The Improv Comedy Musician: The Ultimate Guide to Playing Music with an Improv Group

by Laura; Baker, Bob Hall

Are you a musician who performs with an improv comedy group? If so, this book is for you! You'll also greatly benefit if you are a music director, improv team leader, improv teacher or coach, improv actor or singer, or just a hardcore Whose Line fan.

From the Foreword by Colin

"On Whose Line , Laura supplies note-perfect music styles for Wayne Brady, Brad Sherwood, Chip Esten, Jeff Davis, et al, to shine on. But Laura's true genius is that she can make caterwaulers like me sound good and, more important, makes caterwaulers like me feel safe enough to try.

"Laura Hall is a damn fine musician, period. There is no musical style she isn't well versed in. With Laura you get experience, knowledge, and a teacher you can trust. What more could you ask for? So get reading, start playing, and have more fun than you're ready for."

"I'm a Laura Hall-ic!" - Chip Esten , Nashville, Whose Line Is It Anyway?

"I know and highly respect both Laura and Bob. I can't think of a better pair to teach you the fundamentals of musical improv." - Bill Chott , actor and founder of the Improv Trick

Laura Hall is an accomplished musician best known as the pianist on Whose Line Is It Anyway? She also stays busy recording film scores, writing musicals, and leading improv workshops with her husband Rick.

Bob Baker is a prolific author, musician, artist and actor, as well as an improv teacher and performer. Through his books and workshops Bob teaches creative people of all kinds how to get exposure, connect with fans, and increase their incomes.

Genres: Nonfiction

158 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 2016

Reviews

[Brad Linden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so thankful this book exists. Improv comedy is a pretty niche field. Musical improv comedy is a tiny subset of that already small field. And for singers/actors interested in doing musical improv comedy, some resources and classes exist. However, almost no books/training/classes exist for musicians backing musical improv groups. In Laura Hall's introduction, she explains why it's so hard to make resources for improv musicians (and why she was reluctant to write a book for years): it's a skill that just sort of "clicks" for certain people and can be difficult to explain with specific instructions. Thankfully, Hall pushed through the abstractness of her work and put together some really helpful lessons for musicians interested in working in improv.

Three main things you'll get from this book are:
1) Specific musical tips ("Try using these basic chord progressions as a starting point...Make sure you have this equipment.")
2) How to understand/engage in improv ("Watch for these things in a scene...Here's how you can help (or hurt) actors.")
3) Awesome personal stories ("This is a funny memory I have of Wayne Brady...Here's an essential musical lesson I learned while improv-ing with Robin Williams.")

Beyond all that, you can feel through the pages of this book that Laura Hall loves what she does, and that it's bringing her joy to share some of her tips with another generation of improv musicians.

Is this book going to help you go from beginner musician to someone who can back an improv group? No. As Laura Hall explains, there is a lot of musical intuition, songwriting theory, and confidence necessary to do this kind of playing. But rather than just assuming it should be left to those who "get it", she has done a great job distilling a complex art form in a way that can give you enough of a leg up to take a shot at playing music with an improv group.

[Zachary Littrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

One hell of a niche book. I'm not that good of a musician, and not that into improv. But I can appreciate that this is a pretty fat-free guide for a tiny group of readers. A little nostalgia is probably blinding me, but I think it's a testament to the book to make me think "Maybe I'd want to do improv..."

Sure, I ended up watching Whose Line reruns instead, but it's the thought that counts.