Weekly Progress
Before I started this module, I had some limited experience in free improvisation as it is a part of my daily practice routine for piano, and has been for a few years. However I only ever improvised in a classical style, and only by myself apart from a handful of times. Therefore what I hoped to gain through taking this class was to broaden the scope of my playing to incorporate other styles, to learn how to create with other people, and to have fun. Music is an enormous part of my life, but I ultimately would not be doing it if it wasn’t very enjoyable. Improvising on your own and improvising in a group are two entirely different skills because the latter introduces new complications and challenges. For example, you are no longer always in control of the direction of the music, and I would later discover that listening becomes as important as playing. I am a classical composer and as such I already had an ability to create music spontaneously, but improvisation and composition are very different practices. Foss (1962) writes ‘Improvisation is not composition. It relates to composition much in the way a sketch relates to a finished work of art[…] It is a work in progress. And so is improvisation as we practise it; it is a spontaneous[…] and[…] unrepeatable expression’.
In the first week, we played an improvisation game where only two people were allowed to play at a time and when a third person started playing, one had to drop out. I think this game was interesting because it forced the people playing to say something more meaningful with their instrument due to the thinner texture. There were problems with the playing however, one person would keep playing chord progressions which forced everybody to think in a tonal way. This is not necessarily a negative, as tonal music can still be musically interesting, but the problem was that the player would change the progression and nobody else could predict what would happen next. On reflection it seems that when playing in familiar tonal spaces, sudden changes in harmony disrupts the rest of the group because nobody can predict what is going to happen next. In future I think I will try to play less because in this first session I felt I was playing more than anybody else and monopolising the sound. I need to spend more time listening than playing. I think it would be interesting one day for everybody to wear earphones so we cannot hear each other and record the result. This would highlight the necessity of listening to others while playing.
After the first session, one of the other classmates and I decided to meet for an hour every Monday to do some improvisation together so that we could get better at playing in a group. Often we would play the same games or use the same techniques that we had played and used in the previous lesson to reinforce their teachings. On the first of these Monday sessions, one of us was on piano and the other on an electric organ and we swapped halfway through. I think improvisation is about trust and respect between the participants and I was already friends with the other person I was playing with so that led to it being a successful hour in my opinion. The resulting music was quite tonal and calm. I feel like with only two players, a more measured result occurs and perhaps in a larger group its more difficult to manage the balance between players so practising with a small group keeps me focussed.
In the next lesson we were asked to choose two notes and two numbers from one to twelve which corresponded to three-note chords. We were only allowed to play the notes of these two chords for the entire improvisation. It is common wisdom in the arts that limitation breeds creativity so by limiting ourselves to six notes we had to think more about each contribution. There was also a more difficult version we did where the whole group was restricted to only three notes, C, C# and D. In this variant we could only play one note until somebody else plays, and had to play every note as staccato as possible. I also tried to play less of the time to spend more time listening to the others. I played piano for a majority of the session which I was happy with because I am much more confident playing it over the organ. I like having greater control over dynamics. The tutor advised us on how to play without interfering with other players or ‘stealing their thunder’. Improvising for me is about showing individualism while still supporting the other players. We also played a game where everybody had to start together, choose an idea and rigidly stick to it. This taught me that its important to play with conviction and commit fully to whatever you’re playing to ‘legitimise’ my contributions. This week what I found was that the group was able to be more free and there was a lot more energy in the room, mostly because of the drummer who was really into it. In moments when I decided to stop playing, I closed my eyes to fully concentrate on what everyone was doing and I became more aware. I wish the sessions were longer because this week it flew by. Although I am not a spiritual person, it feels quite meditative and I enjoy it.
As the weeks progressed the Monday sessions improved because we grew more synchronised with our musical ideas. Canonne (2013) compares group improvisation to redialling a friend on the phone after the communication has been cut: ‘Now you have two possibilities: either you call back your friend, or you wait for him to call. Of course, your friend has the exact same possibilities. This simple game of coordination has two equilibria: you are making the call and your friend is waiting, or your friend is making the call and you are waiting. But if both of you are calling, or both of you are waiting, the communication will not start again, which neither of you wants’. I think this is an interesting comparison because it highlights the importance of listening while also showing how each individual must make an effort. The resulting pieces were more pleasing to listen to because we had a clear sense of style in the performances. One week we used a lot of fifths in the music which gave it a Renaissance quality. When I was playing accompaniment, I left harmonic space for the melody to add its own inflections and made it so that we didn’t get in each other’s way. This session was a lot more tonal than previous and I found that being able to improvise in a tonal context is helpful in understanding music in an atonal context because you are far more reliant on your ears to guide what you are playing. I was naturally able to bring an idea or piece to an end and was able to indicate this musically for example by slowing down my playing or changing register. One feature of our playing is that once we start playing, there isn’t really any silence which could be something to think about in future.
One week in the lessons we were introduced to the idea of conduction. This was fascinating to me as I did not realise that improvised pieces could have or even need a conductor. We watched and listened to the music of Lawrence ‘Butch’ Morris, and the London Improvisers Orchestra. I also discovered the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra in my own time. What this showed to me is that improvising in a group can be organised much better when one person is removed from playing and forced only to listen to everybody else. The tutor got people to conduct pieces for the class and I noticed that the sound world was much more uniform when it was my turn to conduct. This is not necessarily a positive thing as the chaos that often comes from free group improvisation is a powerful sound. One interesting thing about the conductor in this style of music is that their job is essentially the same as a conductor in a written piece, being mostly for keeping the players in time and begin expressive. All of the music that the players play is still improvised, however the conductor makes everybody’s original ideas link together more fluidly.
At the start of the year I was playing on the grand piano in the lessons, however after the first few weeks I starting playing on the electric organ instead as a new challenge because I had rarely played such instruments. This gave me a much greater variety of sounds I could play with and in my performances throughout the year I would use techniques like moving the volume slider while playing to have the notes swell. I found myself using sounds that were deliberately more electronic to contrast with the piano who was also playing. Unlike the piano, I do not have extended techniques I can use and have to make myself sound interesting just with my playing. One way I like to do this is by rapidly alternating chords while holding the pedal down, creating a wall of sound.
One game that we consistently returned to was one where everybody is either playing short notes, or long held ones; when we hear one person change, everybody changes. This is probably my favourite of the games we were doing and is the one used in my video performance below. What we did in this performance, as with many throughout the year, was begin by following a rule and gradually stop using it and just playing freely. In this regard, the game is used to launch a piece rather than govern exactly how it should be played. I love this aspect of group playing, where everybody loses themselves in the music and listening to the others becomes much easier. In the video you see I spend a lot of time with my hands hovering over keys, but not actually playing. This is because I was being a lot more sparing with my contributions and only played when I felt I had something to say.
In conclusion, This semester has been challenging for me as I initially found it difficult to ‘fit in’ with an ensemble while improvising as a group because I am so used to improvising alone. By the end of the semester, and I hope as the video shows, I have gained much more patience and spend more time just listening rather than always playing. I am also better at picking up on little details people are playing and imitating or complimenting them. I think a big reason why I was able to grow so fast in such a short space of time is by playing every day. I have made a conscious effort to improvise something everyday so that when I return to a group setting my ear naturally tends towards where I think the music should go and my only task becomes translating that into my fingers on the keys. Another reason is by playing improvisation games it makes the music feel more like a continual process rather than a means to achieve a musical output and as such I am able to enjoy the creation of it. I will continue to improvise daily, and will hopefully continue to develop.
Video Performance
Bibliography
BUTCH MORRIS CONDUCTION® (2014) Lawrence “Butch” Morris documentary short about the art of Conduction® Composer, Conductor . Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hL5ChhdtJ8 [Accessed 05/01/2026].
Canonne, C. (2013) Focal Points in Collective Free Improvisation. Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 51, No. 1: 40-55.
Foss, L. (1962) Improvisation versus Composition. The Musical Times, Vol. 103, No. 1436: 684-685.
Heble, A. & Stewart, J. (2023) Jamming the Classroom: Musical Improvisation and Pedagogical Practice. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press: 15-32.
Higgins, L. & Mantie, R. (2013) Improvisation as Ability, Culture, and Experience. Music Educators Journal, Vol. 100, No. 2: 38-44.
Wilson, G. B. & MacDonald, R. A. R. (2012) The sign of silence: Negotiating musical identities in an improvising ensemble. Psychology of Music, Vol. 40, Issue 5: 558–573.
