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56-572: Forest Floor is the third studio album by Scottish jazz pianist Fergus McCreadie , released on 8 April 2022 by Edition Records . The album was recorded 6–8 July 2021 by McCreadie, bassist David Bowden, and drummer Stephen Henderson. It was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize and won the Scottish Album of the Year Award . The lead single "Law Hill" was released 28 March. The album debuted at #1 on

112-585: A cantus firmus (a practice found both in church music and in popular dance music) constituted a part of every musician's education, and is regarded as the most important kind of unwritten music before the Baroque period. Following the invention of music printing at the beginning of the sixteenth century, there is more detailed documentation of improvisational practice, in the form of published instruction manuals, mainly in Italy. In addition to improvising counterpoint over

168-430: A "sharp 11" chord. The next step is learning to improvise melodic lines using scales and chord tones. This ability is perfected after long experience, including much practice, which internalizes the physical skills of playing and the technical elements of harmony, and it requires a great natural 'ear' for extemporaneous music-making. When jazz pianists improvise , they use the scales, modes, and arpeggios associated with

224-591: A band, which was typically configured as one or more of piano, guitar, bass, or drums, or other instruments, such as the vibraphone. Over time, playing piano-accompaniment in ensemble sets, and then bands, changed from primarily time-keeping (consisting of repetitive left-hand figures) to a more flexible role. Ultimately, the skilled pianist was free both to lead and to answer the instrumental soloist, using both short and sustained, chordal and melodic, fragments—a technique known as comping . Good comping musicians were capable of many and different chord voicings, so to match

280-475: A cantus firmus, singers and instrumentalists improvised melodies over ostinato chord patterns, made elaborate embellishments of melodic lines, and invented music extemporaneously without any predetermined schemata. Keyboard players likewise performed extempore, freely formed pieces. The kinds of improvisation practised during the Renaissance—principally either the embellishing of an existing part or

336-399: A harmonic sketch called the figured bass . The process of improvisation was called realization . According to Encyclopædia Britannica , the "monodic textures that originated about 1600 ... were ready-made, indeed in large measure intended, for improvisational enhancement, not only of the treble parts but also, almost by definition, of the bass, which was figured to suggest no more than

392-516: A melodic counterline that emulates the walking of an upright bass . In stride piano , (similar to the earlier ragtime ) the left hand rapidly plays alternate positions between notes in the bass register and chords in the tenor register, while the right hand plays melody and improvises, as performed in George Gershwin 's "Liza". The right hand may play melodic lines, or harmonic content, chordally or in octaves. It may also be played in lockstep with

448-414: A minimal chordal outline." Improvised accompaniment over a figured bass was a common practice during the Baroque era, and to some extent the following periods. Improvisation remains a feature of organ playing in some church services and are regularly also performed at concerts. Dieterich Buxtehude and Johann Sebastian Bach were regarded in the Baroque period as highly skilled organ improvisers. During

504-570: A pedagogical approach. A raga is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music . Joep Bor of the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music has defined Raga as "tonal framework for composition and improvisation". Nazir Jairazbhoy , chairman of UCLA's department of ethnomusicology , characterized ragas as separated by scale, line of ascent and descent, transilience , emphasized notes and register, and intonation and ornaments. A raga uses

560-519: A progression of chords, which performers are to use as the basis for their improvisation. Handel and Bach frequently improvised on the harpsichord or pipe organ . In the Baroque era, performers improvised ornaments , and basso continuo keyboard players improvised chord voicings based on figured bass notation. However, in the 20th and early 21st century, as common practice Western art music performance became institutionalized in symphony orchestras, opera houses and ballets, improvisation has played

616-425: A punch"; that while "solos by Bowden and Henderson are relatively few and far between", "they contribute mightily to the overall impact of this performance"; and that "McCreadie has put sufficient space between himself and the meanderings of an average piano trio record." Jazz Views ' s Nick Lea calls McCreadie "too young to apply the old adage of improving with age", but that this still appears to be occurring for

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672-555: A raga as "a melodic framework for improvisation and composition". Although melodic improvisation was an important factor in European music from the earliest times, the first detailed information on improvisation technique appears in ninth-century treatises instructing singers on how to add another melody to a pre-existent liturgical chant, in a style called organum . Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, improvised counterpoint over

728-509: A raga can be written down in the form of a scale (in some cases differing in ascent and descent). By using only these notes, by emphasizing certain degrees of the scale, and by going from note to note in ways characteristic to the raga, the performer sets out to create a mood or atmosphere (rasa) that is unique to the raga in question. There are several hundred ragas in present use, and thousands are possible in theory." Alapa (Sanskrit: "conversation") are "improvised melody structures that reveal

784-403: A raga, also spelled rag (in northern India) or ragam (in southern India), (from Sanskrit, meaning "colour" or "passion"), in the classical music of India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, is "a melodic framework for improvisation and composition. A raga is based on a scale with a given set of notes, a typical order in which they appear in melodies, and characteristic musical motifs. The basic components of

840-400: A section known as jor, which uses a rhythmic pulse though no tala (metric cycle). The performer of the alapa gradually introduces the essential notes and melodic turns of the raga to be performed. Only when the soloist is satisfied that he has set forth the full range of melodic possibilities of the raga and has established its unique mood and personality will he proceed, without interruption, to

896-602: A series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is constructed. However, the way the notes are approached and rendered in musical phrases and the mood they convey are more important in defining a raga than the notes themselves. In the Indian musical tradition, rāgas are associated with different times of the day, or with seasons. Indian classical music is always set in a rāga. Non-classical music such as popular Indian film songs and ghazals sometimes use rāgas in their compositions. According to Encyclopædia Britannica ,

952-447: A smaller role. At the same time, some contemporary composers from the 20th and 21st century have increasingly included improvisation in their creative work. In Indian classical music , improvisation is a core component and an essential criterion of performances. In Indian , Afghan , Pakistani , and Bangladeshi classical music, raga is the "tonal framework for composition and improvisation". The Encyclopædia Britannica defines

1008-414: Is a "performance given extempore without planning or preparation". Another definition is to "play or sing (music) extemporaneously, by inventing variations on a melody or creating new melodies, rhythms and harmonies". Encyclopædia Britannica defines it as "the extemporaneous composition or free performance of a musical passage, usually in a manner conforming to certain stylistic norms but unfettered by

1064-399: Is learning to play with a swing rhythm and "feel". In jazz, the roots are usually omitted from keyboard voicings, as this task is left to the double bass player. Jazz pianists also make extensive use of chord "extensions", such as adding the ninth, eleventh or thirteenth scale degree to the chord. In some cases, these extensions may be "altered" i.e. sharpened or flattened, as in the case of

1120-402: Is widely acknowledged. They offer a clear value as documentation of performances despite their perceived limitations. With these available, generations of jazz musicians are able to implicate styles and influences in their performed new improvisations. Many varied scales and their modes can be used in improvisation. They are often not written down in the process, but they help musicians practice

1176-517: The Musica enchiriadis (ninth century), indicate that added parts were improvised for centuries before the first notated examples. However, it was only in the fifteenth century that theorists began making a hard distinction between improvised and written music. Some classical music forms contained sections for improvisation, such as the cadenza in solo concertos , or the preludes to some keyboard suites by Bach and Handel, which consist of elaborations of

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1232-1659: The Scratch Orchestra in England; Musica Elettronica Viva in Italy; Lukas Foss Improvisation Chamber Ensemble at the University of California, Los Angeles; Larry Austin 's New Music Ensemble at the University of California, Davis; the ONCE Group at Ann Arbor; the Sonic Arts Group; and Sonics , the latter three funding themselves through concerts, tours, and grants. Significant pieces include Foss Time Cycles (1960) and Echoi (1963). Other composers working with improvisation include Richard Barrett , Benjamin Boretz , Pierre Boulez , Joseph Brent , Sylvano Bussotti , Cornelius Cardew , Jani Christou , Douglas J. Cuomo , Alvin Curran , Stuart Dempster , Hugh Davies , Karlheinz Essl , Mohammed Fairouz , Rolf Gehlhaar , Vinko Globokar , Richard Grayson , Hans-Joachim Hespos , Barton McLean , Priscilla McLean , Stephen Nachmanovitch , Pauline Oliveros , Henri Pousseur , Todd Reynolds , Terry Riley , Frederic Rzewski , Saman Samadi , William O. Smith , Manfred Stahnke , Karlheinz Stockhausen , Tōru Takemitsu , Richard Teitelbaum , Vangelis , Michael Vetter , Christian Wolff , Iannis Xenakis , Yitzhak Yedid , La Monte Young , Frank Zappa , Hans Zender , and John Zorn . British and American psychedelic rock acts of

1288-547: The Western art music tradition, including the Medieval , Renaissance , Baroque , Classical , and Romantic periods, improvisation was a valued skill. J. S. Bach , Handel , Mozart , Beethoven , Chopin , Liszt , and many other famous composers and musicians were known especially for their improvisational skills. Improvisation might have played an important role in the monophonic period. The earliest treatises on polyphony , such as

1344-455: The guitar , vibraphone , and other keyboard instruments, the piano is one of the instruments in a jazz combo that can play both single notes and chords rather than only single notes as does the saxophone or trumpet . A new style known as "stride" or "Harlem stride" emerged during the 1920s, predominantly in New York , United States. James P. Johnson was a prominent proponent. The left hand

1400-544: The 1940s and 1950s, a number of great piano players emerged. Pianists like Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell helped create and establish the sound of bebop. Bill Evans built upon the style of Powell while adding a distinct classical influence to his playing, while Oscar Peterson pushed rhythmic variations and was influenced by the style of Art Tatum , Teddy Wilson and Nat King Cole . Wynton Kelly , Red Garland , Herbie Hancock , and Keith Jarrett were also exceptional pianists who played with Miles Davis . Tommy Flanagan

1456-483: The 1960s and 1970s used improvisations to express themselves in a musical language. The American Rock band Grateful Dead based their career around improvised live performances, meaning that no two shows ever sounded the same. Improvisation was a key part of Pink Floyd 's music from 1967 to 1972. Another progressive rock band that implemented improvisation was King Crimson , whose live performances consisted of many improvisational pieces. The improvisation died down in

1512-503: The 1980s, but saw a resurgence in the 1990s. In the realm of silent film -music performance, there were musicians ( theatre organ players and piano players) whose improvised performances accompanying these film has been recognized as exceptional by critics, scholars, and audiences alike. Neil Brand was a composer who also performed improvisationally. Brand, along with Guenter A. Buchwald, Philip Carli, Stephen Horne, Donald Sosin, John Sweeney , and Gabriel Thibaudeau, all performed at

1568-837: The 20th century, some musicians known as great improvisers such as Marcel Dupré , Pierre Cochereau and Pierre Pincemaille continued this form of music, in the tradition of the French organ school . Maurice Duruflé , a great improviser himself, transcribed improvisations by Louis Vierne and Charles Tournemire . Olivier Latry later wrote his improvisations as compositions, for example Salve Regina . Classical music departs from baroque style in that sometimes several voices may move together as chords involving both hands, to form brief phrases without any passing tones. Though such motifs were used sparingly by Mozart, they were taken up much more liberally by Beethoven and Schubert. Such chords also appeared to some extent in baroque keyboard music, such as

1624-674: The 3rd movement theme in Bach's Italian Concerto . But at that time such a chord often appeared only in one clef at a time, (or one hand on the keyboard) and did not form the independent phrases found more in later music. Adorno mentions this movement of the Italian Concerto as a more flexible, improvisatory form, in comparison to Mozart, suggesting the gradual diminishment of improvisation well before its decline became obvious. The introductory gesture of tonic, subdominant, dominant, tonic , however, much like its baroque form, continues to appear at

1680-552: The Make It Up Club (held every Tuesday evening at Bar Open on Brunswick Street, Melbourne ) has been presenting a weekly concert series dedicated to promoting avant-garde improvised music and sound performance of the highest conceptual and performative standards (regardless of idiom, genre, or instrumentation). The Make It Up Club has become an institution in Australian improvised music and consistently features artists from all over

1736-540: The UK's Official Jazz & Blues Albums Chart Top 30 on 15 April. The Jazz Mann ' s Ian Mann notes that McCreadie's compositions "are strongly influenced by Scottish traditional music and also draw inspiration from Scottish landscape and folklore . Other Scottish musicians such as trumpeter Colin Steele and drummer Tom Bancroft have drawn on similar sources, as has pianist Dave Milligan, but nobody has integrated these into

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1792-527: The annual conference on silent film in Pordenone , Italy , Le Giornate del Cinema Muto . In improvising for silent film, performers have to play music that matches the mood, style and pacing of the films they accompany. In some cases, musicians had to accompany films at first sight , without preparation. Improvisers needed to know a wide range of musical styles and have the stamina to play for sequences of films which occasionally ran over three hours. In addition to

1848-523: The beginning of high-classical and romantic piano pieces (and much other music) as in Haydn's Piano Sonata Hob. XVI/52 and Beethoven's Sonata No. 24, Op. 78 . Beethoven and Mozart cultivated mood markings such as con amore , appassionato , cantabile , and expressivo . In fact, it is perhaps because improvisation is spontaneous that it is akin to the communication of love. Beethoven and Mozart left excellent examples of what their improvisations were like, in

1904-446: The chord changes using scales (whole tone scale, chromatic scale, etc.) and arpeggios. Jazz piano (the technique) and the instrument itself offer soloists an exhaustive number of choices. One may play the bass register in an ostinato pattern, popular in boogie-woogie style, where the left hand repeats a phrase numerous times throughout a song, as performed by Rob Agerbeek in "Boogie Woogie Stomp". The left hand can also be played as

1960-406: The chord progression exactly, he may "skim over" the progression and simply decorate with notes from the key of the piece (parent musical scale ), or he may fashion his own voice-leading , using his intuition and listening experience, which may clash at some points with the chords the rhythm section is playing. With the notable exception of liturgical improvisation on the organ, the first half of

2016-481: The chords in a tune's chord progression. The approach to improvising has changed since the earliest eras of jazz piano. During the swing era, many soloists improvised "by ear" by embellishing the melody with ornaments and passing notes. However, during the bebop era, the rapid tempo and complicated chord progressions made it increasingly harder to play "by ear." Along with other improvisers, such as saxes and guitar players, bebop-era jazz pianists began to improvise over

2072-483: The creation of an entirely new part or parts—continued into the early Baroque, though important modifications were introduced. Ornamentation began to be brought more under the control of composers, in some cases by writing out embellishments, and more broadly by introducing symbols or abbreviations for certain ornamental patterns. Two of the earliest important sources for vocal ornamentation of this sort are Giovanni Battista Bovicelli's Regole, passaggi di musica (1594), and

2128-499: The form of introductions to pieces, and links between pieces, continued to be a feature of keyboard concertising until the early 20th-century. Amongst those who practised such improvisation were Franz Liszt , Felix Mendelssohn , Anton Rubinstein , Paderewski , Percy Grainger and Pachmann . Improvisation in the area of art music seems to have declined with the growth of recording. After studying over 1,200 early Verdi recordings, Will Crutchfield concludes that "The solo cavatina

2184-469: The format of the jazz piano trio quite as convincingly and successfully as McCreadie." The music is "both accessible, thanks to the folk / song like qualities of the often beautiful writing and challenging, due to the sheer energy and intensity of the performances", and it's "easy to see why the McCreadie trio has attracted such attention from jazz fans and why the band are now considered to be major players on

2240-432: The jazz idiom. A common view of what a jazz soloist does could be expressed thus: as the harmonies go by, he selects notes from each chord , out of which he fashions a melody . He is free to embellish by means of passing and neighbor tones, and he may add extensions to the chords, but at all times a good improviser must follow the changes . ... [However], a jazz musician really has several options: he may reflect

2296-458: The jazz stage in the UK and beyond. His music may be rooted in the Scottish landscape but Fergus McCreadie is a world class act." London Jazz News ' s Graham Spry agrees, writing that "Fergus McCreadie's music is very much rooted in his native country, and yet it has both audience and critical appeal well beyond Scotland's shores." Jazzwise writes that "several of these trio tracks carry quite

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2352-413: The left hand, using a double melody block chord called "locked-hand" voicing , or Shearing voicing—a technique popularized, though not invented, by the pianist and set leader George Shearing . Jazz piano has played a leading role in developing the sound of jazz. Early on, Black jazz musicians created ragtime on the piano. As the genre progressed, the piano was usually featured in the rhythm section of

2408-425: The listener, and the physical space that the performance takes place in. Even if improvisation is also found outside of jazz, it may be that no other music relies so much on the art of "composing in the moment", demanding that every musician rise to a certain level of creativity that may put the performer in touch with his or her unconscious as well as conscious states. The educational use of improvised jazz recordings

2464-666: The metrically organized section of the piece. If a drummer is present, as is usual in formal concert, his first beats serve as a signal to the listener that the alapa is concluded." Machine improvisation uses computer algorithms to create improvisation on existing music materials. This is usually done by sophisticated recombination of musical phrases extracted from existing music, either live or pre-recorded. In order to achieve credible improvisation in particular style, machine improvisation uses machine learning and pattern matching algorithms to analyze existing musical examples. The resulting patterns are then used to create new variations "in

2520-465: The musical characteristics of a raga". "Alapa ordinarily constitutes the first section of the performance of a raga. Vocal or instrumental, it is accompanied by a drone (sustained-tone) instrument and often also by a melodic instrument that repeats the soloist's phrases after a lag of a few seconds. The principal portion of alapa is not metric but rhythmically free; in Hindustani music it moves gradually to

2576-508: The performances, some pianists also taught master classes for those who wanted to develop their skill in improvising for films. When talkies – motion pictures with sound–were introduced, these talented improvising musicians had to find other jobs. In the 2010s, there are a small number of film societies which present vintage silent films , using live improvising musicians to accompany the film. Worldwide there are many venues dedicated to supporting live improvisation. In Melbourne since 1998,

2632-408: The preface to Giulio Caccini 's collection, Le nuove musiche (1601/2) Eighteenth-century manuals make it clear that performers on the flute, oboe, violin, and other melodic instruments were expected not only to ornament previously composed pieces, but also spontaneously to improvise preludes. The basso continuo (accompaniment) was mainly improvised, the composer usually providing no more than

2688-400: The prescriptive features of a specific musical text." Improvisation is often done within (or based on) a pre-existing harmonic framework or chord progression . Improvisation is a major part of some types of 20th-century music, such as blues , rock music , jazz , and jazz fusion , in which instrumental performers improvise solos, melody lines and accompaniment parts. Throughout the eras of

2744-418: The sets of variations and the sonatas which they published, and in their written out cadenzas (which illustrate what their improvisations would have sounded like). As a keyboard player, Mozart competed at least once in improvisation, with Muzio Clementi . Beethoven won many tough improvisatory battles over such rivals as Johann Nepomuk Hummel , Daniel Steibelt , and Joseph Woelfl . Extemporization, both in

2800-438: The twentieth century is marked by an almost total absence of actual improvisation in contemporary classical music. Since the 1950s, some contemporary composers have placed fewer restrictions on the improvising performer, using techniques such as vague notation (for example, indicating only that a certain number of notes must sound within a defined period of time). New Music ensembles formed around improvisation were founded, such as

2856-667: The various moods the different soloists were aiming for. In the early days, not all leading pianists were concerned to provide comping. Others—notably Duke Ellington , who became famous during the Harlem Renaissance at the Cotton Club —earned great esteem among band members as well as other musicians. Ellington comped enthusiastically in support of the soloist and did much to develop the technique. Jazz piano moved away from playing lead melody to providing foundation for song sets; soon, skilled jazz pianists were performing as soloists. In

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2912-538: The whole trio who have "developed intuitively, and almost telepathically, to a level of integration that is phenomenal", with "truly breath taking" playing throughout the record that "continues to remind us why the piano trio occupies such a vital, vibrant, ever changing and ubiquitous presence in jazz." JazzTimes ' s Andrew Hamlin says McCreadie "ignites" the album "with a flurry of precisely placed notes, rich harmonies in forest-fire motion." All tracks are written by Fergus McCreadie Jazz pianist Along with

2968-501: The world. A number of approaches to teaching improvisation have emerged in jazz pedagogy, popular music pedagogy , the Dalcroze method , Orff-Schulwerk , and Satis Coleman's creative music. Current research in music education includes investigating how often improvisation is taught, how confident music majors and teachers are at teaching improvisation, neuroscience and psychological aspects of improvisation, and free-improvisation as

3024-622: Was featured by John Coltrane on his hit album Giant Steps . McCoy Tyner is also an influential player who played with Coltrane. Musical improvisation Musical improvisation (also known as musical extemporization ) is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition , which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians . Sometimes musical ideas in improvisation are spontaneous, but may be based on chord changes in classical music and many other kinds of music. One definition

3080-409: Was the most obvious and enduring locus of soloistic discretion in nineteenth-century opera." He goes on to identify seven main types of vocal improvisation used by opera singers in this repertory: Improvisation is one of the basic elements that sets jazz apart from other types of music. The unifying moments in improvisation that take place in live performance are understood to encompass the performer,

3136-463: Was used to establish rhythm while the right hand improvised melodies. Mastering the various chord voicings—simple to advanced—is the first building block of learning jazz piano. Jazz piano technique uses all the chords found in Western art music, such as major, minor, augmented, diminished, seventh, diminished seventh, sixth, minor seventh, major seventh, suspended fourth, and so on. A second key skill

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