Music Sound

Musical improvisation is singing or playing a musical instrument extemporaneously—in an "offhand" manner. This contrasts with the more conventional approach to performing musical works, which involves playing music that is read from notation, or that has been previously memorized.

Improvisation has been an integral part of music since the beginning of music. It is featured in many kinds of traditional musics, including flamenco and pygmy music and other African musics; classical musics such as European and Indian classical music; popular musics including rap music; and throughout regions such as Arabia.

Improvisation can be structured, with certain rules constraining the improvisation (for example, "make up a song about bicycles", "use these chord changes", and so on), or can have no such constraints. The improvisation of ornaments is found in some musical traditions.

Contents 1 Classical musics 1.1 European classical music 1.2 Contemporary composition and the improviser 2 Popular music 2.1 Jazz improvisation 3 Music therapy 4 References 5 External links

Classical musics

European classical music

Original score notations for medieval organ music commonly include instructions for improvisation and embellishments. The scales that were used were selected according to the same improvisational principles now used in jazz. When the single voice plainsong started to develop into the 2-, 3-, or 4-part organum (during the period 1000-1300 A.D.), one or more of the parts were also commonly improvised, weaving free counter-lines around the written melody line.

During the Baroque (1600 - 1750), Classical (1750 - 1830), and Romantic (1830 - 1900) periods, improvisation flourished, especially on the organ, piano, and harpsichord. J.S. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, and many other famous composers and virtuoso pianists and organists excelled in the art of improvisation, at that time called extemporisation. Many classical scores contained sections for improvisation, such as the cadenza in the piano concerto. The preludes to some keyboard suites by Bach and Handel, for example, consisted solely of a progression of chords. The performers used these as the basis for their improvisation.

See also: Cadenza

Contemporary composition and the improviser

Since the 1950s, contemporary composers have placed fewer restrictions on the improvising performer, using techniques such as vague notation (for example, indicating only that a certain number of notes must sound within a defined period of time). Jazz ensembles formed around improvisation were founded, such as Lukas Foss' Improvisation Chamber Ensemble at the University of California, Los Angeles; Larry Austin's New Music Ensemble at the University of California, Davis; the ONCE Group at Ann Arbor; the Sonic Arts Group; and the San Francisco Tape Music Center, the latter three funding themselves through concerts, tours, and grants. Significant pieces include Foss's Time Cycles (1960) and Echoi (1963). (Von Gunden 1983, p.32)

Other composers working with improvisation include Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Karlheinz Essl, and Christian Wolff.

Popular music

Blues, jazz, and bluegrass are well-known for using improvisation. Almost all of the improvisation heard in rock and roll, blues, jam, and metal bands is in the form of lead guitar or other soloing. These musical improvisations are very song-oriented, usually working within the demands of the background rhythm and harmony, so there is little concept of "free improvisation." Solos are often used to exhibit the musical virtuosity of the performer and many popular musicians have become famous through their intricate and technically demanding solos, such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Eddie Van Halen and Kirk Hammett.

Blues and traditional rock improvisation leans heavily on the use of the blues scale, which sounds good in either major or minor keys and simple enough for beginning guitarists to execute. Other scales, such as the pentatonic are also used. Many rock and jam bands use these, although forms of music are very open to individual interpretation, so the possibilities for improvisation are almost limitless.

Jazz improvisation

Improvisation is one of the basic tenets of jazz. Typically in a jazz piece, the "head" (the song's melody along with any backing harmony) is played once by the musicians and sometimes repeated. Improvisation by any of the musicians follows, and this is typically the longest section of a song as each musician improvises their own melody over the harmonic and rhythmic foundation of the head. When the end of the head is reached it is repeated and a solo's length is specified by the number of repetitions of the head necessary. After one musician has finished improvising, another will begin, and no instrument is forbidden from improvising, the drums and bass excluded. A repetition of the head will end a jazz piece. There are an infinite number of variations to this pattern; new sections can be added before and after the head, two musicians can alternatively improvise for short amounts of time (known as "trading"), or several musicians can improvise in a group (this is common in Dixieland jazz).

Many varied scales can be used in improvisation, including blues, pentatonic, Mixolydian, etc. These mainly depend on the nature of the harmonic framework. In the bebop era of jazz in the early 1950s there was a common theme of urgency and technical proficiency—being able to play as many notes as possible in a short period while still sounding good. The modal era of jazz, mainly started by Miles Davis, moved the harmonic framework for a piece from the fast, dynamic chord progressions of bebop to more static, relaxed chords with longer durations. Performers were then instructed to improvise not over specific chords, but in a musical mode instead. Free jazz eventually led to the loss of a harmonic framework in improvisation.

Jazz musicians are typically judged on their improvisation skills, and some are notable from their work on a single recording (like Illinois Jacquet). Charlie Parker was particularly known for his improvisations and many have been transcribed for study, or arranged for jazz groups such as Supersax to play with a harmonic backing. An improvisation can often give rise to an entirely new head for a jazz tune.

See also: Free improvisation.

Music therapy

Improvisation is also a widely used technique in music therapy.

References

• Von Gunden, Heidi (1983). The Music of Pauline Oliveros. ISBN 0810816008.

External links

• Jazz Frets Guitar Theory Lessons This website offers a free Jazz Theory eBook written by JC Massaux (Instructor in Berklee College of Music) including various chapters about Jazz Chords, Improvisation, Notes and Music Harmony in general.
• Learn Guitar Improvisation and Music Theory This site contains a variety of resources for those interested in improving their improvisation skills -- with a focus on guitar.
• Improvisation on "Improvisation": Karlheinz Essl and Jack Hauser talking about musical improvisation
• Art of the States: improvisatory improvisatory works by American composers
• Impro-Visor (Jazz Improvisation Advisor) software