This page contains...

1) a “short version” of the introduction for my web-page about Education for Improvising Music.  It's condensed by omitting some parts (and most links), with major omissions indicated by "....." but with some extra ideas [enclosed in square brackets] added, and

2a) photo of a colorized keyboard, so you can see colors (red-blue-green) for the main chords of C Major & A Minor, and

2b) my Original Post with highlighting (colors, bold, italics) that, along with the 2a-photo, might make it easier to understand.

Here is a “short version” of the Introduction:

What?   By working cooperatively with others, I want to help more people — especially K-12 students and seniors, the young and old — increase their enjoying of music by making their own music.

How?   I'm looking forward to working with partners who want to help us achieve shared goals that we think are worth pursuing.  Although I'll be emphasizing the benefits of using a colorized keyboard to make music, this method of teaching (and improvising) should be creatively combined with other methods, in a blend that's better than any single method by itself.

Why?   Emotionally, people enjoy the many ways music is wonderful.  It's fascinating and fun, can be beautiful & dramatic, familiar & mysterious, relaxing & exciting, inspiring us mentally, emotionally, and physically.  Music is one of the best things in life.

Why?   Scientifically, we are discovering the many ways music is beneficial.  Most people, both young and old, get major benefits (mental, emotional, physical) when they listen to music, and also when they make music.  .....{omission}

How?   If you want to improve your making-of-music by creative improvising, you can learn by doing, when you do musical experiments (you try new musical ideas) to produce new musical experiences so you can listen-and-learn.

What?   Most songs (in rock, pop, folk, jazz, classical,...) have a harmonic structure -- you can “hear the structure” in their sequential progression of chords -- that is built on the solid foundation of three main chords.  .....  Musicians usually supplement these main chords with other chords [or extra chord-notes] to add zesty spice, to make their music more interesting.

How?   The notes of these 3 chords — that I informally call “red” and “blue” and “green” [the chords are C (with notes C,E,G) and F (F,A,C) and G (G,B,D)] — are highlighted on my colorized keyboard, to help you make harmonious melodies by playing the notes in a red chord, blue chord, or green chord.  A keyboard that is colorized (how to do it) shows the notes in these 3 chords – red, blue, green – so you can learn how to improvise melodies more easily, and understand music more deeply.  .....

Why?   Below are four reasons to use colors – because of the beneficial effects for music, psychology, and education, plus time-and-life.  .....

why?   What are the musical benefits of using colors?  When a student is doing musical experiments (they're trying new ideas) a colorized keyboard gives them easy-intuitive-instant recognizing of the notes in a “red chord” because all of its chord-notes (no more, no less) are red.  Or they can play the notes of a “blue chord” (every note that is blue) or “green chord” (all that are green).  They will intuitively-and-instantly know the notes in each harmonious chord (red, blue, or green) and this intuitive knowledge helps them connect harmony with melody because they are using harmony to improvise harmonious melodies.  During a chord progression – when the chords are sometimes red, and sometimes blue, and sometimes green – they can improvise melodies that are “mainly red notes” (but with some non-red notes) and “mainly blue notes” and “mainly green notes”.   /   two ways to hear harmony:  When harmonious chord-notes are played simultaneously (to form a chord) and/or sequentially (to form a melody), people enjoy the way it sounds [due to interactions between musical physics and human physiology].

why?   What are the resulting psychological benefits (due to the musical benefits) when they use colors?  It promotes confidence and motivation.  When a student's musical experimenting (their “playing games with the music”) is guided by colors, they will enjoy the experience – because they're making beautiful music with harmonious melodies that sound good – and this positive feedback will help them feel confident ..... and it will improve their motivation.  They will enjoy the music they're improvising, so they will want to continue doing it.  .....

why?   What are the educational benefits of using colors?  These three chords (the “red,blue,green” that are C,F,G aka I,IV,V) are the special “main chords” that are used most often in popular music playing, and are the foundation of standard music theory. .....  Students can develop an improved cognitive-and-functional knowledge of music theory that is cognitive (to understand music) and is functional (to play music). .....

why?   What are the time-and-life benefits of using colors?  When a person is able to focus on playing skillfully in only 2 keys (C Major & A Minor) instead of 24 keys (for major & minor) their specializing allows diversifying and improving.  [But even though they're “playing in 2 keys” they can “hear in 24 keys” – and play in the favorite keys of other instruments – by using the keyboard's transposing feature.]   The colors will help them achieve a desired level of proficiency in less time, and they can use more of their time to also enjoy other aspects of life.  For most people, a major benefit of colors is being able to use time wisely, which is using life wisely because (as Ben Franklin reminded us) “time is the stuff life is made of” so using it well is important.

Here is my First Post on keyboardforums.com but with added highlighting:

teaching harmonious improvising - with a colorized keyboard

I'm CraigRu (Craig Rusbult), an enthusiastic educator who (quoting from my web-page about improvising) "wants to help more people — especially K-12 students and seniors, the young and old — increase their enjoying of music by making their own music."  How?  By combining an old idea with new ideas.   old: All of us learn by doing, when we do musical experiments (try new musical ideas) to produce new musical experiences so we can listen and learn.   new: Using a colorized keyboard can help users improvise harmonious melodies, by showing (with labels - red,blue,green) the notes of the main major chords (C,F,G - the I,IV,V) in C Major, so a player can intuitively see-and-play the notes of a C-Chord (they're all of the red notes - no more, no less) or F-Chord (all blue notes) or G-Chord (all green).

How?  In a progression of learning, students begin by playing only red notes.  Then in a chord progression they might (as one possibility among many) play only-red for awhile, and only-blue, only-green, only-red, with “I-IV-V-I”.  Soon the “only” becomes “mainly” when I ask them to alternate times of mainly-red (not only-red), mainly-blue, mainly-green.  During a time of “mainly red” their melodies will be mainly red notes (C,E,G) but also some non-red notes that are in-scale (white - D,F,A,B) and out-of-scale (black) being used as passing-notes between chord-notes.  Sometimes I play a “mainly” melody to illustrate, perhaps playing slowly while explaining what I'm doing, to serve as a model for possibilities they can explore.  I encourage them to use musical imagery by “thinking classical” or “thinking blues” -- so their “chord melodies” will include short “scale melodies” that tend to be mainly-diatonic (mainly white notes) while “thinking classical” and also-chromatic (using black notes more often) while “thinking blues” -- and to just enjoy being musically creative, trying new ways to play.

I'm hoping students will discover the joys of improvising, like I did.  As described in the "personal history" part of my page, "While playing trombone in high school, my experiences were enjoyable but shallow, with very little thinking or experimenting.  I simply played the pre-composed music that was on the sheet music in front of me."  During college, I listened to a lot of music but didn't play much.  Then "after moving to Seattle in 1970 for graduate school, I began playing self-composed music.  At first, with trombone I played along with songs I had tape-recorded (from vinyl or radio) or was hearing on the radio. .....  The next summer, jam sessions with Harold & Charlie (playing clarinet & trumpet) included improvising with songs (especially Dixieland Jazz) and with 12 Bar Blues, a chord progression they taught me.  I was fascinated by the elegant beauty of this chord progression, and I enjoyed the process-and-result when we used this framework for improvising.  Even though I didn't understand much about 'the theory' (just knew the basics), what I knew was enough.  I recognized that by using music theory we could create interesting music, and it was fun."

more about chords:  My colorizing also includes the minor chords in the key of C Major (Dm,Em,Am - ii,iii,vi - red,blue,green) that are the main chords of A Minor (Am,Dm,Em - i,iv,v) so in addition to chord progressions with major chords (like "I-IV-V-I" and 12-Bar Blues) they can play "I-vi-IV-V" (50s) and "I-V-vi-IV" and others.  For these topics and others, many details are in my web-page.  {a later post will have excerpts from its introduction, and a link to it}

and more about me:  I have a PhD (in Curriculum & Instruction) from U of Wisconsin, my second UW.  Throughout life I've had fun with music, have learned a lot about it, enjoy listening and playing.  But compared with most of you in this forum, my overall music-playing skills are much lower than your skills.  And my main interest is music education.