Creating Caverns - an Improvisation Exercise

In a recent post to my Yahoo group, I mentioned that I created the piece "Caverns" using one chord. I'd like to explain how I accomplished this.

First off, Caverns is an improvisation exercise. Certain things I knew about this piece. One being technique. I knew that my left hand would just be playing an ostinato pattern using a D minor chord. My right hand was to play melody and bass notes.

With these decisions out of the way, the piece really created itself. I start by playing the pattern, then jump in with a right hand melody. Then come the bass notes. These are played by crossing the right hand over the left but at no time does my left hand stop playing the ostinato pattern. This is really a unique little improvisation because it requires some skill in keeping the music fresh sounding. After all, I'm just using one chord. However, and this is important, the freshest sounding music will always come when the thinking mind lets go and the intuition is allowed full rein.

Once intuition takes over, the music that is created will always sound fresh. Why? Because it comes directly from the source. And this source also knows when to wind down. There is no ending planned out. The music winds down when the performer senses that it has played itself out.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!