How to improve your musical skills/talents?

[Oxymoron Man]

I have been playing the piano for a long time now but I've always have a below-decent teacher who strictly goes through merely arpeggios, scales and pieces for my respective ABRSM grades. I'm on grade 6 now and I have a new teacher and only now do I realise that I should improve my musical skills from a different angle i.e instead of simply going through simple exam pieces with my teacher I should try developing some improv skills.

Can anyone musical please educate me and help me drastically improve my sight-reading skills and improvisation skills so I can aspire to becoming a musician beyond Grade 8? I'm on Grade 4 theory and I must complete grade 5 to do my Grade 6 practical.

I hope someone has some uncommercial advice for this rising musician who just wants to realise his potential and thrive.

Thanks!

 

[Crimson King]

One thing that helped my improv on guitar was learning theory. Once I understood how keys, scales, arpeggios, and such fit into things, then I knew how to do what was fun.

So, start a piece in C# and play chords I-IV-V, which is C#-F#-G#, all major for the sake of this. Now, record a vamping of that, then improvise over it being sure to target the notes of the chord in your soloing. So, you do one measure of C#, one measure of F#, and one measure of G#. This will give you time to really improvise.

Sight Reading is just finding stuff you never heard or played before and playing it on the fly.

 

[CRASHiC]

The best ways to improve on sight reading I find is to play in a workshop, preferably one where you come 1 day, practice all day, come the next, practice all day and at the end of it you play a concert and you haven't seen the piece yet. That's what helped me out the most. Any sort of summer camp can help you out.

Learning how to write music is also a huge help, as your mind learns short cuts in a sort of way as you rewrite the same rhythm over and over throughout your pieces. After a while of that you'll be able to recognize a piece and play it off bat.

Another is play in odd time signatures. If you know how to play at the more exotic of rhyhtms, the normal rhythms will come more naturally.

Being a piano player I can imagine the trouble as you don't have much work with sight reading and working in an ensamble where you are forced to sight read as you must rely on others to produce the music so the group can get a feel for the piece quickly. Perhaps you should play in a String Quintet or something similar. That would probably help you tons.

 

[Palpi]

The best way to improve your sight reading...is to sight read MORE.

 

[FearTheMateria]

ALL WRONG!!! (Except for palpi, ironically... Very short response but entirely true and effective)

Believe it or not, scales and arpeggios improve sight reading drastically; you just hafta read the music while you are doing them or just make sure you are focused on the scales movement.

Also try different patterns with the arpeggios, (Ex: Instead of C E G up the octaves, try C G E up, E C G down or something random)
This will allow you to recognize musical patterns that you have played in the piece you are attempting to sight read.
Also, get a drum/percussion instructional book. That will help your brain lock in complex rhythms in and outside of 4/4 (Like exteremes of 9/4, 9/8, 12/8, and, in a really rare case 14/16) Then apply them to your excercises.

Also, when you practice, take it slowly. If the tempo reads 120 bpm, take it at like 50-75. I am piss poor at sight reading Clarinet, and this helps me get through God forsaken pieces like Procession of the Nobles and Rocky Point Holiday. I can even hammer out the first chunk of Beethoven's Pathetique Mvt. 1 and I am an intermediate pianist at best.

There are also solo song booklets that come with CDs that have an ensemble recording. I used to sight read one piece every week when I was learning Trombone. That helped greatly.

Trust me, I am literate in Guitar, Percussion, Baritone/Euphonium/Trombone, Clarinet, and the Piano; am a music major in Music Theory and Composition, and a firm believer of the word practice. Do it ALOT.

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Why Crimson King is wrong:
Music Theory does not change talent or really aid a music player. It only helps them understand what they are playing. When improvising guitar, knowing the circle progression (I-iii-vi-IV/ii-V/vii*) is fun and all, but does not help sight reading. It helps predict the phrase and nothing more. Also, pianists have much more options chord-wise than guitarists. We strum our C Chord without reguard to whether to leave the bottom string off or not. The pianist has to worry about which keys make more sense with the passage and adjust.

Why CRASHiC is off:
Those music camps are expensive as hell and not everyone gets accepted. Pianists have even more difficult of a time getting in because pianists are all too common. If the request came from an oboeist or a bassoonist with plenty of money in the family, it wouldn't be an issue. Also, sometimes students are neglected as there are really talented musicians that hog all the glory.

However, if one got in to a workshop, it would improve their musicallity.
It's a good option, but not one for everyone...

Good call on the time signatures though; that was right on the money.

 

[Gauthic Von B Schönen]

Find a good group of people to jam with on a regular basis. Afterwards, talk to them about what you should work on?

 

[CRASHiC]

You are thinking of the more upscale things, there are many cheep ones and you can still improve your sight reading there. this was recomeneded to me by a professor of music and professional trombonist Tom Lundburg and it does me wonders.

 

[FearTheMateria]

Well, growing up in a middle class home, I found alot of those out of reach whether because of price, parents working, can't drive, etc.

If the workshop/camp can be found thats accessible and cheap, then yeah, it would help substantially. However, it's a bit more economical to practice scales and such at home and learn that way. With the right willpower, you can get really far.

My suggestion is a compilation of my band director who had a Masters in guitar, my current guitar instructor who has a Doctrate in guitar, my music theory teacher with a Masters in organ, and virtually every other instructor I have had in my musical life. They all say the same thing; Scales, Arpeggios, sight read new pieces.

 

[jugfingers]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDXtVsY7lfM


the song itself is pretty amazing.

but his improvisations are incredible.


but yea just jammin out and having a good time are I think more important than learning how to read music and scales and whatnot.

you may have heard of ronald jenkees

he has pretty awesome improv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuJW7H08HrQ&feature=related

 

[Ajna]

I strongly believe that you are looking at how to improve your improvisational skills all wrong.

When your talking about theory and study and classes I believe you miss the point of improvisation. What you should be working on to improve this is increasing your brain to hand connection. And if you cant think of things that would sound good in your brain.... one would wonder why your choosing the path of music in the first place?

Ponder this,
A cave man was beating on a rock in a way that was sonically pleasing long before some math wizard that liked the way it sounded decided to quantize everything he played by identifying patterns and sequences. The mathematical and literal study of music will only improve your ability to play music that has already been thought up. I believe the key to improvisation is expressing your personal voice on your instrument... you need to not be afraid of sounding terrible at first, and just putting your naked musical self out on the table. It will start to sound better and better- I can almost promise.

Feel free to send me a PM if youd like, I would be more than happy to have a long one-on-one discussion with you to assist you in your improvisational endeavors, and will even send you a few samples of my own if youd like. Good luck!!

 

[FearTheMateria]

O.o...
Hate to brake it like this to those who previously posted. Scales boost improv. Alot. Scales also boost sight reading. Alot. They go hand-in-hand.

Oxy said he wants to get better at improv AND sight-reading. There is no better way to kill two birds with one stone than to work scales and arpeggios in separate patterns/rhythms.

My extra suggestion: Try to get some blues books. The should have some for piano. The pentatonic scales and blues scales have been known to foster improv since its birth. I highly recommend one with sheet music that will guide you through the scales. In Blues they are mostly Major Minor 7th chords anyway.

 

[Oxymoron Man]

O.o...
Hate to brake it like this to those who previously posted. Scales boost improv. Alot. Scales also boost sight reading. Alot. They go hand-in-hand.

Oxy said he wants to get better at improv AND sight-reading. There is no better way to kill two birds with one stone than to work scales and arpeggios in separate patterns/rhythms.

My extra suggestion: Try to get some blues books. The should have some for piano. The pentatonic scales and blues scales have been known to foster improv since its birth. I highly recommend one with sheet music that will guide you through the scales. In Blues they are mostly Major Minor 7th chords anyway.

I practice my scales and arpeggios everyday and have been for the last 3 years and I have good brain-hand coordination but my sight-reading is still mediocre. What am I doing wrong?

 

[Crimson King]

I practice my scales and arpeggios everyday and have been for the last 3 years and I have good brain-hand coordination but my sight-reading is still mediocre. What am I doing wrong?

Are you simply following the pattern or thinking about your scales. When you are playing a scale, figure out where you can go from there if you were playing in certain keys and with certain chords.

Basically, to improv well means to have a consciousness about everything you play without it being a hampering thing.

 

[2001]

There is absolutely nothing that makes up for practice. Just practice, practice, practice.

 

[wiitubeaccount]

practice, and listen to music in your head, yes just with your own mind.

 

[Sucumbio]

Sight reading is in itself a skill that requires a lot of practice. To improve it "drastically" will require you to practice for at least 3 hours a day. Here are some piano books you can try (not sure of your skill level, I'm not from England, and am not familiar with the Grades to which you refer)

-John Thompson Modern Course for the Piano

This series is old school despite its name, lol. It will take you from very basic to moderate through advanced pieces. Its a great compilation of works, and essentially provides you with MORE than enough material to practice sight reading on.

-The Suzuki Method

This series involves a process. The method is to first hear the music played (on cd) while reading the music, then play the music on your own, then repeat until you're comfortable with the music. This has been argued by some to work against site-reading skill, but I always found it useful.

Also check out this site: lots of good resources and tips.

Ultimately you will need to define for yourself a pace, basically figure out what you CAN'T sight-read, and go from there. You wanna start off small, of course. If Twinkle Twinkle is doable, then move up to something harder, or in reverse, start with Moonlight Sonata and if that's too difficult, ramp down. You'll notice that music itself gets harder as time progresses historically, especially in Piano. Bach is a great beginning point, start with Bach's Inventions, the Schirmer Library is excellent for this.

 

[FearTheMateria]

I practice my scales and arpeggios everyday and have been for the last 3 years and I have good brain-hand coordination but my sight-reading is still mediocre. What am I doing wrong?

You just hafta vary your scale. Make it more musical. By doing so, you'll find patterns that will reoccur in actualy pieces. Also, you really should get some good rhythm excercises to go along with your scale playing.

Try this site: http://www.rhythmpatterns.com/

I found this on google. Several complex rhythms. Try applying them to your scales or just clapping them.

WHEN SIGHT READING, REMEBER THIS: RHYTHM IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PITCH OF THE NOTES!!!


If you would like more helpful advice, post here or PM me; i'll hook you up with some info and some specific music books that may help...

 

[Sucumbio]

WHEN SIGHT READING, REMEBER THIS: RHYTHM IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PITCH OF THE NOTES!!!

I agree with this... play -through- mistakes, keep moving always, and play rhythmically correct, even if you miss a note's pitch, you won't be so far off it should make you stop.

learning your scales/arpeggios/chords are essential to sight reading classical music. after awhile you'll start noticing that most of classical music aside from the melody, is filigree, or embellishment, and that's accomplished by playing scales, arpeggios, and playing around with scales/arpeggios (like upside down, backwards, etc., all kinds of patterns). this also trains you so that when a song is in a harder key, you aren't so challenged to "keep up" with remembering which notes are deemed sharp or flat.

also sight reading is difficult for many reasons, but the biggest obstacle for me was left/right playing. I could sight read one hand at a time, in other words, and of course the fewer notes being played at once, and the slower I went, the easier it was... Then you'd get my piano teacher, who'd sit down and play some insane Chopin piece he'd never played before and though would miss one or two notes here or there, basically played it, and correctly.

To get to THAT level, well first you have to be comfortable reading ahead. This is tough also... reading ahead allows you to be playing one measure while scanning the next, so that when you get to the next measure, you can play it in time, accurately, and already be scanning the NEXT measure, and so on. This is HARD. But it'll definitely lead you to success. To practice this, you'll want to find a strong library of classical music that isn't too hard to play, and just play songs one after the other, so as not to let your brain get used to any of them. That way you aren't spending tons of money on books, lol.

 

[Oxymoron Man]

You just hafta vary your scale. Make it more musical. By doing so, you'll find patterns that will reoccur in actualy pieces. Also, you really should get some good rhythm excercises to go along with your scale playing.

Try this site: http://www.rhythmpatterns.com/

I found this on google. Several complex rhythms. Try applying them to your scales or just clapping them.

WHEN SIGHT READING, REMEBER THIS: RHYTHM IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PITCH OF THE NOTES!!!


If you would like more helpful advice, post here or PM me; i'll hook you up with some info and some specific music books that may help...

Thanks for that!

 

[Nintendude]

Honestly I think the best way to improve your sight reading is to just play often and keep learning new pieces. As you ingrain more and more fingerings and techniques into your muscle memory you won't have to slow down drastically / stop as often when you sightread. I suppose a player with very solid technical ability who wants to improve sightreading should find lots of moderately hard pieces to play and just slowly ramp up the difficulty, but honestly I think you are just as well off learning new pieces often.

For improvisation on piano, you need to be really solid on basic music theory. Be able to pick a key and then have the freedom to play whatever chord progression you want without having to think of what notes belong in the chords. Then just try all sorts of chord progressions and make up a melody as you go. I know a few people who are great at improvising on piano and that's exactly what they tell me they do - pick a key, start playing chords, and throw a melody on top.

 

[Oxymoron Man]

Honestly I think the best way to improve your sight reading is to just play often and keep learning new pieces. As you ingrain more and more fingerings and techniques into your muscle memory you won't have to slow down drastically / stop as often when you sightread. I suppose a player with very solid technical ability who wants to improve sightreading should find lots of moderately hard pieces to play and just slowly ramp up the difficulty, but honestly I think you are just as well off learning new pieces often.

For improvisation on piano, you need to be really solid on basic music theory. Be able to pick a key and then have the freedom to play whatever chord progression you want without having to think of what notes belong in the chords. Then just try all sorts of chord progressions and make up a melody as you go. I know a few people who are great at improvising on piano and that's exactly what they tell me they do - pick a key, start playing chords, and throw a melody on top.

What's a chord progression?

 

[FearTheMateria]

In the Key of C: I-IV-V-I or C chord, F chord, G chord, C chord.

There is a circle progression too, but Music Theory classes are best to learn those. I'd say focus more on practice and less on theory. If you practice enough, the theory will be much easier to figure out.

 

[Nintendude]

I don't think learning traditional progressions is necessary. What I meant is developing the ability to come up with and play your own progressions (improvising). Like, for example, play I, V-6, IV-6, V, IV, I-6, (VI), (VII) over and over (it's a cool descending bassline) in whatever rhythm / meter you want, and then just play notes in the soprano line that fit into those chords, eventually trying to come up with some sort of melody. You should obviously start with something much simpler though.

 

[Palpi]

I think the traditional progression really help people recognize music's foundation, but like the guitarist in my band, most people like to think outside of the idea of 'normal.' I mean, they exist for a reason, but I suppose they aren't completely necessary.