How to improvise on the piano 🎹
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- čas přidán 15. 06. 2024
- / michaelkeithson
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I often have good classical piano players tell me they wish they knew how to improvise on the piano. This video tries to explain some of the fundamental elements of being able to improvise.
Hopefully there's some useful info in there somewhere for someone!
Apologies for the autofocus problems throughout the video 😬!
Let me know if you have any requests for future videos!
MK.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
03:10 Chords and Keys
12:01 Inversions
16:14 Let's Improvise
21:42 Improv with Beethoven and Satie
Now, is this not a masterpiece!
This is good education.
Ah, thanks! I appreciate your comment. Hope you found it useful!
Best 27 minutes I have spent recently! Thank you. I have persevered three or more years of piano playing purely using chords and scale notes in each Key to find myself basically improvising. If I had seen this video and guide I could have achieved the same level of competence much quicker. All newbies should watch this intro and persevere!!
Ah Peter, that’s so kind. Thank you. I’m really pleased you found the video useful. Best of luck with your journey. 👍🏼🎹
What works for me: Pre-hear everything, then play it. 1) Harmony 2) rhythm 3) Melody 4) Intervals 5) Progressions. If you can't pre-hear it, play it, then pre-hear it then play it again. Then pre-hear a slight variation in any of the 5 things above, then play the variation. Etc. Etc.
Thanks for sharing! 👍🎹
Bravo Michael.. everyone has something they need to hear. For someone coming from classical, I needed to hear the circle of fifths exercise to get the chords under my fingers in different inversions. Simple, but exactly what I needed. And by the way, 🤯improvising over moonlight sonata’s structure… brilliant! Very inspiring to hear that!! I also have new respect for Satie seeing how that piece is so beautiful even though it’s just two maj7 chords. Love it! I would love to see more videos on improvising
Ah thanks for the great comment 🙏 Glad you enjoyed the video 👍
You take the piano to heights I didn’t know existed. Pure Genius work and discussion!!! Sorry I just had to add this second comment after watching your video to the end.
Thanks Jeff!! Such a nice comment. I really appreciate it. I'm glad you liked it and thanks for watching until the end!!
This video was absolutely golden. Your instructions are so clear and easy to follow. I was most stunned when I saw that this video only has 322 views.
Also, I always thought you needed perfect pitch to improvise. This video has fortuitously dispelled that myth for me.
Wow, thanks for your great comment! I'm really pleased you found it useful and wish you well on your exploration of improvisation! The video is only a few days old so hopefully its audience will grow nicely in time. If you've found it to be helpful and easy to follow then hopefully others will too! Cheers!
Bravo Sir. Outstanding and well delivered. Thank you very much.
Brilliant!! This makes me want to put the bass down and buy a piano!!
Do it!! 😂 Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for the comment 🙏
Really well explained, love the style and tone. Thank you!
Ah cheers 🙏 Thanks for watching and leaving a comment, much appreciated!
Brilliant lesson, Michael. I'm a big fan of your teaching style. It's like watching the early morning mist disappear when the sun comes out.
Ah, thanks for the nice comment Trefor. At least I assume it’s a nice comment, maybe you hate it when the morning mist disappears! 🤣
I'm not even a piano player (guitar player) and your videos always make playing so much more fun. Thank you!
Ah, that's so cool to hear. Are you taking these ideas and using them on guitar or having a little dabble with the piano?! Thanks for watching! 🎹🎸
While trying to learn music theory for a long time I have watched LOT'S of videos. This has to be the best one for me personally!! It will def reach a greater audience (should) , Thank you
Ah thanks! So pleased you found it helpful. Hopefully the CZcams algorithm shows more people and it can be helpful for them too! I appreciate the encouragement. Thanks!
Fantastic system.
Thanks for the walkthrough! I'll be sharing this with my nephews who will really like mixing up their classical piano education with some more creative playing
Thanks Chandler. I appreciate the share and hope they find it useful! Cheers!
please don't stop posting. you need million subscribers
Oh man, you’re too kind! I hope you’re right though! 😜
Definitely more videos to come though. 👍🏼
Pure GOLD!!!
Cheers Eugene! 👍🏼
A lot of things i had to find out on my own you've explained perfectly 🙌
so inspired - thank you!
Awesome, great to hear! Thanks for watching!
Best video i've seen on music for a while ! Keep up
🙏 Thank you! I appreciate the support, thanks for watching and leaving a comment 👍
Really great channel and knowledge. Cheers!
Thanks for the kind comment! Glad you're enjoying the content. Cheers 👍
You are very underrated. You are giving out some good knowledge👍🏻
Thanks Satyam, I appreciate the encouragement.
This video was for me. Very embarrassing state of affairs I'm in. Your videos are great
Thank you! I’m glad you found it useful. No need to be embarrassed, we’re all on different journeys and if you’re enjoying it then you’re winning!
Thanks
🙏 Thank you so very much! Really pleased that you’re finding some value from the video.
Wonderful.
Cheers Bill! 👍🏼🎹
I am one of those classical pianists - currently working on getting away from playing from sheet music. It's a horrible situation to be in.
Hi Carol! Hope the video was helpful! Thanks
No fucking idea how you make this seem so easy but I thank you for it!
Ha! Hopefully it was helpful. Thanks for leaving a comment! 👍🏼
The disconnect between …
conventional piano teaching / learning,
(at least in the UK- where the ABRSM* rules) …AND
…actually enjoying playing piano,
nicely examined and well put. 👍
It’s something that I have struggled with for years. So, thank you very much for the enlightenment/ encouragement.
Feels like a breakthrough,for me ❤️
* Their goal is worthy but all a bit 20th century
I passed their highest grade in Jazz piano and yet still so reliant (up till now?) on the dots 🎶 🙁
Thanks for your comment James, I'm pleased you feel the video was useful for you. It's just something I've come across regularly over the years and having recently taught a few people who are talented classical pianist but were never taught the wider context of harmony and how to improvise and compose with the notes they're always playing I thought there could be a number of people that would appreciate a video like this. Cheers. 🎹
Thank you, Michael. I've always used chords. (Taught myself theory from a guitar manual I'd bought my husband!)
I've always felt I was playing piano 'the wrong way!' Feeling a bit better about myself now. However, I'm fighting bad habits such as just bashing out arpeggios. Obviously I need to back off.
Any advice?
Thanks again. I'm really enjoying your lessons (and starting to grasp the less basic concepts.)
Hey Laura, thanks for making your way through the videos. Have you watched ‘4 ways to sound pro on piano’ if not, there might be a couple of things to try to bring a little variety to your playing. Cheers. 🎹🎵
@@michaelkeithson Thank you, Michael, I'll certainly watch those.
Your videos are super good. I have learned a ton from the Triton sub video as well. Thank you very much.
I have one question: I know all this theory you explained and my improvisations all have the same chord progressions: essentially I-V-I with some “detours”. How to break free from the familiar sound of Am F E? all my music is turning out like that.
when I hear classical music it feels like they are not thinking in the same terms when they write it.
This may help from someone who has gone through the learning process. The surprising answer is, in my view, that the composers of the past very much used very straightforward chord progressions that you describe. The difference was that they knew how to mine the gold. A couple of years ago, my jazz teacher got me to analyse the chord progressions of Clementi sonatinas. Just take the first dozen or so bars and you will see exactly what they would do with I and V. They would take a simple melodic. Idea and run with it. The point here is that you do not have to become a classical specialist. Just work on your compositional or improvisatory ideas within a limited harmonic progression, and you may be surprised. As your harmony knowledge grows, you can branch out, but it isn't chords you lack but the ideas that work over them. And even then, keep it simple. Watch Michael's right hand when he does his - it barely moves, but as he says, it can be beautiful. Good luck.
I love making music all my life, but i‘ve never put enough effort into that „theoretical“ part so that my creative skills were always limited. I mean I’ve read and learned it more than once, but never got it „into my fingers“. I would desire so much to catch up on these skills so that eventually i could achieve more of that creative flow when composing! I enjoyed very much your lesson and i would highly appreciate more of that! What would be the most efficient process to get these concepts from the brain into the fingers?
Thanks for your comment! When it comes to improvising it’s really useful to have some of this foundational theory knowledge. My advice would be to exercise these ideas regularly (ideally daily) but try practising through repertoire. Pick a few songs that you know and look for the chords online (if you find it difficult working them out by ear) then practice exploring playing the chords together in different and inversion and rhythm like shown in this video. Try playing along with recordings or just singing the tune along with the chords. I really believe that if you persist with this over a few weeks or months you’ll make that connection you’re looking for. A bit of patience and persistence and you’ll get there I’m sure. It’s also valuable to have some one-to-one lessons if there’s someone local who plays the way you’d like, to give you a few pointers and they’ll be able to make sure you’re on the right track. Good luck! MK
@@michaelkeithson thanks for the advice, looking forward to more related educational videos from you! 🙏
Composición as you can hear it in your universe of foundation
About diatonic vs non-diatonic, I think popular music (rock and pop) has become more diatonic, but it didn't use to be. And I'm not saying it used to be more complex (sometimes it was, but sometimes it was incredibly simple too), just not so diatonic. The reason being that it was more influenced by the blues, which is not diatonic. And even when they expanded far beyond the blues, like in the 60's with the Beatles, among others, they didn't know theory,, they had no more reason to think that a chord is more 'right' than another because it is diatonic (and they were right). If you look at popular music up to the 90's, songs with only diatonic chords were more the exception than the norm.
Agree. A good point well made. Cheers for the contribution 👍