Comedy Keys Scott Istvan

In this episode, Faustino Solis from Las Vegas joins us to talk about how easy music directing can be when you "fake it" with just three chords, and how you can expand from there to sound like a fully-fledged musician! We also talk about the importance of rhythm for giving your improvisors a place to ground themselves, as well as a few tricks for simple underscoring - all you need is a few notes to paint a world of sound. With apologies to Faustino for how long this took to publish, and apologies to any regular listeners who thought we might actually maintain a regular release schedule.

Ben Chang, a beatboxer and improv comedian from Boston, joins us to talk about the ins and outs of accompanying a show as a beatboxer. While beatboxing is commonly associated with hip hop, it can also be used alongside a traditional piano set up or as a source of sound effects and punctuation. Ben also attempts to teach Scott to beatbox with varying degrees of success. 

Veteran music director Steve Gilbane joins us to talk about the art of accompanying improvised songs. We talk about common song structures including last line tagline and verse-chorus and how to communicate that structure to singers. Steve also goes over a library of common chord progressions which are great starting points for improvising songs.

Adam Brooks of ImprovBoston and formerly Second City Cleveland joins us for this to talk about his experience there. We also talk about how to find the right teacher, building your musical style & voice, and a crash course through the 12 bar blues!

This episode is an interview via the magic of the internet with Johann Frech from Lima, Peru. Johann talks through the improv, comedy, and music traditions in Peru, as well as how he uses his Yamaha arranger to play with a broader sound palette.

In this episode, Nelson Velazquez of Los Improviachi's joins us to talk about music directing as a guitarist and playing in an improv mariachi band. If you think music direction is just for piano players, listen to this episode & think again!