CD, or mp3. Sing with different songs for a variety of contextual inspirations, or repeat a
song over
&
over so you can try a variety of different ideas, explore options, observe the results, adjust what you're doing, and discover new musical possibilities. Singing can be a fun way to make music because there is an efficient connection between thinking and doing, with your musical ideas intuitively-and-automatically translated into sound. / * One option is to sing without words, or whistle. For
some reason, I find that when singing “tones
without
words” it's easier to intuitively release fresh ideas, and new musical ideas tend to happen
more often. Why? Maybe it's because nonverbal musical creativity is freed from old ruts
imposed by the restriction of a song's lyrics or your own personal verbal habits, so the intuitive-and-automatic translation (of ideas → music) can operate in less restricted ways? or because your brain
doesn't have to "multitask" by doing both nonverbal and verbal, so you can use more of your mental resources to
focus more completely on making nonverbal music? But no matter WHY it's happening, whenever you notice a situation where something good is happening with your musical creativity (as in my experiences of singing without words) you can take advantage of this opportunity for creativity.
• Or you can play along by using a musical instrument. If you can play an instrument with skill, this will help you improvise skillfully. If you can play several musical instruments, try using each of them and listen to the difference in results. I play several (slide trombone, valve trombone, bamboo flute, keyboard, guitar, percussion, blues harp, plus singing & whistling) and each inspires different types of musical improvisation, due to differences in tone (and thus mood & imagery), speed (valve trombone allows faster playing than slide trombone), flexibility (slide trombone allows “sliding” between notes), muscle memory (this will make some note patterns easy for you to play, but only on a particular instrument), visual thinking (as for keyboard or slide trombone or guitar)*, and other factors. Creatively experiment with different instruments, including your voice, explore the possibilities of each (don't limit yourself to what is possible with other instruments, because each music-making instrument allows & inspires different types of music) and see what happens. / * For my colorized keyboard, Visual Thinking is easier in the key of C. With slide trombone the key of F allows the greatest variety of “long sliding” options, as explained in its visual thinking page. And as one example of "other factors," with a valve trombone (or trumpet) the key of E-flat is very easy to play, much easier than the key of E.
IMAGERY and MYSTERY
IMAGERY
While
you're playing or singing, try different moods, feelings, and images.
For
example, here is musical imagery from the pen of O. Henry: "As
Whistling Dick picked his way where night still lingered among the big,
reeking, musty
warehouses, he gave way to the habit that had won for him his title. Subdued,
yet clear, with each note as true and liquid as a bobolink's, his whistle
tinkled about the dim, cold mountains of brick like drops of rain falling
into a hidden pool. He followed an air, but it swam mistily into a
swirling current of improvisation. You could cull out the trill of
mountain brooks, the staccato of green rushes shivering above the chilly
lagoons, the pipe of sleepy birds."
And you can invent your own imagery. Some of the bamboo flutes I've made play only the 5 pentatonic notes, and while playing one of these flutes I like to imagine sitting at the edge of a small pond filled with floating lotus blossoms in China, watching a beautiful sunset and playing music that fits the mood I'm imagining.
You can use imagery, for the music or the way you're feeling or thinking, when you're playing or listening.
MYSTERY
In
his book, Emotion and Meaning
in Music (1956), Leonard Meyer proposes that when listeners hear music
they intuitively and unconsciously follow the flow of what has been happening in
the music, and they “predict” what will happen in the music. If
there is too much sameness, so listeners can predict everything, they may
become
bored. But they may get frustrated if the music is too difficult
to predict. Usually, the music we enjoy is an in-between mix, with
some confirmation of expectations along with pleasant surprises, in a blend
that is interesting rather than frustrating or boring.
These
ideas are explored more deeply in
a page about Mystery
in Music that asks why we don't necessarily become bored or frustrated: For example, you enjoy hearing some songs over and over, even though (or because?) you
already know what will happen. And you can enjoy listening to innovative
music that is difficult to predict, when it fits together in a creatively logical way (like a clever mystery story)
so you can think back on what you've
heard and say “yes, of course.” Or maybe you think “I'm not sure why, but it worked” to make an entertaining musical experience, with music that was unusually beautiful, or was edgy, zany, energetic, playful,...
In drama & humor, dancing & conversation, and in
other aspects of life, you
can think about the functions of expectations that are partially fulfilled, yet
with some surprises that “make sense” in retrospect, or that simply
add interesting variety.
A Wider Perspective: Imagery and Mystery are only two of the many aspects of Emotion that musicians can use when they "express what they feel, and want you to feel" while they are playing music, whether the music they're making is their current improvisation or is a previous composition of their own or from someone else.
Improvising Music — using Melody, Harmony,
and Rhythm
Melodic Improvisation
The melody of a song is only one of many possible similar melodies.To produce “melodic variations on a basic theme” you can change some of the original notes in the melody, or you can add or eliminate notes. You can make wide leaps from one note to another; or, as explained in Part 2 below, use closely spaced notes in a scale-notes sequence with notes ascending or descending, or (with narrower spacing) a chromatic sequence, or (with wider spacing) a chord-notes sequence that is called an arpegio. You can use these possibilities, and others, in any blending you want.
Try notes in creative new combinations. For example, in Sophisticated Lady (by Duke Ellington) the main theme uses notes that often move in small steps, by contrast with the chorus where notes make big up-and-down leaps, yet the two parts (main theme & chorus) fit together well despite their differences; the entire song uses notes in creative ways to form melodies that are carefully designed to be unusual yet beautiful. {more about Sophisticated Lady}
Harmonic Improvisation
You can try to harmonize with the main melody, with non-melody notes that sound harmonious when played at the same time as the melody notes. For intuitive inspirations about how to do this, listen carefully to a group with good harmony, and then sing along while you listen! And you can more fully develop the mental aspects of harmonizing — which is a mental-and-physical skill with each aspect mutually supporting the other — when you learn more about the musical theory of harmony in Part 2.Or try another type of supporting role by providing a bass line, counter-melody, chord structure, backup rhythm,... { Later in this page, in Part 2 you'll find ideas for harmonizing – simultaneously and/or sequentially – by using chord progressions and music theory and by experimenting with harmony-and-melody. }
Rhythmic Improvisation
Experiment with different rhythms: make some notes shorter or longer — like replacing eighth-notes [evenly spaced, as in a timing of 6-and-6] with dotted-eighths [9-and-3], or with triplets [8-and-4]) to make it "swing" — or play more notes or fewer notes, or “do things” for the on-beats (1 & 3) and off-beats (2 & 4), make the tempo slower or faster or (as in songs by Chopin) variable, or even change the time-structure from 4/4 to 12/8 or 3/4, or...The Process of Improvising Musical
Preparation for Improvising
In the FreeDictionary the first two definitions of improvising are: 1) To invent, compose, or perform with little or no preparation. 2) To play or sing (music) extemporaneously, especially by inventing variations on a melody or creating new melodies in accordance with a set progression of chords.
Definition #1 is sufficient for low-quality unskilled improvisation, and is necessary if you are forced to “do the best you can” to cope with an unexpected situation, although in these situations you typically must do something besides "invent, compose, or perform." High-quality improvisation, in music or in other areas of life, requires long-term preparation to build a solid foundation of skills and experiences, in all of the ways (or at least some of them) described in Part 1, and (if you want to fully develop your physical-and-mental potential) in Part 2 below. When you are well prepared, you will never have to face an unexpected situation "with little or no preparation," at least in the areas for which you have prepared.
Definition #2, by contrast, accurately describes the kind of improvisation that is the focus of this page.
Active Listening as a Preparation for Improvising
This is similar to sing along or play along but you are passive-and-active:
you passively let someone else play a song (on a CD, radio, mp3,... or in a live performance) and you actively listen.
Be alertly aware yet relaxed, fully using your ears and mind so you can be
a good observer, so you can hear more of what's happening in the music.
By listening carefully, you can learn a lot while enjoying the process of
discovery.
At a basic level, you can listen for the rhythm (interacting with melody) that produces the 1-count of each musical measure, and decide if the measures have 4 counts (most common) or 3 counts (as in a waltz). At a level that's a little more advanced, but is easy when you're musically aware, listen for the phrasing that occurs every 2 measures, which is every 8 counts, or 6 counts for a waltz. You'll hear a coherent musical phrase (sort of like a sentence in talking) every 2 measures, plus larger musical units (analogous to paragraphs?) in multiples of 2 measures, so these are every 2 measures, and 4 measures,...
You can listen to the same song
over and over, hearing more and more of what makes the music what it is.
And you can listen to different styles of music, asking “What makes this
type of music sound distinctive?” In each style, try to discover the characteristics — the
combinations of tempo, rhythms, melodies, harmonies, chord progressions, instruments,
playing/singing styles,... — that make the style sound the way it does, so you can imitate it or try to change it with various adjustments of the characteristics.
Your goals, which can change from one listening to another, may be to experience the
overall effect of “the song as a whole,” or to focus on specific
characteristics of the music, as in the analytical approach described above. You can shift your perspective back between levels, by using a whole-part-whole approach. For example, you might try to hear each individual
instrument, and how it relates to other instruments and to the whole, and
what functional role it plays in the musical mix. If you want
to move from “what is” to “what might be,” try to imagine
how some instruments could play their roles differently, and how these changes
would affect the overall musical result.
After you actively listen for awhile, you can play along with
a song so you can “hear your ideas while they're happening” as
described below.
Listening during Interactive Improvising
This
is another level of experience, with an opportunity to make real-time musical
decisions. As described earlier,
it can be useful to "experiment in low-risk situations...
to gain valuable experience." How?
Maybe you can
find a friendly group to play with, and they'll be supportive and will
encourage
you to "relax, listen, and learn."
It's fun to make music together, and your friends can provide stimulation plus
feedback that will help you learn. And if non-players are listening,
they can provide external “audience feedback” from outside the band.
Or
you may find it easier to practice in private by playing along with a CD/mp3 recording,
so you
can eliminate
all of your concerns
about mistakes.
Or combine the best of both, live and private,
by getting a digital file (or tape) of a group you've been playing with, so
you can practice privately between live sessions with the group.
While you're playing along with a live
group or recording, experiment with cooperative interactions. Try playing
various functional roles, and experiment with different ways of deciding
what
to play and when. Be aware of the overall situation (for you and your
fellow musicians) and the musical details of what they have been doing, are
doing, and might
be doing
soon.
Try to play with good taste and rhythmic precision, aim for creativity and
quality, and enjoy whatever happens. If you “play through” perceived
mistakes, by yourself or others, you can develop and sustain a continuity
(for the melody,
rhythm, and harmony) that keeps the music flowing through time.* And you
can learn for the future, making it better by using the "master skill" of learning from experience.
* Ben Sidran describes the musical skill of graceful recovery from perceived mistakes, of responding in a way that is musically productive, that contributes to the enjoyment & artistry of you, your fellow musicians, and those who are listening.
Making Music — Improvisation and Composition
This page begins by recommending that you "experiment in low-risk situations... and listen carefully for feedback, to discover what does and doesn't work well." When you find something that "works well" during a musical improvisation, you may want to preserve the results of your creative discovery in a musical composition. Basically, an improvisation becomes a composition when it is repeated in the same form, so its status changes from temporary to permanent.Because improvisation is on-the-spot composition, in real time while the music is happening, all skilled improvisers are skilled composers. And some composers, continuing the tradition of J.S. Bach, are also skilled real-time improvisers, with an ability to perform well and produce pleasing music when they (and their listeners) do care about the quality of the music.
You can preserve a composition — so it can be duplicated later by yourself or others — by writing it on a sheet of paper or, in modern times, by saving it in the memory of a computer or electronic instrument. Or your improvisation can be recorded on tape or digitally, and then transcribed into a musical composition.
Or you can just remember what you did, and then play it (or something like it) later. With continued repetition you'll develop a collection of musical ideas that you can play, and you like to play, and these will become a part of your musical repertoire.
Playing and Thinking
How should you think (or not think) when you're making music? Above, in Part 1 you've seen a variety of "psychological principles [and practical tips]... for letting yourself be creative," including these:
• To reduce your self-consciousness, so you can feel more free to creatively explore different ways to make music, "experiment
in low-risk situations... and
listen carefully for feedback, ... just relax, listen, and learn."
• Using a piano keyboard, "just begin pressing keys and making music." Or you can limit your options by playing only the black or white keys, which makes it easier for you to play only the scale-notes in a musical key (pentatonic, major, or minor) and by "using one note as a home-note for your melodic wanderings."
• Listen to a song (on radio, CD, mp3,...) and "sing along" with your voice, or "play along" with a musical instrument, with a variety of songs or with the same song repeatedly. Singing lets you take advantage of your body's intuitive-and-automatic translation of ideas into sound. And if you "sing without words" this may loosen some limits on your melodic creativity. But if you play along with a musical instrument, you can use your personal skills in playing the instrument (especially the skills preserved in your muscle memories) and the special features of this instrument.
• Try making music with different moods, feelings, and images.
• Consider the possibilities for meeting the expectations of listeners, or surprising them, in whatever blend you want. This principle is useful in music and in other areas of life.
• Creatively experiment with a song's melody, harmony, and/or rhythm.
• Prepare by building a solid foundation of skills and experience.
• Instead of playing, just listen actively, alertly aware yet relaxed, in a process of
discovery that lets you "hear more of what's happening in the music." Listen to each instrument – asking “what is its function, what does it contribute, and how?” – and for the interactions between musicians.
• Listen actively while you're playing, making real-time decisions. Be aware of what other musicians have done, are
doing, and might
do
soon.
Experiment with different ways of deciding
what
to play and when. Aim for creativity and
quality, in the musical role(s) you choose, and enjoy whatever happens; “play through” perceived
mistakes, by yourself or others, to sustain the continual flow of music.
• If you record your improvising, you can convert improvisations into compositions. Or you can simply remember musical ideas, and practice them until they become part of your musical repertoire.
This section continues in an appendix that looks at principles for productive thinking (or not-thinking) in various contexts, when performing skills that are mental and/or physical, as in musical improvisation: Music and Design.
Part 2:
Improvising Music by Using Harmony
2A: Music Theory — Chords and Chord Progressions
This introduction to “making music with chord progressions” assumes that you know the basics of musical rhythm; usually (but not always) there are 4 rhythmic beats in each bar of music, or 3 beats-per-bar in a waltz. But if you don't the basics of musical harmony (scales & keys) and you're willing to invest a little time to learn, you can study the next section (2B - Music Theory) and then return to here. Or you can simply continue onward, and learn what you can while you're reading each subsection, and that may be enough for you to understand most of the ideas.
Earlier, in Harmonic Improvisation I suggested experimenting by "harmonizing with the main melody... or providing a bass line, counter-melody,..."
Another strategy for harmonizing
is to begin with harmony instead of a melody, and make up
your own melody that “fits” with
the harmony (with the chords in a chord progression), as explained below.
Chord-Notes Sound Good Together — either Simultaneously
or Sequentially
If you simultaneously play the
1st,
3rd, and 5th notes of a C-scale (these notes are C, E, and G), this is a C-Major chord. For
physiological reasons explained in Science
and Music, a combination of chord-notes (such as C-E-G) will sound "harmonious" to most people,
in most cultures — due to the physical interaction of the notes'
overtones and the physiology of human ears — when the notes are played simultaneously to
form a chord. And when chord-notes are played sequentially in
a melody (*) they
sound "melodious" because we can remember the notes that have
been played in a sequence of chord-notes that is called an arpegio. For example, a melodic phrase using an arpegio (using chord notes) is the up-and-down CEGC'GEC sequence that uses only chord-notes, or (to avoid the bugle-like symmetry) some variation such as CEGC'EGC. For variety in their melodies, musicians typically use some chord notes combined with some non-chord notes.
When
a musical improvisation includes non-chord notes (not just the notes of
a major
chord, as with CEG) instead of pleasant consonance we hear some dissonance. A perception of dissonance can occur when the mixed combination (with some chord notes and some non-chord notes) is played simultaneously in a harmony or is played sequentially in a melody. Of
course, an experience of dissonance is in the ear (and mind)
of a listener, who can perceive it as being unpleasant or
pleasant,
to some degree, depending
on the type of non-chord notes and their timings — are all of the notes, chordal and non-chordal, being played simultaneously (this is more likely to produce a feeling of dissonance) or sequentially (more likely to be experienced as interesting variety) — and the person's own musical taste, which is
influenced by personal history, general culture, and current mood. A
personal response to dissonance also depends on duration; temporary
dissonance adds a spicy edge to music, but if harmonic tension continues
for too long it can become unpleasant, even obnoxiously irritating.
In
addition to physical interactions (with some overtones of chord-notes “matching
and blending” physically in a major chord), music involves psychological interactions between music-making
and music-hearing,
between musicians and audience, with a blending of anticipations
and
mysteries in music. If
we played only chord-notes in a sequential melody, after awhile this might
become boring. Or
it might
not, if the notes were sequenced in a very creative way (melodically and rhythmically) or (more commonly) if the chord
shifts occasionally between a C-chord, F-chord, and G-chord, as in a chord progression of 12-Bar
Blues explained below. But when we include some non-chord notes, in a chord
or (especially) in a melody, it adds spice to the music and variety for the
listener.
Creative Melodic Uses of Harmony
During your melodic experiments with harmony, here are some possibilities: "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. He is free to embellish by means of passing and neighbor tones, and he may add extensions to the chords, but at all times a good improviser must follow the changes. ... [However], a jazz musician really has several options: he may reflect the chord progression exactly, he may "skim over" the progression and simply elaborate the background harmony, or he may fashion his own voice-leading which may clash at some points with the chords the rhythm section is playing." {from "Toward a Theory of Pop Harmony" by Peter Winkler in the journal Theory Only 4 (1978), #2 (May-June), pages 3–26} {many of these ideas, and others, are explained in How to Improvise Jazz Melodies by Bob Keller}
Above, I recommend the use of some non-chord tones — which Peter Winkler calls passing tones and neighbor tones in his explanation of how a musician can "select notes from each chord, out of which he fashions a melody" — as part of your freedom to create melodic variety, as one aspect of "creatively experimenting with a song's melody, harmony, and/or rhythm."
In some ways, making your own music is simple because you can "just relax, listen, and learn." But a fascinating complexity is possible if you want to explore the many available options for making music (as in the above description by Peter Winkler, which despite its depth only skims the surface), along with the mental-and-physical interactions between your brain-and-body while you're improvising, as outlined at the end of Part 1 in a brief examination of Thinking and Playing.
Chord Progressions (in 12-Bar Blues and beyond)
Almost all songs use a sequence of chords to form a harmonic structure for producing melodies that (as described above) are a mixture of notes inside the current chord and outside it, with both weaved together in melodically pleasing ways.
A common chord progression (to provide a harmonic
structure) is 12-Bar
Blues. In the key of C, the chords for this 12-bar progression
are "CCCC FFCC GFCC". Usually each bar lasts 4 counts,
so the whole 12-bar chord progression
(CP) is 48 counts. If you want to practice improvising
based on a CP of 12-Bar Blues, use a piano or guitar (played by you or a friend) to record this sequence of chords (in the key of C or another key), repeating it many times; then play this recording and sing along (or play an instrument) to
find out which notes and note-combinations sound good with a particular
chord*, how to make smooth transitions from
one chord to another, and how to make a "turnaround" on the final
two C-chords so the 6 consecutive bars of C-chords are clearly divided
into
2 bars (ending one 12-bar CP) and 4 bars (beginning the next CP of 12 bars).
* While you're experimenting
and listening for what “sounds good” you can begin by trying to play mostly
chord notes (C E G for a C-major chord, F A C for an F-major chord, G
B D for a G-major chord) along with occasional non-chord notes. Later, after you intuitively “get the feel” of how to merge these melodies (focused on chord-notes) with the changing chords, your melodic experiments can explore a wider range of creativity.
A basic blues progression is "CCCC FFCC GFCC" in the key of C. To make analogous chord progressions
for 12-Bar Blues in other keys, just move all of the chords up or down by the same amount.
For example, in the key of D each chord is raised a full tone, so the C-chords, F-chords, and
G-chords (the chords built on the 1st, 4th and 5th scale-notes in the key of C) become
D-chords, G-chords, and A-chords (the corresponding 1st, 4th and 5th chords in the key of D). { On
guitar, a good blues key is E, using the chords E, A, and B7: EEEE AAEE
BAEE. But wind instruments, keys closer to C - of keys with flats, like F - are easier for most musicians, so maybe guitarists can "play in E" but move it up to F (using a capo) so it's good for everyone. }
Other Chord Progressions: There are many variations
on 12-Bar Blues, made by replacing the basic major chords (1, 4 and 5) with
similar functionally related chords (substituting B7 for B, and
so on), and in other ways, using chords other than 1, 4 and 5. Another
simple progression — using only the 1, 4 and 5 chords — is "CFCG
CFGC". In jazz, and in other types of music, skilled musicians typically use chord
progressions that are more complex. You can use chord progressions that you
learn from other musicians or from a songbook. Or just experiment,
listen, and learn, to invent your own progressions.
A Universal Musical Language: You can gather a group of jazz musicians (or pop/rock musicians) from all over the world, say "play 12-Bar Blues in F" and instantly they will be making music together, with skill, because chords (and common chord progressions) are a shared language of music they all understand.
Chord-Notes on a Colorized Keyboard
If you have a keyboard the following visual strategy may be useful:
The color-coded keyboard below shows the chord-notes for C-major (red), F-major (blue), and G-major (green). To improvise, during the C-chord part
of a 12-bar chord progression in the first 4 bars, you could play mainly the red notes (the chord
notes for a C-chord) mixed with occasional other white notes (that
aren't in a C-chord) for variety, and maybe (usually as transitions between
white notes) some black notes. When the chord progression shifts to F-chords
during the 5th and 6th measures, you can shift to “mainly blue notes”
(the chord-notes for an F-chord) plus other notes for variety, and during
the G-chord (in the 9th measure) play “mainly the green notes” that
are in a G-chord. As usual, while you're learning how to improvise,
don't worry about making mistakes. Instead, listen for feedback (so you can evaluate the results to discover
what sounds good to your ears) while you relax and enjoy the process of experimenting,
listening, and learning.
I mark my keyboards with press-on colored dots.
To play in another key (besides C), either ignore the dots or (my preference) use the transposing feature (available on most modern electronic keyboards) to shift every note you play
up or down by the same amount. For example, you can play a melody
in the key of C, and then punch the button for +1 transposing (which shifts all notes up by one semi-tone,
from C to C#) and when you play the same melody (by using the same keys
as before)
you'll
be playing
in the
key of C# with every note automatically increased in pitch by one semitone.
In this way, you can focus your attention on learning how to play well in the key
of C, since you don't have to learn how to cope with C# and its 7 sharps! (which also can be viewed as D-flat with 5 flats) { This Music-by-Color
Improvising System was invented by me in the early-1970s, with
Copyright
©1998 [the first time it was published on the web] by Craig Rusbult,
all rights reserved. }
