Background
The musical language that comes most naturally to me is the Baroque style. I've been improvising in this style since I was a kid and consider myself to be far more proficient at improvising in the Baroque style than any other musical style. It forms the foundation of all of my musical creations. The lessons I received on Baroque improvisation were from the Baroque era composers themselves through their compositions. I learned through listening, experimentation, and practice.
I've been brainstorming how best to go about teaching others to improvise in the Baroque style, because others should be able to get as much enjoyment out of it as it's brought me over the years. I'm by no means an expert on Baroque improvisation, but perhaps some insight I provide can serve to complement other teachings that might exist on the subject. I'm hopeful that the methods and techniques I outline in this and future writings will help others learn to improvise in the Baroque style, too.
My assumption going forward is that you, the reader, already know how to read music, play the piano, and have a basic understanding of music theory. Some of the methods and techniques I share might not necessarily be what I personally used to learn Baroque improvisation, as this content is a combination of early recollections and later observations based on years of improvisational experience.
Introduction
Learning to improvise musically is like learning a foreign language. It takes lots of time and practice. When learning a new language, you have to build a vocabulary and properly form sentences in order to communicate clearly and effectively. The same applies to learning a particular musical style, where the vocabulary and sentences are in the form of chords, progressions, and rhythms appropriate to the style.
If improvisation intimidates you, don't let it, because you already improvise every day. Speaking to somebody else is a form of improvisation, because it requires us to think of words on the fly and put them together into sentences with the goal of conveying meaning to the listener. You're simply making it up as you go. This linguistic improvisation is equivalent to what you'd be doing when you engage in musical improvisation.
Build an Improvisational Vocabulary
Listen
What makes Baroque music easily identifiable as Baroque music? What makes any musical style sound unique compared to other styles? The signature is embedded in the note intervals, chord progressions, phrases, and rhythms that characterize a particular musical style. In order to successfully form musical sentences, you have to build phrases. In order to build phrases, you have to rely on a musical vocabulary.
How do you build a musical vocabulary for Baroque improvisation? A great place to start is by immersing yourself in Baroque music. Listen to your favorite Baroque pieces with deep analysis as your goal. Not only should you listen to a piece as a whole, but train your mind to focus on the individual parts that make-up the whole. Mentally isolate an individual part ignoring all the other parts. What are each of the inner voices doing? What's the bass doing? This may take getting used to at first, but it'll be beneficial in the long run for developing a strong musical ear for improvisation. Perhaps challenge yourself to transcribe the notes of some inner harmonies.
Experiment
Practice
