Discover the Music That’s in You
- Irene Feher
- Jan 24
- 3 min read
Do you remember the first time you picked up your instrument or took a deep breath and improvised? Or maybe you haven’t dared to yet - because you don’t know where to start. Improvising felt like coming home for me, my musical self. How amazing it is to me that I actually have something to say musically. That music comes from inside of me but where does it come from?
Like doodling on a piece of paper, dancing around in free form, making up a recipe with what’s left in the fridge, or writing a poem, free improvisation without any performance end-goal in mind is the first step of a creative act. The ideas come from nowhere and they evolve in real time. We are meandering, feeling our way through and the music unfolds. Musical sketches have the potential to spark ideas, and these ideas can turn into compositions or songs - or they just disappear back into the same ether from where they came.
Every person has a unique set of lived experiences, and musical experiences. improvisation is a mysterious composite of those experiences.
The more I improvise, the more I become curious about my musical make up: years in University studying classical music (I remember being in awe of it!); the rock music my brother played on his stere, the jazz standards my parents listened to; the classics my uncle and aunt sang; the musicals that inspired me; the 45s I played over and over again, the musical variety shows I watched on TV; the hymns I sang in church; the songs I sang in duos and bands; the movie soundtracks I played over and over, the songs I danced to, the music I played on my Walkman; Casey Kasem’s Top 40 on AM radio…
Think back to the musical soundtrack of your life. Write a freeflow list.
Write a list of artists, songs, shows and composers.
Grease! Rene Fleming, Carol Burnett, Elton John, Crocodile Rock. Van Morrison, Brown Eyed Girl, Gustav Mahler, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, Louis Armstrong, A Kiss to Build a Dream on, Artie Shaw, Begin the Beguine, Stephen Sondheim, Another Hundred People, Franz Schubert, Gretchen am Spinnrade, Cher, Believe! Miami Sound Machine, Conga!, Styx, Come Sail Away, the Beatles, Norwegian Wood, the Cure, Love Cats, Ella Fitzgerald, It Don’t Mean a Thing, Cole Porter, I Love Paris, Glenn MIller, String of Pearls, George Gershwin, Rhapsodie in Blue, Maurice Ravel, Daphnis et Chloé, Twisted Sister, We’re Not Gonna Take It!Aerosmith, Sweet Emotion, Blondie, Heart of Glass, Pat Benattar, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Heart, Dreamboat Annie, Robert Schumann, Liederkreis Op. 39, Philip Glass, Einstein on the Beach, Johann Sebastian Bach, Brandenburg Concertos…
What a crazy list that can go on for pages and pages. This music is in my cells. Tiny pieces appear in my improvisations.
I love listening to a free improvisation evolve, especially when it is played by a quartet. The tentativeness, the listening, the acknowledging, the banter, the magic moments of complete synchrony - a composite of multiple musical lives!
Never fear that you will have nothing to play or sing.
A Little Gift of Music for You
It’s been a very stressful time for so many. Take a ten minute break to breathe or sing along with me - you will feel more relaxed and centered:
