So You Want to Learn to Improvise?

Tracing the steps taken by the author on his musical journey, So You Want to Learn to Improvise? offers teachers and students a step-by-step guide to acquiring the skills needed to improvise at the piano. The book is deliberately stylistically non-specific, working from the premise that once the basics are secured, choices about style can be personal. The content is drawn from material assembled over the author’s 25 years of teaching experience in the classroom and at the piano, and his 15 years of workshops, seminars, and lectures across the world. The ideas are clear and specific, but demand a creative approach from the start, inculcating a mindset that is both inquisitive and musical from the outset. The practice schedule is extensive and progressive, demanding the student fully understand each process before moving on. The objective is to free students from the “tyranny” of notation, setting them free to explore music on their own terms. Most lapsed pianists who return to the piano in later life cite “just playing whatever I feel like” as being the one quality they aspire to—So You Want to Learn to Improvise? offers them that opportunity and more.