Playing music does not be complicated. The really great joy of improvising is that no one has to learn, remember or worry about anything. Here are a selection of ways you and your students can just pick up an instrument and start.

Free style

Each participant, adult or child, has an instrument and you start playing, carrying on until you stop. Have a chat about what you notice, what you like and what you would improve. To add an element of focus, you may want to be playing a drum with a low pitch. This will give you an immensely subtle means of guiding the music without controlling. Instrument choices for participants should be free with a few provisos:

• Students need an instrument that challenges them at their own level without them dominating the efforts of others.
• Use silence as a main element, placing specific contributions where add to the music.
• Be careful with respect to volume. For a loud instrument such as a gong or a cymbal, use a soft beater that enables the instrument to be hit quite hard while containing the sound.
• Choice of instrument should be influenced by visual and tactile considerations as well as the actual sound of the instrument and the child's ability to play with or without support.

Pulse

This is more or less the same exercise as the free playing above, apart from the fact that your music is driven by a regular pulse. The restriction of pulse sometimes gives people a context in which to play their instrument and on occasion makes it much easier for them to contribute.

• At first, you should provide the pulse.
• Be aware of the effect different pulses can have. Fast can raise energy levels, slow can help everyone to relax.
• Many pupils will then be able to have a go at leading the exercise themselves, setting a pulse that they feel is comfortable.

Other ways to improvise

Very little music is improvised without some kind of "rules" to guide the musicians. For example, jazz musicians usually start off with a tune being played over a sequence of chords. The chords are then repeated over and over again in a fixed pattern with new melodic material being improvised. This kind of improvisation can get quite technical, but on the whole rules will make improvising easier. Here are some you might like to try.

• Use one of the pentatonic scales to keep the sound of your music tight.
• Instead of just using a pulse, build your improvisation around some repeating patterns.
• Take any of the structures used in Composing to help   your music have a better shape.
• Fix on a title for your music before you start. The shared image can be a big help.
• Fix on a story that your music is telling. This will give a lot of clues about what to play and when.