Hidden Gems to Support Improvisation

Prior to becoming a music therapist, I spent many years teaching piano lessons. As a new music therapist, I found myself returning to creative materials from the field of piano pedagogy to support a variety of non-musical, functional goals for music therapy clients. The following pieces have worked well as a starting point for improvisation during music therapy sessions.

“Will You Play?” by Nancy and Randall Faber

My First Piano Adventure-Lesson Book A

Hal Leonard Publishing

In this “question and answer” piece, a strong rhythmic accompaniment is provided by the therapist who sings questions to the client, asking them to create a variety of sounds on the piano (loud, soft, short, long) using the white keys and black keys. There are also opportunities to incorporate percussion by drumming or tapping on the fallboard or any hard surface.

“World Piece” by Forrest Kinney

Pattern Play-Book 1

The Frederick Harris Music Co., Limited

For clients who may be hesitant to attempt improvisation, “World Piece” offers the opportunity to create melodies using only black keys. The music therapist’s supportive accompaniment includes a soothing chord progression (Gb, Eb, Cb, Db) with rhythmic and melodic variations included to spark the imagination.

“Ice Cream Topping Improv” by Kevin Olson and Wynn-Anne Rossi

Music by Me-Book 1

The FJH Music Company Inc.

This piece encourages clients to recognize and create rhythms that match words or short phrases that are commonly used as ice cream toppings (strawberries, chocolate, bananas, etc.). Clients then speak and/or play rhythms on any G on the keyboard supported by a simple accompaniment (CM-Gm) as they create an “Ice Cream Topping Improv”.

As you take a look at these examples, I am sure your minds are already coming up with ways to adapt them to fit your clients’ needs and goals. In my practice, they have been especially useful for addressing impulse control, emotional expression, non-verbal communication and speech prosody. If a keyboard is not available, the chord progressions could be transposed and played on guitar. Using tone chimes or another melodic instrument would also work well to create melodies. The options are endless! I hope

these delightful tools for improvisation are beneficial for your practice.