Memory plays a much larger part in the power to extemporize than many
people realize, and if this step in the preliminary work be
conscientiously taken there will be abundant results later.
We now come to the important stage of extemporizing on the piano. It
must be remembered that a very thorough foundation of the knowledge of
chords has been laid by the ear-training work, leading up to the power
to write down chords from dictation, and to sing them in arpeggio.
The first exercise will consist in playing a very simple tonic and
dominant accompaniment on the piano, while a melody is extemporized with
the voice. There is far more variety possible in this than appears at
first sight. For instance, the sequence of the chords may run in any of
the following ways, among others:
I V I V I I V I }
}
I I V I I I V I }
}
I I I V I I V I }
}
I V V I I I V I }
Those who have studied elementary algebra will recognize a simple
application of the theory of permutations!
It is interesting to note the ease with which children will do this
exercise, if they have been carefully trained in all the preceding work.
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