The gentle art of Improvisation
At Caroline Springs School of Music we place great importance on the art of improvisation. All of our instrumental teachers spend time regularly facilitating student's improvisations.
In years gone by great classical musicians such as Bach, Beethoven and Mozart were renowned for their improvisational skills. Somewhere in the Romantic and Classical periods improvisation became an almost forgotten art.
Of course improvisation is the basis of Jazz and many modern styles. Greats such as John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Wes Montgomery and many others provide us with great examples to learn from and adapt to our own style. Just as no two people are the same we all have our own improvising "fingerprints".
Learning to improvise is great for our musicianship no matter what style of music we specialize in.
Improvisiation allows us to find our own voice on the instrument and best of all it is fun!
At Caroline Springs School of Music we begin by learning to solo over the minor 7th chord followed by dominant 7ths then Major 7ths. After that (much later) we look at altered sounds. Stay tuned for video instructionals for an overview as to how we approach each chord type.
All students at our school should be in possesion of our improvisation backing tracks cd and it should be a regular part of everyones practice routine.
Brendan Hains- Head guitar teacher and principal instructor at Caroline Springs School of Music.
