Playing during practice is something that I’ve always struggled to do. Having been brought up in the Western classical tradition has given me many gifts, but it has not left me particularly open to freely creating in an improvisatory context, trying new styles, or refreshing old pieces in different ways. However, that creativity is necessary for expression, helps deepen my musical skill and wards off burnout.
So, I wanted to talk about several different ways of creating in practice that I have seen other professionals adopt. I’m excited to try them! Let me know which methods you have tried, and if I have missed any.
The rawest form of creativity in music is composing your own music, and improvisation goes a step further. Instead of getting out a pencil and paper to write down your ideas, improvisation gives you a few basic parameters within which to improvise and has you coming up with melodies and ornaments on the spot. Multiple styles utilize improvisation in performance to showcase artists’ creativity and musicality. It was a huge breakthrough for me when I was taught that most people are not just born good at improvising – just like anything else, it is a skill you practice.
For you uninitiated (like me!) in the ways of improvisation, here are some ways you can get started:
– Improvise on a scale. Add ornaments between the notes of the scale, play the scale notes out of order without repeating them, add some rhythm – you get the idea.
– Improvise using a key and type of “groove” (beat pattern) you decide on beforehand. Christian Howes has some amazing videos on youtube with some guided improv – he actually teaches you how to improvise! He is a wonderful resource.
– Improvise on a chord progression. This requires some basic knowledge of theory and is how musicians from jazz to Baroque incorporate improvisation into their compositions and performance.
Another great way to get some creative juices flowing is to try playing a song in a style you’ve never played before. I recently bought some books with gypsy tune transcriptions. I’ve never played in a pure gypsy style before, but the book comes with guidance of how to execute the style and its special characteristics. I’m really excited to delve into its contents! In her podcast, Dismantling Dissonance, Bailey Poesnecker chats with Christian Howes about how playing in different styles strengthens your musicianship by giving your playing a fresh perspective. It’s a brilliant way of improving at your instrument without getting too tired of the same styles and pieces!
I have been taking arranging and composition lessons in the last few semesters of my college career. I had three reasons for taking them:
1), I needed a theory elective credit and was NEVER going to take Schenkerian analysis,
2), composition was very much outside my comfort zone, and
3), I wanted to arrange pieces for string quartet and for my students.
I’ve found myself actually applying the knowledge I have of music theory and my instrument in a different way than I’d ever experienced before. I started thinking like a composer: how to bring out or embellish a melody, how to write a compelling chord progression and how to work with different timbres of instruments. This training has helped me be more conscious of musical decisions in my violin playing and made me appreciate the education I’ve had in music theory more than I ever did before.
Finding new sounds on your instrument isn’t just fun for my little ones in my studio (although we have a great time discovering that violins can moo, too). It helps us discover the full range of colors we have access to on our instruments. Figuring out how to create specific sounds (they do not necessarily have to be pretty sounds!) can help us with growing our technique and teaching, too.
Working backwards: if you know exactly how to create a sound you don’t like (for example, a particular scratch on the violin), you know exactly what causes that sound: a bow hand being too heavy while a left hand is too light on the fingerboard. When you or one of your students makes that sound, as inevitably will happen, you know exactly how to diagnose and fix the problem. That leads me to my next point…
Thinking of ways to teach different concepts and skills is a fantastic way to grow as a player yourself. Even better, finding ways to make learning those concepts fun or a game will make you a much better teacher to yourself and others. Play is necessary for children to learn, and a particularly effective mode of learning no matter the age of the student. “Play isn’t a luxury but a crucial dynamic of healthy physical, socio-emotional development at all age levels”.
Psychologists Vygostsky, Piaget and Dewey all agreed that play can be applied to learning and produce powerful results. They agreed that since learning is an active, social endeavor, social interaction is one of the keys to learning. Play is one of the primary ways kids interact with one another and adults, which unlocks diverse ideas for them.
Finally, challenge yourself to not only learn repertoire you’ve always wanted to learn, but also in styles you’ve never tried before can really help to put the magic back into practicing. I’ve been working on cadenzas from movie scores I love (Fiddler on the Roof (klezmer) and Por Una Cabeza (tango) lately), which has given me the opportunity to play some really beautiful melodies and try techniques I don’t often get to utilize.
I would love to hear from you: what are ways that you create and play in your practice? You can let me know over on social media or in my contact form on my website. I would love to get in touch!
Till then,
Happy practicing!
To see the other posts in this series, see below:
Part I
Riley, J. G., & Jones, R. B. (2010). Acknowledging Learning through Play in the Primary Grades. Childhood Education, 86(3), 146-149.