Piano - what is 'Improvisation'?

Question

I'd like to ask what defines improvisation. I know that it revolves around playing without a score, but is the absence of a score the sole condition for improvisation? If I come up with a piano arrangement of a pop song, practise it on the piano repeatedly to figure out the right chords/inversions to play, without ever producing a music score (i.e. I know what chords to use and how to use them, thereby creating small variations in the music I play each time), does it still count as improvisation? Does the fact that I practise the piece beforehand go against the very definition of improvisation? Thank you!

Answer 1

The key to the definition of improvisation is spontaneity. It is composition that occurs in the moment.

Given an harmonic environment, the improvisor composes and executes an effective musical idea (rhythmic, harmonic and/or melodic).

Answer 2

Perhaps the best way to think of improvisation is "making it up as you go". However, to really understand what's involved I challenge you to improvise a story or poem in a language you don't speak. Go..... Ok, that didn't work. So, yes, improvising is making it up as you go, but if you have no fundamental idea what to say or how to say it you can't improvise. If you listen to improvising musicians play you will often hear a common vocabulary of musical phrases and gestures incorporated into a musical texture. This vocabulary is highly dependent on the genre of music being played as well as the instrument being played. With a good understanding of the grammar of music (music theory), a solid vocabulary of musical phrases (learned by listening to a lot of music) and a ton of practice, you too can improvise. It's a lot like how you learned to speak as a child - you practice sounds, try out words, listen to others, string together words and ideas and after a few years the child is improvising his thoughts into spoken language. Of course, there is always free-form improv as well. And that is, well, more free-form.

Answer 3

I have always though of improvisation as making music your own, or using your own creativity. That can mean playing something in the moment that comes to you. It can also mean looking at a piece of music and adding to it or tweaking what is written.

For example, I play in a band with a guitarist who doesn't read music. Sometimes she'll bring me a lead sheet with nothing but lyrics and chords. I can take those chords and play them arpeggiated, or I can add leading tones, scales, patterns, etc. and that is another kind of improvisation. Or, if I am given a complicated accompaniment for a choir that needs to be able to hear the melody, I can simplify it to make it easier to sing to, and that is another way to improvise.