From First Impulse to Finished Piece: Improvisation and Neo-Classical Composition

In this masterclass, pianist and composer Roman shows what becomes possible when you stop waiting for permission and simply begin. Classically trained and now running his own music school in Cologne, he did not start composing until 2021. Not because he lacked the technique, but because he had convinced himself that composition required something he did not have. What he found instead was this: you do not need a plan. You need a spark.

His framework is built around three elements: harmony, melody, and rhythm. Each can be trained separately and combined into something original. The starting point is always small.

"You don't need the perfect idea. You just need a small impulse, a spark to try something out."

What You'll Learn:

This masterclass offers a complete framework for beginning and developing your own compositions, from daily ear training to finished neo-classical pieces.

You'll learn how to:

• train your ear by learning and reinterpreting songs you already know

• transform a borrowed chord progression into an original composition, as Roman did with his piece Spring

• choose your melodic starting point: a third, a fifth, or the root tone, and understand what each brings to the feel of a piece

• build song structures intuitively, moving between sections based on what the music needs

• use register as a compositional tool: how a theme repeated an octave higher changes its emotional weight

• develop polyrhythmic patterns and integrate them into your left hand accompaniment

• apply a daily micro-challenge: 10 minutes of chords, 10 minutes of melody, 5 minutes of rhythm

• adapt your writing to your instrument, understanding how a felt piano and a grand piano demand different choices in voicing and range