The miracle of improvisation

You will be accompanied throughout this site by improvisers. During your visit: click on their photos to discover what they have to say.

"It was the first time I’d ever heard improvisers, but they were not how I’d imagined them and not as good as the writers whose songs I’d learnt.

I was surprised. There’s no doubt about it, I didn’t see them as improvisers. In other words, what they said would never be repeated. They were having a tremendous time doing as best they could, and when I thought about myself, I thought that I could also do as well as them!

Once they had stopped, and almost against my own will, I sang them a verse from the window. They all looked at me and, like dogs, came at me. They didn’t want a snotty-nosed boy to join them.

I fled into the mountains with Lorentzo as if I’d done something wrong.

That was my first improvised verse. I was sixteen years old".

"As soon as you’re given the subject, there are thousands of ideas which come to mind, very quickly and in a disorganised manner, and you must decide how you’re going to deal with the subject, the tone you’re going to sing in, and sometimes you even have to find a context.

I’ve often thought about what I could have sung on a subject I’d been given. I’ve had some regrets, in so far as I wasn’t completely satisfied with what I’d done.

It’s a way to continue to improve, to add depth to your own work and to look for new ways for the next time"

"Theoretically, the previous improvisation is the point of departure for your improvisation. If the previous improviser asks you a question, you must answer. Of course, in a championship, and in front of a large audience, you always try to take the easy way out …

If you place your idea well between two points, and if you know that in the first two points you will answer the other improviser, you’ve got half your improvisation sorted before you even begin to sing, you’ve got something concrete, it’s a clever trick.

What really deserves a lot of credit is not thinking of anything until the other improviser has finished and then beginning your own improvisation during those ten seconds"

"It’s difficult to admit, but we always claim to be open-minded without preconceived ideas, and yet we’re the first to have them.

I’ve also pleasantly surprised myself. If you see that something you’ve said has touched the audience, or simply makes people laugh, or whilst you’re officiating with another improviser, you realise that you’ve managed to dismantle all his or her arguments … 

In those moments, you say to yourself: “I’ve really achieved something!”.

These are small steps you accomplish. Seeing my grandfather crying with joy after an improvisation, or a friend, especially someone who isn’t very interested in improvisation, laugh listening to verses, that’s what counts most. If I’m happy with what I’ve done and I can see that others are also happy, then I can’t ask for more"

"Once I’ve been given the subject, I think of the idea I’m going to place at the end of my improvisation because the audience always remembers the end.

I then have to work backwards, preparing the last point, the one that carries the idea, and develop the explanation of this final point in the points which precede it. Melody isn’t a problem because we choose it amongst ourselves and we use melodies we know. New melodies can be created and we learn them.

I have more difficulties than the others because I don’t have a musical ear, but nevertheless I manage to learn them. For me, the most difficult part is finding the idea. But now we have a certain amount of experience, we always end up finding something.

Our teacher gives us techniques to improve our verse and our voice, mine is a little clumsy …

At the moment, at the beginning of each lesson we spend ten minutes studying old improvisations. We read and sing them. That’s how we learn"