ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how historical improvisation can be taught as an end in itself, used as a first step in university-level counterpoint and harmony classes, and how these two uses of improvisation can be made to reinforce each other. It looks at performers' attitudes toward improvisation and considers what is to be gained from their learning to do it. In theory teaching, the author approach is based on the idea that certain basics can be absorbed quickly and made intuitive in a short time. The chapter focuses on some exercises the author developed to engage students in vocal and keyboard improvisation. In the Renaissance and Baroque periods, improvisation was the way students learned music. The students learned from each other how different the idea of improvisation can be and how it affects a musician. The chapter demonstrates how, in the Renaissance and Baroque, musicians took pieces of their colleagues and reworked them, exactly as jazz musicians are used to doing.
