Improvisation — the highest level of learning?

Here's a Creativity Digest for the 7th July 2024, featuring Joanna García, Forrest Kinney and EPTA UK

Thank you to everyone who has filled out the new reader survey, you rock! You’re a fascinating bunch and you’ve got some very thought-provoking ideas. I’m taking all your responses into account. I am working on one article answering one of your questions right now, with another one coming soon after, and more to come over the summer.

If you’ve not already taken the survey, you can find it below. It’s just 3 questions:

I’ve just finished my last week of full-time teaching before the school summer vacation and, honestly, I’m running on fumes. What has kept me going is my students, who have been so lovely. Several are moving away this year and there have been some really fond farewells. One young man in particular stood out. He has been with me since he came to me as an 11-year old transfer student whose only dynamic was forte. At 18, he’s going off to university, a well-rounded musician and composer, with a taste for Beethoven, boogie woogie and Chopin, and a distinction at Grade 8. It’s easy to take our daily work for granted but it is such a privilege to work with such curious minds over such a long period. It’s the best job I’ve ever had.

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What I’ve enjoyed recently:

The provocative headline for this Creativity Digest is inspired by a post from the wonderful piano teacher and educator Joanna García. She’s great, I really recommend following her.

Here’s the post:

I would imagine that as a subscriber to this site, you agree with Joanna that an absence of creativity in piano lessons is a problem. The question becomes what do we do about it?

What to do?

For some of us, we will want to cultivate our own creativity skills. For that, there are several good resources, but I particularly recommend Forrest Kinney’s Create First books. He’s got a lovely nurturing approach, and he’s created good introductions to creating in a variety of styles.

How to get started with Forrest Kinney's resources

I’ll be reviewing more resources over the coming months.

For other people, we will need to figure out how to integrate improvisation into our lessons. I’m working on an article exploring this topic in more detail, but here are two ideas:

1. Include some brief improvisation when playing scales. The resource below is particularly useful for this:

My most-used elementary improvisation book might surprise you!

2. Take a particular bit of technique from the repertoire they're studying and then get them to make a short improvisation based on that technique with the instruction "play it in different places on the keyboard". I’ll record a video post soon that demonstrates this.

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Good to know:

Forrest Kinney’s July Fundraising Sale

Forrest Kinney Publications (mentioned above) are running a fundraising sale throughout July. There’s 10% off all items in their store, and all proceeds above basic operating costs will be donated to Musicians Without Borders, a charity that works with local musicians and organizations to bring music to people and places affected by war, armed conflict, and displacement.

Piano Creativity featured in EPTA UK’s Piano Professional magazine

EPTA UK kindly gave me 6 pages in the latest edition of their Piano Professional magazine to explore how to use classical pieces from the elementary exam syllabuses as an inspiration for improvisation and composition.

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What’s in my drafts folder:

• a guest post by the wonderful Amie Webster about a lovely creative project to do with students

• a post about how to integrate improvisation into everyday piano lessons

• a review of Piano by Ear by Lucinda Mackworth-Young

• a review of Fake Book Fundamentals by Holly J. McCann

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What I’ve published recently:

Thanks for reading and have a lovely Sunday!