# Is it normal to regularly - and exclusively - play solo improv? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [February 18, 2022, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-normal-to-regularly-and-exclusively-play-solo-improv/959756 "2022-02-18T21:23:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2022, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-normal-to-regularly-and-exclusively-play-solo-improv/959756/1 "2022-02-18T21:23:44Z")
I was talking with a family friend who is a professional musician, who I hadn’t talked with since I was a child, and he asked, “are you still playing piano?” And I said yeah, sure. And then the conversation went into music and composing and software, he laments how little time he spends in front of a keyboard, composing music, and how difficult it is to find the notes. It comes out that I sit at my piano almost every day, doing improvised music exclusively. That’s the _only_ kind of piano I play - not playing by ear, not reading music, usually not doing variations on a number\*. And I get the impression that this is really unusual for a piano player - is it? I don’t frequently play guitar, but when I do, it’s pretty much the same approach. I’ll sit there spending thirty minutes figuring out how to voice something, because I suck at expressing myself with a guitar. But when friends play guitar, they’ll come in with riffs, or if there is improv it is lead on top of a song playing over the stereo. (On guitar I can play improv or mimicked lead, or baseline, single note, and usually do when with others. But I almost never do so when playing alone / for solo leisure) I get the general impression that the way I play is weird, not necessarily bad but just unusual. So not only piano, I’m wondering if it is generally unusual to play solo improv music on a regular basis. ~Max \* At least not consciously - I suspect everything I have ever played is stolen from existing music ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2022, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-normal-to-regularly-and-exclusively-play-solo-improv/959756/2 "2022-02-18T21:28:08Z")
Tons of people “noodle”. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2022, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-normal-to-regularly-and-exclusively-play-solo-improv/959756/3 "2022-02-18T21:29:51Z")
I play folk music - upright bass and banjo. Took a lot of piano as a kid. I’ve known a few folk whose playing is limited to working things out by themselves by ear. But it is not at all common among the musicians I’ve known. With only a couple of exceptions I can think of, everyone I’ve known has felt there was some benefit to be derived from lessons, learning music theory, reading music, playing with other people. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2022, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-normal-to-regularly-and-exclusively-play-solo-improv/959756/4 "2022-02-18T21:34:03Z")
> [@Chingon](#): > > Tons of people “noodle”. I was having trouble finding a word for it! “plunking”, “noodling”, “dicking around”, etc. but like, without the connotation that it only lasts for a few seconds or minutes or is disjointed, or something in between other things. > [@Dinsdale](#): > > Took a lot of piano as a kid. As did I… I mean, I can read simple pieces even now. I can even write, albeit very slowly. And I can play a song by ear. But I rarely do any of these things, yet play regularly. I guess I’m asking how unusual that is. But I’m also not a musician - of the two musicians I know, one said he can play as I do (and would if he had the time), the other said it’s very weird. And of the people I know who play piano as a hobby, when they play that means reading or reciting something already read. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2022, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-normal-to-regularly-and-exclusively-play-solo-improv/959756/5 "2022-02-18T22:34:35Z")
I play in an improvisational jam band. We don’t start any songs with a plan or even a hint like ‘let’s try something in the key of B.’ We just start jamming and see if any music falls out. It’s all recorded and a few of the guys enjoy listening through what’s mostly nonmusical noise to see if there are any songs in there. There’s about 9 or 10 of us, though almost never that many jam all at once. I play alone at home, too, though a mixture of established songs and noodling. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2022, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-normal-to-regularly-and-exclusively-play-solo-improv/959756/6 "2022-02-19T00:13:35Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > And of the people I know who play piano as a hobby, when they play that means reading or reciting something already read. I’d say that what you’re doing is “Having Fun!” I wonder if the person who says “I’m going to sit here and this piece of sheet music over and over again” is really having fun… when I did that, it wasn’t. It was called “practice”, and I hated it. Took a music theory course in HS, just to get some sense of “that’s going to sound dissonant, that’s going to sound basic, and this here is going to sound… jazzy!” ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2022, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-normal-to-regularly-and-exclusively-play-solo-improv/959756/7 "2022-02-19T01:02:50Z")
Oops, forgot the word “play” in my post. [/pedant] . Speaking of “play”, and Fun vs Practice… The most amazing church organist I know has been doing it since he was a kid. After a huuuge postlude (the last ‘show-off’ piece after the service; this was like Keith Emerson riffing on Bach while drinking Scotch), someone asked him how much he practiced. The pastor walked up and said “In all my years here, I have NEVER heard him practice a single note. He just comes in every morning and… plaaays…!” ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2022, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-normal-to-regularly-and-exclusively-play-solo-improv/959756/8 "2022-02-19T12:10:08Z")
I go through phases where I will play the piano a lot, or guitar. It’s mostly just playing whatever come into my head, though I do have some songs that I like to play such as _Song For Guy_ and a few Super Tramp songs. There are a few things that happen, sometimes I will play around with my favourite chord progressions and often it just devolves into hours of just playing. I get totally lost in it. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2022, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-normal-to-regularly-and-exclusively-play-solo-improv/959756/9 "2022-02-19T15:07:08Z")
Have you ever tried a looper pedal? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2022, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-normal-to-regularly-and-exclusively-play-solo-improv/959756/10 "2022-02-19T16:07:20Z")
Exactly what I was going to say. I noodle way too much. I haven’t played a structure piece from start to finish in almost twenty years now (it’s possible I have, but I don’t remember), whereas when I was growing up, I didn’t play anything unless if was on the staff in front of me. When I’m bored, I mostly like to play along to tracks or just plop down some compositional fragments that I never really intend to get back to. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2022, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-normal-to-regularly-and-exclusively-play-solo-improv/959756/11 "2022-02-20T00:20:22Z")
As an artist I’m a Doodler. As a musician I’m a Noodler. . . . . And as a dog-owner, a Poodler. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2022, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-normal-to-regularly-and-exclusively-play-solo-improv/959756/12 "2022-02-20T02:07:49Z")
I haven’t played piano for years. But when I did, that’s what I used to do. Play chord sequences and poke around at the keys, and just generally make nice sounds. My college roommate, a serious pianist, was impressed until she realized the simplicity of what I was doing.