{"id":42736,"date":"2018-03-01T16:00:37","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T16:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/?p=42736\/"},"modified":"2024-05-10T10:29:35","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T10:29:35","slug":"about-improvisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/","title":{"rendered":"About Improvisation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"postLeadIn\">March is Improvisation Month here at Musical U, and what better way to kick off than with a crash course in the subject? In this episode of the Musicality Podcast, we share how to (and how not to!) improvise, the far-reaching benefits of this skill, and how it ties into the creative essence of being a musician.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Listen to the episode:<\/p>\n<div class='mu_podcast_embed'><iframe style='border: none' src='\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/6302756\/height\/90\/width\/640\/theme\/custom\/autonext\/no\/thumbnail\/yes\/autoplay\/no\/preload\/no\/no_addthis\/no\/direction\/backward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/59638c\/' height='90' width='640' scrolling='no'  allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div class='podcast_subscribe_buttons'><p class='subscribe_cta'>Subscribe For Future Episodes!<\/p>\n    <div class='buttons'><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeitunes' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"apple\");'><i class='fa fa-apple' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Apple Podcasts<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeandroid' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"android\");'><i class='fa fa-android' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Android<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeyoutube' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"youtube\");'><i class='fa fa-youtube' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> YouTube<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribegplay' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"gplay\");'><i class='fa fa-google' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Google Play<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribestitcher' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"stitcher\");'><img src='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/themes\/Divi-MU\/img\/Stitcher-icon.png' alt='Stitcher' class='podcast_icon'>Stitcher<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscriberss' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"rss\");'><i class='fa fa-rss' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> RSS<\/a><\/div>\n    <p class='review_cta'>Enjoying the show? Please consider <a href='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/podcast-review\/' target='_blank' onclick='logPodReview();'>rating and reviewing it!<\/a><\/p>\n    <\/div>\n<h2>Links and Resources<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"shownotes_links\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/musl.ink\/pod31\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">About Transcribing Music<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/musl.ink\/pod21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">About Chord Tones<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/patterns-playgrounds-4-ways-approach-improvisation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Improvisational Playgrounds<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class='podcast_review_cta'><p class='review_cta'>Enjoying Musicality Now? Please support the show by rating and reviewing it!<\/p>\n    <p class='review_button'><a class='cta_button' href='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/podcast-review\/' target='_blank' onclick='logPodReview();'>Rate and Review!<\/a><\/p>\n    <\/div><!-- MU Podcast Schema -->\n<div class='mu_podcast_schema' itemscope itemtype='https:\/\/schema.org\/PodcastEpisode'>\n <div style='display:none;'>\n  <a itemprop='url' href='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/'>\n       <span itemprop='name'>About Improvisation<\/span>\n  <\/a>\n  <div itemprop='datePublished' datetime= '2018-03-01T16:00:37+00:00'>2018-03-01T16:00:37+00:00<\/div>\n  <div itemprop='description'>Improvisation is one of the most useful and sought-after skills a musician can add to their arsenal - get acquainted in this podcast episode!<\/div>\n    <div itemprop='associatedMedia' itemscope itemtype='https:\/\/schema.org\/MediaObject'>\n      <div itemprop='image' href= 'https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/TMP051-About-Improvisation-FI.jpg'>https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/TMP051-About-Improvisation-FI.jpg<\/div>\n   <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<h2>Transcript<\/h2><div class='mu_podcast_transcript'>\n        <div id='mu_podcast_transcript-link-42736' aria-expanded='false' class='sh_link sh_hide'><a class='cta_button mu_podcast_transcript_showhide_link' href='#' onclick=\"showhide_toggle('mu_podcast_transcript',42736,'Show Transcript','Hide Transcript');return false;\"><span id='mu_podcast_transcript-toggle-42736'>Show Transcript<\/span><\/a><\/div><div id='mu_podcast_transcript-content-42736' class='sh-content sh-hide' style='display:none;'>\n        <div itemprop='audio' itemscope itemtype='https:\/\/schema.org\/AudioObject'>\n          <div itemprop='transcript'>\n           \n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Hello, and welcome to the first of a series of episodes on the topic of improvisation. We are celebrating Improvisation Month here at Musical U with the release of new training modules and a full Roadmap to help our members learn to improvise music and here on the podcast we have some terrific interviews lined up with artists and educators who can share deep insights on the topic of improvisation.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been looking forward to this for a while and the team has been hard at work pulling it all together for a fantastic improv-focused month. We\u2019ve actually been helping members learn to improvise in various ways since the start of Musical U &#8211; and that\u2019s because whether or not you intend to improvise in the traditional sense, learning improvisation skills is central to all your musicality.<\/p>\n<p>So don\u2019t tune out if you\u2019re thinking that improvising is just for jazz musicians, or that you never intend to play a solo on stage.<\/p>\n<p>Improvising is fundamentally just about having creative freedom in music. Being able to come up with a musical idea in your head and bring it out into the world. And what musician doesn\u2019t want to have the freedom and confidence to do that?<\/p>\n<p>Today I wanted to kick off our improv-themed podcast episodes by talking about how to think about improvisation &#8211; because there are various schools of thought and approaches you\u2019ll find out there, and if you follow the wrong approach then learning to improvise can be pretty frustrating. And it can reinforce a lot of those wrong assumptions about what improvising means, pulling you away from that true essence: that improvising is about bringing your own musical ideas out into the world, simple as that.<\/p>\n<h2>How <em>not<\/em> to learn to improvise<\/h2>\n<p>So I\u2019d like to share with you the way we explain improvisation in our \u201cApproaching Improvisation\u201d module inside Musical U. First though, let\u2019s talk briefly about the three most common approaches to improvising and why they typically don\u2019t work well.<\/p>\n<p>The first way is what I\u2019d call \u201clearning vocabulary\u201d. This is particularly popular in the jazz world, and the idea is that you learn to improvise by mimicking the licks, riffs and runs of famous jazz musicians. You learn their phrases and build up your stock of improv vocabulary. You have a set of licks you know work over a dominant chord, ones which follow a ii-V-I progression, ones that work in a bebop style, and so on. When the time comes to improvise you pick a phrase or two from your learned vocabulary and that\u2019s your solo.<\/p>\n<p>Well, from the way I\u2019ve described it and the way I talked about the essence of improvising a moment ago you can probably see the downside here: you\u2019re not really coming up with your own musical ideas. It\u2019s a bit like just memorising a phrasebook when you visit a foreign country versus actually learning to speak the language. Now don\u2019t get me wrong, there is absolutely value in studying the greats, and we\u2019ve talked previously on this podcast about the benefits of transcribing solos by ear. But if this is the <strong><em>only<\/em><\/strong> way you approach improvising you will ultimately feel very limited and not really experience any of the true creative freedom which improv should be about.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, so the second common method then is a notch better. This one is particularly popular with blues, rock and jazz guitarists because of the easy connection to fretboard scale patterns. And the method is to learn some rules about what notes work when and then essentially choose your notes at random. With the right scale to match the chord progression and a bit of expressive playing like string bends and good use of dynamics, this can actually sound pretty good. And if you learn to connect with the underlying chords, something we\u2019ll be talking about later in improv month, it can sound quite musical.<\/p>\n<p>The drawback of this method is that it\u2019s \u201cimprovisation by numbers\u201d. You are kind of an improvisation robot, pairing a set of rules with a random number generator and hoping the result sounds good. This is the way I improvised back when I was playing guitar, and it was exciting because I was creating something myself &#8211; but I always felt a bit fraudulent with it because I never knew how it would sound until I played it. So I didn\u2019t really feel like it was truly my creation. So this method works, and you can go quite far with it. But again, it kind of cheats you of the true essence of improvising, where you imagine what you want to create and then bring it out into the world for others to hear.<\/p>\n<p>The final method worth mentioning is the brute force \u201cdo it and do it until it works\u201d approach. Jazz musicians would call this \u201cshedding\u201d, where you go to the woodshed and you just play and play and play until gradually your brain mysteriously learns a deep connection with your instrument and then you can improvise on instinct. This is the romantic story of how great jazz musicians learned to improvise and it sounds a lot cooler than saying they studied the theory, memorised phrases and made careful use of scales and patterns! But clearly there are two big problems here. The first is that it\u2019s a recipe for boredom and frustration. With no structured path to follow you have no idea if you\u2019re making progress or if you\u2019re learning as effectively as you could be. And once you do gain some ability to improvise on instinct it\u2019s an incredibly risky endeavour. If you don\u2019t understand how you do what you do it\u2019s always going to be quite nerve-wracking to improvise because you\u2019re trusting an instinctive ability that could fail at any moment.<\/p>\n<p>So those are the three most common methods for trying to learn to improvise. To memorise vocabulary, to follow strict rules and patterns, or to just play and play and hope you mysteriously gain the instinct for improv. Each of these gets you some way towards true improvisation and each can be useful as part of learning to improvise. But hopefully you\u2019ll agree that none of them sound exactly in line with what improvisation is truly all about.<\/p>\n<h2>How to learn to improvise<\/h2>\n<p>So how do you learn to improvise freely?<\/p>\n<p>At Musical U we teach that true improvisation is essentially \u201cplaying by ear what you imagine in your mind\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The idea being that you can at any time imagine something you\u2019d like to create in music, and then you have the play-by-ear skills to take that sound you imagine in your mind and play it on your instrument for others to hear. And so the process of learning to improvise is at its core very similar to the process of learning to play by ear.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why we\u2019ve already been able to help our members with improvising, even though it\u2019s only this month we\u2019re launching our full Improv Roadmap &#8211; because we\u2019ve had a solid and extensive set of play-by-ear training since day one.<\/p>\n<p>That said, there are definitely some things which make improvising different to playing by ear, hence the need for some new training modules and a Roadmap. And I\u2019d like to share a few of them with you now, so you have a sense of how this approach to learning to improvise can work.<\/p>\n<p>The first core concept is the one I just mentioned: Improvisation is about connecting three things:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><em>audiation<\/em> (meaning imagining music in your mind)<\/li>\n<li>listening, and<\/li>\n<li>playing.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>It\u2019s the combination of those three that create a free improviser, and although in time you won\u2019t need to consciously think through what you want to play before you play it, while you\u2019re learning it\u2019s really helpful to be mindful of these three separate components and work on each of them.<\/p>\n<p>The second big concept is to use constraints and dimensions to create musical playgrounds for practicing improvisation. A constraint might be something like the scale you\u2019re going to use, or a particular rhythmic pattern. The dimensions are then everything else you\u2019re free to vary and experiment with. And the combination of constraints and dimensions creates a little playground where you can freely try things out in the safe knowledge that whatever you play will sound pretty good. We\u2019ve found this provides a really great way for beginners to start improvising in a truly free and ear-guided way without it sounding like a random mess of notes or being so tightly rule-based that there\u2019s no real creativity.<\/p>\n<p>The third big concept is our framework of \u201cPlay\/Listen\u201d and \u201cListen\/Play\u201d. This is a great way to start building up those brain\/ear\/instrument connections in a creative way. It\u2019s too much to really go into now &#8211; but maybe we\u2019ll invite Andrew from the team on to a future episode to share a bit more about how this works. Or of course you can check out the Approaching Improvisation module inside Musical U for full details on everything I\u2019ve been talking about.<\/p>\n<h2>Improvisation is about freedom<\/h2>\n<p>So that\u2019s how we recommend thinking about improvisation. It\u2019s not about memorising other people\u2019s phrases, it\u2019s not about strictly and carefully following music theory rules, and it\u2019s not about blindly playing at random and hoping that years later something will click and you\u2019ll have a magical instinct for improv.<\/p>\n<p>Improvisation is about developing your musical ear to the point where you can take anything you imagine or want to create from your mind\u2019s ear out into the world. It\u2019s the heart of creative freedom in music and whether you use it for traditional on-the-spot improvisation like a rock guitar or jazz saxophone solo, or you use it as the basis to start writing songs or composing, or you become a fully-fledged improvisational artist like Steve Lawson, our Resident Pro for bass, whose entire career is based on improv &#8211; however you want to make use of improvisation, it is an ability that every musician deserves to enjoy as part of their musical life.<\/p>\n<p>I hope this episode has given you some fresh ideas for what learning improv could look like for you, and stay tuned for our next episodes in Improv Month for plenty more inspiration and guidance for your improvisational journey!<\/p>\n<div class='podcast_subscribe_buttons'><p class='subscribe_cta'>Subscribe For Future Episodes!<\/p>\n    <div class='buttons'><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeitunes' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"apple\");'><i class='fa fa-apple' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Apple Podcasts<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeandroid' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"android\");'><i class='fa fa-android' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Android<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeyoutube' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"youtube\");'><i class='fa fa-youtube' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> YouTube<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribegplay' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"gplay\");'><i class='fa fa-google' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Google Play<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribestitcher' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"stitcher\");'><img src='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/themes\/Divi-MU\/img\/Stitcher-icon.png' alt='Stitcher' class='podcast_icon'>Stitcher<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscriberss' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"rss\");'><i class='fa fa-rss' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> RSS<\/a><\/div>\n    <p class='review_cta'>Enjoying the show? Please consider <a href='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/podcast-review\/' target='_blank' onclick='logPodReview();'>rating and reviewing it!<\/a><\/p>\n    <\/div>\n\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n        <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<!-- \/MU Podcast Schema -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Improvisation is one of the most useful and sought-after skills a musician can add to their arsenal &#8211; get acquainted in this podcast episode!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":42767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_ml_titleColor":"#000000","_ml_titleFont":"Roboto","_ml_titleFontSize":1.136,"_ml_titleFontWeight":"400","_ml_titleLineHeight":1.3,"_ml_metaColor":"#708090","_ml_metaFont":"Montserrat","_ml_metaFontSize":0.6785,"_ml_metaFontWeight":"400","_ml_metaLineHeight":0.92,"_ml_bodyColor":"#a9a9a9","_ml_bodyFont":"Open Sans","_ml_bodyFontSize":0.85,"_ml_bodyFontWeight":"400","_ml_bodyLineHeight":1.2,"_ml_wooPriceColor":"#666","_ml_wooPriceFont":"Open Sans","_ml_wooPriceFontSize":0.9,"_ml_wooPriceFontWeight":"400","_ml_wooPriceLineHeight":1.27,"_ml_headingColor":"#000","_ml_headingFont":"Merriweather","_ml_headingFontSize":2.02,"_ml_headingFontWeight":"700","_ml_headingLineHeight":1.47,"_mlglobal_userfontcolors":{"headingColorUser":[],"titleColorUser":[],"metaColorUser":[],"bodyColorUser":[],"wooPriceColorUser":[]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[611,752,11],"tags":[754],"class_list":["post-42736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-improvise-music","category-podcast","category-practice-music","tag-series_improv_month"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>About Improvisation - Musical U<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Improvisation is one of the most useful and sought-after skills a musician can add to their arsenal - get acquainted in this podcast episode!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"About Improvisation - Musical U\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Improvisation is one of the most useful and sought-after skills a musician can add to their arsenal - get acquainted in this podcast episode!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Musical U\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MusicalU\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-01T16:00:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-10T10:29:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/TMP051-About-Improvisation-FI.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christopher Sutton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MusicalU\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MusicalU\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christopher Sutton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Christopher Sutton\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#\/schema\/person\/091906af6ab68cb4ab9fa3c3ec9271c0\"},\"headline\":\"About Improvisation\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-01T16:00:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-10T10:29:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/\"},\"wordCount\":1868,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/TMP051-About-Improvisation-FI.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"series_improv_month\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Improvisation\",\"Podcast\",\"Practice\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/\",\"name\":\"About Improvisation - Musical U\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/TMP051-About-Improvisation-FI.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-01T16:00:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-10T10:29:35+00:00\",\"description\":\"Improvisation is one of the most useful and sought-after skills a musician can add to their arsenal - get acquainted in this podcast episode!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/TMP051-About-Improvisation-FI.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/TMP051-About-Improvisation-FI.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":628},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Musical U\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Podcast\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/podcast\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"About Improvisation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/\",\"name\":\"Musical U\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Musical U\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Musical-U-Logo-1024-tightsq.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Musical-U-Logo-1024-tightsq.png\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":1024,\"caption\":\"Musical U\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MusicalU\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/MusicalU\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCMvINJvCeFbz0tMeTHfKObQ\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/musicalitynow\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#\/schema\/person\/091906af6ab68cb4ab9fa3c3ec9271c0\",\"name\":\"Christopher Sutton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/DualityWall2-sq-looking-right-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/DualityWall2-sq-looking-right-150x150.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Christopher Sutton\"},\"description\":\"Founder and Director of Musical U, Christopher Sutton is a lifelong passionate musician, dedicated to the mission of helping people to achieve their true, full musical potential. Educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (BA) and Queen Mary, University of London (MSc) Christopher founded Musical U (then, Easy Ear Training) in 2009 to pioneer new ways to make musicality training easy, fun and effective. He is the creator of best-selling iOS apps Relative Pitch and SingTrue and the viral sensation ToneDeafTest.com. He has authored hundreds of articles and tutorials on Musical-U.com as well as countless other websites and publications, including Making Music Magazine and Total Guitar Magazine. He is the host of Musicality Now the popular audio\/video podcast focusing exclusively on musicality, where he's had the chance to interview over 100 world-leading experts, as well as sharing his own insights and guidance based on the methodology and frameworks created inside Musical U membership. Learn more about Christopher: \u2022 Meet the Team: Christopher Sutton \u2022 Christopher Sutton on LinkedIn \u2022 Author profile on Making Music Magazine\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/christophersuttonuk\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/author\/christopher-sutton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"About Improvisation - Musical U","description":"Improvisation is one of the most useful and sought-after skills a musician can add to their arsenal - get acquainted in this podcast episode!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"About Improvisation - Musical U","og_description":"Improvisation is one of the most useful and sought-after skills a musician can add to their arsenal - get acquainted in this podcast episode!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/","og_site_name":"Musical U","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MusicalU","article_published_time":"2018-03-01T16:00:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-05-10T10:29:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/TMP051-About-Improvisation-FI.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Christopher Sutton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@MusicalU","twitter_site":"@MusicalU","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Christopher Sutton","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/"},"author":{"name":"Christopher Sutton","@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#\/schema\/person\/091906af6ab68cb4ab9fa3c3ec9271c0"},"headline":"About Improvisation","datePublished":"2018-03-01T16:00:37+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-10T10:29:35+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/"},"wordCount":1868,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/TMP051-About-Improvisation-FI.jpg","keywords":["series_improv_month"],"articleSection":["Improvisation","Podcast","Practice"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/","url":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/","name":"About Improvisation - Musical U","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/TMP051-About-Improvisation-FI.jpg","datePublished":"2018-03-01T16:00:37+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-10T10:29:35+00:00","description":"Improvisation is one of the most useful and sought-after skills a musician can add to their arsenal - get acquainted in this podcast episode!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/TMP051-About-Improvisation-FI.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/TMP051-About-Improvisation-FI.jpg","width":1200,"height":628},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-improvisation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Musical U","item":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Podcast","item":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/podcast\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"About Improvisation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/","name":"Musical U","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#organization","name":"Musical U","url":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Musical-U-Logo-1024-tightsq.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Musical-U-Logo-1024-tightsq.png","width":1024,"height":1024,"caption":"Musical U"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MusicalU","https:\/\/x.com\/MusicalU","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCMvINJvCeFbz0tMeTHfKObQ","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/musicalitynow\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#\/schema\/person\/091906af6ab68cb4ab9fa3c3ec9271c0","name":"Christopher Sutton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/DualityWall2-sq-looking-right-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/DualityWall2-sq-looking-right-150x150.jpg","caption":"Christopher Sutton"},"description":"Founder and Director of Musical U, Christopher Sutton is a lifelong passionate musician, dedicated to the mission of helping people to achieve their true, full musical potential. Educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (BA) and Queen Mary, University of London (MSc) Christopher founded Musical U (then, Easy Ear Training) in 2009 to pioneer new ways to make musicality training easy, fun and effective. He is the creator of best-selling iOS apps Relative Pitch and SingTrue and the viral sensation ToneDeafTest.com. He has authored hundreds of articles and tutorials on Musical-U.com as well as countless other websites and publications, including Making Music Magazine and Total Guitar Magazine. He is the host of Musicality Now the popular audio\/video podcast focusing exclusively on musicality, where he's had the chance to interview over 100 world-leading experts, as well as sharing his own insights and guidance based on the methodology and frameworks created inside Musical U membership. Learn more about Christopher: \u2022 Meet the Team: Christopher Sutton \u2022 Christopher Sutton on LinkedIn \u2022 Author profile on Making Music Magazine","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/christophersuttonuk\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/author\/christopher-sutton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}