Improvising!

I had three fun experiences doing some improvisation recently. Since I am a "classical" musician, I haven't done much improvisation. When I was teaching, though, I used to make up all kinds of expressive music on the piano for children to move to: giant, heavy steps in the bass -- next, fluttery notes in the treble so that children could listen to various kinds of music and move to them in imaginative and expressive ways. I felt very free to play anything at all on the piano because, after all, they were children and they didn't care about what I played -- they were enjoying themselves!

The Dance Jam

Recently there was an announcement about a Dance Jam at the nearby dance studio. I wanted to go and dance there; it was to be just improvisatory dancing. There were to be drummers and other musicians who would also improvise. So I took my recorder and my violin. I danced for awhile, then I picked up a small percussion instrument and played with the drummers. I danced for awhile, then I stopped and picked up my recorder and improvised along with the drummers. After awhile, someone said, "Aren't you going to play your violin?" So, I picked up my violin and began to play with the drummers. Just then, two belly dancers stepped into the middle of the floor. As I watched their undulating bodies, I experimented with some of the basic tricks that violinists can do: trills, sliding from note to note, percussive strokes with the lower part of the bow, double stops and soulful melodies. When I finished, everyone was very kind and said, "Liz, you are amazing!" I was amazed myself because I had never improvised on my violin in public before and hardly ever in private!! But, as a classical violinist, I know a lot of tricks and it's easy for me to put them all together and it sounds amazing to others.

Tai Chi Class

Now I was emboldened! At my Tai Chi class during the break, we got on to the subject of Asian music. I said, "I guess everyone knows that Asians use the 5 tone scale. In fact, anyone can improvise on the black keys and it always sounds good." They were intrigued and they said, "Liz, please improvise like that for us while we do the form." All of our Tai Chi exercises are done in total silence so this was quite new for all of us. I went to the piano in the room and I improvised on the black keys for about 8 minutes. They all said they had enjoyed it so much! I tried to keep it rather minimal because a lot of fancy playing would distract from the "Tai Chi mood".



String Quartet

Finally, I planned to ask my string quartet to try a joint improvisation. So, at our rehearsal, after we had played our usual classical music for over an hour, I said, "Ladies, let's be brave! Let's try to improvise together!" To their credit, each one was brave and they said yes! I asked the cellist to start a pattern, then the viola could enter, then the other violin, then me. We played for about 5 minutes and it was a really fun experience! As a string quartet, it's very important for us to listen to each other as we play and I think the improvisation thing can help us to do that. I hope we do it again!!

Life is full of adventures. I wonder what tomorrow will bring!! Thanks to certain friends of mine who inspire me and encourage me!