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Writer's pictureAjey Deshpande

Thoughts on Improvisation and "Tune Factory"

Sunday 31st January 2021


Remember your first painting? Did it look something like this?


What were you trying to draw?

Probably nothing. You were just trying to see how the different colours worked on paper, having a great time. You just drew whatever you wanted.

Have you tried this at your instrument? Scribbling, doodling, noticing how the different notes and combinations sound? Or do you always play that one piece you learnt so well 3 months ago?

Your 1st painting might not be hung in museums or you might not even remember it, but it was a very important piece of work.

You discovered how to hold a crayon. If you draw too lightly it won’t colour. If you press hard, it gives a beautiful dark colour, and then after a point, you break the crayon. You like yellow and green together- it reminds you of a tree in the garden. Red and yellow, that burger place! Black and yellow- Rickshaw. The list goes on and on.

Anyway, if you have never tried this, go to your instrument now and try it out. Don’t expect anything great to happen. Just notice the sounds, enjoy each note you play.


Tune Factory

Since I started learning jazz music, I have been improvising a lot. I wanted my students to try it out too. Hence, Tune Factory. It was a time-bound event, so I had to give my students some parameters on which they could improvise.

Again, students were categorized into 4 groups.

I demonstrated all these examples and we worked on them for 3 weeks. Initially, there was a lot of confusion.

A lot of giggles and ‘what??’s ensued after I said play anything that you want, no wrong answers.
It was a new experience for them all. I wanted them to get rid of the fear of improvisation. I had to carefully take each one of them through the process.

Yes, it sounds good.

No, it doesn’t have to always end on C.

Yes, you can repeat this pattern again.

It does sound like that tune, good observation.

You don’t need to stick to the examples in the video that I sent you, try something else.


Tune Factory wasn’t a competition. There were no points this time. Just a couple of students coming together and making melodies. Each student had to make 4 tunes. I called out the parameters:

“___, play a tune in G, using broken chords,”

“Play something for me in A, all the notes from the scale,”

“Give me a sad tune in the key of D,”

“Imagine I am making a movie and you are my music composer. We need to come up with a tune for this scene when this boy’s team wins that Football tournament. Any key will do.”


We made over 100 tunes that day. Although I do not know if my students improvise regularly.

Once in a while, a student sends me a recording- “Sir, listen to this tune I made. How is it?”

And it always brings a smile to my face.




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