Why learn to improvise?

Improvisation is difficult to capture in a single definition, but in pedagogical sense piano improvisation is by no means an absent striking of keys that happen to be at our fingertips. Improvisation is a spontaneous but deliberate expression with musical language, which requires the ability to imagine musical thoughts and to play them out simultaneously.

In formal classical music education, which focuses primarily on reading and performing music literature, music-making is reduced to recreating and listening of existing music. I believe that a true mastery of all aspects of the musical language, that is, not only of reading and performing from sheet music, but thinking analytically and expressing one's musical thoughts spontaneously, will enable the student to understand holistically the art of music and the role music can play in his or her life. 

In formal classical music education, which focuses primarily on reading and performing music literature, music-making is reduced to recreating and listening of existing music. I believe that a true mastery of all aspects of the musical language, that is, not only of reading and performing from sheet music, but thinking analytically and expressing one's musical thoughts spontaneously, will enable the student to understand holistically the art of music and the role music can play in his or her life.

 In many cases the formal music education system is, however, geared in such a way that the emphasis on technically accomplished performance of repertoire means that the pupil's own musical expressiveness and free musicianship must take a back seat, at least until he or she reaches the technical level of performance required by the teacher's syllabus. I believe that expressing thoughts on one's instrument is a skill that should be integrated into early music education and instrumental lessons from the very beginning. 

Improvisation as a pedagogical tool

Improvisation is very useful as a pedagogical tool, as it can be adapted to a wide variety of teaching objectives. It can be used as a way to develop individual musical skills and to deepen conceptual musical knowledge. Nevertheless, it would be a grave mistake to limit the importance of improvisation skill to its indirect utalitarian value. Even though improvisation does offer an excellent starting point for developing creative ways to acquire musical skills and it does help a student to internalise his understanding of music theory concepts, it is essentially an artistic form of expression. And this art is capable of expressing feelings and ideas that improvisers perceive as transcendent. Music teaching should not focus solely on the development of technical skills and cognitive abilities, but on the equal development of all the abilities that define the holistic experience of music.

One of the important goals of music education is to establish a personal relationship with music.