Improvising
Improvising with your voice
This will be novel – i.e. talking about improvisation in theory – but hopefully it will give those of you who are interested enough of a starting point to give it a go in practice
What is improvising?
Improvisation on your voice or your instrument within the music in worship context is sometimes called ‘playing/singing in the Spirit’.
It is in essence ‘making it up as you go along’ but while there can be a bit of a mystery around it – quite simply and with a little practice you can develop this tool and in the right context find that it brings another helpful dimension to our gatherings.
When would you use it?
I use vocal or instrumental improvisation primarily as a
- Tool for prayer or a
- Tool that frames words of encouragement or
- The basis for expressing the prophetic – now there’s a whole other subject!
I’m sure there are other expressions especially as I’m reminded of Psalm 33 verses 1 – 3 [in the MESSAGE] which encourage us to ‘invent your own new song to him’
Improvisation in the gathering – 3 contexts
Sometimes people say to me that they’d like to learn to improvise – and that they’d like their church to grasp it too.
It will be helpful to discern your ‘context’ before you suggest/impose it’s use on your unsuspecting gathering!
A possible context – first scenario:
Firstly it might be that your gathering is well used to improvising together, and given a starting note will be off!
I guess the challenge there is to encourage content-full improvisation as the danger of ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ is just around the corner! It would be a shame if this creative tool lost its cutting edge.
Second scenario:
Your context may be one where your gathering would be up for learning this and there is the time to support the learning process too
The challenge here is to teach it well so that no one feels excluded simply because they are not able to grasp musical concepts!
Third scenario:
If your context is neither of the above, don’t despair – remember the local church context is less about gathering a group of singers and musicians together and more about gathering a diverse group of people who are on a journey with God and each other and who in the main desire to work that out in their everyday.
It might be that they haven’t spent time ‘learning to sing’ much less learning to improvise!
You can still use improvisation as a powerful tool in this context that hopefully doesn’t ‘put people on edge’ but is seen as another expression of interaction with God and each other in the gathering setting!
When I find myself in this third situation – my expectation of myself and any one leading in improvisation is not so much that the congregation/gathering will sing with me when I start to improvise – but that I would lead or improvise a sung prayer or a prophetic statement in a way that doesn’t distract to me but leads us all to a deeper place of understanding God and God in relation to the world and all the myriad interactions around that.
Again make sure that what you sing is content-full rather than rambling! By that I mean inspired by or matches up to Bible content and ethos and remember ‘content-full’ can be one simple phrase!
In all of the above – do give space for the spoken as well as the sung improvisation. This encourages those who are just not confident with hearing their singing voices in the gathering to still be involved.
Improvising around a Psalm
Here is another way that gatherings can explore and respond to God
The leader would have to be confident not so much in knowing where they are going – but confident enough to lead [or to stop if it’s all going horribly wrong – yep – I’ve been there!]
Some suggestions as a starting point perhaps accompanied by a simple chord pattern:
- Call and response through some of the verses
- Reading some of the verses over the chord pattern
- Settling on a phrase and gathering echoes that phrase with you
- Invite the gathering to make up their own songs/prayers around a particular verse
- An instrumental
- Using harmony over repeated phrases
- Pause – silence – Selah
- Any others?
Vocal improvisation
Before you start – FIVE things to think about:
- Think of each phrase like elastic. We are stretching the words or melody or rhythm!!
- Contour – think about each phrase having a shape or contour – rising and falling, levelling
- Improvising by its nature is taking a risk every time you sing a new note. If you ‘make a mistake’ think of it as composing a song within a song!
- Think about the words the mood and expression of the song. Does it need to be stretched out or legato, quick, rhythmic and dynamic, in major or minor key?
- ENJOY!!!
OK! We need to gather some ‘tools
- To start – Sing the word ‘Jesus’ on one note to a steady beat/rhythm
The MELODY:
Steps – the first tool
- Move to the note above and back to your original note singing the word Jesus
- Then move to the note below and back again.
- Move in steps up to the third and back again.
- Try going down a third.
Leaps – the second tool
- What about leaping up a third or a fifth and then coming down again?
- What about a random leap!!
- If the notes don’t seem to fit, climb one step higher, or come back down.
If you make a mistake DON’T WORRY – FIND ANOTHER NOTE!!
Silence/Rests – the third tool
- These are as important as the notes
- Try putting some in while singing the word Jesus
The WORDS:
OK: let’s combine the tools using the word Jesus. [We’ll extend the phrase soon]
- Repeat the word using firstly steps,
- Then add in leaps,
- Then add in rests
- What about quicker phrases
- And slower phrases
- TRY TO REMEMBER THE CONTOUR!
NOW: Extend the word to a phrase and try to include descriptive words. For example ‘Jesus you are my rock’; Jesus my shepherd; God who is faithful, Trustworthy God.
Then…
- ‘Unpack’ those words – sing out their meaning [remember contour if you can]
If you can – try this in a group and better still improvise your melodies in front others in the group.
GO FOR IT!
Take care,
Geraldine Latty
19 March 2007