Improvisation Techcnique

Something about the ImprovisationTechnique

Improvising on any instrument involves two basic requirements:

The first one is the capability of composing music instantaneously.

Improvisation is a instant composition, so if you want to improvise, you have to learn composition.

This doesn't mean that you have to take a degree in composition. You can learn it by yourself reading Arnold Shomberg several texts on the argument or practical composers books. You have to master theoretical and instrumental harmony. Counterpoint can be studied directly on Bach or other ancient or baroque composers scores.

But most of all, you must make your own experiments.

This does not necessarily implies the use of any musical instrument. You can compose music in your mind or by writing it. Obviously in the first steps of learning you have to take your time: first you learnt walking, and then running.

When you get experienced enough, you can start composing your music in real time. You can imagine it, sing it imaging its harmony (that's my advice), or write it immediately on the score like Mozart did.( given Amadeus notorious facility in composing his music, we can say he improvised also on the score)

Obviously you must compose also on the guitar.

The second one is the ability of transferring immediately any musical idea, don't matter if yours or not, on the instrument.

This implies a deep knowledge of the guitar fingerboard. But you'd go wrong if you thought that this is the practical side of the matter.

Every action, conscious or unconscious, is always determined by your mind. So to put your ideas on the instrument, you need to have a mental representation of what are you going to do. You have to imagine your fingers on the fingerboard, the notes on the score, the sound coming from the guitar, and all the physical sensations involved in the performing process.

The more accurate your mental representation is, the more accurate will be the translation of your musical ideas on the instrument.

Analyze how guitar masters as Sor, Giuliani or Tarrega have composed for the guitar. Look at the details, at the texture of their works. Study the magisterial transcriptions of Andres Segovia.

A lot of persons, even musicians, think that to improvise you just need some tricks, some schemes. They think it is a mere matter of fingers.

Improvising seriously on the guitar doesn't mean just to play a pleasant harmony, a never ending arpeggio, or to move the same position up and down on the guitar fingerboard, in Villa Lobos study n°1 style. It simply means to play in a complete form your musical ideas with your instrument, instantaneously.

Nothing is more true: improvisation is a thing you can't improvise.

These are just a few hints on improvisation. This is a very demanding job, as the study of a classical instrument, and mastering it can value an entire life. If you want to know more about improvisation technique, contact the author. He will be glad to give you more information about it.

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