Learn to Improvise with Bassist Hilliard Greene
Dive into the world of creative music-making with ACMP’s FREE online improvisation workshop on Saturday, December 11 from 1pm to 4pm EST.
Jazz bassist Hilliard Greene will lead this unique improvisation workshop for adult amateur players of all levels. No prior experience with improvisation is required – just a basic comfort level with your own instrument. Hill is a seasoned performer both in traditional and avant-garde jazz. He was the bassist and Music Director for renowned jazz vocalist Jimmy Scott for over twenty years, and was a frequent collaborator with Cecil Taylor and Charles Gayle, among many others. Classically trained – he also enjoys reading classical chamber music and has been known to participate in Play-Ins with ACMP musicians!
You can sign up as a spectator and Q and A participant (just on Zoom) or as an actively playing participant (on Zoom combined with the free low-latency music app SonoBus.) If you are participating only on Zoom, please do have your instrument handy! You will not be able to play with Hilliard or other participants, but you might be able to play a solo!
All participants must RSVP for the Zoom meeting through Eventbrite at:
Actively playing participants must first download and learn how to use SonoBus (it’s really easy, and free!), be available for a soundcheck at 12 noon EST, and then fill out this simple sign-up sheet:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NWNW85D
For help with SonoBus:
Slides from Phyllis Kaiden’s general presentation on low-latency music apps
You can also log into the ACMP website and reach out to someone on our Technology Task Force.
In this session Hilliard Greene will go over the fundamentals of how to improvise – the how to’s of manipulating the elements that make music: rhythm, harmony, form and (mainly) melody.
You will learn how to:
Creatively change a melody using rhythm
Creatively change a melody with harmony
Creatively change a melody by expanding and contracting form
AND (most importantly) make your own melody
You will also learn how to:
Harmonize a melody
Transpose a melody
and understand how harmony supports a melody
Finally, through some discussion of the form of popular pieces, you will be well on your way to composing your own music!
More Articles
Drab, Inconspicuous, and Quiet No More
Washington, D.C.area pianist and choral conductor Sonya Subbayya Sutton is a passionate advocate of the work of women composers. Read about some of her favorite women composers and discover new chamber repertoire from her list.Read More ↗
Andrew Brush: An amateur cellist with a global reach
After ACMP’s modest beginnings nearly 80 years ago, ACMP has grown to have a global membership, and perhaps nobody embodies this boundary crossing more than Andrew Brush. With his cello in tow, he splits his time between his home in Columbus, Ohio, and Buenos Aires, with visits to Europe and Istanbul, where his wife is from. Along the way, he has developed diverse musical interests, with influences ranging from Argentina to Mali. We caught up with Andrew recently after he had returned to Columbus, where he serves as a member of the ACMP North American Outreach Council.Read More ↗
Befriending Performance Anxiety: simple tips for success
Performance anxiety is a universal experience, a survival mechanism that is hard-wired. Many of us react with shaky hands, lack of focus, shallow and fast breathing, rapid heart rate, and even feeling queasy. This is all perfectly natural - our protective sympathetic nervous system comes online to save us from danger, real or imaginary! Join Dr. Xenia Pestova Bennett for a free online webinar about managing performance anxiety on Thursday, October 30th at 6pm UK/Ireland time.Read More ↗
The Great American Play-In: ACMP and ACO
On Saturday, September 13 ACMP embarked on its first collaboration with the American Composers Orchestra (ACO). Together we organized a Play-In focused entirely on music by twentieth and twenty-first century American composers. Over the course of three hours, forty-five musicians discovered sixteen pieces or sets of pieces by a wide range of American composers, spanning from 1896 through 2025.Read More ↗
Just Play Concert: Exploring New Voices and Old Masters with the Tarka String Quartet
Thanks to a “Just Play” grant from ACMP, the Tarka String Quartet—Sue Soong and Julie Park on violin, Kevin Jim on viola, and Angus Davol on cello—recently shared a program in San Diego that reflected their passions: exploring new voices by women composers alongside the great works of the quartet tradition.Read More ↗
ACMP Members of the Month – October 2025
Playing in a regular string quartet is kind of like having a regular foursome in golf – everyone needs to be of roughly similar ability, and they also need to get along. When those two dynamics come together, the result can be a lasting chamber group that brings enduring friendships. Such is the case with our Members of the Month for October – Ruth Sklarsky, Barbara McIver, Ellen Henry and Kathy Lewis, residents of the Rochester, N.Y., area who have played in a string quartet for more than a decade. They got together and collectively answered a few questions about their musical journey.Read More ↗
ACMP Event: Meet Harumi Rhodes
Join ACMP’s Executive Director Stephanie Griffin on Saturday, November 1 at 2pm Eastern time for a lively discussion and Q and A with violinist Harumi Rhodes. Harumi is the daughter of two famous chamber musicians: Stephanie’s former viola teacher, Samuel Rhodes (Juilliard Quartet) and violinist Hiroko Yajima (Mannes Trio.) Find out more about Harumi’s early life in that celebrated chamber music milieu, and about her journey as she established her own career as the second violinist of the world-renowned Takács Quartet.Read More ↗
New guidelines for ACMP’s Workshop and Community Music Grant, deadline: October 24, 2025
ACMP's annual Chamber Music Workshop and Community Music grant cycle is open! Deadline: Friday, October 17. Read about the new guidelines and sign up for the Grant Information Session.Read More ↗
A weekend of music and renewal at Chautauqua
When you first set foot on the grounds of the Chautauqua Institution in southwestern New York, it’s easy to understand the lift in Arlene Hajinlian and Sonya Sutton’s voices when they speak about their summer homes, and why they would welcome a group of ACMP members for a weekend of music-making.Read More ↗
Optometrist by vocation, flutist by avocation
For someone who does not pay the rent as a musician, Pat Brown leads a full musical life with her flute. An optometrist by profession and a dedicated flutist, she has been a member of the Texas Medical Center Orchestra for more than 20 years, serving on the board and helping the group win national awards.Read More ↗
The Great American Play-In: Saturday, September 13 at Opera America
On Saturday, September 13 from 2 to 6pm, the American Composers Orchestra (ACO) and ACMP are hosting a fun and festive chamber music Play-In at Opera America (NYC), focused entirely on chamber music by twentieth-century and living American composers.Read More ↗
A professional pianist charts new musical paths with chamber music
When it comes to chamber music, ACMP pitches a big tent, from players just starting out to those rediscovering a passion for the music they played on their younger days. But ACMP’s membership also includes a thriving community of professionals — highly trained musicians who discover a community in ACMP that is hard to find elsewhere. Grace Shepard is one such professional living in South Florida and serving on ACMP’s North American Outreach Council.Read More ↗
How a cellist learned to love the viola, her way
Chicago-area cellist Ruth Rozen recounts her adventures with a vertical viola, opening the door to playing the inner voices in chamber music.Read More ↗
Tremendous Trivia Tunes: A Fundraiser for ACMP
Four members from DeKalb, Illinois tried a new method of fundraising for ACMP. They felt so grateful for ACMP's Home Coaching program and the wonderful teachers in our Coach Directory, that they came up with an innovative idea to give back to our community. They raised a little over $200.00, but the greatest part was how much fun they had doing it.Read More ↗
And the Play-Ins continued in June!
With ACMP's rapidly growing community of chamber musicians, Play-In season is never over! Read about two recent Play-Ins in June.Read More ↗
2025 News of Note Puzzle Contest Winner and Answers
Congratulations to bassoonist Jessi Vandagriff for winning this year's News of Note puzzle contest. And read more for the great puzzle answer reveal!Read More ↗
Member of the Month, July 2025: Cheryl Hite
The ranks of ACMP members are filled with professionals who began their college careers with the intent of pursuing music for a living, then for whatever reason moved into another career. Colorado-based violist Cheryl Hite is one of those musicians. A native of Detroit, she enrolled at Indiana University in the 1970s as a double major – biology and viola performance. Read her interview with ACMP Board Chair Bob Goetz.Read More ↗
The day my quartet played out of tune and almost got our host evicted
Chamber music can be a high stakes activity - play a bit out of tune, and your host could end up on the street. Read about one such close call in New York City.Read More ↗
News of Note 2025
It’s that time of year again! The web version of the 2025 News of Note is live, featuring updates from the past year—and some fun extras, including everyone’s favorite: a new puzzle. (Submit your answers by July 1!)Read More ↗
Member of the Month, June 2025: Frank Song
Frank Song, 28, may work remotely as a software engineer, but when it comes to music and the arts, he is all about being there, in person. With the flexibility to travel in his work, he seeks out concerts or museum exhibits in cities far beyond his home in Toronto. And while he’s at it, he takes along his violin to play chamber music. We caught up with Frank on a recent visit to New York, where he played chamber music with people he found through ACMP.Read More ↗
Load More
All Articles By