LEARNING THE ART OF IMPROV

BUENA PARK, CA (April 19, 2002)—One highlight of the Yamaha Junior Original Concert (JOC) Jamboree held in Phoenix, AZ in early April was a seminar for teachers offered by Yamaha music specialist Linda Martinez, an in-demand Yamaha piano artist who has written for Destiny's Child and is currently at work on an upcoming Steven Spielberg-produced television series. She led approximately 20 Yamaha Music Education System teachers in a tour through the improvisational possibilities they could realize from the new Clavinova CVP200 digital piano. She addressed chord progressions, motifs, critique playing, harmonic progressions, and other elements of improv-one facet of the on-stage JOC process that students often find especially challenging.

Participants in Yamaha's Junior Original Concert Jamboree, Phoenix, AZ

"Improvisation is an incredibly nerve-wracking experience," Martinez explains. "The students have to improvise based on a few notes. I wanted to recreate that for the teachers, so that they can be in their students' shoes. A lot of people didn't know what it was like to be put on the spot like that, and they didn't realize improvisation was something that could be taught."

"Having the weighted action and the real piano sound helped us recreate a stage performance as much as possible," she adds.

The teachers used the Clavinova digital pianos during the seminar, making it an interactive and hands-on experience. "Improvisation isn't this big mystery, but a handful of basic tools that can help them and their students get through a piece from beginning to end and make it seem like magic," she says.

Of course, it wouldn't have been a JOC event without a series of performances by talented young composers/artists from the Yamaha Music Education System. The weekend culminated with a Jamboree Concert, featuring performances by 30 YMES students.