Musical Improv Comedy

Musical Improv Comedy: Creating Songs in the Moment

5th Nov, 2008 | No Comment | Posted in Books

This book uses clear, everyday language to clarify each element of an improvised song. Simple building blocks are combined with performance tips to bring your musical improvisation to its highest level.

The included CD provides 47 tracks of examples, exercises and practice accompaniments, featuring the author at the piano and cast members from Improv Olympic West’s Opening Night: The Improvised Musical.

• Improvise a solo based on any audience suggestion

• Create a song in any musical style
• Play musical improv games with expertise
• Perform in duets, trios, quartets and ensemble numbers

Listen to samples from the included CD:

Backup vocals ExampleBackup Vocals Example

Ballad practice accompanimentBallad practice accompaniment

Blues practice accompanimentBlues practice accompaniment

Musical Theatre practice accompanimentMusical Theatre practice accompaniment

Improvised Mini-OperaOpera example

Pop practice accompaniment Pop practice accompaniment

Simple Song Structure Hits Jackpot in Las Vegas

This performance is perfect. Jenny applies every trick in the book to improvise a funny song, and takes complete possession of the audience. She begins with “Won’t you be my ?” and here comes the romantic power ballad.

Great Use of a Chorus in an Improvised Song

This is an example of excitingly organic musical improv expertly tempered with solid technique to create a well-organized, theatrical piece. The sections are very clear:

That Reminds Me of a Song…

You need something to sing about, something to launch a song. The audience is going to give it to you. Here are sample question you can use to get suggestions from them:

The Choo-Choo Train Theory

Imagine a train coming into the station-the engine is pulling a lot of cars, a lot of weight. It takes awhile for the train to come to a halt; it has to “start stopping” a certain amount of time before it actually does. This is analogous to the ending of a song. In order to bring a song comfortably and satisfyingly to a close, we need to do it gradually.