Talking is Improvising

by Christianne Wilson

On February 27th, 2019, Greg Snider presented a lecture entitled “Anyone Can Improvise.” Snider is a professor at the College of Central Florida, where he teaches saxophone and clarinet, and directs Jazz Bands and Ensembles. He is primarily a jazz musician, and as such is heavily involved in the tradition of musical improvisation. In his lecture, he strove to convey the thought that improvising is more than a musical or professional endeavor, but is an everyday practice that is applied to every aspect of life. He predicted that each audience member was already an accomplished improvisor but that we did not know it.

He began by defining improvisation, which he said is “composing, performing, or delivering without previous preparation; making, providing, or arranging from whatever materials are available.” Snider stated that improvising involves more than music. He used the example of conversation. When two people start a conversation they do not know what the dialogue will be ahead of time, but must decide with each remark what to say, when to say it, etc. His theory is that improv is part of our culture and we are taught its usage from birth.

His job, then, is to instruct his students to transfer this knowledge into music.He starts by setting the parameters. In terms of conversation, this would be things like the scene of the conversation, the size of the crowd, and the speaker's relationship to those to whom one is speaking. Musical guidelines could be rhythm, scale, and length of the song. This step guides the communicator and creates a direction or flow for him or her to follow. Snider demonstrated this by asking one of his students, Shawnli Rivetz, to improvise for the audience. Rivetz was able to convey an idea through his music that spoke to the crowd, by following the given guidelines.

In closing, Snider reiterated that improvising is simply modifying small things to add flavor to a conversation or song, and that anyone can do it.