Intuitive improvisation: a guide for beginners.

"Elefante?," inquires Pasquale from the sofa. "Cavallo?"

"No, tigre!" His 6-year-old daughter swiftly corrects him, peeping around the corner of the piano.

Why are an Italian father and daughter discussing animals in my living room? Because Ornella and I are playing our favorite game, "Guess the Animal," as part of her piano lesson.

From her first lesson, I discovered that Ornella and I were both perfectly capable of creative improvisation at the piano. What fun to learn alongside my students! However, improvisation wasn't always so easy for me. It was a gradual and rewarding process of learning and exploration.

As a child learning the piano from age 5, I was never encouraged to improvise, a fact that now astounds me because my teacher gave me an otherwise excellent piano training--technique, style, history and an imaginative approach to my pieces. My mother diligently followed my teacher's lead, and whenever she heard me start to improvise, would poke her head around the door and say (in her strictest teacher voice), "I haven't heard any scales lately." I was incensed.

From an adult perspective, I now know that my mother was simply doing her best to make sure I practiced in the way I was supposed to--and I admit that I wasn't the most focused student as a child. However, not being permitted to improvise ("play around" as it was called) and being compelled to play only certain scales and pieces in a prescribed way was inhibiting and joyless. It is no wonder that I grew to dislike practicing and began to play with increasing physical tension over the years--although I loved music, was a gifted pianist and went on to become a successful professional musician.

As a teacher of talented young musicians at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, I was specifically asked to teach improvisation. Although initially ill at ease, I was keen to learn and to accept the assistance of the two improvisation experts who came to class and showed us some easy games and processes to get us started. Making sure to facilitate a positive attitude and offer plenty of encouragement to my class of 8-10-year-old students, I began to improvise at the piano alongside them, at first with embarrassment and then with increasing enthusiasm. As the years went by, I developed my own games and processes to assist my students. It took much longer, however, for me to begin to improvise alone at home for my own pleasure.