Whether you are a beginner or an advanced player the idea of improvising holds a certain allure as it means to play spontaneously from your own natural feelings and creativity, freely and without sheet music – Who wouldn’t want to do that?

And improvising is something we can all do, so here are a few tips on how to do it and a Free Video Lesson called the Black Note Flow Lesson from my Sonny’s Play Piano Instantly DVD Kit and Weekly PianoTV Show Series. This lesson gets you into playing spontaneously without thinking and without sheet music and is an exercise in creativity designed to connect you to your feelings and musical intuition.

When people first do this simple 10 minute lesson they often think, “Oh, that was easy.” They may have followed along with me on the video or they may even have just watched me do the exercise and that’s it: Easy, done, finished. But le contraire! The secret to getting this exercise to work for you is to keep doing it for at least 20 minutes every time you sit down to play. Use it as a warm up BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE. It will get you into the flow and help you to play more spontaneously without thinking. Actually, it takes about 20 minutes of playing before you warm up physically and mentally, and up to the 20 minute mark your mind is thinking and analyzing… the key to improvising is to stop thinking and just flow.. feel.. let go; Play without the critical side of your brain judging everything you are doing. One of the real secrets to improvising is that THERE ARE NO MISTAKES; You are learning how to flow and are just exploring the piano and the sounds that the black notes can give you. You are not playing a Chopin Prelude, so don’t start and stop… just keep playing… do not listen to that little voice in your head that says, “That was good”, or “That was bad, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? It isn’t working.” By silencing that voice you free youself from the stress and worry of playing perfectly and the music inside of you can find its way to your fingers.

So when doing this Video Lesson remember There Are No Mistakes and play along with me as I demonstrate it. And then, play it on your own for longer and longer periods of time and you will be amazed at what will happen, your creativity will kick in and interesting melody lines will appear and you will begin playing without thinking. Try it! And Try it again… and again… and again…