成人快手

What is improvisation?

Bach, composer playing a double guitar.

Improvisation is a way of making up music on the spot using your voice, musical instruments or everyday objects.

is important when learning to compose music, as it helps you explore ideas in your own musical .

If you have ever made up a story, song or rap then you have already improvised!

Bach, composer playing a double guitar.
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How can we improvise?

Musicians can improvise in all kind of ways. The two most common ways are to improvise with:

Watch: Improvisation game

The best way to learn how to improvise is to have a go.

Katie and Mr Brown are exploring ways you can improvise rhythms. See if you can have a go!

Ruby thinking with some text above that says "Remember?"

You can try playing this game with friends or a family member.

Remember, the important thing is to have the confidence to give it a go!

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How can we use melody to improvise?

Two teenage boys, Ed and Hasan, playing a guitar and keyboard.

To improvise a melody (tune), you'll need either a musical instrument that can play different . A guitar, keyboard, flute or your own jam jar xylophone will work. Or, you can try using your voice.

Two teenage boys, Ed and Hasan, playing a guitar and keyboard.

Watch: Improvising with instruments

Katie and Mr Brown show us an example using xylophones. They have chosen a selection of notes called the to improvise their own melodies.

Ed pointing upwards to some text saying "Try this"

If you don't have a musical instrument, you can use your voice and body percussion to improvise patterns.

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Watch: Using body percussion to improvise

You don't need instruments to be able to improvise. You can use your body and your voice.

Here's YolanDa improvising a short musical composition by using body percussion.

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Which musical styles use improvisation?

A cartoon of Yolan Da holding a Saxophone

Some musical styles and traditions use improvisation to make up whole pieces of music on the spot!

One of the most famous examples is jazz. Musicians improvise to compose new pieces of music together. These pieces aren't written down and change every time they are performed.

A cartoon of Yolan Da holding a Saxophone
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Activities

Quiz

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Bitesize Primary games. game

Play fun and educational primary games in science, maths, English, history, geography, art, computing and modern languages.

Bitesize Primary games
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More on Creating Music

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