The Art of Improvisation

Improvisation is spontaneous, unplanned creative activity which can be done individually or by a group and includes
creation or reinterpretations of musical, visual, and audiovisual ideas. The key to this artistic task is to let the emotions
flow naturally as you play/draw/dance/act, taking the performance in your desired direction.

This activity brings benefits, especially to one’s mental health. It may serve as an outlet to express oneself and create a
positive work after a bad experience. It also helps in abstract processing and brain stimulation towards arriving at
problems’ solutions. It reduces anxiety and stress while aiding in the development of one’s sense of well being.

Improvising isn’t just for artists but also for people who want to engage the arts. It doesn’t require much technical skills
but rather creativity in modifying the composition or form learned.

Individual and collective improvisation can be done in various ways. The key for a successful group performance is to be
aware of the leader’s instructions and the flow of the group.

Examples of Improvisations:

1. Pablo Picasso’s experimentations with colors, moods, and forms. He revises by starting with one form and
changes it as new ideas emerge along the course of his work.
2. Flip Top Rap. A battle wherein a contestant utter lines to defeat the opponent.
3. Bamboo Instruments are improvised materials used to produce percussive and melodic sound.
4. Improvisational Theatre, where the performance is created spontaneously by the actors.

GUIDELINES IN IMPROVISATION (MUSICAL):

1. Use rhythmic ideas

2. Learn theory
3. Learn technical exercises
4. Be yourself and have fun
5. Jam with other musicians
6. Leave space
7. Don’t focus on just the notes. Use musical element variations to make a tune your own.

ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

Rhythm beat, meter, tempo, syncopation

Dynamics forte, piano, [etc.], crescendo, decrescendo
Melody pitch, theme, conjunct, disjunct
Harmony chord, progression, consonance, dissonance, key, tonality,
atonality
Tone Color register, range, instrumentation
Texture monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic, imitation, counterpoint
Form binary, ternary, strophic, through-composed

RHYTHM: The element of "TIME" in music.

Aspects of Rhythm:

 DURATION: how long a sound (or silence) lasts.

  TEMPO: the speed of the BEAT.
 METER: Beats organized into recognizable/recurring accent patterns. Meter can be seen/felt
through the standard patterns used by conductors.

DYNAMICS: All musical aspects relating to the relative loudness (or quietness) of music fall under the general
element of DYNAMICS.

Basic terms related to dynamics:

 CRESCENDO: gradually getting LOUDER

 DIMINUENDO (or decrescendo) : gradually getting QUIETER
 ACCENT: "punching" or "leaning into" a note harder to temporarily emphasize it.

MELODY: the LINEAR/HORIZONTAL presentation of pitch (the word used to describe the highness or lowness
of a musical sound). Many famous musical compositions have a memorable melody or theme.

HARMONY: the VERTICALIZATION of pitch. Often, harmony is thought of as the art of combining pitches into
chords (several notes played simultaneously as a "block"). These chords are usually arranged into sentence-
like patterns called chord progressions.

TONE COLOR: also known as timbre. May also be created by combining instruments or voices.

TEXTURE: refers to the number of individual musical lines (melodies) and the relationship these lines have to
one another.

References:

ABS CBN News (Jul 09 2018). Panoorin: Alex, Iba Pang 'Singvestigators,' Nagpasiklaban Sa Fliptop. Retrieved on May 5, 2019 from
https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/07/09/18/panoorin-alex-iba-pang-singvestigators-nagpasiklaban-sa-fliptop.

Bertinetto, Alessandro. What Do We Know Through Improvisation [PDF]? Retrieved on May 5, 2019 from
http://www.disturbis.esteticauab.org/DisturbisII/Indice_14_files/Alessandro%20Bertinetto%20-
%20Improvisation%20Knowledge.pdf.

Paterson, Jennifer. 8 Surprising Benefits of Music Improvisation. Life hack. Retrieved on May 5, 2019 from
https://www.lifehack.org/455451/8-surprising-benefits-of-music-improvisation.

The Elements of Music [PDF Document]. Retrieved from Western Michigan University: https://wmich.edu/mus-gened/mus150/Ch1-
elements.pdf.

Yurco, Cherry. Improvisation Tips. Making Music. Retrieved on May 5, 2019 from https://makingmusicmag.com/12-improvisation-
tips/.