Tips for improvising on the piano
Improvisation can be a great way to make your practice more fun and also enrich your performances. However, I know that playing something unprepared out of the blue is a fear of many. Don’t let that stop you from exploring this other fun way to play the piano. Curious to try it? I have collected a few tips from the greatest piano improvisers to help you get started:
Give yourself time and patience - Improvising on the piano is the kind of skill that at first look, seems to be an innate talent that every pianist should automatically acquire with time. However, just like learning to play a piece, it’s something that takes practice and time to get good at. So don’t feel discouraged if you’re not great at improvising straight off the bat.
Use what you know - How do you overcome the creative block of not knowing where to start improvising? Start by playing around with the pieces you are familiar with. Take a chord progression you like or start improvising based on a theme you enjoy. This way, you’re not facing a total blank on how to get started.
Take it slow - In the same way that you wouldn’t speed through a new piece you’re learning, it’s important to start slow with your improvisation. Listen to what you’re doing and watch out for any mistakes.
Explore one idea at the time - Improvisation has endless possibilities. This doesn’t mean that you should explore all of them at once, that’s only bound to overwhelm you! Pick something to start with, and for a moment focus only on that, leaving other ideas for another time. That can be playing with a chord structure or changing notes in a piece. Just make sure that you don’t fall for the trap of wanting to do everything at once.
Improvise with others - The best thing about knowing how to improvise is to do it with other musicians. Take time to find inspiration, and also motivation, by playing with fellow musicians. They might also have key tips to give you to improve your improvising skills!
Try a bit of everything - The best thing about improvisation is that you can do it with all kinds of music genres. So why limit yourself to just one? Have fun improvising based on your favourite Jazz music or Rock song. Every form of improvisation is valid and is bound to help you improve as a performer and musician.
Keep improvising - Like with anything else in playing an instrument, it’s important to stay motivated and keep practicing regardless of the mistakes you make or the days where you’re finding it particularly hard to progress.
I hope that these tips have encouraged you to give improvising on the piano a try. Even if you don't make it a major part of your playing, it's still fun to explore the different ways you can play the piano. Ultimately, all of this contributes to improving your skills as a musician.
