Creative Practice Reflection SHR3C003R~002 / 25100507

by

Ian Chow 25100507

CREATIVE WORKSHOP: Improvisation

This reflection explores how improvisation has always been my greatest strength, when arranging musical structure within a group setting. In this essay, I’ll be reflecting on our group’s ‘Elements’ composition project. This project allowed our group to experiment with different instrumental sounds before arranging the music in an effective structure for the composition. 

In our creative group session, we have a total of 7 musicians in our group session, coming from different music courses. We’ve had Sonny on lead guitar, Harry on drums, Oli on theremin, Kate and Kaylee on piano, and lastly, I’ll be on an electronic keyboard. Kaylee and Kate feel comfortable with playing piano, and exploring keys and chord progressions to sit perfectly with the music. Oli expressed her passion in trying new and unique musical instruments, and she found theremin. Harry and Sonny came from a pop, jazz, and production course, and I can tell that the chemistry between them is easily well-bonded as they have a great taste of modern-pop music. And I, as an electronic music production student, will be playing electric keyboard, and exploring different selection of sounds to create a distinct texture.

First of all, the theremin is a critical element as it builds a foundation on ambient music, and so I’ve decided to create ambient music along with the acoustic instruments like drums, guitar, bass, and piano. Oli has the ability to look for a setting on a theremin that relates to the “lava” from a volcano, a fiery, aggressive, gritty sound. Oli selected a perfect sound that cooperates with my idea of a gritty sound, and she started off with a low E note on a theremin, which sparks my idea on starting a key of E minor throughout the whole song, as it creates a tense, yet emotional vibe to the music, which I found quite beautiful. 

In the rhythm section, Harry creates an improvised rhythm that’s similar to a song from The Weeknd’s “Pray For Me” (2018). Harry had a great use of rhythmic techniques like syncopation, ghost notes, and funky rhythm that fulfills my idea on the “lava from a volcano” element briefs. From there, is where I began to develop chord structure. I began playing on an electric keyboard with my ideal chord progression for everyone in a group to follow. Em-Dmaj-Am-Cmaj-Dmaj and back to Em. I gave Sonny an opportunity to improvise freely on his lead guitar. As everyone else followed the chord progression I’ve given to them, it’s only then I realized, Kate and Kaylee found it appropriate when given a chord-progression, they are able to follow and keep up with our pace. Kaylee plays the top octave, and Kate plays the low octave note, and they’re both responsible for each role of playing various pitches, scales, inversions, and chords to contribute to the music.

Once everything’s going well together, and decisions of the sound between us has been made, I began to arrange a musical structure by writing down plans. Starting with an underground sounding theremin, followed by drums, then a keyboard, and a jump straight to the chorus section with lead guitar improvising the melody freely, and pianists following chord-progression, but carefully experimenting techniques like trying out various pitches, inversions, pedaling etc. Kate has told me she found improvisation quite challenging, as she never experienced improvising quite often, but she felt better for her when given a chord-progression so that she’s able to work on her technical side instead of her creativity. Others, like Sonny, claim that he felt much freedom to improvised the melody with his lead guitar at the top of the dome to fully express himself that suits the ambient vibe perfectly. 

Improvisation is defined as coming out with ideas in music in real-time, whereby ideas come naturally and decisions are made in split seconds. This is something that feels natural for me, in which I feel that ideas for creativity come easily. As suggested in an article from Berliner (1994), in order for improvisation to be successful, there must be “real-time interaction”, and “methods used such as aural, verbal, visual, and emotions must be carried out”. This is something that is natural for me in terms of how I generate musical ideas, as well as in the group session. With the application of these elements, it is possible for me to create new ideas in music without even realizing it.

The experience I have learned from group improvisation in the ‘elements’ project has not only enhanced my creative practice but also positively impacted other areas of study. My skills in coming up with ideas in music improvisation have positively affected my quick thinking and flexibility when unexpected challenges arise in other group study sessions in class, such as problem-solving (Sunny Choi, 2025). For example, in other classes where group projects and presentations were a requirement, I have been able to feel more confident in contributing ideas on the spot without over-preparing.

Furthermore, the constant requirement of attentively listening and responding to my group members’ ideas during improvisation, has made my aural and communication skills more effective. This has been useful in my group ensemble session, and other subjects in my course. As Biasutti (2017) quoted, “Anticipation contributes to idea generation and to the decision-making process”, one advantage of improvisation is to enhance generating ideas, and then making a decision based on how we approach one’s idea, and arrange them in an orderly structured-manner. This is similar to how we could come up with one’s motifs in a group session, and then use that motif to build a musical structure by following our intuitions, and using emotive communication to freely improvise that particular motif with expression.

In conclusion, improvisation involves nothing pre-planned, and allows ideas to flow automatically. Methods such as aural, visual, communication and gestures are taken as priority when it comes to improvising chords, melodies, and having the confidence to contribute with different ideas in a group setting to deliver great performance in real time, at real space. 

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