Avoid These 3 Common Mistakes - When Improvising

Mistake #1 - Thinking about what you're going to play

A lot of students think there should be some kind of preparation before improvising on the piano. They are right! There should be some thought as to the sound, tonality, key - but once these choices are made the thinking should stop and the playing should begin.

Mistake #2 - Worrying about whether it's good or not

Are you concerned with how your music sounds? Many students are. This mistake is prevalent among newbies at improvisation. They play a key or two and then think it stinks. Nothing will stop the creative flow more than thinking that what's coming out of you is not good enough! Good is in the ear of the beholder. That beholder is you so stop judging the product and focus on enjoying the process of being in the moment. This is why people learn to improvise in the first place. Let go and let the music tell you where it wants to go!

Mistake #3 - Thinking that you don't know enough to improvise

This mistake is really an oxymoron because the more you know, the more likely it is that you will experience blocks. If you do not have a lot of formal music knowledge don't let that stop you. All you need to know in order to improvise is chords and the scale the chords came from. That's it. And the good news is this is easily learned.

Some students create unnecessary problems for themselves because they beleive they need to know this or that before they can begin. This is just an excuse to avoid jumping in the water. It's also a way to avoid the act itself because once you begin to play you may tell yourself you really don't know what you're doing. Trust me. You know enough and you know enough to begin now.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

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Music industry eases tactics in fighting piracy - Reuters

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#39;08 music sales hit record high - Hollywood Reporter

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Music marketers target female shoppers at home - Reuters

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/2-0fd=Rurl=http://uk.reuters.com/article/autoNews/idUKTRE5050KX20090106cid=1287391948ei=OvhiSaDHOYu-9gTyheiPBAusg=AFQjCNG6CcuuYnNaVazbskgLLHFD2nvKTgbMusic/b marketers target female shoppers at home/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fReutersnbsp;-/font nobr2 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1By Ed Christman NEW YORK (Billboard) - With CD sales dropping fast, the bmusic/b business is exploring nontraditional ways to expose consumers to recording b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Hyundai Super Bowl ad to feature music by Yo-Yo Ma - Reuters

A Year in Love and Music - New York Times

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/4i-0fd=Rurl=http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/a-year-in-love-and-music/%3Fref%3Dopinioncid=1287410618ei=OvhiSaDHOYu-9gTyheiPBAusg=AFQjCNHkdIaWG8ZfNJdjgzOjxaWKDZcjIAimg src=http://nt1.ggpht.com/news?imgefp=-QR3ekXvzcMJimgurl=graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/01/05/opinion/jan2009.jpg width=80 height=55 alt= border=1brfont size=-2New York Times/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/4-0fd=Rurl=http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/a-year-in-love-and-music/%3Fref%3Dopinioncid=1287410618ei=OvhiSaDHOYu-9gTyheiPBAusg=AFQjCNHkdIaWG8ZfNJdjgzOjxaWKDZcjIAA Year in Love and bMusic/b/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fNew York Times,nbsp;United Statesnbsp;-/font nobr44 minutes ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1With bmusic/b now available with a single, offhand click, it#39;s easy to forget that songs are not born whole, polished and ready to play. b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Musebin: The future of music reviews? - Los Angeles Times

More schools getting in tune with mariachi - The Associated Press

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Read all #39;Macworld 2009#39; posts in Digital Media - CNET News

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Miccus Unleashes Digital Music: Launches BluBridge Home Speaker ... - Reuters

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Music - Google News

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Learn to Play the Piano
Rocket Piano is a very professionally done piano lesson package. It includes a number of ebooks, audio tracks, and video tracks to support the instructional material.

Can You Really Learn To Play a Musical Instrument From an Online Course?
Out of the 250 million people in the United States, about 25 million of them play an instrument of some kind, or used to when they were in school and would like to pick up where they left off. Another 30 million or so sing in a church choir, a barbershop quartet, or at the very least, in the shower.

Name That Tune - Tips For When You Can't Remember The Song Title Or Artist
For years, you have been searching for a song lodged in your brain that is driving you nuts. Unfortunately, you have forgotten both the song title and the artist and all you remember are a few words.

Oh My Aching Head! Can Music Really Make You Feel Better?
We all know, if only instinctively, that music has a profound effect on us. If we didn't believe that music affects us then singing lullabies to calm children and help them sleep wouldn't be universal.