Music Improvisation Workshop

The art of improvisation is a field that is continuously being explored in music education. Various improvisational exercises are adopted ranging from structured improvisational exercises to free improvisational exercises as can be seen in books such as "Free to be Musical: Group improvisation in Music" written by Lee Higgens and Patricia Shehan Campbell (2010). While free improvisation develops musical awareness and creativity, this form of improvisation does not necessarily require or develop theoretical musical knowledge.

Contrary to free improvisation, improvisations over melodies that are based on fixed harmonic progressions require the application of musical theoretical knowledge. The lack of such knowledge may lead to what may be referred to as "musical mistakes" i.e. notes that conflict with the underlying harmonic progression. Understanding these mistakes and rectifying them during improvisation practice leads to a better understanding of the musical elements. Indeed according to Ed Sarath, music theory may be learned through improvisation as expressed in his book "Music Theory through Improvisation: A New Approach to musicianship training" (2010).

The purpose of the improvisational work shop is twofold: a) to fill the need of learning more about how to teach improvisation as expressed in a recent survey of music education majors (2015) and b) to demonstrate how non-free improvisation may be applied both in the private teacher studio and the music classroom. The workshop which is intended for either non-improvising instrumentalists or music educators who are interested in teaching improvisation, begins with improvisation exercises within the major and minor scales. These are based on both rhythmic and melodic manipulations as well as transpositions to other keys. This is further extended to improvisations over harmonic progressions. The exercises will then be applied to two melodic pieces: a jazz standard - Blue Bossa, and the classical Minuet in G from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. Exercises are accompanied using the iReal pro application which allows for preparing a harmonic progression performed by a programed rhythm section (piano, bass and drums).

The application of these types of improvisational exercises with the goal of improvising over melodies, together with other types of forms of improvisation such as free improvisation gives a more balanced educational experience. Thus not only do we as music educators give our students a safe haven for free improvisation, but also teach them the traditional concept of music theory thereby giving them the tools to improvise together on given melodies.