The Lost Art of Classical Improvisation

If it was good enough for Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, why isn't it required in the conservatories?

Music is a language. It’s often referred to as a universal language because it can transcend many divides, including age, race, gender, culture and politics.

The purpose of any language is communication. Music is no different except that it is a language to convey personal feelings and emotions instead of intellectual ideas.

Examine the history of classical music and you will find that the composers who made classical music what it is today were all improvisors. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Liszt, Paganini, Ives, and many many others were brilliant improvisers and did it every day. It was their main compositional tool. Cadenzas were originally improvised and many classical music recitals by these great musicians would contain long and elaborate improvisations.

One would think that classical music education would model the process that produced those great artists. Yet it doesn’t at all. Instead classical musicians are taught by rote a rigid, formal structure of reproducing other people’s music exclusively.

The lion’s share of classical musicians never express their own personal truths. It’s as if someone claimed to be fluent at English yet they only performed Shakespeare and other playwrights’ works in the theater and never went out for a coffee and chat with a friend.

What is the point of playing music if we don’t ever express our personal truths? It makes music into a prison instead of a beautiful freedom of self expression and connecting our true spirits with others. If the goal is musicianship is to perform perfectly someone else’s compositions, then please step aside. AI will be able to handle that job soon enough.

Imagine having a conversation with the main goal of getting the technique of tongue and lips right and of avoiding mistakes of grammar, etc, instead of the goal of communicating our ideas. That would lead to a difficult conversational experience.

Improvisation is one of the most important and helpful practices for any musician. Musicianship is first and foremost about expression, and only through the practice of improvisation can we can discover our true artistic voices. Improvisation is the essential practice of true musicians.

When I speak to classical colleagues about this I often hear, “I would like to improvise, but I don’t know anything about jazz. I need to learn all the theory first.” This typical response shows a few things:

First is the idea that improvisation in the classical style is not an option and jazz is the correct vehicle for improvisation. This is ludicrous considering how improvisation was for hundreds of years a primary practice for the greatest classical musicians in history. Second is the idea that we need to know a bunch of music theory before we are allowed to express ourselves. That idea is akin to the idea that kids shouldn’t be allowed to speak until they know all the rules of grammar.

Practicing improvisation brings huge benefits for all musicians. It activates an entirely different region of the brain responsible for creativity. We can still develop our techniques, sound, articulation, etc while improvising in a much more musical context and get much more of a full musical “workout”. Improvisation also dramatically improves our ears, ensemble, memorization and sight reading.

Making the connection from mind to instrument is a critical advance in musicality and gives us the power to begin to do great things. It teaches us natural phrasing, expression, and makes musical ideas the main goal of the musical experience, instead of avoiding mistakes or “getting it right”. This removes fear from the equation and avoids the Split Signals trap.

Warming up with improvisation makes for a much more complete preparation for playing. Most classical musicians warm up with scales, articulations, technique or they warm up their reeds or lips or fingers. Almost never do I hear a classical player warm up their musicianship apart from perhaps playing some upcoming licks or an excerpt from a solo piece or etude.

It’s as if classical musicians only have permission to play musically if the notes are written by someone else. That’s like only speaking things that someone else writes for you and expecting there to be self expression and creativity in your speech.

I love to improvise and I believe it is the most important key to unlocking self expression and creativity for musicians in all styles. I often warm up with improvisation before I play any style of music, and it makes me feel so much more comfortable and connected to the music from the first note of the composed music. It’s quite a simple process, I try to pick a key and a general style and then go from there. I keep things simple at first, sticking to 4 bar phrases, scales, arpeggios and simple rhythm, until I start to feel the spirit of music start to arise in me. As I go perhaps I feel that spirit more and more strongly, and ideas start to come quickly. At that point the music takes over and sometimes I find myself playing things that surprise even me with their creativity, expression, and fluidity. My best playing comes during improvisation.

Starting to improvise is easy. Take the instrument, and play any note. Then see if you want to play another one. Continue and gradually the ideas will start to flow as the creative blockage is opened. Any of the elements of music can be altered or used. Improvisations can be in or out of tempo, with or without other people, or with or without harmonic framework. Improvisations can be based on a melody, they can have a certain emotional idea or picture behind them, or they can have absolutely no conscious idea behind them. The options are unlimited, yet most classical musicians chose none. Mozart and Bach did every day. Be like those guys and you’ll be alright.

Here’s a step-by-step to get started:

1) Choose a key, an easy one like C major.
2) Pick a meter, 4/4, 3/4 etc.
3) Choose a tempo and if you like put on a metronome or even better a drum beat.
4) Start playing, and try to make it sound like regular music. Nothing complicated, just play scales, arpeggios, simple rhythms, 2,4,8 bar phrases, etc.
5) Keep things conservative technically. The goal is to be expressive, not flashy. If you have to think about the technique or don’t feel confident that you can play what you are about to try to play, just pick something easier to play. Keep it to scales and arpeggios, with middle range and dynamics until you feel fully ready to go farther.
6) Avoid self-judging while playing. Instead put your full attention to the music that is trying to come out of you. This is why kids learn so quickly and adult struggle so much with learning things. Kids don’t judge themselves and beat themselves up with every failure, they just keep trying and enjoy the experience of learning.
7) Enjoy the experience, be relaxed, and try to feel the joy of music making growing inside of you. The more pleasure you feel while improvising the better you will learn. Improvisation should be fun!
8) If you find it too difficult to improvise without judgement or technique interfering, then improvise vocally or on another instrument. Vocal improv is a great way to get the technical barriers out of the way when we are trying to discover our inner musical selves.

Farley