Technology
George Litterst, Editor
Bach did it frequently. So did Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, and many of the dead composers that we revere. What did they do? Improvise, of course!
If any of these musicians were alive today, we would not be surprised to hear them improvise for their own pleasure or to entertain their friends create spontaneous musical transitions in a church service improvise cadenzas during a concerto create new compositions based on famous themes during a public concert
Surprisingly, the skills required to do these things are no longer part of mainstream, classical piano pedagogy. Although many piano methods contain little improvisation exercises in the early books, very few methods and very few classically trained piano teachers provide a sustained course in the art of improvisation. The result is that large numbers of pianists who have had years of "traditional" training are very uncomfortable with any musical circumstance that requires improvisation.
Teaching improvisation can be a daunting task, especially for teachers who feel uncomfortable improvising themselves. One big problem is the "blank page" syndrome. When faced with 88 notes, where does one begin? How does one come up with a spontaneous composition if one is not already an experienced composer?
Various MIDI technologies can provide us with remarkable tools for learning to improvise. The basic concept behind many of these strategies is this: Use these tools to provide the student with accompaniments, chord changes, rhythmic backgrounds, and other musical ingredients of a composition. You or the student can choose the styles, orchestrations, or the form and set an appropriate tempo. The student's job is to play along!
When using modern tools in this way, the student does not have to create an entire composition spontaneously by him/herself. Instead, the student can concentrate on making up something that fits in, such as a simple melody, an arpeggiated accompaniment, a bass line, etc.
Since the various technologies relieve the student of the burden to improvise the entire musical composition, timidity rapidly vanishes and confidence starts to build. Then comes fluency and new skills begin to emerge.
How does one identify and get started with these tools? Read on!
from Ratko Delorko's article
A Classical Pianist Turns to MIDI
Although I am a classical pianist, I work quite a lot with MIDI equipment. For example, I use MIDI keyboards in my work as a performer of contemporary music, and as a composer, I use computer software to write down my music. In addition, I have developed ways to use MIDI technology to enhance my lessons, develop my students' improvising skills, and to train my students' ears.
How Does a Classical Pianist Get Involved with MIDI?
How did I get in touch with MIDI as a classical pianist? Of course none of my former teachers knew anything about this new world of MIDI when I received my graduate diplomas in 1984. For them, it was a nightmare just to see a wire coming out of a stringed keyboard instrument. I would not be surprised if most of my teachers had trouble finding the on/off-button on the radio!
I wasn't so much smarter, but I was curious about future possibilities
in the unknown electronic music world. An opportunity to learn
about MIDI came in 1987 when I got a commission to do an orchestral
work for the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra. This was a great
opportunity, but there was a catch: The time frame to deliver
a professionally scored work was just 6 weeks. Take it or leave
it! . . .
Ratko Delorko is a pianist, composer, and conductor who lives
in Germany. As a concert artist, he is the only pianist who plays
selections from the baroque to the contemporary eras using twenty
different, original, stringed keyboard instruments - each appropriate
to the respective era of the piece and all live on stage! Ratko
currently teaches at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende
Kunst Frankfurt and regularly conducts master classes.
from Susan Capestro's article
Improvising in Jazz Styles
Since 1989, I've been using technology to teach improvisation in fun and countless ways. Teaching improvisation is a bit like teaching music composition in real time. I emphasize activities that build listening skills, and reinforce the student's understanding of form, form, and more form, as well as harmony (chords and voicings), melody (modes), rhythm, and characteristics of different styles of music and/or various jazz idioms.
MIDI and Audio Tools for Jazz Improvisation
My adult jazz students often create lead sheets for standards they're playing, and they bring them to their lesson where we scribble in chord changes, substitutions, and arrangement ideas. Both in my studio and at home, students practice along with audio CDs, or MIDI sequences (i.e., MIDI recordings) that we make. We also use sequences generated by commonly available software programs, like Band-in-a-Box (www.pgmusic.com). Band-in-a-Box, for example, will create a fully arranged accompaniment for a standard tune in whatever style you request. All you have to do is type in the chord names and pick the style. However, I'm careful not to overuse these materials, in favor of having students participate more actively in creating musical textures of their own, since the latter better reinforces their knowledge of what actually comprises a particular musical style.
Many of my students enjoy using tools like the Jamey Aebersold
materials (www.jameyaebersold.com), which include both printed
music and CD audio accompaniments. They are helpful, but I don't
encourage too much use of them since they sometimes function simply
as glorified metronomes. Students still have to learn how to keep
a steady tempo, and keep track of the form of the piece, without
depending on an external sound source. . .
Susan Capestro has composed orchestral, jazz, and pop music for educational software products, documentaries, and corporate motivational videos, and maintains the website, wholeoctave.com. In 2001, she received a commission from the Massachusetts Music Teachers' Association to compose a concert piece for piano and synthesizer duet, called Tropism. A versatile performer of concert music, jazz, and pop, Susan has given traditional recitals with symphony players, performed as pianist for the Sounds of Swing big band, appeared on the jazz CD Crossings, and toured as keyboardist with African musicians Ibrahima Camara and Mamadou Diop.
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