This article about using improvisation to process emotions was written by Stacy Fahrion. Stacy is a composer, pianist and educator who encourages everyone to compose. She recently created a series of YouTube tutorials on improvisation for pianists. In October 2024, Stacy released ‘Alien Dreamscapes in Just Intonation’, an album of pieces for piano and Lumatone that explore various tunings. Stacy’s educational music, including ‘Polyrhythms for Pianists’ and an upcoming ‘Book of Spells’ (for guided improvisation), is available from Piano Pronto Publishing. You can find Stacy on the interwebs as Whimsically Macabre Music.
Sometimes piano students want to use their piano lessons as an emotional outlet, or an escape from the stress of everyday life. If you encounter these students, how do you help them embrace that path?
Intermediate or other older students might want to learn music so they can play flashy pieces and impress their friends. Or maybe they’re envious of a friend who plays piano.
If this is what initially motivates them to learn, great!
However, with time, more competitive motivations may naturally shift to wanting an outlet for personal expression. And this is where improvisation can be a beautiful way to help students develop a deeper emotional connection to the music they make.
Having improvisation as a creative outlet is so important – especially for teenage piano students (read “teenagers” as “all of us”) who may have a lot of intense emotions to process.
Let Go of Sounding “Good”
Among the many reasons improvisation is so helpful is that it can help us let go of feeling like we need to impress other people. It allows us to explore a creative space where everything is allowed.
With this kind of practice, we can let go of striving to sound good and, instead, simply explore.
Pro tip from Colourful Keys: The game ‘Unicorn Horncraft’ is another wonderful way to help students embrace mistakes. Enter your info below, and Nicola’s team will send the game for FREE straight to your inbox.
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Lessons from Painting Rocks
I recently started bringing a few rocks in from our backyard and painting them. I’m not good at painting, and that’s both freeing and irrelevant. Being good at painting rocks isn’t the point.
For many pianists and music teachers, the focus of our own lessons was on continuous improvement. Exploration, or “play”, was not a big priority.
When we’re always striving to get better, it becomes very difficult to appreciate that we are enough just as we are, and be playful in the present moment.
The beauty of painting rocks is that, at least for me, it feels pretty silly if it becomes ego-driven or about impressing anyone. Improvisation is a way to shift the balance so that play and exploration become a higher priority.
Trust in the You of Now
This 4-step process is about trusting that we’re “enough” right now, and that whatever we create in this moment doesn’t need to be judged at all.
One of my favourite Oblique Strategies cards simply says “Trust in the you of now”. That’s our goal with this emotion-based improvisation practice: learn to trust ourselves, listen inwardly and express ourselves authentically from one moment to the next.
Sounding good isn’t the point.
Emotion-Inspired Improvisation
If you’re new to using improvisation this way, here’s an exercise to get you started. Try it by yourself first, then with students. It’s a perfect way to begin or end a lesson.
You can learn more about incorporating improvisation in your lessons at the creativity hub page from Colourful Keys.
Step 1
Close your eyes and sit quietly for about a minute, focusing on your breathing and how your body feels.
What sounds could depict how you feel right now?
For example, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, maybe consider lots of chaotic and dissonant sounds happening all at once. If you’re feeling sad, maybe soft, minor harmonies that swirl around will be in order.
Step 2
Begin making sounds!
Let each sound organically lead to the next. Stay present with how you feel and how your feelings change over time. Allow your feelings to continue directing your improvisation.
Step 3
As you play, notice if your feelings are transformed in any way. Are they becoming more intense, or less so? Let the increase/decrease in intensity or the new feeling guide your improvisation.
For example, maybe now that you’ve allowed yourself to feel sad, the intensity of the sadness has grown. You could reflect this by playing louder, more dissonant intervals.
It’s possible you’re feeling relieved that you’re able to express your feelings, and the sadness has diminished. Allow your playing to reflect this mood shift.
Step 4
At the end, take a minute to reflect on your experience. How did it feel to play in this way? What did you learn? Did you notice any helpful or harmful self-talk while you were improvising?
How did this improvisation go for you?
Try doing this yourself for 5 minutes a day for a week. Modify it in any way that suits you. After a week, you can decide if this is a practice you’d like to continue.
And don’t forget to tell us about your experience in the comments below. 🙂