Taught by renowned pianist
Noam Sivan
Join one of the leading figures in classical improvisation, Noam Sivan, as he demonstrates techniques for developing your skills as an improviser. In this six-part series, Sivan offers tips for inventing a melody, before giving you tools to create your own music on the spot in different historical styles, from Baroque, Classical, and Romantic improvisation to Twentieth Century Modal and Atonal/Sound-Based improvisation.
Improvisation in Music and Life
In this video, join improvisation master Noam Sivan for an introduction to the timeless art of making music on the spot. Sivan demystifies improvisation, sharing key principles that will guide your learning process, as well as describing the many benefits of improvisation. This introductory video features a step-by-step guide to improvising a melody, starting from just two notes and blossoming into a whole phrase. It also showcases the miraculous diversity of music that can be improvised based on a few randomly chosen pitches.
Baroque Improvisation
In this video, join improvisation master Noam Sivan for a close look at improvising in the Baroque style. He explains how to embellish standard harmonic progressions for toccatas and chaconnes, exploiting the possibilities of the various forms of minor as well as demonstrating proper use of passing and neighbor notes. He also provides examples of the many rhythmic possibilities in this style. To conclude, Sivan improvises a complete overture and fugue.
Classical Improvisation
In this video, join improvisation master Noam Sivan for deep dive into improvising in the Classical style. He explains how to craft different versions of an elegant melody to fit the same underlying harmonic progression. His practical, step-by-step approach attends to matters of shape, voice leading, and embellishment. Sivan also describes how to improvise a balanced 8-bar phrase (or extend it!), and how to practice many different realizations of a standard harmonic progression. Finally, he improvises a complete movement in sonata form.
Romantic Improvisation
In this video, join improvisation master Noam Sivan for a close look at how to improvise Romantic music. The first two demonstrations are full-length improvisations over a Chopinesque accompaniment, with commentary explaining the purpose of each new idea in melody, texture, or harmony. Sivan then shows how a common chord progression can be used as the basis for a wide variety of textures and melodic realizations. Finally, he improvises a complete piece in the Romantic style.
20th-Century Modal Improvisation
In this video, join improvisation master Noam Sivan for an in-depth look at improvising music in a 20th-century modal style. Sivan demonstrates this era’s expanded harmonic vocabulary with an improvisation and an explanation of these colorful scales: four of the church modes, and the pentatonic, whole tone, and octatonic scales. Sivan closes the lesson with a complete modal improvisation based on two randomly chosen pitches.
Freely Chromatic and Sound-Based Improvisation
In this video, join improvisation master Noam Sivan for a look at improvising music in a freely chromatic atonal style, as well as sound-based techniques. Sivan explores the concepts and variables which lend meaning and expression to this style: how to vary your melody, build harmonies, and transform the rhythm. He also offers a full complement of extended techniques: strumming or plucking the strings, playing muted strings, and more.
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Unlock Course →Pianist and composer Noam Sivan is is a leading pioneer in the revival of improvisation in the classical music world, improvising fugues and four-movement sonatas in his piano recitals, and has released an album hailed as... “a new marker in the evolution of improvisation.”
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