Why is Improvisation SO DIFFICULT for Classical Musicians?

[Music] why is it so difficult for classical musicians to improvise now first of all i'm not making a generalization and saying that all classical musicians are this way this is definitely not the case but i think it's still safe to say that most classical musicians that practice the music of the western tradition they have more difficulty with improvisation than musicians of other genres like blues jazz flamenco folk and so many others [Music] now i am personally invested in this very question because i've struggled with quite a few things related to improvisation as a classically trained pianist and composer how can you follow all those cues know what's going on based on the context and retain all of that information musically and be able to improvise over it hey nare find something cool that you wrote your thing let's find a cool chunk that we can jam on over the years i've become a lot more comfortable with improvisation yet i'm still a little hesitant to do it sometimes especially in front of other people and sometimes i just have this psychological barrier that i noticed against improvisation just last week i was with a composer friend of mine who asked me to come over to the studio to help him brainstorm some ideas for a little bit of music for picture and because this type of thing is not very straightforward we thought it would be best to improvise together using two keyboards what i remember so distinctly about this very moment was that i was simultaneously very excited to do this and very reluctant to i felt a little uncomfortable self-conscious a little shy of course part of it was probably the fact that i haven't been around musicians like this or in a setting where i'm jamming with someone in a very long time but still i think there's something behind this that i want to explore a little further an analogy that comes to mind is the difference between a very carefully and specifically crafted dialogue between two characters in a play and a conversation between two friends in real life so of course there are some flaws in this comparison but bear with me imagine a person that is only trained to recite shakespearean monologues and dialogues and they are a shakespearean expert that am not shaped for spotted tricks nor made to caught an amorous looking glass i that am rudely stamped even though this is absurd just imagine them not speaking and communicating in any other manner other than shakespearean language to all their subjects are of better person than myself now imagine this person being placed in a living room where there is a conversation happening between two people and then they come over and they say hey how's it going this very moment is quite similar in my opinion to a classical musician going into let's say a jazz jam session or any kind of jam session where there is a spot open for the classical musician to improvise now even if what they're being asked to do is quite simple just improvise on one chord or something like that the musician can be quite stumped just as you would imagine this shakespearean person to be stumped [Music] what am i supposed to say how's it going i know what that is but i'm not trained nor am i used to responding to that and cry content to that which grieves my heart and wet my cheeks with artificial tears another thing that comes to mind is that the typical classical musician is playing all this repertoire throughout their day they're practicing masterworks basically pieces that have survived centuries and are considered the top of its class and so they're used to listening to and performing this sophisticated material and now when they're trying to improvise they have to go back to almost talking like a baby they have to scale back and really start slow and start from a place that is not as sophisticated now at this point similar to learning a new language it's probably rough you're probably struggling just to say a few simple things oh all right i'm sorry just sweet sam huh we damn rick you mess up a lot you feel a little insecure and confused you know because of this discomfort i think a lot of classical musicians like myself back in the day don't feel this huge desire to go beyond that because in general of course we're not used to having people around us and inspiration around us that constantly remind us that there is something about improvisation that will deepen your musicianship it will offer you a very different experience with expressing yourself and being in the moment with being spontaneous and creative all of these different things it's just not valued as much in classical music so naturally you just won't want to get over this discomfort there's not as much incentive and the job description also does not push us to do that it's important to acknowledge that improvisation was actually a much bigger part of the classical music tradition back in the days of bach beethoven chopin list wc up until you know even a hundred years or so ago gradually over time this has changed no longer are performers improvising their own preludes interludes cadenzas full pieces on stage now i think there are multiple factors as to why this has happened some of it include just the very fact that these pieces that composers were writing became much more complex with a lot more moving parts composers wanted to be more specific about what they were writing and what they wanted performers to replicate and there was more of a separation between performers and composers if you think about pieces like large symphonic works with many many parts involved that are tightly woven together it's not really practical to have people improvised there and i think also over time sections that were dedicated for improvised solos were also more specifically written out and this maybe it was because composers just wanted more control or performers wanted to be a little more secure as classical concert tradition became more formal and the stakes became higher i'm not really sure but that just became a thing or rather less of a thing [Music] the point of this video is not to weigh the pros and cons of improvisation but to just remind people out there who are classically trained and have experienced something similar to the things that i have it's okay if you feel a little uncomfortable don't try to force it and also just acknowledge the fact that that point of entry when you are getting started and when you're starting to practice improvisation because that is a huge part of getting better you improve little by little that is the hardest part there are a lot of layers to this as well it's not something very straightforward so it's okay if it's difficult if it's confusing okay now let's turn to my phone where i'm going to pull up some answers to an instagram poll that i just put out i asked if you identify as a classical musician do you improvise and if not what has been stopping you terrified insecure feel like i'm lacking the knowledge to step into that world i enjoy practicing my normal classical music repertoire never found the need to i am a massive jazz fan but it's like speaking a foreign language i haven't mastered thinking about all the brilliant pieces i played every improvisation feels like garbage fear sounding stupid clueless unoriginal cringe-worthy fear of doing something ugly yes i improvise a lot as an organist and baroque continuous all of the organists that i know personally are incredible improvisers so it is alive and well not knowing enough harmony theory not knowing where to start i know too little music theory and there are a lot of answers similar to this i think a lot of people think that they need to know a ton about theory before they get started of course knowing more theory helps but it's not necessarily the case no i get discouraged because i don't know where to start but i would like to start when i improvise i feel like it is the equivalent of a three-year-old speaking no exposure space and training to do it yes i do i always wanted to do it because i think that's a really good way to express yourself when i studied classical music eight plus years it was never an option that teachers allowed now i play jazz no even though i'm all for it i think it's a fear of experimentation so a lot of these are very similar to my experience i want to know now in reverse let me know in the comments what you all think are you classically trained and if so did you experience something similar or not i would love to know and i think it would be great to just start a conversation here thank you to my patrons on patreon thank you so much for your support and thank you all for watching i'll see you very soon [Music]

Channel: Nahre Sol

Views: 237,123

Keywords: classical music, classical music improvise, how to improvise, music history, music psychology, music school, music theory

Id: FOkgrfemsuU

Length: 10min 16sec (616 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 28 2021