{"id":4261,"date":"2016-05-23T14:52:22","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T21:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=4261"},"modified":"2021-04-29T11:49:35","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T18:49:35","slug":"10-tips-on-improvisation-from-andrew-york-roland-dyens-and-dusan-bogdanovic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/10-tips-on-improvisation-from-andrew-york-roland-dyens-and-dusan-bogdanovic\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Tips on Improvisation from Andrew York, Roland Dyens, and Du\u0161an Bogdanovic"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/store.elizabethl27.sg-host.com\/collections\/featured-products\/products\/no-382-summer-2016\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">From the Summer 2016 Issue of <em>Classical Guitar<\/em><\/a> | BY JOHN W. WARREN<\/strong><\/h6>\n<p>The first step, and in some ways the most difficult one, is to wrap your head around the idea of improvisation on the classical guitar. What precisely is improvisation, and what is not? A familiar part of the musical toolbox for guitarists specializing in jazz, flamenco, bluegrass, blues, rock, and other genres, improvisation has been relatively neglected, if not exactly derided, in modern\u00a0classical guitar. This extends to classical music in general, of course. But considering the history of classical music and the evolution of the guitar, it\u2019s perhaps surprising that improvisation does not play a larger role.<\/p>\n<p>Improvisation was commonplace in early classical music. Musicians from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods improvised ornaments such as trills, mordents, <em>appoggiatura<\/em>, and other embellishments; composers such as J.S. Bach, Mozart, and others extemporized whole forms, including the <em>ricercar<\/em>, fugue, and variations. Today, this body of music seems canonical and not apt for ad hoc experimentation. The concerto\u2019s cadenza was originally a section between movements allowing soloists to demonstrate their skills as improvisers, until the 19th century, when composers began to write cadenzas down in full. Lute and vihuela performers often improvised a \u201cprelude\u201d in order to test the instrument or as an introduction to another piece of music.<\/p>\n<p>An improvisational \u201cprelude\u201d is a signature of French guitarist and composer\u00a0Roland Dyens, one of today\u2019s foremost improvisers on the classical guitar. \u201cIt\u2019s almost a superstition, to me,\u201d says Dyens from his apartment in Paris. \u201cI love to improvise, and beginning a concert with an improvisation is the best way for me to check the sound in the performance space, to gauge the public\u2019s mood and reaction, to warm myself up, to feel my guitar. And it connects me to the tradition of the prelude.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_5C8iyY3oNY?rel=0\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>Dyens improvises at the 2012 GFA conference <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Improvisation can be many things\u2014a leap into the beyond, spontaneity, a bit of risk. It can be defined most broadly as extemporaneous composition or ad-libbed performance of a musical passage not prescribed by notation or other text. Creating a new rhythm, contemporaneously embellishing a harmony, inventing a new melody or a variation on a melody \u201cin the moment,\u201d are all approaches of improvising.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne way to think about improvisation is as composition on the spot,\u201d says acclaimed guitarist, composer, and improviser Andrew York, who spoke to me from his home in Los Angeles. \u201cWhen we improvise, we\u2019re in a Zen-like moment, playing ideas that are coming, hopefully, without too much thought. Someone who improvises well, however, can have a larger temporal sense\u2014a greater sense of time\u2014and get an idea of a form developing. It\u2019s pretty complex, really, to have this larger perspective at the same time you\u2019re in the present.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>LIQUID\u00a0COMPOSITION<\/h3>\n<p>Few prominent classical guitarists improvise on a regular basis; it\u2019s undoubtedly not coincidental that most of these practitioners are also accomplished composers for the instrument. While improvising is not a prerequisite, the two disciplines appear to be complementary. Dyens notes, \u201cI have some close friends who are outstanding composers who really don\u2019t know how to improvise three notes together. For me, being a composer implies being an improviser, but it\u2019s not always the case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Du\u0161an Bogdanovic, the US\/Serbian\u00a0guitarist and composer celebrated for his dazzling improvisations, adds from his home in Geneva, Switzerland, \u201cI\u2019ve written in my book <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/1Tvg8mq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ex Ovo<\/a><\/em><\/strong> that at best, improvisation would be as structured as composition and composition would be as fresh and inspired as improvisation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Improving your improvisational skills and practice can also help lead to or improve compositions on the guitar. \u201cA lot of my pieces were based on or were born out of an improvisation,\u201d York says. \u201cI might be improvising, just playing around on the guitar, and stumble onto something that seems really meaningful, poignant, with a bit of magic to it. I try to record that very quickly on my iPhone, to capture the intent, that emotional moment, and later I can hear it again, to use as a springboard for developing a theme.\u201d He cautions, however, \u201cAs soon as you start messing around with technology, you\u2019re completely out of that state of creation. It\u2019s critical to stay in that frame of mind where creation is happening, and not start using those parts of the brain that you use to manipulate technology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a 1989 <em>Classical Guitar<\/em> profile, Italian-born guitarist Carlo Domeniconi, who has spent much of his life in Turkey, argued that all guitarists can and must learn to improvise, which he called \u201cliquid composition.\u201d Richard \u201cRico\u201d Stover writes in <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/25cr7sp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Six Silver Moonbeams<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, his epic biography of Agust\u00edn Barrios Mangor\u00e9, that the great Paraguayan guitarist was a legendary improviser, which is hardly surprising considering his marathon bouts of practice, his background playing popular dances, and his prodigious memory. Evidence indicates that Barrios continuously revised his compositions and had a penchant for improvising new passages in concert; for Barrios, music was a mystical act.<\/p>\n<p>Bogdanovic and York agree that the pressures on today\u2019s classical guitarists\u2014and classical musicians in general\u2014to perform at such high technical levels have resulted in a lack of attention to and practice of improvisation. \u201cClassical and contemporary music demands so much attention and technique that it\u2019s very tough to match that with symmetric work on improvising,\u201d says Bogdanovic. \u201cMy opinion is that one has to sacrifice one in order to gain the other. But I do think that classical musicians, and guitarists in particular, should have consistent instruction in improvising and I see some signs of this, especially in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the pedagogy increased, and classical guitarists were playing more and more complex pieces, it took a lot of effort to play at this high a technical level,\u201d adds York. \u201cThe other thing is that it\u2019s a lot easier to be an extremely proficient technician than a very good improviser or composer. Every year, we\u2019ve got a deluge of hotshot young musicians winning competitions, but we don\u2019t have a bunch of great composers emerging on the scene each year. It takes a lot to be a great player, but it takes, I think, exponentially more skills to be a great composer.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>GETTING \u2018INTO\u00a0THE\u00a0MYSTIC\u2019:TEN TIPS<\/h3>\n<p>Classical guitar students may encounter a lack of standard practice and instruction in improvisation. Gerald Klickstein, in <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/25crcMB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Musician\u2019s Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, encourages students to embrace improvisation as a component of the \u201cmusicianship zone,\u201d along with sight-reading practice; practicing scales, arpeggios, etudes, and so forth he designates as part of the \u201ctechnique zone.\u201d Improvisation is an act of surrender, delving, as Van Morrison called it, \u201cinto the mystic.\u201d Classical guitarists interested in developing or improving improvisational skills can start with a few relatively simple steps.<\/p>\n<h4>1. DEVELOP\u00a0YOUR\u00a0EAR<\/h4>\n<p>\u201cThe best way to begin is by having a really good ear,\u201d says York. \u201cDevelop your ear in a way that you can hear the different qualities of each pitch in relation to the whole piece. If you\u2019re in the key of G, and play a G major scale over it, every note of the scale should have a noticeably different quality to you, a distinct color. The more aware you are of the way notes relate to a home key, the better you can improvise. If you can\u2019t play what you hear in your mind, you can\u2019t really improvise.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>2. GET POPULAR<\/h4>\n<p>\u201cLearn how to accompany songs, such as popular songs,\u201d suggests Dyens. \u201cThis is the first and perhaps most important step. Then learn to do things with the harmony, discover the inner voices of the song, like contrapuntal motion in polyphonic music. In France, we have the strong tradition of <em>chanson<\/em>, like Georges Brassens, \u00c9dith Piaf, Jacques Brel. Or, similarly, use jazz standards, because as you know, most jazz standards used to be popular songs, like \u2018Over the Rainbow.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>3. MIX IT UP<\/h4>\n<p>Dyens, York, and Bogdanovic are all notable for the diversity of their performances and compositions, and all began to improvise at the earliest stage of learning guitar.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to\u2014and learn to play\u2014a variety of styles, especially those that incorporate improvisation: Brazilian music, Grateful Dead, Turkish music, jazz. \u201cI actually do not see big borders between genres, and for me it is all a spectrum of defined or not-so-defined stylistic characteristics,\u201d says Bogdanovic. \u201cImprovising a <em>ricercar<\/em> is not the same as improvising a blues, but at this point I think the styles are largely a matter of history or marketing, and not of creative reality.\u201d (Bogdanovic, in fact, is co-organizer of the inaugural <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.multimod-perfomer-composer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Multimod Festival<\/a><\/strong>, a conference at the Music University (HEM) of Geneva, in November 2016, designed to navigate such diverse stylistic approaches to composition and performance.)<\/p>\n<h4>4. ARPEGGIATE<\/h4>\n<p>Delve into a piece such as Erik Satie\u2019s \u201cGymnop\u00e9die No. 1,\u201d of which several nice arrangements exist for classical guitar. Explore its string of sonorous, melodic chords, first as written, then extend the chords in a light arpeggio movement, and a third time in a more aggressive, free arpeggio. Congratulations, you\u2019ve just improvised! Vary your approach each time you play the piece, but it\u2019s fine if you discover a beguiling arpeggio that you want to reuse. Next, dig into some of the chordal possibilities themselves.<\/p>\n<h4>5: BE OPEN<\/h4>\n<p>The demands of solo improvisation on a polyphonic instrument like the guitar, sustaining melody and harmony simultaneously, are rigorous. \u201cStart with inspiration and sincerity,\u201d recommends Bogdanovic, \u201cbut as far as particular keys, from the blues and Carcassi studies to [Benjamin] Britten\u2019s \u201cNocturnal,\u201d all roads lead to E, both major and minor.\u201d Open keys allow you to use the guitar\u2019s open notes as drones when improvising. Try a dropped-D tuning [6th string tuned to D], especially if you are less familiar with this tuning; it may open up some new possibilities.<\/p>\n<h4>6. GO BRAZILIAN<\/h4>\n<p>Learning and performing the music of Latin American composers can be conducive to improvisation, as the rhythms and melodies are often by nature freer, encouraging ornamentation and other forms of spontaneous interpretation. Guitarist Benjamin Verdery mentioned on his blog that he couldn\u2019t help but improvise flourishes as he learned \u201cJulia Florida\u201d by Barrios. Brazilian music offers a particularly suitable entry to improvisation. For many Brazilian guitarists, genre boundaries simply do not exist: popular, bossa nova, jazz, classical\u2014it\u2019s all <em>viol\u00e3o<\/em>. Back when people discovered music in record stores, the albums of consummate performer, composer, and improviser Baden Powell would be more commonly found in the jazz or Brazilian sections, yet he certainly offers gems for the repertoire of classical guitarists. Try \u201cBerimbau\u201d or \u201cAsa Branca,\u201d for example, both available in notation and tablature on the website dedicated to Powell, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/brazil-on-guitar.de\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brazil-on-Guitar<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h4>7. GAIN\u00a0A\u00a0LAUNCH\u00a0POINT\u00a0AND\u00a0EXIT\u00a0STRATEGY<\/h4>\n<p>Two related strategies to improvise within a song include locating a section within a piece that you can use as a springboard into improvisation, and having a \u201cgo-to\u201d section to transition out of your improvisation. The latter can be the same musical phrase as your launch point or can differ; you might transition into another piece, for example. The coda of Powell\u2019s \u201cConsola\u00e7\u00e3o\u201d provides a section geared for launching into an improvisation.<\/p>\n<h4>8. COLLECT\u00a0ODD\u00a0CHORDS<\/h4>\n<p>Become a cartographer of the guitar by exploring different tonal possibilities around the fretboard. This comes after you\u2019ve developed your ear\u2014you\u2019ll find combinations that are neither commonplace nor fully dissonant. Collect these like seashells, to utilize in unique combinations as you improvise. \u201cWhen I improvise, I\u2019m usually playing some things I know, that I think might work together, some of the thousands of things that I know might sound good,\u201d says Dyens. \u201cImprovisation presupposes a lot of musical knowledge. To have an \u2018organized improvisation,\u2019 something that sounds good, it\u2019s like the \u2018little sister\u2019 of a composition. So it\u2019s not completely random.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>9. BRIDGE\u00a0THE\u00a0GAP\u00a0TO\u00a0THE\u00a0STAGE<\/h4>\n<p>After starting with small steps, such as ornamentation and arpeggiating chords, move into more complex improvisation. You\u2019ll begin during practice, of course; a guitar competition or concert performance is <em>not<\/em> the place to attempt your first improvisation. After getting comfortable in practice, try improvising in informal performance situations, such as caf\u00e9s or receptions. These are good settings to get into the saddle\u2014as people chat and clink wine glasses, there\u2019ll be less pressure on you to improvise flawlessly. Eventually, you may be equipped to improvise in the concert hall and recording studio.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the recording sessions for my new CD, I performed variants during each take of some of my pieces, while maintaining the same tempo. I even revised the structure of one piece on the fly, and improvised a new ending for another, which I included in the final mix. Improvising during a performance has risks, but it also has rewards. \u201cImprovising in front of people is a challenge,\u201d says Bogdanovic. \u201cOf course, it is not the same responsibility as playing just for yourself, but on the other hand, it is also very inspirational and it can produce good results\u2014after all, you are sharing your experience with a larger entity.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>10. DON&#8217;T FRET<\/h4>\n<p>Don\u2019t expect every improvisation to be transcendent. The measure of a good improvisation is to be free, melodic, and not trite; this is an elusive trio. Even the best improvisers find that moments of exquisite beauty are rare. \u201cTo be honest\u2014I have a lot of defects but I usually try to be honest\u2014most of my improvisations are simply not very good,\u201d Dyens says. \u201cSometimes, but very rarely, do I think, \u2018Wow, this one would have deserved to be a piece.\u2019 It happens, but it\u2019s rare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>York echoes this sentiment: \u201cWhen you improvise in front of a lot of people, you hope it\u2019s going to go well. But it doesn\u2019t always go well. I\u2019m not the most consistent improviser, like Du\u0161an\u2014he\u2019s a real genius at improvisation. It\u2019s not like learning a piece of music to the point where you\u2019re 95 percent sure you\u2019re going to execute it really well. Grade-A improvisation is not going to happen every single time. But when it works, it\u2019s magical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.johnwwarren.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>John W. Warren<\/strong><\/a> has recently released his first CD of original compositions and Latin American guitar music, <\/em>Serenata de la Sirena<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h6><a href=\"http:\/\/store.elizabethl27.sg-host.com\/collections\/featured-products\/products\/no-382-summer-2016\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">This story originally appeared in the Summer 2016 issue of <em>Classical Guitar<\/em> magazine.<\/a><\/h6>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/store.elizabethl27.sg-host.com\/collections\/featured-products\/products\/no-382-summer-2016\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4273\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/382_COVER-777x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C461\" alt=\"Classical Guitar Magazine Summer 2016 John Williams Luthiers Improvisation Practice\" width=\"350\" height=\"461\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/382_COVER.jpg?resize=777%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 777w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/382_COVER.jpg?resize=228%2C300&amp;ssl=1 228w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/382_COVER.jpg?resize=768%2C1012&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/382_COVER.jpg?w=900&amp;ssl=1 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Summer 2016 Issue of Classical Guitar | BY JOHN W. WARREN The first step, and in some ways the most difficult one, is to wrap your head around the idea of improvisation on the classical guitar. What precisely is improvisation, and what is not? A familiar part of the musical toolbox for guitarists specializing in jazz, flamenco, bluegrass, blues, rock, and other genres, improvisation has been relatively neglected, if not exactly derided, in modern\u00a0classical guitar. This extends to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[250,251,47,247],"class_list":["post-4261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-andrew-york","tag-dusan-bogdanovic","tag-rolanddyens","tag-summer-2016-issue"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/10-Tips-on-Improvisation-from-Andrew-York-Roland-Dyens-and-Dus%CC%8Can-Bogdanovic-Classical-Guitar-Technique-Lesson.jpg?fit=1250%2C667&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16166,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261\/revisions\/16166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}