Improvising Music – a Summary Page

I recommend beginning my contributions to your musical journey with these two pages:

• the Introduction is a “why-page” that describes the benefits of playing a colorized keyboard, and

• this Summary Page is a “how-page” to help you improve your musical skills when you improvise melodies with a keyboard or (using similar melody-making strategies) another instrument.  It summarizes the Full Page in fewer words, so you can get a quick “big picture” overview of the main ideas, plus the most important details.  And whenever you want more details, or an explanation that's more thorough, click a link for “more” in the Full Page or in my Big Page (with extra ideas & details) or its short Introduction.     { I originally wrote long, and then made it shorter, as in this page. }

  Also useful are...

• Videos from Other Teachers (about understanding-and-inventing Chord Progressions and Chord-Based Melodies),

• Backing Tracks for Chord Progressions so you can play along and improvise your own semi-harmonious melodies,

• Keyboards with Lighted Chord-Notes for “scaling up” from individuals to a larger-scale keyboard lab or class, in a school or facility.

The Introduction explains my What — "I want to help people... increase their enjoying of music by making their own music" — and Why, because "music is wonderful,... is one of the best things in life," and "music is beneficial,... with most people getting major benefits (mental, emotional, physical)... when they make music."     {more} and more

the benefits of playing a colorized keyboard:  An electronic keyboard is excellent for playing melodies.  And colorizing adds many benefits (musical, educational, psychological, time-and-life) for playing music (with intuitive recognizing of chord notes - red or blue or green - for playing harmonious melodies) and learning music theory (with the musically-logical visual structure of its colors);  and it's time-efficient — if you don't invest lots of time in difficult two-hand playing, and if you “specialize” in one key to thoroughly explore it and skillfully play it — so you'll have more time to also enjoy other things in life, in addition to music.

learn strategies for making melodies:  You can learn melody-making strategies (that are used by most musicians, are based on principles of harmony, using colorized chord-notes) by reading my explanations, and by doing musical experiments (trying new musical ideas) to produce new musical experiences so you can listen and learn.   /   options:  If you want immediate action, skip ahead to doing experiments.

the most important chords:  Most songs (in pop, rock, jazz, classical,...) have a harmonic structure built on the foundation of three main chords.  The notes of these chords are highlighted (with red, blue, and green) on my colorized keyboard, to help you play harmonious melodies that feature the notes of a red chord, blue chord, and green chord.     {more}

harmonious chords and harmonious melodies:  Both harmonies – in chords and melodies – are combined in the “full music” of a chord progression.

the benefits of music theory:  This page has minimal music theory, only what will be immediately useful.  But other ideas-about-music will be eventually useful.     { You can learn a little more in the final sections of this page. }

understand melody-making strategies:  You can play music better when you know music better, when you understand the melody-making strategies – based on principles of harmony – that often are easier to “see” and use with a colorized keyboard.  You can learn in two ways ( • • ), from your discoveries and my explanations.  To begin learning, first...

• discover patterns in the colors:  Study this colorized keyboard, and find patterns.  Does each color have the same pattern?   /   Then read my explanations for...

• the patterns of three chords:  The same basic patterns (LOW high high) occur in the red notes, blue notes, green notes.  Each is a chord pattern with the “every other note” spacing (LOW-high-high, 1-3-5) of a red chord (aka C-Chord) or blue chord (F-Chord) or green chord (G-Chord).  All of the Red LOW's – they're special, with a white dot – are “Home Notes” when you're making melodies in The Key of C Major.   /   These three notes (Low,high,high - 1,3,5) are the triad notes that produce the consonant chord.   /   You can discover the logic of important details — like why the red,blue,green chords are C,F,G chords — by studying this diagram (noticing that each 1-Note is a C) and then reading my explanation for the simple translations between my colors and standard letters & numbers.

the benefits (for music & time) of specializing:  With a colorized keyboard, you specialize in one key — creatively doing a wide range of experimenting in this key, to explore it widely & deeply — and quickly develop your musical skills in this key.   But even though you're “playing in 1 key (C Major)” you can “hear in 12 keys (all major keys)” by having your keyboard do transposing.  Of course, using your time effectively is important because (as Ben Franklin wisely advised) "do not squander time, for it's the stuff life is made of."     {more}

people hear two harmonies:  When red notes (or blue notes, or green notes) are played simultaneously – to form a chord – this produces (because we hear the interactions between notes) pleasant simultaneous harmony.  And when red notes are played sequentially – to make a melody – this produces (because we remember the notes) pleasant sequential harmony.     { Full Page }

people enjoy two harmonies:  We enjoy both kinds of harmony, and our music (folk, country, pop, rock, blues, jazz, classical) combines both harmonies in the satisfying “full music” of chord progressions.

our music uses chord progressions:  Most musicians think playing melodies during a Chord Progression – using the most common chords (the red & blue & green) plus others – is the best way to make music that is interesting (due to chord changes during the progression) and is enjoyable (due to hearing the two harmonies we enjoy) because it combines simultaneous harmony (in chords) and sequential harmony (in melodies).

keyboard colorizing is designed for chord progressions:  I teach (and play) with a colorized keyboard because it's very useful for playing harmonious melodies during a chord progression that is "the best way to make music."  Improving this important skill is the ultimate goal when you play 1o-and-1m during 2cp:

1o – play melodies with only chord notes.  Play melodies that are only-red (using only red notes, only the “LOW high high” notes of a red chord).  After awhile, play only-blue melodies (with only blue notes),  then only-green melodies (with only green notes).

When you use only chord notes, everything you play will sound good.  But even if you're playing creatively (going up-and-down with reversals, skipping notes, using rhythmic variety) soon you will want to...

1m – play melodies with mainly chord notes.  Play melodies that are mainly-red with mainly red notes, and (to make your melodies more interesting) also some non-red notes.  After awhile shift to playing melodies that are mainly-blue, and then mainly-green.

But no matter how well you play 1o (with either red, or blue, or green) or play 1m (with either red, or blue, or green), due to the “either-or” your music will be limited.  It will be MUCH more interesting-and-enjoyable when each "or" becomes "and", when you...

2cp – play melodies (during a chord progression) that alternate between times of only-red/mainly-red and only-blue/mainly-blue and only-green/mainly-green.

How?  Below you'll find melody-making strategies to improve your improvising of harmonious melodies with 1o-and-1m during 2cp.     { memory tricks for 1-2 and o-m-cp }

Strategies for Making Melodies and for Learning

To improve your musical skills, "learn melody-making strategies... by reading... and doing musical experiments."  In this page the main focus is Strategies for Making Melodies (during a Chord Progression), but you can learn these Strategies more effectively by using Strategies for Learning that in this context are Strategies for Learning Strategies.     { Full Page }

two related kinds of learning:  In this page, learning music means understanding better and playing better, by improving your cognitive-and-functional knowledge that is cognitive (to understand music) and is functional (to play music).

a “learning strategy” for reading:  Read for awhile, then play for awhile — to actualize the strategies and hear the melodies, to integrate the strategies into your playing so you're playing better — and then read again, with stop-and-go-reading.

All subsections – and especially those in a box with light-gray background – are “optional reading” so browse thru the options and choose what you want to read-and-integrate now, or delay until later.  You don't have to learn it all now, and "sometimes it can be productive to just relax and have fun."

two general Melody-Making Strategies

An important general Music-Making Strategy is using a chord progression.  While you're using this strategy, two general Melody-Making Strategies are to make melodies artistically (so they're interesting and enjoyable) and – as one way to pursue musical artistry – to match harmonies (so your melody-harmony matches each chord-harmony).     { Main Page }

In the first of many melody-making strategies (symbolized by ⊙), it's extremely useful to...

⊙ match the harmonies:  During a chord progression (in 2cp) the harmony often changes — it can be a red chord or blue chord or green chord (or another chord) — and to “match the harmony” you make your melody-harmony match the chord-harmony by playing a “red melody” during a red chord so you're cooperating with the harmony, and playing a “blue melody” during a blue chord, and a “green melody” during a green chord.   /   Musicians usually aim for partial matching (instead of total matching) because non-chord notes...  • give us extra options for making our melodies interesting, and   • lead to some harmonic dissonance, in melodies that are semi-harmonious;   both •'s are useful for producing artistic mystery.

Two strategies for learning (symbolized by ⊡) are to...

⊡ improve your 1o-and-1m and 2cp:  You can use both ways of playing to pursue an ultimate goal of improvising harmonious melodies during a chord progression, 2cp.  To pursue this goal, what is the best way to begin?  I don't know.  There are musical reasons to begin by focusing on 1o-and-1m, but also on 2cp, so you should do BOTH.  Although I first will describe strategies for 2cp (to improve your skills while “mixing the colors” during a chord progression), you also can be doing strategies for 1o-and-1m (to focus on improving your skills with each isolated color) that soon follow.  A learning strategy for “doing both” is using cycles of Whole-Parts-Whole with the Whole (2cp) and its Parts (1o-1m).

⊡ begin 2cp with simplicity:  When you're learning how to match the harmonies (especially during an unfamiliar chord progression) I think it's best to begin with the simplicity of 1o by using only chord notes, playing melodies with only-red & only-blue & only-green.   After awhile, do 1m by also using non-chord notes, to make your melodies more interesting (and often easier) with mainly-red & mainly-blue & mainly-green.

two kinds of knowledge and two ways to learn:  You can learn cognitive-and-functional knowledge of music (to understand-and-play music) from your discoveries (in a playing activity △, and by thinking) and my explanations (by reading about a melody-making strategy ⊙, or learning strategy ⊡).   You can learn both kinds of knowledge (cognitive & functional) in both ways, from discoveries and/or explanations.  Each way to learn can be effective and fun, so this page includes both.  I often will encourage you to first discover, and then I'll explain, as below when you can learn from your discoveries and my explanations.     {more}

LEARN from your discoveries:

The next two musical activities (△'s) are two ways – by playing free and playing along – to improvise melodies during a Chord Progression in 2cp.

△ by playing free:  Play simple melodies using only chord notes, to do red-1o (playing only-red melodies), then blue-1o (only-blue melodies), then green-1o (only-green melodies);  or use chord notes plus non-chord notes, to do 1m's.   After awhile, do a 2cp by rhythmically “alternating the colors” to form a chord progression of red-blue-green-red.  (or red-blue-red-green)     {more}

△ by playing along:  Play a 2cp in a different way — to produce “full music” that combines two kinds of harmony (sequential and simultaneous) — when you play along with a video.   How?  Here are some...

     strategies for using videos:  • When you're learning how to “hear the chord changes” during a progression, a useful two-stage strategy for learning is to just watch-and-listen but don't play,  and then (when you know the changes) just listen-and-play but don't watch, playing melody-harmonies that match the chord-harmonies.     • To make a short video longer, do right-click and "Loop",  and adjust the tempo (click “gear” icon) so it isn't too slow or too fast, is comfortable for you.    • Explore the options for chord progressions (simple, blues, 50s, 1564, jazz,...) and find those you enjoy.    • It's easy to translate between letters & numbers (in videos) and colors (on keyboard, for playing & thinking).
     A yellow background shows that it's a strategy for learning.

⊡ play “chord progression melodies” in two ways:  People hear two kinds of harmonies so during a chord progression you can “play the chord changes” in two ways, with free playing when you're playing melodies (with different “colors”) by yourself, and by playing along when you're playing melodies (with different “colors”) while hearing chords (of different “colors”) being played by other musicians (with a video or with people) to produce the “full music” of a chord progression.     {more}    /    also:  You can do free playing of “only chords, without melodies” to make harmonious chords (in Stages 3a, 3b, 3a+3b) by using systematic strategies for experimenting to explore a wide variety of possibilities, with results summarized here.

You also can...

LEARN from my examples

⊡ use my examples to learn melody-making strategies:  My melody-examples are intended to be useful for teaching (for goal-directed education) by showing how musical strategies can be used to make artistic melodies that are interesting-and-enjoyable.  Each melody is a goal-directed Aesop's Melody that (analogous to an Aesop's Fable) is designed to teach a melody-making strategy, ⊙ , that you can use to improvise your own melodies.

△ three kinds of playing:  During a playing activity (△) you can invent your own melodies, or play my melody-examples, or do both when you play my example and “extend it beyond my ending” with your own improvisations.

△ You probably have been discovering melodies like “135_468_579_851_” with a rhythmic structure of four 4-beat bars and a 16-beat phrase.  Play this melody and listen.  Even though each 3-note melody is simple, the overall result is musically complex because 2cp (with chord changes) is inherently more complex than 1o (without chord changes).  Two other melody-examples are “135_648_9752158_” and “5318648675978531”.  What melody-making strategies do you see in these three Aesop's Examples?

use Melody-Making Strategies

to improvise melodies that are

mainly-red (instead of only-red)

or mainly-blue or mainly-green.

When playing along with an unfamiliar chord progression, I think it's usually best to "begin with the simplicity of using only chord notes" in your melodies, and then move onward to "also using non-chord notes, to make your melodies more interesting with mainly-red & mainly-blue & mainly-green.

△ While you're improvising mainly-red melodies, you probably will be...

⊙ using three kinds of melodies:  To make melodies that are mainly red, usually you mix brief times of chord-melodies (with only red notes) and scale-melodies (initially with consecutive white notes, and later by also including black notes), plus occasional skip-melodies (they're “anything else” that isn't a chord-melody or scale-melody).     { Full Page }

my terms and our strategies:  Although my terms — like melodies that are only red or mainly red, plus chord-melodies & scale-melodies & skip-melodies — are not used by other musicians to describe melodies, our strategies are the same when we improvise melodies.  The melody-making strategies that we all use can be described with my terms, and their terms.*  In this way and others, my unconventional “colorizing” leads to conventional music theory and mainstream music playing.     { * In common musical language, my chord-melody is called an arpeggio, and a scale-melody is just a scale. }    /    Due to these musical sharings, you can...

⊙ hear our strategies actualized in melodies:  Many videos teach melody-making strategies – the same ones I teach, so they're our strategies – and illustrate the strategies with example-melodies.*  You can listen to their melodies for inspiration & motivation, and to learn from their teaching and playing.     { * some sections link to tais-videos that teach-and-illustrate strategies }     { more, including videos for other purposes }

You'll be developing skills with our strategies when you...

△ Play mainly-red melodies in any way you want.   /   Or use a structured progression of explorations, to focus on creatively using each “kind of melody” and improve your skills with each:  first play only chord-melodies;   after awhile, play only scale-melodies with consecutive white notes (or include some black notes);   then mix chord-melodies with scale-melodies;   then play these two and add skip-melodies.

⊡ improve your skills with each chord-color:  Why?  So you can improve your skills during each part of a chord progression, 2cp.   How?  To pursue this goal, one useful Strategy for Learning is doing cycles of Whole-Parts-Whole.  You can do a 2cp-Whole (a progression of chords with red,blue,green) either by playing free or by playing along with a multi-chord video for the 2cp (with chords of red,blue,green,...);  then do its 1m-Parts in either way, by playing free or by playing along with single-chord videos for each chord (to do red-1m & blue-1m & green-1m), using non-rhythmic drones for playing free and rhythmic vamps for playing along.  Then, again do a 2cp-Whole after improving each of its 1m-Parts.     { Full Page }

As usual, learn from your discoveries (above) and my examples:

△ play chord-melodies:  Three earlier melodies have 16-beat phrases.  Or with 8-beat phrases, 13553585 and 5315358_ .

△ play scale-melodies:  e.g. 567898765 and 345654321 and 345432101.     { chord-melodies in basslines;  scale-melodies can use the extra non-triad note in a 7th chord }

△ combine chord-melodies and scale-melodies:  e.g. 1354321_ and 31358765.  /   tsi-videos from Trinity College (1:32) - Anthony Couch (13:10) -

△ improvise extensions of my melodies:  In 1354321_.... and 31358765.... each "...." is a reminder that you can extend all melodies (these and others) beyond my "...1_" or "...65" by improvising and/or composing for 8 extra beats or more, doing experiments that produce new experiences.

△ ignore my range-limits:  Move beyond a range of 10 notes (0123456789) with lower notes and higher notes, e.g. (with translations of numbers & letters) expanding to “FGA0123456789efg” – aka “FGAB1234567cdefg” – and beyond.

⊡ enjoy playful playing:  If you're matching harmonies during a chord progression, whatever you do will sound good (with only chord-melodies), and often (especially when you add non-chord notes) very good.  So sometimes just relax and playfully play in any ways you want, just having fun with the music instead of thinking about strategies.     { regulating metacognition }

△ also play skip-melodies:  When you add these to your chord-melodies & scale-melodies you'll be combining three kinds of melodies.  For example, 135875431.... and 135875423....   /   In a fun game of exploration-and-discovery, take time to alllow creativity while you're trying many other ways – that are not 31 or 23 – to play the final two notes (and beyond), trying different intervals between notes so you can hear the mini-melodies and learn from your experiences.   /   also, 1354301_ and1354201_ and 1354021_ (all with the same 4-note beginning) plus 1356423_ .   /   The full paragraph shows that often a “    -melody” (filling the      with chord, scale, or skip) is just a “melody fragment” that is very short.

⊡ use melody-making strategies effectively:  How?  Effective “strategies for using strategies” are different for free playing (without external rhythm) and playing along (with external rhythm).  But during both ways to play, melody-making strategies can be heuristics (defined as ways of "helping to learn, guiding in discovery") that stimulate-and-guide your exploring of possibilities when you're wondering “what else can I do, to make my melodies more interesting and enjoyably artistic?”     { two kinds of heuristics – improvising while thinking and not-thinking }

△ During a chord progression, play melodies (with different “colors”) either by yourself or while you're hearing chords (of different “colors”) when playing along with videos.

a reminder about a strategy for reading:  You can read the sections – with a variety of topics – in any order.  Look at titles, skim thru sections, make choices.

⊡ improve 1m's to improve 2cp,

in cycles of Whole-Parts-Whole:

What?  To improve your improvising of melodies during a chord progression, a useful learning strategy is to alternate times of doing the Whole (in 2cp) and its Parts (in 1m's by using melody-making strategies to artistically combine chord-melodies & scale-melodies & skip-melodies).

How?  During a 1m you fully focus on single-color melodies during a red-1m (playing long mainly-red melodies) or blue-1m (for mainly-blue melodies) or green-1m (for mainly-green melodies) or a minor-1m (for mainly-minor melodies during the minor chord of many common progressions) or (in a few progressions) another-1m for another kind of chord.

Why?  Because although all colors have the same isolated chord-note patterns (of “every other white note”), each overall pattern is slightly different due to the “visual context” provided by black notes, and some visual cues (used for choosing notes) are slightly different.   /   You can hear an important difference by playing a five-note major scale starting on 1 (it's 1-2-3-4-5) and then starting on 4, because to sound “the same” (to sound “melodically analogous”) you must play 4-5-6-7b-8 instead of 4-5-6-7-8, where 7b is 7-flat.

How?  By enjoying everything you do.  Although 1m has a goal-directed purpose — to reach the destination of enjoying improved playing in 2cp — you also can enjoy (as I do) the journey, when the simplicity of 1m lets you fully focus on creatively using the notes (red, blue, green, or minor) of a single chord.

How?  Because people hear two harmonies, you can do each 1m two ways, either by playing alone or by playing along with a video.

What?  After you “take it apart” to improve your skills with separate 1m-Parts, you “put it back together” by combining the Parts into a 2cp-Whole when during each chord you are making your melodies match the chords.  You continue these actions (taking apart, putting together) in a continuing cycle (of Whole-Parts-Whole-Parts-Whole-...) that helps you improve your musical skills.

How?  During each kind of 1m (red, or blue, green, minor) you have increased the quality for that kind of melody (mainly red, or...) while you're playing long-melodies.  Then you try to maintain this higher quality in the shorter-melodies (mainly red, or...) that you play during each chord (red, or...) of a 2cp progression.     { This is analogous to a trumpet player increasing the quality of their tone while practicing long-tones, and then maintaining this higher quality during the shorter-tones of regular playing. }    {more}

playing along with videos

How?  During cycles of Whole-Parts-Whole you can...

⊡ use videos for the Whole:  Do Whole-2cp in two ways, with only you playing, and by playing with others, either in person or with videos that are backing tracks – with rhythm and harmony but no melody – so you're free to improvise new melodies, not an old melody or variations of it.   For whole-2cp, use a multi-chord video and learn how to intuitively know the chord progression when the chords are only major {simple, blues,...} or major-plus-minor {50's, 1564, jazz,...}, at a tempo you choose.

⊡ use videos for each Part:  You can do 1m (a 2cp-Part) with only you playing.  And by playing with others, by either playing free {why is this impossible with 2cp?} or playing along, using two kinds of single-chord videos.  For 1m, you can play along by using a rhythmic single-chord vamp (for a red chord or blue chord or green chord or minor chord) at different tempos.  Or for 1m with free playing, use a non-rhythmic single-chord drone (for a red chord or blue chord or green chord or minor chord).   /   Or decrease a vamp's tempo, for a “hybrid experience” – with more time (for creative freedom) plus rhythmic feedback – so you'll get some benefits of both ways to play.

    You've been playing major-chord melodies far more often than minor-chord melodies, so it can be especially useful to...

⊡ use videos for minor chords:  These chords occur in the most common progressions, using A Minor (in 50's & 1645) or D Minor (in jazz).  You can hear them in videos for whole-2cp (for 50s - 1564 - jazz);  and also for 2cp-parts in rhythmic vamps (for A Minor or D Minor) and non-rhythmic drones (for A Minor or D Minor).

⊡ use other kinds of videos:  Expert music teachers have made videos for many purposes, and two of these — to teach & illustrate our strategies for making melodies and for using functional harmony in chord progressions — are featured in my page with Educational Videos.

colorizing for Major and Minor:  On my colorized keyboard, the red-blue-green Circles (in two lower rows) are for notes of Major Chords, and red-blue-green Bars (in two upper rows) are for notes of Minor Chords.  You can...

△ discover patterns in the colors:  Search for patterns in the red, blue, and green.  Compare the patterns for Major Chords and Minor Chords.  Are they similar?  exactly the same?   /   Then continue reading.

△ understand the pattern-similarities:  Compared with the white-note patterns for the key of C Major (circles), the patterns for A Minor (bars) are identical — Low high high, with “every other white note” spacing — for all chord notes (red, blue, green), except all patterns are shifted leftward by 2 notes (or rightward 5 notes) because the home-notes (with white dots) change from C to A.  On the keyboard below the home-notes are 1 and 8 for C Major, are A and 6 for A Minor.   /   These chord patterns — in C Major and its relative minor of A Minor — form the foundations of music theory and music playing in these two keys, and (with transfer of concepts “by analogy”) to other keys.     {more}

. After you have discovered the patterns, continue reading my explanations.  Then continue reading (for quick explanations) or (if you want "clues" that point toward your discoveries) read the full section

△ discover the pattern-differences:  Although white-note patterns are identical for Major and Minor, the overall patterns are not the same, due to differing “context of black notes”.   /   options for timing:  If you want “more discovery” now, first read the full paragraph or (for quick answers) go directly to my explanations.  The main differences in overall patterns produce the important differences in sounds when you...

△ compare major & minor melodies:  Play mainly-red melodies (featuring red Circles) in C Major, using 1 and/or 8 as a home-note(s).  Compare this with “the sound” when you play mainly-red melodies (featuring red Bars) in A Minor, using A and/or 6 as home-note(s).   /   Four example-melodies for A Minor are 68X9876_ and 643121A_ and 6532123568756___ and A13687643120A___ .   /   A blending of major-and-minor occurs when you play some black notes in “blues” melodies, and when minor chords are used in major chord progressions.     { more about these two ways to combine major-and-minor }

△ compare major & minor chords:  Play chords of C Major (with simultaneous playing of 1-3-5) and C Minor (with 1-3b-5) where 3b is 3-flat, listen and compare the difference in sounds;  then play only two notes, 1-3 and 1-3b.  Also compare chords in two other inversions, 3-5-8 vs 3b-5-8, and 5-8-X vs 5-8-Xb.     {more discovery-experiments}

This part of the page – about strategies for learning – has a yellow background so you'll know “where you are” in the page, to help you make choices about reading.

⊡ free playing and playing along:  It's useful to sometimes “play freely” (without external rhythm or harmony) and sometimes “play along” (with external rhythm and/or harmony) because each way-to-play produces distinctive kinds of experiences.  Each is useful in different ways, so learn in both ways by alternating between them.  When you are playing freely (with no external rhythm “pushing you to go faster”) you'll feel free to play slower, using more time to creatively explore new ways of playing.*  When you are playing along (with external rhythm for rhythmic feedback), this disciplined practice helps you improve rhythmic skills.  Use different kinds of videos for each way to play, including a hybrid (with slow rhythm) to get some benefits of both.     { * escape from the ruts of familiar habits by trying new ways to play, decrease limits to increase creativity }

⊡ maybe connect improvising and composing:  The mental-and-physical actions of improvising and composing (with both aka making, playing, inventing, creating, designing) are closely related.  We can view improvising as real-time composing, and composing as slow-motion improvising.  Also, with composing there is a preserving of musical results (as with 0123456789 for my melody examples) so the musical composition can be reproduced later.  It's "maybe connect" because you may never want to convert your improvisations into compositions.  But if you do, conversions can be done with stop-and-go free/slow playing when you play, stop to record, play, stop,...;  or play faster, and record your improvisations so you then can listen-and-preserve.     { hearing music and making music with pre-composed & self-composed }

⊡ use two kinds of heuristics:  A melody-making strategy can be used as a heuristic (defined as a way of "helping to learn, guiding in discovery") to stimulate-and-guide your exploring when you ask “what else can I do?”  This is especially useful for free-and-slow playing, but also while playing along.   /   Another definition for heuristics – "mental shortcuts that allow people to... make judgments [about note-choices while making melodies] quickly and efficiently" – is mainly useful for improving rhythmic continuity (melodic continuity) when playing along.   /   An example of "two kinds" is when you...

⊡ use two definitions for skip-melody:  A simple definition – it's “anything else” that isn't a chord-melody or scale-melody – may encourage you to have fun and be freely creative, with minimal thinking, while playing free or playing along.  And defining it with more precision — as two (or more) non-consecutive notes when one note (the first or second, being skipped-from or skipped-to) is a non-chord note — can stimulate thinking about possibilities for new melodies;  this tends to be more useful during free-and-slow playing.

⊡ use a Learning Objective and/or Performance Objective:  When you want your best possible performance now, you have a Performance Objective.  When you want your best possible learning now, so you can improve your best possible performance later, you have a Learning Objective.   /   questions to stimulate thinking-and-discovery:  For a basketball team, what are the objectives for an early-season practice, and late-season tournament game?   Why is "and/or" in the title?     {more}

[[ to be continued during late July ]]

iou — In mid-September I'll continue

condensing everything below here,

in this GREEN BOX.

⊡ use strategies for thinking:  In many areas of life, metacognition (it's “thinking about thinking”) is useful when you develop-and-use strategies for thinking to effectively regulate your metacognition by deciding when to avoid it or use it, and how.

[[ ⊡ regulating metacognition and subconscious processing:  my sections about this say...  students can learn more when they -- and using executive control to optimize their thinking system (so their conscious & subconscious can each do what it does best) if they develop-and-use a thinking strategy to effectively regulate their subconscious processing by deciding when to reduce it or increase it, and how. use? ]]

Scientists have discovered that in many situations of daily life, much of our thinking and decision making is done subconsciously.  Our system of conscious-and-subconcious thinking is a complex integrating of conscious mental cognition with subconscious mental processing.  In this system our subconscious offers benefits (by doing some things extremely well) but also has disadvantages.  You can use executive control to optimize your thinking system (so your conscious & subconscious can each do what it does best) if you develop-and-use a variation of the thinking strategy above – with metacognition changed to subconscious processing – so you are “effectively regulating your subconscious processing by deciding when to reduce it or increase it,” with you reducing its effects (this is possible) instead of avoiding it (which is impossible for subconscious processing, although it's a realistic goal for conscious metacognition).

     {more} -- [[[[ change stmc-mc, mcpal as in efps-site? ]]]]

[[ iou – Soon, by mid-July, I'll revise this sub-section, will connect it with music - using free/along [[also, @single-chord vamp-drone]]

[[ You can "perform better later" in two ways.  First, if you have learned from experience your potential performing has improved, so you can do better.  Second, this potential must be actualized by converting “can do better” into “are doing better” with high-quality actual performing.   How?  The preparation & performance will be different in different contexts, e.g. for basketball vs music, or for pre-composed music (that often, for high quality performing, must be played "just right" in one way) vs improvised music (that can be performed in many ways with high quality).   How? 

[[ a general principle is to... practice in living room as if in concert hall (with quality), then play in concert hall as if in living room (with relaxed concentration, letting you play with the quality you have developed during practice) ----

[[ in late-season practice the team's main Learning Objective is to promote better performing in the near-future tournament game, by doing the learning (in practice now) that will improve performing (in the game).  You can use a strategy of “learning to perform” in any area of life, including your musical improvisations.     { more and more }

iou – in mid-to-late September, I'll describe a few other learning strategies by summarizing the full-length sections

MUSIC THEORY  (a brief-and-incomplete summary)

you can understand music theory:  Basic theory is not difficult.  It's just a way to describe musically-logical patterns by using a “language” that is useful for thinking about music and communicating with other musicians, and making music.  How can you learn?  The logical organization of Music Theory will help you understand music and play music.  My clear-and-thorough explanations for the keys of C Major and A Minor will help you construct a solid foundation with deep understanding of these keys, and then you can “use logical analogy” – including The Circle of Fifths – to develop a deep knowledge of all keys.

music theory offers many benefits:  Knowing music theory isn't necessary, but it's useful.  Yes, “without theory” you can play skillfully by just “playing creatively with the colors” of red and blue and green because these show the main chord-notes of mainstream music.  But "you can play music better when you know music better," when you develop a cognitive-and-functional knowledge of music theory that is cognitive (to understand music) and is functional (to play music).  Using a colorized keyboard is an excellent way to play melodies, and it offers many valuable benefits.

unconventional colorizing ➞ conventional music:  In case a traditionalist scoffs at the concept of “music by colors,” I explain why "although my approach (using a colorized keyboard) is innovative, the educational results are traditional," leading to conventional music theory and mainstream music playing.  And a colorized keyboard — with a visual structure that is simple (with pitches increasing from left to right) yet significant (with important “musical meanings” for the patterns in white & black notes, and in red & blue & green notes) — is an effective way to learn the logical patterns of music theory because a learner can SEE the musical patterns, helping them help them understand music theory and play musical melodies.

connect colors with letters & numbers:  My keyboard has colors, but music theory uses letters & numbers.  This diagram shows how one fact — that “each 1-Note is a C” (because my colorizing is designed for The Key of C) — lets us translate my colors (red-blue-green) into standard letters & numbers.  The translating works because my colorizing uses the same logical connections – between letters & numbers, for notes and chords – that are used in standard music theory.  Everything important is the same, with or without colors.     { when you should & shouldn't use colors }    { my terms and our strategies }

terms for timings – rhythm, beats & bars, tempo, and phrase:  The basic unit of rhythm is a beat, and a bar (aka measure) usually has 4 beats;  or 3 beats-per-bar for a waltz.  A song's “speed” is its tempo.   /   A phrase is "a series of notes that sounds complete, even when played apart from the main song" or "the smallest musical unit that conveys a more or less complete musical thought."  A phrase often is 16 beats (4 bars), but can be shorter or longer.

triads and extended chords

a triad (aka triad chord) has only three kinds of scale-notes – the 1 & 3 & 5 – in any combination or inversion.

an extended chord is a triad plus one or more extra notes;  e.g. the common 7th chord adds a flatted 7th.    { a variety of extended chords }   My colorizing (with red-blue-green) shows only the triad-notes of a chord (its 1,3,5), not its extension-notes.

pitches and intervals:  The pitch of a note is “how low (or high) it sounds.”  On a keyboard, pitches are lowest for notes on the left side, and the pitch increases when moving rightward.   /   An interval is the difference in pitch between two notes.  The smallest interval – a semitone – is the interval between any two adjacent notes, and two semitones is a tone.     { terms for common intervals

My three-color system – invented by me in the late 1970's – shows the notes of major chords & minor chords, is intended to help musicians do harmony-based improvising, and is Copyright ©1998 by Craig Rusbult, all rights reserved.

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