The piano is one of the instruments that have been used in music for a long time. It was preceded by stringed instruments such as the harps and other stringed instruments, which go as far back as the prehistoric times.

Some of the shortcomings of these stringed instruments are what led to the invention of the piano. One of these challenges was that they failed to allow the musician to alter the sound of notes. So the piano gave the player the ability to diversify the kind of sounds produced by changing the amount of force applied when hitting the keys.

a man playing the piano
Image Courtesy of Flickr

In light of the fact that there has always been a desire to modify how sounds are produced and hence more appealing music, piano improvisation comes to fulfill such a need. If you are already wondering what piano improvisation is, the following article by Suzy S. sheds light on this:

How to Improvise on Piano and Keyboard | Exercises for Beginners      

Improvising, in music, is making up your own music on the spot. It is truly “playing with” music, in the more common sense of the word “play.” It’s fun, creative, and, well, playful.

When it comes to piano improvisation, I tend to think of jazz, blues, and rock. But one can definitely improvise in any musical style.

There is a lot you can learn when it comes to how to improvise on piano, and there is even more to explore on an electronic keyboard. For this article, I’ll focus on the latter. With an electronic keyboard, you can use the built-in rhythm and auto-chord features to give you a virtual back-up band, which leaves you free to focus on melody line improvising. Of course, you can improvise on an acoustic piano just as well, and you can improvise melody lines without listening to rhythm and chords. But for beginning pianists or those new to improvising, having the rhythm section and chords playing in the background gives you a starting point and framework. Via Takelessons…

You can use the exercises mentioned above to get started on improvisation whether you are using your electronic keyboard or acoustic piano. With enough practice, you are sure to master the art.

hands playing the piano
Image Courtesy of Public Domain Pictures

You may want to incorporate improvisation to your long term piano playing and you want to go it professionally without any short-cuts. This will mean you work it out slowly until you have it mastered. The following article sheds light on how you can achieve this:

Improvisation Tips for Pianists

In this article we’ll be discussing a few improvisation tips for pianists. These are the kinds of tips that are taught in music schools and practiced by the pros, so the good news is that you’re getting some cold-hard professional-grade knowledge. The challenge is that these improvisation tips are meant for long-term use and study, so they aren’t short-cuts or “magic pills.” Let’s get started!

Improvisation Tips for Pianists: Use Your Metronome on Beats 2 and 4

This tip will be quick because many of you have heard this quite often. But how many of us actually practice by using the metronome to click on beats 2 and 4, as opposed to all 4 beats? How many of us use the metronome regularly at all? Use it! It’s an incredibly valuable tool to acquiring a strong sense of time, which is hugely important to becoming an advanced player. Via Cocktail Piano Lessons…

As the article above explains, you can improvise using different methods and you can choose one which fits you for the long haul or use all of them to enrich your knowledge, tactic and skill.

classic piano
Image Courtesy of Wikimedia

It is possible to get started on improvisation using any song you already know how to play provided you know which cords you are playing. The following article gives an explanation of this using a simple song and how you can practically do it:

How To Improvise On The Piano Using Chords- Part One

Good morning. This is Duane. Today we’re going to take a look at how to improvise using chords. Improvise of course means to make up your own music. A lot of beginners would like to improvise but they just don’t know where to start. I’m going to try to give you just a simple formula for improvising using the chords of the song that you’re playing.

First of all, you need to know what the chords are of course. Let’s say you’re playing “Blue Moon”, the song that goes…It goes like this (singing). You’ve probably heard that. You’ve heard that. The theme of it is just four chords. It’s the C chord, the A minor chord, the D minor chord, and the G 7th chord. The rhythm and the melody go like this. Via Play Piano…

Piano improvisation styles are as many as there are people. More to that there is no limit to how many ways you can improvise a song. You can now get creative and use the tips discussed to get out of the boring routines you may have found yourself in. Now your practice sessions can be full of variety. Unleash your creativity and improvise away!

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Piano Improvisation: One SIMPLE Trick to Sound Top Notch!

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COUNTRY BOY LEAVES THE JUDGES SPEECHLESS WITH IMPROVISED PIANO SOLO

Piano Improvisation 1For 16-year-old Australian farm boy Chooka, playing the piano is something that has always come naturally to him.

“We bought a piano, and I just started tapping on the piano, and that’s how I learned,” he says.

Even though Chooka had a lot of experience playing the piano, he had never performed in front of an audience. So when he took to stage of Australia’s Got Talent to audition for the popular show, he was nervous, but still had a solid plan in mind for his performance.

“I’m quite nervous about what I’m going to do. What I’d like to do is just make it all up on the spot, play what I feel,” he says. Via CountryRebel…

 

Improvised Piano In A Paris Train Station

Piano Improvisation 2Music is one of the few things, like paintings and nature, that people can bond over no matter what language they speak. It doesn’t matter who you are or how you grew up, a beautiful piece of music will sound the same to you as it does to someone on the other side of the world.

That’s what makes this video so special. Here, we see a young man who’s stopped to play the piano while passing through a busy train station in Paris. He’s lost in the music, playing for whoever is willing to listen, when a stranger approaches him and starts playing along. At first, the original player seems hesitant, unsure of his new partner’s skills, but it doesn’t take long for them to find their groove. For anyone who’s curious, the song they are playing is Una Mattina by Ludovico Einaudi. Via Wimp…

 

Watch The Incredible Moment a Tip Worker Performs Beautiful Improvised Piano Rendition

Piano Improvisation 3This is the incredible moment a trip to the tip turns up something unexpected.

As music is heard at a North Tyneside landfill site the camera picks out a orange-clad worker playing an old piano.

Sandwiched between a pile of old fridges and washing machines Glen Akenclose is tinkling the ivories.

And as the it continues the camera moves closer and reveals Glenn sat on top of a old washing machine playing a beautiful piano rendition.

With his work gloves sat atop the piano the 25-year-old turns to the camera and says in a thick Geordie accent, “Telt you I knew how to play.”Via Chronicle Live…

 

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