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Yes!! In fact, a great technique with any instrument is to remove the instrument entirely! I was made to sing my improv instead of play the piano in a lesson once and it completely removes your ability to rely upon the same old vocabulary you've built up. Only at that moment, you're TRULY using your ear!

Couldn't have said it better myself! Definitely a thought process that can be applied to everything!

Kind of! So, there absolutely are preexisting things that I'm acutely aware of as I go through the process, which do allow me to anticipate things like rhythm and phrasing even if I'm only playing one note. However, knowing the key itself doesn't actually matter. It obviously DOES matter in the grand scheme of what notes will or won't sound good, but there's an interesting thing you can do- If we continue to use our ears to ADD notes to our "scale" until it is filled out into an actual, complete scale, it is extremely likely that the resulting scale will be the correct one for the key the tune is in. This will have happened because our ears will reject the notes that sound "bad" and switch them out for ones that sound better. The important part here is that it doesn't HAVE to come from preexisting knowledge. We can get there using our ears alone! This goes much deeper when we start considering ALL the chords in a progression, of course. Just a starting point!

@@Better-Piano thank you for reply!! So nice. What about the form? I mean, you stay aware of which bar, which section of the tune you're in, don't you?

You're welcome, lastnamefirstname. I sincerely hope that's is a niche F1 reference 😂

@@Better-Piano 👍

😂 Hey man, Thelonious Monk said it- It's the silence BETWEEN the notes that makes the music! You're just on another level, that's all!

Hahaha the blues scale is great for a LOT of things. But we tend to rely on it a little much early on in our improvisation journey!

😂😂😂You and me both. I've done my fair share of ripping the blues scale everywhere

You know, this sounds like a pretty awesome idea...

@@Better-Piano I loved the way you voiced the chords especially when you played "the Path Of The Wind" progression. That harmonization was incredibly BEAUTIFUL! But since that video was from so long ago you didn't have the midi set up. I would LOVE to see a new video with the midi set up, and maybe you could make another improv video to show how to did more conplex improv like what you did in that video. I looked all over youtube and the internet trying to find a name for that improv but at no success.

Ah man I wish I could help, but I'm from the opposite side of the state! I grew up almost right on the Vermont border!

@@Better-Piano Oh gotcha, but thanks so much!

Love to hear it!!

Eventually, yes. In the beginning? Don't even worry about the key! You can easily use your ear to pick out what notes sound good and what ones don't. AND, I'll bet if you continue that process until you have a full scale, you'll realize that you've just built the correct scale for the key without even realizing it! It's the importance of using your ear before your head!

Absolutely! What kind of follow up video would you envision seeing next in this series? Similar approach with a different backing track in a different key? Open to ideas!

​@Better-Piano Oh, now you got me 😂 I love to sit down and practice these things, so some more details such as taking chord changes into account, what scales to use when (I have some knowledge of scales and modes, but not really WHEN to use them). A next video couldbe like "next step" to how to play like you at 9:30 -ish. I love your videos and have some more ideas if you're looking for it 😄 Much love from Denmark 🇩🇰

😂😂😂Hell yeah!

I have so many friends that are SUPER into coffee and they're always like "bro you just haven't had good coffee" and then they make me some and it still sucks. 😂All that to say I drink an unhealthy amount of C4

Sssure! Y'not! (Bam!). Da da do do ..

And I love it

I think we all do that at one point or another 😂

Yes!!

There are lots of things you can do! Full disclosure, I've built my own Intro to Improvisation course, which you get access to as a Better Piano member. BUT, you absolutely don't have to do anything that costs money just to get you started! There are TONS of resources scattered around the internet that you can access for free that can help you get an idea of how that process works. A quick TH-cam search will yield a bunch! Then, if you do happen to be looking for something that goes a little deeper and has an entire community attached to it, feel free to check out the Better Piano membership! betterpiano.com/

Thank you!!

True! It shouldn’t involve too much thinking

No one should take offense to that, because you're absolutely right! The thing that holds most people up is the fear of sounding bad. They just never start in the first place. But as you've proven to yourself, you'll start to figure things out bit by bit if you just START!

@@Better-Pianowell said

Yeah I think it's not that improvising is HARD I think just people are afraid of sounding bad as Charles said but also I think while wanting to avoid sounding bad there is a tendency for people to want to understand HOW to do it before they try and so they spend a significant amount of time "studying" it via TH-cam videos and when they find that they're inundated with theory and arent suddenly given the magical answer to being a pro they assume that it is some monumental task to begin doing it. Ironically if we spent half as much time getting through the "sounding bad" stage as we did trying to watch videos to learn how to improvise we'd be so much better. The best piece of advice I give to people wanting to know how to improv is: "just freaking do it. And if you think what you just played sounds bad in the context in which you played it then don't play it again"

It was the same for me about a year ago! As a kid, I had piano lessons with a teacher (didn't like it very much tho), then I restarted by myself and now I love it! Wish you fun!

@@daminam ty!

No time like the present!

Thank YOU

We'd love to have you! But regardless, I just appreciate you checking these videos out!

@@Better-Piano you already know I don't miss any of your videos! 😉

Yes!! This is such a cool approach, and you have the exact right mindset. It's funny, the times when I've messed around with programming notes digitally, I actually felt this insane sense of total freedom. When I play the piano, I have a language and a vocabulary that I tend towards just out of habit and experience. All that goes away when I have to input notes digitally in a whole new way. It totally removes those tendencies I had before and allows me to think truly from a blank slate!

No, you

NO, YOU ARE