Instructor: Jan Overduin
Location: Church of St. John the Evangelist
Time: 11:30-13:30

Note: This course is a two-week session.  Active participants are required to register for and attend both Week 1 and Week 2.

NB:  This course is full for active participants, registration for auditors is still open

The aim of this course is to show the student that improvisation is within everyone's grasp, even those with minimal keyboard skills. To some this might appear like a tiny miracle, but it is achieved by hard work and an encouraging teacher, rather than by chance.

There are reasons why every musician should learn the basics of improvisation. Improvisation is about the full use of the human imagination. The recognition of and training of the ability to "let go" and trust one's creative powers is fundamental to all creative activity, and perhaps to all of life.

Prerequisites are not so much a knowledge of theory and harmony and technical facility at the keyboard, as simply a desire to learn how to improvise, and a willingness to take risks and be musically vulnerable. Everyone can improvise, and should be encouraged to do so at whatever level they are capable. To say you have no talent for it is like saying that you have no talent for reading and writing. The greatest stumbling block is not a lack of musical preparation or pre-requisite music courses, but a lack of confidence, a fear of "letting go" of the safety and comfort of the written score.  We will attempt to make the exercises musically satisfying and also useful to those who are preparing for examinations.
 

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