The Joy of Discovery

Improvising on the piano is the art of discovering new ways to express old ideas. This is particularly true when remaining in a tonal framework. A word on tonality is in order before proceeding much further. As an academically trained musician with a great deal of professional experience, I love and seek out new sounds and new ways to express music. Yet, the truth is that tonality has played its hand and is most likely complete in its newness at least in the broadest sense. Not that there are not new ideas springing forth each day from creative people that remain within tonal parameters, but without going outside the normal diatonic range of notes within a key, it is difficult to be entirely original when it comes to harmonic expression. Most improvisers are slightly influenced by sounds they have heard before and their improvisation is often an amalgamation of their own creativity and originality with that of previously expressed music. My own influences on the piano are that of Floyd Cramer, Leonard Bernstein, Bill Evans, Claude Bolling, Michel LeGrand, Ken Medema, and the touching folk style of Stephen Foster.

That said, in a way it is an erroneous subject since tonality is a man-made systematic ordering of pitches into Western scales and keys. While it has been argued, and quite effectively, that tonality is a result of the natural harmonic series that exists in the sounds of nature and in fact may be the foundational design of all sound, when we add the human element, there really is no limitation of what sound can be. We are comfortable listening, singing, participating in music that is within our man-made key structure but this does not mean that other sounds do not play a valued albeit sometimes small role in our culture as well. My preference for the music of Oliver Messiaen, a composer who wrote music outside a typical tonal framework, is admirable in a sense but not common in our culture of popular music that people enjoy. Having followed careers of composers and various improvisers, I have seen examples of creative people who pushed the boundaries of tonality beyond that of mass appeal, only to lose the very audience who once responded positively. This may indeed be a diatribe against the tastes of untrained musicians, but it is also the recognition that taste and preference cannot be mandated, and, in the end, the economic concept of supply and demand once more rules the day in artistic expression. This is a tough pill to swallow for a creative artist.

Back to improvising. Knowing that tonality--music that stays within the typical key structure with a tonic note and emphasizes major, minor, and occasionally modal sounds--is the preferred sound for most people, when I improvise I remind myself to stay within that context. This is a challenge for me and most improvisers as we work to discover new sounds expressed within what could be seen as fairly strict sound parameters. When I find myself moving beyond the key and into new regions, I can almost feel the confusion and slight rejection by the people who are listening. Again, some may say this is due to a lack of discernment and education, but I, instead, see it as a vote against atonality or at least excessive creative experimentation in sound.

Yet I love the joy of discovery and it often feels like a roller coaster ride of fun when I branch out of the tonal framework and add new sounds to whatever I am playing at the moment. But I quickly reign myself in for the sake of the audience and cater to popular tastes while retaining my own brand of self-expression. Rather than being frustrated, I find the process liberating and joyful. That of being as creative as possible without losing the very people who support creativity. Such is the journey of artistry as we seek to discover new ways to express art but without the alienation of those who support the arts. My improvisation is only as good as the value that other people ascribe to it. Such is true of all things in the world. Value is in the mind.

If an artist, out of frustration of the lack of appreciation for his/her art, reaches the point where the audience does not matter, then the artist has abandoned the very purpose that art exists. Great art is not created in a vacuum only to reside for the creator. Great art is determined by the people, for the people, and with the people. Such is the dilemma of artistry and such is the opportunity for the artist: to find joy in discovery and recognize the value of the audience who in turn ascribes value to the sound being created. But push the envelope I occasionally must, for to progress and develop is to try new things and new ways of artistic expression.