This book explores Improvising over Classical Music. The examples in the book were recorded by Spooky Actions, a New York based ensemble created by John Gunther and Bruce Arnold. Spooky Actions has produced a diverse set of recordings include the music of 20th century composers Anton Webern, Arnold Schoenberg and Olivier Messiaen; interpretations of Native American music Volume One and Volume Two, and well as a recording of Early Music from the 2nd century BC through the 1500’s. Their unique and compelling sound is being met with critical acclaim and widespread interest.

"This book is for pianists who wish to improvise. Many will be experienced performers - perhaps even veteran concert artists - who are nevertheless beginners at improvisation. This contradiction is a reflection of our educational system. Those who attend collegiate music schools spend nearly all time and effort on learning, perfecting, and reciting masterpieces from the standard repertoire. As far as I can remember, no one ever taught or advocated for improvisation during my decade as a student in music schools. Certainly no one ever improvised anything substantial in a concert (except for the jazz musicians, who were, I regret to say, a separate division and generally viewed with complete indifference by the classical community). Nor did any history professor mention that, long ago, improvisation was commonplace and indeed an indispensable skill for much of the daily activity of a working musician. I continue to dedicate a portion of my career to "perfecting and reciting" masterpieces of the repertoire, and teaching my students to do the same. That tradition is dear to me. Still, if I have one regret about my traditional education, it's that it wasn't traditional enough. We have forgotten that in the eighteenth century - those hundred years that form the bedrock of classical music - improvisation was a foundation of music training. Oddly, our discipline has discarded a practice that helped bring it into being. Perhaps it is time to retrieve it from the junk heap of history and give it a good dusting off. I love the legends of the improvisational powers of the masters: Bach creating elaborate fugues on the spot, or Beethoven humiliating Daniel Steibelt by riffing upon and thereby exposing the weakness of the latter's inferior tunes. The stories implied that these abilities were instances of inexplicable genius which we could admire in slack-jawed wonder but never emulate. But that isn't right. Bach could improvise fugues not because he was unique but because almost any properly-trained keyboard player in his day could. Even mediocre talents could improvise mediocre fugues. Bach was exceptionally good at something which pretty much everyone could do at a passable level. They could all do it because it was built into their musical thinking from the very beginning of their training"--

This book teaches the improvisation of classical piano music through a step-by-step method including the use of chord tone approaches, scales, arpeggios, non-chord tones, motivic development, ornamentation, modulation, stylistic variation, and more. By practicing simple tasks the pianist escapes the mental pressure of performing on the spot and develops the ease and freedom of improvising in classical styles. This book also includes 7 variations on a theme by Beethoven illustrating the improvisational concept and technique. Includes CD.

(Berklee Guide). Learn the creative mindset and acquire the technical tools necessary for improvisation. These concepts and exercises will help you to discover a deeper source of music making, a greater quality of authenticity, and a discernable change in sound and phrasing that will enhance your performances of written music. You will learn to play by ear, apply musical theory to your instrument, and engage creatively with the elements of music, giving you a long menu of musical options. The accompanying recording includes demonstration and play-along tracks. You will learn: tools to connect melodic imagination to your instrument, with an enhanced sense of physicality; how to use scales, chords, modes, progressions, and other structures in your improvisation; a broad rhythm vocabulary; improvisation techniques for standard progressions, such as blues and II V's; to create richer lines by using approach notes, neighbor tones, and embellishments into an improvised melodic line.

This book will show you how to start improvising, how to build your musical vocabulary, and how to build that important subconscious mind-to-hand link. If you like jazz and if you want to improvise, this method is the most natural, effective way to learn.

Improvisation was a crucial aspect of musical life in Europe from the late eighteenth century through to the middle of the nineteenth, representing a central moment in both public occasions and the private lives of many artists. Composers dedicated themselves to this practice at length while formulating the musical ideas later found at the core of their published works; improvisation was thus closely linked to composition itself. The full extent of this relation can be inferred from both private documents and reviews of concerts featuring improvisations, while these texts also inform us that composers quite often performed in public as both improvisers and interpreters of pieces written by themselves or others. Improvisations presented in concert were distinguished by a remarkable degree of structural organisation and complexity, demonstrating performers’ consolidated abilities in composition as well as their familiarity with the rules for improvising outlined by theoreticians.

Piano improvisation is playing with music - playing in the true sense of the word. It is a game: set yourself some rules and be as creative as possible within that framework of restrictions. This book is a guide on how to improvise. Whereas most books on piano improvisation explain jazz and blues, the focus here is on minimalistic and classical music. The book contains some exercises to get you started and appendices with the most important information about keys, scales, chords, harmony, melody, and rhythm to help you. The main part of the book consists of 21 examples: a short description, a recipe for an improvisation, an example chord progression, suggestions on how to further expand on the recipe, and a short piece in music notation illustrating the basic idea. You can play each piece as written but the intention is that you explore variations and add in your own ingredients and flavors. I hope the presented ideas will inspire you.