"Fill-in-the-Blank" Improvisational Exercise

   The goal of this exercise is to improvise a segment of music given the surrounding musical context. The steps to do this are:

1. Examine the musical context that comes before the segment that needs to be improvised.
2. Examine the musical context that comes after the segment that needs to be improvised.
3. Create an improvisation that bridges the surrounding musical context.

    This demonstration video contains two example pieces of music.

Musical Excerpt #1

   I composed this particular excerpt specifically for use with this exercise. The excerpt contains a blank measure that you should fill-in with an improvisation that bridges the surrounding musical context. In the demonstration video, I fill-in the blank measure with two examples. Give it a try!

 

Musical Excerpt #2

   The second piece of music is an excerpt from Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. The purpose of including this is to demonstrate that you can use any piece of music that exists in the world to practice your improvisational skills. Simply find a piece of music, choose a random measure (or range of measures), and make it "blank" either mentally or by covering it with something. Then examine the surrounding context and fill-in the blank with an improvisation.