How I Practice Classical Improvisation
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 มิ.ย. 2024
- Learn historic keyboard improvisation:improvplanet.thinkific.com
John Mortensen speaks to students and faculty at Jazeps Vitols Latvian Music Academy about how to practice classical improvisation. Mortensen served as Visiting Professor of Improvisation at JVLMA with the support of the Baltic American Freedom Foundation. - เพลง
This video changed my life. It made me realize that composition and improvisation is a skill, and not some magical power you have to be blessed with. Thank you so much for sharing. There's no other videos quite like this on TH-cam.
Great to hear, my fellow music lover. You're probably already in his Patreon channel, but in case you're not, I totally recommend you sign up.
@@baptistic yep, I've been subscribed to his patreon for a while now. Thanks!
You need the skill and the magical power
This is good
Improvisation: not playing out of the blue but practice, practice, practice instead. Thanks for this video. Love the different examples in sequenzen. Ascending, descending, quiescenza etc. and wait all put togheter and we have played a real piece of music! 21:25
Is important too, I am not doing this enough and yes you forget your brilliant progressions
Wonderful, deserves tons more views!
My latest and greatest improvisation tool is circle progression from natural minor through the various modes (e.g. C natural minor, F dorian minor, Bb Mixolydian, Eb major/ionian, Ab lydian (add some yummy major 7th action mmmhmmm), D NATURAL half-diminished seventh, G dominant seventh (the only non-diatonic chord and borrowed chord), and back to root. Rinse and repeat through various moods. But each key has a mood of its own; AND my hands "get along with" different keys in different ways. It's essentially the turnaround in Paganini's 24th caprice, but A minor (and keys with few sharps/flats) get the least of my attention... Cm is my bread and butter; Fm and Gm are runners up... I, in fact, practice the distinctly different keys of Eb minor and D# minor (regarding the latter, the ii chord is a doozy, see how your brain feels when you say this: "E-sharp half-diminished seventh"....I, for one, feel the cogs inside my skull screech to a halt when I say it.) I also practice A-sharp minor and A-flat minor. And when I say "I practice such-and-such minor keys", I really mean "I practice all the chords and modes of such-and-such minor keys in circle progression." It's my current musical priority to improvise fluently in all 15 minor key signatures through such modal circle progression, and it sounds like a tall order, and it is a tall order, but it's actually "wider" than it is tall, and if one has an understanding of the distinct personalities within the 12 chromatic solfegge notes (i.e. m2, M2, m3, M3, etc, each has its own personality and feel), then the unique personalities of each mode become clearer (e.g. dorian has a sad m3 but a happy M6 yet a sad m7, and this creates an entirely unique mood), and so transposition to different keys becomes easier because you're always repeating the same harmonic intervals (e.g. C dorian and D dorian are parallel moods on different starting points). If you know what is diatonic, and you can selectively see the diatonic notes and selectively block out the "wrong" notes, then you only play "right" notes, and that's how perfect modal playing works, easy peasy, things just fall into place once you can identify the right notes. Like Bach said about "landing on the right notes at the right time", it's the easiest thing ever :D but then you get to E-sharp half-diminished seventh....
Wonderful to watch.
Fantastic. Thank you
Thank you so much!!!!
Thank you for sharing !!! I love your videos.
Thank Prof. I've been following your videos and taking your online historic improvisation course. Two typical examples of circle of 5ths progression I could think of are Purcell's Rondeau from Abdelazer and Nat King Cole's Autumn Leaves. Greetings from Hong Kong.
Oh the point about E♭ minor at 4:07 is so apropos. I sometimes switch between sharps and flats in my head even in simpler tonalities, if it makes life easier, but that always feels like cheating, now doesn't it, like you're not a proper musician somehow. Feels good to be told by someone at a much higher level that this is just a thing that happens.
And yeah, as Dr. Mortensen says, it only makes life easier until it suddenly does the opposite. (Also, of course, we only get away with it on a piano because it's a piano. Wouldn't work for brass, where an E♭ and a D# are in point of fact two different notes, or - gasp, the horror - for strings, where an E♭ and a D# are _ten_ different notes, and that's on just one string, and then ten more on the string below, each with their own color, purpose, and meaning.)
P. S. loving the little sprinkles of Dr. Mortensen's trademark humour here and there. That one passage about fauxbourdon at 27:47 had me crack up out of nowhere. Some will say that's because I'm a nerd, but I will say that's because it's genuinely funny as heck.
Schwallex are you saying there are (in a scientific sense) exactly 10 microtones in every half step??
@@retrops4261 No, that's not what they're saying.
I have a question: how much, and for what purposes, do you use your ear whilst improvising? Great video as always!
Great lecture.
Schubert seems to like writing in A flat minor though for some reason!
Is it possible to take private lessons with you ... although I suppose you are perhaps not located in my area ... anyway, just curious. Your work is so very inspirational to me! Thanks for the beautiful video, and the beautiful music!
I think is a lifetime study in itself.
Can someone explain how Mr. Mortensen 9-7 suspension over the circle of fifths works. I really can't figure it out and I'm really keen to be able to play it. Thanks :)
Does anybody know if he has perfect pitch?
I don't have it. My three children all do, which is irritating.
Is there any possibility to access the documents you mention at the end of the video?
I don't understand what is meant by 7-6? In the example in Bb about 5 minutes in he plays from D to G which is an interval of a 5th. The G is a 6th above Bb which makes sense, but the D is a 10th. I see the pattern he plays but I'm not sure why it's called 7-6
I don't get it either.
First chord there is a Bb chord with a Bb in the bass, an F in the alto, and a D in the melody. The "descending 7-6 pattern" then comes with the alto moving up to a G in the right hand, creating a 6th above the bass to set up the pattern: bass an soprano, tenths apart, descend, while the alto voice lags behind a beat, creating the dissonant 7th. I think he calls it 7-6, even though here it starts with a 6, because one wants to view the pattern itself as tension-release.
Quick question, which is better to start with..the online intro course or the book Pianist guide to historic improvisation?
If you have limited time, start with the course. After that you can branch out.
@@cedarvillemusic awesome, I will do that soon then. Good to know where to start!
31:14 Still Got the blues??????
i just improvise what i hear in my head, you are all talking about circle fiths, I just play out of the blue, is that just me?
You play what you hear. And what your hear in your mind comes from vocabulary(all type of music you have listened before) wich when is internalized trought listening is now on your subconscious mind and your mind creates all sorts of variations with that information. So It's not out of the blue, unless you never heard any music before wich is impossible nowadays because music is everywere(Tv Shows, Movies, Games,etc).
The circle of fifths thing is just a name for a sound you're very familiar. One of the most Common circle of fifths progressions(I'm sure you have heard that before) is this:
Am Dm G C F Bdim E7 Am.