Playing the Changes: Improvising in period styles

Playing the Changes: Improvising in period styles

Jamie Akers – lute, and course leader

In the modern era, improvisation has largely ceased to be considered a component of “classical” styles of music, in which interpretation of a written score is the norm. Historically, this hasn’t been the case and the ability to spontaneously create a musical performance was considered a standard component of a musician’s skill set. Many great composers were also renowned improvisers and used their spontaneous skills as inspiration for their written works. Classical musicians today are often reticent about exploring improvisation perceiving this ability as being somehow “innate” or “inspired.” This course will provide basic tools, skills and strategies to enable anyone to try out and develop their improvising abilities.

The course will begin with simple melodic modal improvisation over a drone, before exploring Renaissance style improvising over a ground bass, leading to a more harmony based baroque approach. The use of structuring techniques and standard patterns will be included along with traditional improvisatory forms like preludes and toccatas. The overall aim being to enable participants to express themselves freely and confidently within the confines of a style.