A Basic Impro Kit

Fabulously organised building blocks all in one PDF!

Using the concept of a DIY kit, this worksheet features fundamental tools for Baroque improvisation. Although these are expressed in grand staff notation, they are not only intended for keyboard players but for ALL musicians who wish to upgrade their know-how in the art of extemporization. Historically speaking, counterpoint was the earliest manifestation of polyphony, harmony deriving from it later. Therefore it is in that order that I present them: 5 species of counterpoint (and their rules) are followed by 22 harmonies (and a rule here too). I then discuss 3 essential cadences, the vital punctuation connecting music phrases to each other. After that, we move on to 11 partimento bass motions, equally vital building-blocks of composition (and I consider improvisation as nothing else than immediate and on-the-spot composition). My method closes with the discussion of the 3 melodic/harmonic progressions Monte, Fonte and Ponte