by Deb Rabbai

When I started to learn how to improvise back in what seems like the 1800s now, I found it incredibly overwhelming. The idea of making up scenes, dialogue and characters in front of an audience was a bit scary but the idea that I could do and say ANYthing was overwhelming. It felt limitless to me, and I hated that feeling. I’m one of these people who actually thrives when given some limits and parameters. I feel safe and can feel free to explore inside those limitations. I feel like I can innovate and push against the limits that I’m given but if no limits are given, I shut down a little because it’s just too much choice! Too many possibilities and options make me feel stuck.

Sometimes I think it’s fun as an exercise to purposely improvise with a specific goal in mind or a specific type of element you want to achieve. To impose some limitations on what you’re doing in order to really focus and not feel overwhelmed by limitless choice. One thing to try is improvising a specific kind of song. Not a particular structure though the type of song might naturally suggest a structure.

When taking a step back from improvising a song and looking at pre written songs, you can see some elements that an improviser can practice with and use. Let’s look at a few types of songs an improviser could sing if they decided to, or found themselves naturally doing one of these things or if they found themselves singing and weren’t sure how to move forward in the song.

List Songs

A List song is just what it sounds like. Singing a list of items or things that eventually sum something up in your chorus or tag line. A good example of a list song comes from the musical The Sound of Music and the song “My Favorite Things.”

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
Brown paper packages tied up with string,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Here are a few more list songs:

“A Little Priest” from Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd.
“California Girls” by The Beach Boys
“Food Glorious Food” from the musical Oliver

Story Songs

A Story song is just what it sounds like. A song that tells a story about someone or something or a relationship or event. A good example of a Story song comes from the musical Sweeney Todd and the song is “The Barber and his Wife”.

There was a barber and his wife,
And she was beautiful.
A foolish barber and his wife,
She was his reason and his life,
And she was beautiful,
And she was virtuous,
And he was...naive

Here are some other examples: