Music Composition Tip: Composition through Improvisation

There are a variety of ways to compose music. One such way is composition through improvisation.  John Duarte, the late-great guitar composer, once said that "composition is improvisation, given the benefit of time to reconsider and refine the product."

Improvisation is a great way to collect ideas that will be used as the basis for a piece.  I'm not talking about improvising over a set of chord changes like many jazz and rock musicians do, but to try and improvise an entire piece. The video above was done a couple of weeks ago and is an example of a piece that was completely improvised.

As far as what I am thinking about while improvising, I am trying to "hear" in my head what should come next. At around 56 seconds in this video I hit an F major chord. I remember thinking before I hit the F chord, "I think I will hit an F chord," and then after I did the F chord, "ohh, that probably didn't sound good." After listening to the recording I don't think the F chord sounds as bad as I originally thought.

As far as turning this piece into an actual piece of notated music, I would change some of the repeated material. Maybe vary it a little so that it is not so repetitive. A lot of times in an improvisation I will repeat a melody or a chord change because I am trying to think of what I should do next.  In addition to varying some of the ideas, I might add a new section.

In general, I find it easier to improvise a single melody rather than trying to harmonize the melody with chords. It can be a good idea to start with a particular scale and then go from there. In the piece above I am using an E natural minor scale and occasionally using the flatted 2 for variety.

A good improvisation exercise is to play a single note on whatever instrument you play. Then try to "hear" in your head what the next note should be. Then try and "hear" the next note, and then the next note, etc. While doing this try not to limit yourself by thinking, "what would Beethoven do after this note," just play what you hear in your head.

I hope this is of some help. I would love to hear any thoughts you might have.

Rob