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Derek Andrews

Composer Without a Cause

PM: Derek, so many people take piano lessons early in life and quickly get discouraged. How did you avoid this fate?

DA: If it weren't for some very special circumstances in my life I doubt I would be playing piano at all. I took a handful of lessons when I was 7 and 11 from my mother and sisters. When I was 15 I took another crack at piano lessons, this time with a teacher. I barely got past the first method book alive. I hated those lessons and dreaded going to each one. They made me feel as though I had no musical gift whatsoever.

As I was entering the 11th grade I became very lonely and depressed, and my grades began to drop, at which point my parents thought I might get desperate, so they pulled me out of public school. The following week, as home schooling began, I started to take guitar lessons. (inspired by bands such as Opeth). Soon afterwards, I started exploring the piano on my own as well. Freed of any formal pressure and adults discouraging me from doing what I wanted to do, I was possessed with an intense motivation and passion to write my own music on the piano.

PM: How did you "figure out" how to write your own music?

DA: It happened very gradually. I began with very simple observations of classical melodies that I liked, such as the use of pedal points. I made up short, classical-like riffs that had exceedingly simple rhythm and contour to them. However, I practiced all of them incessantly, sometimes in different keys, so as to not forget them. I continued to observe what I liked in baroque, classical, and romantic music and little by little acquired an ability to spin out simple Mozartean melodies over alberti, arpeggio, or chord bass.

PM: Were you improvising from the very beginning?

DA: The amusing thing is, my exploration of the piano was not associated with any goal or desire other than a fascination with the piano itself and the sounds it could make. When I made up simple "riffs" I did not think of this as improvisation. But after a year and a half of doing this, gradually getting to the point of chord/ostinato + right hand, I realized I had taught myself how to improvise! I made many recordings of myself playing whatever I could come up with on the spot.

PM: Have any individuals helped you along the way with expanding your improvisation?

A Pianist's Guide to Free Improvisation Sit down at the piano and play whatever comes into your head, making up your own music as you go along. Marilyn Crispell digs into her long experience with the music of Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Gary Peacock and other jazz improvisers, breaking down the finer points of creating music on the spot. See more info...

DA: Ever since I began making up simple classical riffs I searched and searched on the internet for people who improvised in non-jazz styles. Eventually I discovered Pianomix's own Ted Jones on Pianoforum.net, who posted with the remark that he spends most of his time at the piano improvising. To make a long story short, I wrote to him and he responded very generously with some of his thoughts about improvisation.

Whether or not he intended it, his ideas and suggestions have had a profound impact on how I approach improvisation. I believe that although I defeated much inhibition to get to a certain point with exploring the piano, he helped remove the last few bits of inhibition, and now I have a process by which I will continually build a very personal keyboard and musical vocabulary for a lifetime.

PM: Can you read/write music?

DA: Yes. In fact, all that I can do on the piano came from messing around/improvising. My understanding of sheet music came from knowing the piano as well. Because improvisation has imparted an intimate familiarity with the keyboard, I only have to read through a challenging piece of music a handful of times before it sticks in my memory and all I have to do is practice it from then on.

In terms of writing music, I keep a binder called: "Derek's Composition Notebook." On blank manuscript paper I will write down rudimentary ideas for compositions, variations on previous ideas I've come up with, weird chord changes, etc. I find that doing this produces many new associations in my mind and my musical memory and ability to compose while improvising increases continually.

PM: What do you do to "practice?"

The beautiful thing about improvisation is that it never has to be a huge ordeal. I can sit down at the piano and "chill out", if you will, with very simple chords and contours. Regardless of this simplicity, the sounds of the piano and the tactile sensation of playing it are always soothing and pleasing.

However I do often work very hard at trying new things, finding new chord changes, new rhythmic patterns, new techniques, new melodies, etc, which I practice and expand often.

Now and then I set up my recording apparatus (which consists of my computer, a long cable which threads through the house, and a microphone), and record a long session of improvisation. Sometimes I lift out ideas from these and transcribe them to sheet music.

Recently I've been acquiring more physical discipline and sight reading discipline via lessons with Dr. Steven Smith at PSU's school of music. However, improvisation has imparted a surprising amount of technique to me in a short amount of time. Dr. Smith thought I played the first movement of the Pathetique reasonably well for how little experience I have, and having had no specific help on that piece.

PM: Do you have any amusing stories concerning your improvisation?

Complete Book of Improvisation, Fills & Chord Progressions by Gail Smith. For Piano. theory & harmony. Complete. All Styles. Level: Intermediate. Book. Size 8.75x11.75. 228 pages. Published by Mel Bay Publications, Inc. (95761) See more info...

DA: One thing that I find very amusing about improvising classical/romantic music is that it is so uncommon that it, without fail, fools anyone who hears me play into thinking I am a highly trained concert pianist playing some thoroughly practiced repertoire from memory, when in fact I am merely messing around.

Similarly, one time I was setting up computers in a small private school. I popped in a tape of my own improvisations into the cassette player while I was working. The teacher said: "Ah, so you listen to good music?" (I suppose implying that my peers do not) And I responded: "Yep!" Then she said, "Do you play as well as enjoy?" And I replied (not letting her know that the music on the tape was my improvisation): "Yep! =D". To this day I still get a great kick out of people not knowing my "secret."

PM: What are your plans for your future, and for your piano playing?

DA: I am twenty years old, and attending a university as a computer science major. Music didn't really blossom in me til a few years ago. Before that I had been somewhat indifferent to it, although when I was little I was immersed in all sorts of music: Rock n' Roll, Boogie Woogie, Sitar music, the great composers: Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Liszt, and many others.

I do not have any plans of publishing or playing in public. I've always been an extremely introverted person, hating large crowds, jibes from peers, conversations about sports and television, and so forth. Playing the piano is, if you will, an entirely selfish pursuit of mine. I get mind altering satisfaction from improvisation that is not equalled by anything else I have yet experienced in life.

What I do plan to do however is to continue working very hard at the piano, building my keyboard and musical vocabulary, building repertoire, building technique. It truly makes life worth living for me.

PM: Do you play any other instruments?

DA: Yes. As I mentioned earlier the instrument that opened up the world of music for me was the guitar. The laid back lessons opened a floodgate of self motivation and creativity in me. I have stuck with the guitar since then and I've gotten pretty good at it. I admittedly have worked at the piano much more, as the piano is a self contained one-man orchestra of expression, but I really enjoy guitar and am playing in a melodic death metal band called Nightsbane. Death metal? Well, we actually have a rather upbeat message compared to most death metal bands.

PM: Do you play jazz/blues?

DA: Well, I can play a bit of Boogie Woogie. My father is a fluent Boogie Woogie improviser. I really like this music, but it is too meat and potatoes for me to enjoy as a creative outlet. I feel much freer to "do my own thing" and create my own chords, rhythms, forms, melodies, techniques even, in the older styles of Baroque, Classicism and Romanticism.

PM: Derek, your musical life seems to be quite eclectic, indeed. Any piece of advice for our improvising readers?

DA: Reading, writing, and improvising piano music is an incredibly satisfying hobby. There is no end in sight to the variety that creating my own music offers and I doubt there ever will be.

Improvisation is a discipline (in classical music at least) which is not taught anymore. There is very little literature on the subject. I happened upon it with no specific goal or "cause" in mind, at all. It is like a gift from God. Wether it is a gift or not, I firmly believe it can be taught, because the way I went about it was very methodical indeed.

If you want to improvise you must teach yourself to let go. That's easy for me to say since I've started down that road, and it's amazing that I have been able to teach myself to let go at all, as I've always been very tightly wound, perfectionist, etc. If I can do it, anybody can. Seriously, take this to heart.

Most of my life I've been afraid to try all sorts of new things, and was always horridly reverent to what I was "supposed" to do. "Shoulds" and "should nots" ruled my ability to try anything. However, I miraculously broke through that habit in playing the piano and I am incredibly grateful for it, as I dearly, dearly love playing the piano!

You may learn more about Derek by visiting his web site, or chat with him on our Forum.

© 2004 Derek Andrews

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