Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical What are your biggest challenges when learning to improvise?

I don't listen to the note I just played tell me what note to play next.

Yes, he's such an inspiration. Him and Billy Taylor both actually. John Lewis's style is so matriculate and reserved.
If anyone said "what's jazz piano?", I would instantly mention his name

Right now I can play some scales and arpeggios over chords. My biggest challenge is to make it sound any good

Keeping the voices in my head! ...My approach right now is very much tied to singing. The challenge is not to get too influenced by the changes I play, if that makes any sense.

When I'm away from the piano I sing/scat over any tune and find myself being overly creative. Then comes the time for me to sit and play them...and wosh they disappear. Maybe it has to do with my lack of experience.

I find it helpful to record myself and codify the concepts on the piano, but that's hardly improvisation?

for most people, a couple of the big humps encountered early on are the following:

1. learning to get past limiting yourself to the written changes. Most professional improvisation actually involves reharmonization. When you learn how to reharmonize, your understanding of harmony improves and so do your improvisations.

2. Learning to establish and work around meaningful target tones, the tones that most strongly establish the harmony

3. Phrasing, which basically goes hand-in-hand with #2. Use less to establish more.

4. learning which tones to avoid. Some tones will change the harmony into something you don't intend. Sometimes a particular tone itself will clash; other times it depends on the order in which it is played.