Songwriting Sunday: The Structured Improvisation

Happy Sunday from my soggy piece of this world. I am supposed to get my lawn mown today (FINALLY!), but I am not sure if they will come since it is so wet outside. Ugh. This just confirms my thoughts that the mower should have come last Wednesday as scheduled rather than having to re-do this entire thing, but that is a problem for another day.

(Later - much later - well, the mowing didn't happen, but at least this time around they let me know that they weren't coming. That's progress, I guess.)

I used to have a horrible difficulty with the thought of improvisation. I have written about it many times on this blog over the years (search improvisation in the labels tag to see the story). My jazz training really put a deep-seated fear in me, but that is not what this is all about today. I have found a way around those fears, so I can make all sorts of songs up nowadays. It's quite a good day, but let's just get into how I do this type of songwriting...

My go-to format for improvisation is what I call "Structured Improvisation." Simply put, I limit the improvised elements to make my song happen.

It all starts with a chord progression.

It doesn't really matter which chord progression you choose - just pick something that matches the moment in the session - something that provides a good, grounding progression to frame the music. Once you establish that chord progression, start singing what you see or what you are feeling in the moment.

That's it. That's how I do structured improvisation. I match other musical elements with what my clients are doing or saying or expressing in the moment, and I then improvise the melody and the lyrics within the framework.

The other thing that you have to become accustomed to (at least, I have to) is that the songs that you improvise may not be memorable outside of the moment itself. You have to let things go...

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