Improvise for Real

Improvise for Real brings together musicians from all different backgrounds who want to study music as a creative art form. We don't care about learning other people's licks and formulas. We want to express our own music. Our vision of studying music is rooted in the tradition of great art schools. We want to explore the sounds creatively and learn to tell our own musical stories with them. And we believe that our practicing can be beautiful and meaningful every time we play.

Improvise for Real is about much more than learning to improvise. It's about truly understanding music and being able to enjoy creating it yourself. Maybe you dream of improvising your own solos in concerts and jam sessions. Maybe you imagine yourself jamming with friends at parties and playing songs by ear with total confidence. Maybe you would even love to compose your OWN songs. All of this is totally possible for you, and it's all incredibly fun and satisfying.

Improvise for Real will take you into this beautiful world of sounds and show you how music and harmony really work. You'll learn to understand the sounds in the music all around you. And you'll learn to express your own musical ideas exactly as you hear them in your mind.

A better harmony model. The biggest problem that beginning improvisers have with expressing themselves creatively is that they are trying to apply licks and scales to isolated chords, but this isn't how music works at all. When you listen to your favorite songs, what you hear is a lovely and effortless interplay of melody and harmony on a single musical landscape where everything is connected. With Improvise for Real you will learn to see this musical landscape and weave your own melodies effortlessly through the chords.

Creativity right from the start. In every other art form (painting, poetry, etc.) students get to experience the creative process as a natural part of their learning. It's only in music that this creative process remains shrouded in mystery, the exclusive domain of ancient "composers" and the occasional child prodigy. Improvise for Real is changing all of that. We believe that your own creative exploration of the sounds is essential. With Improvise for Real you will be improvising and expressing your own musical ideas right from the very first day.

Connection to the ear. We don't teach isolated fragments of music theory or random ear training exercises. Improvise for Real is an integrated music practice that combines creativity, ear training and harmony knowledge every step of the way. For each new harmonic situation that you learn, you'll spend lots of time exploring the sounds yourself improvising over our backing tracks, and you'll even sing the sounds with your voice as part of truly mastering them. The result is a deep personal relationship with harmony that...