March 17, 2026: Tuesday Upbeat
Teachers: Happy Tuesday and
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Encouraging Improvising
Improvising, by definition, is making things up. Some students love to make things up, and jump right into improvising without hesitation. Other students struggle with improvising, exhibit “shyness,” or express a lack of confidence, an absence of creativity, a concern about doing things wrong, or a fear of sounding bad.
The way we teachers respond to students’ improvising can increase a student’s improvisational confidence, or decrease it. Sometimes we stifle creativity by reacting to it in a negative way, perhaps without realizing it. Sometimes we ask students to improvise when we want them to, but then don’t let them improvise when they want to. In these and other ways, we may halt inspiration and miss opportunities to encourage improvisation.
One certain way we can encourage students to improvise is to let them make things up when they feel the urge to do so. It can be really that simple.
I know as teachers and educators we feel we need to teach students how to do things. We want to “teach them how to be lifelong learners.” But the truth is, everyone is already a lifelong learner. We want to "instill in them a love of music." But the truth is, everyone already loves music. We want to teach them "how to improvise," but the truth is, everyone already knows how to improvise.
So many times, we really do not need to teach students anything, we just need to allow them to do things. With encouragement and coaching, students can get very far on their own. Then, we can help them refine and improve the skills they have already been developing naturally.
Just as an example, here is a video of my student Rumi playing The Wind. Rumi initially learned it “correctly,” then one day started playing it like this, and has been playing it this way ever since. Rumi has been “making things up” with his music for a long time, in ways that are simple but enjoyable to him. He plays the entirety of Presto! It’s Piano Magic, Book 1; some of the songs and pieces he plays perfectly as written, and others he puts his own spin on. He has had the freedom to do this from day one. He loves improvising.
The Wind, Rumi's version
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Have a magical Tuesday, a musical week, and enjoy happy, healthy and tension-free teaching and learning with your students.
Thank you,
Dennis Frayne
"Dr. Dennis"
Laguna Niguel School of Music
Dennis Frayne Music Studios
30110 Crown Valley Pkwy, Suites 105/107/108
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
(949) 844-9051 (office cell)
(949) 468-8040 (personal cell)
Lake Forest School of Music
Baker Ranch, CA 92630
(949) 402-7210
www.dennisfraynemusicstudios.com
www.lagunaniguelschoolofmusic.com
www.lakeforestschoolofmusic.com
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