Most students new to piano playing really want to know what to do with the left hand. They think the left hand holds the secret to great improvisations and music. While it’s true that the left hand has usually been the captain of the piano ship when it comes to setting arrangements, the right can also join in.

Look, the right hand is where most of us create our melodies. It’s considered easier than the workhorse part the left has to do with creating arpeggios, ostinatos and the like. But, we can also use the right hand to create arpeggios and ostinato patterns.

For example, in the Lesson April Rain, the right hand plays closed position seventh chords as arpeggios while the right plays bass notes as melody. This is not a new technique by far but it’s not usually used in New Age piano playing.

And like any other technique, it takes a while before you feel comfortable enough to play a left-hand melody using bass notes. The piano is such a versatile instrument because unlike many other instruments, the notes are all laid out for you. You can switch hands, criss-cross hands, and do many other things with a piano keyboard that you just can’t do with something like a saxophone or even a guitar!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/pianolessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

Improvisation (also known as improvising) is the act of making something up as you go along — an act with which we all have a little experience. Remember playing House or Doctor as a child, letting the game go wherever your mind would take you? That was improvisation. No rules, no boundaries, just the limitless potential of your imagination.

Similarly, musical improvisation is the act of writing (creating it as you play) a song while performing it, a technique found most often in jazz and bluegrass (but can be traced back to renowned classical improvisers like Handel and Bach). Of course, it’s a little more complicated than an imaginative children’s game. Though improvisation is a highly creative and flexible technique, it requires great skill on the part of the musician. A musician involved in an improvisation must have a detailed knowledge of chord structure and complicated scales and modes. The musician must also have an intuitive ability to structure a song on the fly; great improvisation thrives on its ability to sound not improvised but rather wholly composed. That illusion, the ability of a song to seem anything but spontaneously made up, is part of improvisation’s allure.

There are two basic forms of improvisation: structured improvisation and free improvisation. Structured improvisation, though a contradiction in terms, is the most common of the two. In this form, musicians will use a pre-determined series of chord changes, usually held down by the rhythm section, as the song’s base. The lead instrument in the improvisation (sometimes also pre-determined) then have the freedom to create new melodies and harmonies from these pre-determined chords. The flexibility of this improvisation form is dependent on the flexibility of the chord changes, and the musicians involved must be able to play exactly what they hear in their heads, as some complicated changes may not allow for large deviations.

If we were to improvise on a song such as Billy Boy, for example, we would follow the chord progressions of the song, but make up a different melody for it. Some musicians choose to stay fairly close to the melody by using neighboring tones and half-step slides and so on; other musicians feel free to completely abandon the traditional melody and make up a new melody entirely.

In addition to songs, many musicians in the jazz and rhythm & blues tradition improvise endlessly on the 12-bar blues, which has a chord progression using only the I, IV and V chords (also known as the primary chords of a given key) of whatever key the musicians are playing in. For example, if a jazz group was playing in the key of Bb, the improvisations would be based on the I, IV and V chords in the key of Bb: namely Bb, Eb, and F.

Of course musicians also add extra notes to chords such as the 7th — especially in the blues — and sometimes also change the harmony somewhat from time to time. But the recurring theme always reverts to the I – IV – V formula.

Free improvisation, on the other hand, is far more like a game of House or Doctor — it has no rules. Instead of focusing on harmony or melody, free improvisation focuses on the feeling and texture of the music and the way the instruments complement each other. This form tends to be far more experimental and rarely adheres to one style or genre or music — it is, quite simply, what it is.

Duane Shinn is the author of the popular free 101-week online e-mail newsletter titled Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions- Intelligent Piano Lessons For Adults Only! with over 84,400 current subscribers.

A student recently asked me; Why is improvisation so mysterious. My response was that there is nothing mysterious about it at all.

Of course, I’m saying this because I have years of experience under my belt, but truthfully, once you understand that all you need to improvise is chords, the mystery disappears and satisfaction takes it place.

Most of the problems students have with improvising is their fear of trying it. They think they need to know college theory or advanced harmony first in order to begin creating in the moment. Nothing could be further from the truth! In fact, extensive knowledge of harmony and theory can actually create more problems than they solve.

For instance, in one of my piano lessons, Lesson 3: Rainforest, I have two chords down in my left hand. I then use the G Major scale to improvise a melody and that’s that! Nothing hard about it. No mystery here – just fun!

Once you have a definite exercise to play and know what your hands will be doing, it frees you up to create. You no longer have to worry about which chords to play or how to play them. You can focus your attention on the act of improvising melody and experience the joy of improvisation!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/pianolessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

Piano improvising and arranging is an art but definitely not a science. It is all based on chords and chord progressions. There aren’t any steadfast rules for creating an arrangement, nothing to dictate the limitless potential of your imagination. Musicians learn to arrange by simply arranging ? and improvise by improvising — over and over again. It’s a big game of trial and error. But it?s also a scientific method: you keep the experiments that work, and abandon those that don?t work.

That being said, there are a few things that can help you in the knowledge of piano improvization. Don’t think of these as rules, but rather points on a roadmap guiding you through the vast world of arrangement and improvisation possibilities.

- The first step, of course, is to learn as much as you can about chords and how they work. Once you get a handle on piano chords and the chord symbols that represent them such as Fm7, G9, D, C7, etc., you can then learn how to break those chords up in various patterns.

- Learn several different chording patterns, such as open voicing, arpeggios, upward inversions, western bass, Alberti bass, swing bass or boogie bass. This course guides you through these techniques, in addition to others, and teaches you to understand when they’re the most appropriate.

- Learn some right hand fillers, like octaves (and the multitude of harmonic possibilities associated with octaves), tremelos, grace notes, twangs, runs, and turnarounds. Again, this course teaches you these fills and several others.

- Study pre-arranged sheet music. Your local music shop will have tons of music books containing several arrangements; read and play through these in detail. Seeing what other people have done with various pieces of music will help you understand the art of arrangement and also introduce you to new techniques!

- Dig into different musical styles, like ragtime, blues or country-western. Pick up some compilation CDs focusing on a particular style of music or purchase some piano sheet music specializing in the style. Understanding the fundamental elements of various styles will help you learn to arrange any song in that particular style — or just add a few stylized elements to any arrangement.

- Jump online and type in ?chord piano? or ?piano chords? into your search browser, and you will come up with a zillion choices where you can learn all you need to know about chords in a reasonably short time. It?s not rocket science, and once you learn a few piano chords, you probably will become addicted to chords and their application to your piano playing.

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and products such as DVD’s, CD’s, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. He holds advanced degrees from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He can be reached at http://www.chordpiano.com. He is the author of the popular free 101-week e-mail newsletter titled Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Piano Chord Progressions with over 56,650 current subscribers. Those interested may obtain a free subscription by going to http://www.playpiano.com.

How do you begin a piece of music? That’s a question I’m often asked. The answer I usually give is that you begin as soon as you start playing – that is, if you’re trying to compose something, the piece begins the moment it has energy and is something you want to capture. If it’s an improvisation, the piece begins the moment you set your fingers on the keys and hit the first note. It’s like free flow writing and writing a chapter to a novel.

The writer can both improvise and enjoy the process or can structure the ideas more – or, as I like to do, combine both procedures into one. I start out by improvising – always. Then, if I want to memorialize a musical idea, I write down the first two bars of melody along with the chord(s) I’m playing. I throw this on a chart and voila – the idea remains fresh until I want to either expand on it, or ignore it completely.

If the idea is a rhythm pattern I write down (Left hand = whatever the pattern is) so I can remember it later. I never stop improvising though because that would stop the flow and who knows what could come out of it. Don’t forget that an improvisation is a piece of music in and of itself. There is really no need to impose structure on something as beautiful and organic as spontaneous expression. In fact, these spur of the moment fantasies are often more inspiring than any contrived composition. There is something more alive to them because there IS more life to them.

Endings pose another problem, namely the problem of when to stop playing. For improvisation, the answer is when energy (inspiration) starts to wane down. That’s a good time to bring your music to an end. You’ll know when this is happening when you become bored. That’s the sign it’s time to stop.

Composition is a different story. The form of the piece already dictates when you should stop. For example, an ABA form tells you to play the A section once or twice, go to B, back to A then bring the piece to an end. Of course the amount of repetition and contrast is a personal decision but the form establishes both beginning and ending. It’s a nice safe way to say that yes, I have a piece of music here. Now, improvisations can have form as well. The big difference is that you don’t consciously think about putting the music into a predefined shape.

But for some unknown reason, most improvisations do have symmetry – that is they take on a form of their own. I don’t know if this is because of human beings innate rhythm (heartbeat) or what.

Even Zen flute music, which may be the most freely inspired improvisation style around has some structure. You can hear it in the phrases. Beginnings and endings. Don’t worry too much about them. What’s important is where you are emotionally while you play. Become aware of that and all your problems are solved.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/pianolessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

What a great instrument the piano is – white keys, black keys, and 88 tones make it incredibly versatile!

Most students take it upon themselves to try and master this instrument. They begin to learn note reading and go through a series of books before they are ready to play the music of the masters.

If only they realized that a world of free improvisation was waiting for them on the black keys, they too could experience the joy of improvisation right away. They might even forget about note-reading for a while and actually enjoy themselves as actual music was being made.

For example, take the lesson Oriental Sunrise. This is a black key improvisation based on the E flat minor pentatonic scale. Now, when most people hear the term black key improvisation they think of children banging on the piano creating some kind of noise. And while this has its place, the adult can create quite a beautiful sound by using only the black keys.

The secret is in how the keys are played. Anyone can go to the piano, sit down and play. The keys are there and are readily accessible. However, one person may just plunk around while another is able to create music. It’s all about sensitivity! The sensitive musician is able to create music using only a few notes. The non-musician can not. They have to learn to get in touch with themselves first.

If you can go to the piano, play a black key improvisation, and make it sound like music, you are way, way ahead of the game! You understand that it’s not how many notes or chords you know, it’s how they are played that makes the difference!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/pianolessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

Do you remember finger-painting as a child? How fun it was. How exciting to be able to dip your fingers into a color that called out to you and put it on paper. The excitement of it all came from the feeling that you were an explorer, looking into uncharted territories of your own creative source.

Now music can be that way too! All that is necessary is to understand that you don’t need any special talent or ability to create music with. Two chords are enough to begin experiencing the joy of spontaneous expression. In the lesson Oriental Sunrise we have 2 chords to play around with. And two chords are more than enough to create with

The problem that most adults have is the ability to relinquish control. They want to be able to make decisions and direct the music to where they want it to go. And of course, they lose the ability to create. Why? Because they believe they must make decisions as to what notes to play, what chords, how fast, etc. It can be very threatening for some to allow for mistakes.

Many adults feel that they must be perfect. But it is this perfectionism that destroys the spirit and stops any creative impetus dead in its tracks. The solution to all of this is to remember the finger-painting child within each of us. Each of us knows intuitively what colors call to us the most. The key is to be able to trust that intuition, and let it guide you!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/pianolessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

I’m not going to kid you; playing Jazz Guitar is extremely difficult at best and almost downright impossible at worst. However there are things you can do to improve your improvisation skills and feeling and we’ll discuss them throughout this multi part series so look for additional parts in the near future.

Practice

What can I say about practice? Just do it and do it often! Do it everyday. When you think you have done enough do it again.

I am not just talking about picking up the guitar and playing a few songs I am talking about real practicing for the environment that you will eventually be playing in which is, of course, in an ensemble with other musicians who we hope will always be better than you.

Here are the basics…

When practicing always use a metronome!

If I didn’t make that part clear perhaps this may help: ALWAYS USE A METRONOME!

If you feel that you don’t need a metronome stop reading this article, stop practicing and go get some ice cream because you will get the same or even better results and you certainly will enjoy yourself a whole lot more in the process if you do. If you are committed read on.

Still with me?

When using your metronome try to feel your timing on different clicks. For instance for a swing feel have your metronome click on beats 2 and 4 rather than 1 and 3. This will give you an instant swing feel and also take away that nasty crutch so you are forced to know where beat 1 really is.

We never, ever, want to rely on our drummer, who may be in the middle of a complex experimental improvisation just when you need him/her the most, to tell us where beat 1 is. How many times have you been in that situation?

Sound simple? It is!

Sound easy? Try it for a month and you let me know how it goes.

Let’s delve into this a little. When practicing using this technique of displacing metronome clicks for beats try these: practice a 3/4 tune using the metronome clicking once per measure and only on beat 2. Then switch to only on beats 3. See how the feeling changes. Practice it, learn it, feel it and then you can start to own it.

If you want to get fancy place the metronome to click every fifth beat while you play a tune in 3. This will shift the accents and feeling from bar to bar and will also allow your brain to break free from it’s learned behavior which is designed to make you not want to think.

What did you say?

That’s right! More times than not the human brain is your biggest enemy. It always seeks comfort and practicing in the fashion described above is not at all comfortable for your brain. In these cases I recommend telling your brain what my son often likes to say, To bad…, so sad!

We as musicians need to experience and comprehend the natural tendencies of the brain’s normal behavior so we can learn to truly challenge ourselves to open up our minds to the gargantuan creative possibilities that await us when we do. This doesn’t happen by accident nor does it happen by itself nor will it come easy. It takes an extreme effort on our parts.

Whether you have your instrument with you or not you can practice your timing. If you get a small battery operated metronome, which I recommend, you can bring it with you when you are driving back and forth to work. Practice the above examples in your car while singing. Don’t worry if you can’t sing you are trying to own these feelings and if you can’t articulate these feelings with your voice you will never truly own them.

I have outlined several examples for displacement of beats. The idea is simple enough so that you can come up with more deviations on your own and you should keep changing them when you practice.

The point here is that true understanding and your eventual ownership of various beats and feelings associated with them do not reside strictly inside those beats and feelings. By looking only inside the beats you are shutting off all creative thinking that is necessary to truly exploit their full potential.

Real understanding resides outside and you must find out what that means. To truly find it you must force yourself and be willing to look everywhere else but the beats themselves. This simple metronome technique will get you started and point you on your journey to achieving that goal. Don’t limit yourself to applying this technique only to timing but that statement is for another part of this series.

Have fun, practice and always play your heart out!

John Belthoff is a Professional Audio Engineer and an Avid Web Developer who plays and also teaches Jazz Guitar in his spare time. His latest projects include the Internet Production Guide and he owns a small Asp Hosting Company. You can contact him at his personal web site Studio JB.

We all want to be in the moment. That’s where real transformation takes place. For some, walking gets them there. Others like to play sports or watch movies. For me, it’s playing the piano. When I’m in the moment, letting the music speak, it’s like the world is new again.

The notes flow out of the piano into the air and I know that something magical is taking place. It may last a minute or a half-hour. No matter how long it lasts, I know that I’ve been transported to a special place. Many musicians know of this place – especially musicians who know how to improvise. There is no planning – only spontaneous invention.

Zen music in particular has an ethereal quality that seems to grow organically. It starts and ends yet there seems to be no starting or ending point. The music just is – like a living being it just is there. It’s like a fine perfume in the sense that it lingers in the air but does not overwhelm or grow tiresome.

Any instrument can be used to create this kind of music but certain instruments lend themselves more readily to it. Flutes, the harp, the piano, the Japanese Koto – these instruments are often used to create atmospheres that linger delightfully but really do not want to go anywhere. Here in the West, we are used to a music that must pursue an ending course. We must have a climax or a big finish or we are not satisfied. Like a fireworks show, it begins and ends with a bang.

There can be a struggle between creating a music that comes from spirit or making music that pleases the crowd. We can be torn between pleasing the ego or pleasing ourselves. To play piano in the new age style is to understand a music that isn’t planned but allowed to become. Once this concept is understood, the music will flow.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/pianolessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

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