How does improvisation work and what is it used for?

According to Arthur Jaschke, a researcher in the fields of clinical neuromusicology and cognitive neuroscience in music, there is a false sense of improvisation that many people think they cannot do. “But you can also make a nice surprise, which involves a lot of improvisation.”

If you want to improvise, you better not think it’s difficult. “We are stuck precisely because we think it is so difficult.” Whereas, according to Jaschke, we are constantly improvising in everyday life. “It’s raining hard and you walk towards the front door with three bags of groceries and you see your neighbor standing who wants to start a political discussion with you. Little by little, you are already wondering what to say to him to get out of it. prepare the words. ”

Improvisation and music

When you think of improvisation in music, you immediately think of jazz. But in many other genres there is a lot of improvisation. “Anyway, every live performance. With Beyoncé, for example, the trumpeter plays a solo.”

The Beatles also improvised, but a number of frames were later agreed upon, such as the size. And although anyone can improvise, it is not possible without some knowledge. “Jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong couldn’t read music, but he could improvise like the best. He learned on his own by playing and practicing.”

out of the frame

According to the neuromusicologist, the ability of people to improvise is so advanced today that we can expand the framework. He takes painting as an example Victory Boogie Woogie by Piet Mondriaan: “There you have a square with four yellow lines. So these lines are correct in this frame, but who said he had to stay in this frame? If you widen the frame, according to Jaschke, you may be able to add a lot more. “That’s the value of improvisation.”