This page is in two main parts:
• psychological principles for Making Music by letting yourself be creative
• logical principles of Music Theory — for making music by using harmony
Making Music
by exploring possibilities withMelody, Harmony, and Rhythm
Experiment with Making Music:
just Relax & Listen, and LearnTo creatively explore different ways of making your own music, 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
Three Simple Ways to Begin
• An easy way
to improvise is by playing only the black keys on a piano. These five
notes form a pentatonic scale, which is used in cultures all around the world.
Experiment with a variety of melodies, rhythms, and moods. Try using
one note as a "home note" for your melodic wanderings; after
awhile, shift to another home-note so you can play with all of the five 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 play only the white
notes, using C (or A) as a home-note. { Where are C and
A? Look for C on
the colorized keyboard and then move left two
notes, using alphabetical logic, to find B and then A. }
• You can sing along
* (or play along) with a
CD or iTune, with different songs or by repeating a
song over
&
over so you can try a variety of different ideas and discover what
happens. / * Try
singing without words. For
some reason — because nonverbal musical creativity is freed from old ruts
imposed by the restriction of verbal habits? — I find that when singing "tones
without
words" it's easier to intuitively release fresh ideas — because the brain
doesn't have to "multitask" by doing both nonverbal and verbal, so it can
totally focus on making nonverbal music? — and new things tend to happen
more often. (and whistling is also nonverbal)
Imagery and Mystery
While
you're playing or singing, you can 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."
In
his book, Emotion and Meaning
in Music (1956), Leonard Meyer proposed that when listeners hear music
they intuitively and unconsciously follow the flow of what has been happening in
music, and they "predict" what will happen in 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.
These
ideas are explored more deeply in
a page about Mystery
in Music that asks why we don't necessarily become bored or frustrated: Why
do we enjoy hearing some songs over and over, even though (or because?) we
already know what will happen? And why do we enjoy listening to innovative
music that is difficult to "predict" if (like a good mystery story)
it fits together in a creatively logical way, so we look back on what we
heard and say "yes, of course"?
You
can also think about the functions of expectations that are partially fulfilled — yet
with some surprises that "make sense" in retrospect, or simply
add interesting variety — in drama, humor, and conversation, and in
other aspects of life.
Creatively Improvising with 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,....
Try notes in creative new combinations, and listen for what sounds good. For example, in Sophisticated Lady (by Duke Ellington) the chorus contains a variety of notes that fit together in ways that are unusual yet beautiful. comments
Harmonic Improvisation
Try to harmonize with the main melody. For inspiration about how to do this, listen carefully to a group with good harmony, and then sing along while you listen!Or try another type of supporting role by providing a bass line, counter-melody, chord structure, backup rhythm,... { Later in this page, you'll find ideas for harmonizing by using chord progressions and music theory. }
Rhythmic Improvisation
Experiment with different rhythms: make some notes shorter or longer, play more notes or less, make the tempo slower or faster or variable, change from 4/4 to 3/4 or 12/8, replace eighth-notes (evenly spaced, 6-6) or dotted-eighths (9-3) with triplets (8-4) to make it "swing", or...
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.Due to this time sequence, with improvisation becoming compostion, all skilled composers are skilled improvisers. And some composers, such as J.S. Bach, are also skilled "real time" improvisers, with an ability to perform well and produce pleasing music when 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.
Active Listening
Be passive-and-active:
passively let someone else play a song (on a CD, radio,...) and listen actively.
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.
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, what are the characteristic
combinations of tempo, rhythms, melodies, harmonies, chord progressions, instruments,
playing/singing styles,...?
You might try to experience the
overall effect of "the song as a whole" or you can focus on specific
aspects of the music. 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. Or you can play along with
a song, so you can "hear your ideas while they're happening" as
described below.
Listening while Improvising
This adds another level of experience, with an opportunity for 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. Or you may find it easier to practice in private by playing along with a CD or radio, so you can eliminate all concerns about mistakes. Or you can combine the best of both, live and private, by getting a tape (or digital file) of a group you've been playing with, so you can practice privately between live sessions with the group.While you're playing, 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 and the details of what your fellow musicians have been doing, are doing, and might be doing. Try to play with good taste and rhythmic precision, aim for creativity and quality, and enjoy whatever happens. By "playing 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 play it again, and make it better by using the "master skill" of learning from experience.
Improvising Music by Using Harmony
Music Theory (part 1) — Chord Progressions
Earlier, I suggested experimenting by "harmonizing
with the main melody... or providing a bass line, counter-melody,..."
Another strategy for harmonizing
is to begin with a chord progression instead of a melody, and make up
your own melody that "fits" with
the chords, as explained below.
note: This introduction to "making music with chord progressions" assumes that you know some musical terms: keys and chords, beats and bars. If you don't know about keys and chords now, but are willing to invest a little effort to learn, study the next section (about music theory) and then return to this section.
A common chord progression (harmonic
structure) is 12-Bar
Blues. In the key of C, the chords for the 12 bars
are "CCCC
FFCC GFCC". Usually, each bar (and thus each chord)
lasts 4 counts, so the whole chord progression
(CP) is 48 counts. To learn how to improvise
based on the blues, play these chords on a guitar or keyboard (or have a
musical
friend record the CP for you), then 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 try playing 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. As
explained later in Music Theory, a C-major chord is made by playing the
1st,
3rd, and 5th notes of a C scale, while an F-chord has the 1st, 3rd and 5th
notes of an F-scale, and so on.
Why Chord-Notes Sound Good Together, Simultaneously
or Sequentially
For
reasons explained in Science
and Music, these notes (CEG) 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 they are played sequentially in
a melody they
sound "melodious" because we can remember the notes in a sequence.
When
a musical improvisation includes other notes (not CEG, the notes of a major
chord), especially when they're simultaneous
(in a harmony) but also sequential
(in a melody), we hear some dissonance. This
can
sound unpleasant
or
pleasant,
to some degree, depending
on the type of non-chord note(s) and the aesthetic taste
of a listener, and this taste is influenced by experience, culture, and
individual preference.
In
addition to physical interactions (with some overtones of chord-notes "matching
and blending" in a major chord), music involves psychological interactions
between music-making
and music-hearing,
as discussed above in Interactions with Listeners. If
we played only chord-notes in a sequential melody, after awhile this might
become boring. Or
it might
not, especially
if the chord
shifts occasionally between C, F, and G, as in a chord progression of 12-Bar
Blues. 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.
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 you can 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 CP 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 (about
what you think sounds good) 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 use the "transposing" feature (which is on most 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, punch a button for "+1 transposing" 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 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! (or D-flat and its 5 flats) { This Music-by-Color Improvising System was invented by me in the late-1970s, with Copyright © 1998 [the first time it was published on the web] by Craig Rusbult, all rights reserved. }
To make analogous "12-Bar Blues" chord progressions
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 C, F and
G (the chords built on the 1st, 4th and 5th scale-notes in the key of C) become
D, G and A (the corresponding 1, 4 and 5 chords in the key of D). On
guitar, a good blues key is E, using the chords E, A, and B7: EEEE AAEE
BAEE. }
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), musicians use chord
progressions that are more complex. You can use chord progressions you
learn from other musicians or from a songbook. Or just experiment and
listen, to invent your own progressions.
