Piano Improvisation: Learn To Improvise On Your Piano By Faking
Do you have a fake book? Just one of those songs could be the source of many meaningful exercises that will help you grow as a musicician and as a pianist.
What is a fake book?
A “fake book” contains songs written in a concise format that includes only the melody and chords, letting you interpret the song’s performance according to your own taste.
The songs in a fake book have a single melody written out in notes with the lyrics written beneath the notes. Above the notes of the melody you’ll find the names of the chords to play.
This format is very compact. You will often see fakebooks containing 500 or more songs. Here are some suggestions on how to use one
...minutes for your hands to get used to because this chord structure really stretches your hands. Here's how it works. The left hand gets the root note, the fifth, and the seventh. The right hand gets to play the third, ...
1. Chords. The suggested chords are often very rudimentary. Most jazz pianists spice up the songs with more elaborate chord progressions. Try to find more chords to use in the song. This exercise will increase your skills in chord theory.
2. Scales. When you have elaborated upon the chord progressions in the song you can choose scales that work with the chords you have chosen. If you find this hard to do you can buy scale books with scale suggestions for different chord progressions. This is an exercise in scale theory.
3. Practising piano chords. Start with the first chord in the song, play it in different positions on your piano and in different combinations.
4.
...at the piano.To deny these impulses is to deny yourself of what is truly rich and necessary for creating a music that is full of both joy and longing. Combine these two and you have the secret duality that is ...
5. Practicing scales on the piano. Begin with the first chord and the scale you have chosen with it and start by playing the scale up and down the keyboard with the right hand and the left hand.
6. Practice piano improvisation with scales. As soon as you master playing the scale up and down the piano it is time to create music with the scale by playing around with it, creating patterns and inventing melodies.
7. Practise piano improvisation. Take a couple of bars and play them over and over again with chord voicings
...to form a musician with unique talent, whose musical "flavorings" helped the Stones stand out from their contemporaries; from the sitar on "Paint It Black to the dulcimer on "Lady Jane".The Rolling Stones were formed in the early 60s when ...
It is also good to practice piano improvisation with your left hand and voicings with your right hand.
There are of course many more things you can do with a song in order to develop your skills in piano improvisation. Help yourself and don’t forget to have fun and to also play the song in its entirety with the melody.
Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free piano sheet music and learn to play piano resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com