Improvisation as a Calming Tool
Found in: Composition & Improvisation, Student Management
Samali D., AU
Recently at a friend’s place my daughter Niluka, came crying to me holding one hand in the other. A young girl, about six years old, had dropped the piano lid on Niluka’s fingers while she was playing the piano for a few others in the room. Whilst comforting her (no real physical damage mostly shock to her system), I saw the most disturbing sight. The little girl proceeded to stand on the piano bench, raised her right foot onto the actual keys and then put her left foot closely behind. In all my living days I have never seen such a sight!
The child is taking traditional piano lessons with a very strict, older teacher and is struggling with her musical experience. She was clearly not coping when she heard my daughter and some other children (who also happened to be my students), skillfully playing pieces from the vast array of Simply Music repertoire.
Back to the moment when I saw the little girl step onto the piano keys ….. I approached her gently, and put my arms up around her waist. I kindly asked her to step down and sit by my side on the piano bench. I invited her to play a duet with me. She was happy and agreed to do this. While I played ‘Home (Level 6), I asked her to play on any black notes she wanted to. I played this piece, from beginning to end, several times over and over whilst she improvised highly responsively.
The transformational capacity of the harmonies we made together (rather like oriental water music), gave her an experiential opportunity to meet the respect for the piano she so clearly had no prior acquaintance with. She did not want to stop playing.
Her parents came into the room and were amazed at the sensitivity their daughter was playing with. They told me later that they have never seen her play with such vital energy ever before. It is not surprising to tell you that they are currently searching for a SM teacher in their area!
This is a wonderful improvisational tool to use whenever you need to – even when you need to introduce a room, an emotional mood that is centering and calming. You could use it if you have a student that is upset, perhaps in a shared lesson, when the energy is a little to ‘big’, or to boost a student that is being hard on themselves. It sounds very impressive and self-affirming. Improvising against this piece is very simple when there are only the black notes to consider, and this can be done with a total beginner without any experience!
I hope you find this wonderful exercise as transformative as I have.
Ginny W., AU
Samali, what a wonderful ‘blessing in disguise’ – it sounds like you handled this beautifully- talk about ‘win-win-win’! The original incident, i.e. the pique of the traditional, piano-lessons student, with your daughter as scapegoat, sounds like the ‘kid version’ of the backlash Neil cautioned us to expect!
Although thankfully it hasn’t happened much, I have had a couple of similar ‘transformations’ in the past by inviting siblings who have that mischievous, disruptive, attention-seeking gleam in their eye (you know the ones who you just know won’t sit quietly while they’re waiting, or who are for whatever reason not happy about the setup?!), to be involved in a ‘triumph’ (however small- sometimes just singing accompaniment lyrics), by being included in a sibling’s lesson in some kind of duet. I have also used this approach for parents who are nodding off a bit, or not very ‘present’.
As for your using ‘Home’ as the base melody for your improv. duet – great idea too! I reeeeeally relate to the ‘black keys’ improvisation. One of my favorite insomnia remedies is to get up, regardless of the hour (my closest neighbor, whose place shares a wall with mine, in the same room as the piano, is quite deaf thankfully!) and go to the piano. I happily play in the dark, creating soothing improvised songs on the black keys. The additional benefit is that it helps me to empathize with a blind student of mine in that it helps me, experientially, to come up with nifty ways to navigate around the keyboard without looking, using the raised notes for spatial reference.