Customer Reviews

Musical Improv Comedy: Creating Songs in the Moment

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I teach Children's Comedy Theatre in North Hollywood. We have been doing improvised singing for a long time and I've always wanted a nice easy resource to use when teaching people how to create a song on the spot. This book is it. Not only is it VERY simple to follow and an excellent source of information, it also contains a CD that will be a fixture in my teaching for ages to come. If anyone has ever improvised a song, played music, or just wanted to be able to think quicker on their feet, this is the book for you.

Any half-experienced improvisor can rattle off titles of books that they have read about improvisation: Truth in Comedy, Improv For Storytellers, Impro, Free Play, as well as many wonderful books on the history of our art form. This book, however, has the honor of being the first book focused on a subgenre of our art, one that is often overlooked, feared, and bastardized. Enter Michael Pollock, a man who has been accompanying improvisors for many, many years. He has discovered an immutable truth: singing a made-up song on stage takes nothing more than courage and commitment. Of course, learning to rhyme, find a groove, structure a song, and get into and out of said song help too. And Michael's got you covered. With over 100 pages of clear-cut techniques, exercises, bits of advice, and a CD with almost 50 practice tracks, Michael has given you everything you need to start making up your own songs easily and painlessly.

If your improv training hasn't included much musical stuff, do yourself a favor. Take Michael's curriculum; buy this book!

I work in film at Warner Bros and wanted to find some ways to get my creative "fun" side going when not working. I've always been a fan of making up songs as well as acting and improvisation. I started doing work at Second City and really enjoyed the musical improv games, and discovered, through a great referal, this musical improv book by Michael Pollock.

I can't tell you it will change your life because I don't know you, but I will say that it opened me up to such a wonderful creative side of acting and music. I found it pretty simple to get going and then you can train yourself while you drive or at home. Being in LA, there's a lot of traffic. The book opens all the doors easy and hard, and it's up to you to decide which path you take.

Plus, the CD, is useful and reuseable. The specific examples are also a real boon - and some of them are catchy and addicting. Great examples.

I don't think I've found any other books out there like this, not to my knowledge at any rate. If you're a fan of singing, improvisation, or just musicality in general, and you want to impress your friends, (When I perform for other's all they can say is "I could never do that") or just perform, check out this book!

Finally a book that focuses on the MUSICAL aspect of improv comedy. I've seen many performers engage in sketch comedy but very few who understood the musical improv aspect of live comedy - probably because it's far more demanding of the performer's skills and harder to develop technique. That's where Michael Pollock's Musical Improv Comdey fills a vast void in educating the aspiring sketch comic. The book breaks down the process - getting song ideas from the audience, a proper intro, rhyme schemes, rhythms, song structures and styles, song hooks and endings. My favorite part is that the book comes with a cd and exercises that get YOU involved, not just reading about it! This book is entertaining for anyone interested in comedic musical improv and a MUST-HAVE for anyone interested perfroming sketch comedy.

I was really excited to pick this book up and then became very less so when it arrived and I could see instantly that it wasn't going to hold much. The type is large and there are huge gaps between each paragraph. I was hoping that at least the few words would be worthwhile... but after finishing the book in less than an hour I didn't find much.

What I got was talk about the different rhyming schemes in songs (ABCB, AABB, Etc.). The same type of stuff you pick up in fourth grade when the music teacher arrives once a week.

There is so much to musical improv and as a teacher myself I was really looking to get another perspective on things. I would have covered everything in this book in the first half of the first class.

I believe that you can (and should) learn something from every teacher you encounter. I would say that the most important thing I learned in this book was to keep the songs short (actually very good advice -- it keeps you out of trouble), but it seems that the author took it to heart a little too much.

I do give credit (and all three of the stars) to the CD that it comes with. It's not ground breaking, but it is a good way to warm up when you don't have someone around to play for you.

Improv is very subjective and it's not easy to teach in the written form -- so much of it has to be experienced, but I still think that there was a lot of information here that wasn't conveyed. I'd bet that if you took classes from the author you'd get a lot more. You don't get where he is in this business without knowing what you're doing -- writing about it is another thing.

This book was okay. I like that it came with a cd and some practical ways you could practice musical improv. I feel like it would be a good precursor to a class on musical improv but certainly doing it alone would not make someone good at musical improv. Just okay.

I did enjoy reading this book; the author has a nice style and covers a good range of information. There were several areas in the book where the author pointed to other books for further information that I was hoping would be included in this book, but it is a short and inexpensive introduction to musical improv. The CD really makes it worth getting. It not only demonstrates some of the concepts but also has plenty of tunes to use for practicing your own improv. Perfect for getting you started on musical improv, just realise that you probably will want to pull from other resources as well.

I found Michael Pollock's Musical Improv Comedy an excellent compilation of technique, theory, and practical exercises explained in a way that is easy to understand for those of us with no previous musical training. Pollock has that rare ability of being able to connect with both the advanced performer and the beginner -both will find his work valuable and relevant- especially with regard to understanding the craft of musical improv and applying the creative skills. The book's format is clear, well-structured, fun and easy to move through. Each chapter includes concrete examples and exercises for practice. The practice CD deserves special recognition, as it makes the learning process even more compelling and truly enjoyable.
Under Michael's clear direction, you'll discover how exciting and stimulating the art of improvising a song can be. Allow yourself to have fun and get ready to sing along.

I really couldn't recommend this book highly enough - Michael Pollock is one of those rare people whose genius at what he does is equalled by his genius at teaching it.

As an Aussie improviser who has always loved musical improv (but only seen its application limited to the odd 'theatre-sports' style game) reading this book marked a real turning point for me. Not only did it open up my mind to the possibilities of musical improv, but it explained the nuts and bolts of how to do it in a clear and simple way. This book has laid the foundations of how to approach musical improvisation, while igniting my passion for it!

The CD is brilliant too, bringing to life the examples in the book and allowing you to put your skills into practice right away.

If you're at all interested in musical improv, don't even question it: just buy it now!

Jenny Wynter, Australia