Improvisation for improvement
Above: EMBRACING THE PROCESS: Clarke Central High School fine arts department teacher Aziz Coleman and CCHS guitar students perform at the CCHS Fall Guitar Concert in Mell Auditorium on Sept. 24. Coleman incorporated improvisation into the CCHS guitar classes' work for the 2025-26 school year to teach students that making mistakes is important for growth as a musician. “(Improv is about) being okay with (the music that) you're making sounding bad and then moving on,” Coleman said. “If you're used to making mistakes, then they don't feel as hard on you.” Photo by Iliana Tejada
CCHS fine arts department teacher Aziz Coleman has implemented improvisation into coursework for CCHS guitar classes.
Clarke Central High School fine arts department teacher Aziz Coleman has established improvisation as a part of the curriculum for the Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced level guitar classes at CCHS.
Coleman encourages guitar students not to be afraid to embrace music that is made during the improvisation process, which allows students to experiment with composing their own songs.
“In this (classroom) setting, there's no stakes. There's your grade on the line, but if your grade is (based on you) trying to make music, then that's not asking too much,” Coleman said. “I think a lot of kids are stuck with how school has taught (them) to do things a certain way. And there is music like that, but there’s also a lot of music where you can make it and it's OK if it's sloppy, weird or different.”
In addition to helping students embrace the musical process, improvisation can also expand students’ technical playing skills and artistic expression. For example, Beginning Guitar student Nicolas Kelley, a sophomore, was able to perform pieces made with improvisation during the CCHS Fall Guitar Concert on Sept. 24.
“Until I started the school year, I hadn't fully thought out my own chord progression or made my own original song,” Kelley said. “But, as of the first performance we did, I was able to really boost the creativity in my guitar playing (because of improvisation).”
Above: COMPOSING COMMUNITY: CCHS sophomore Nicolas Kelley (left) and CCHS fine arts department teacher Aziz Coleman (right) work together to compose a song during the Beginning Chorus class in Room 261 on Aug. 22. Kelley has enjoyed getting to meet new people through the guitar program. “(In the guitar program), you run into all these varying musicians who can play all these different kinds of instruments,” Kelley said. “It's sort of inspiring how you can learn so many new things from new people. It's one of my favorite parts about music.” Photo by Margo McDaniel
For the guitar program’s concert on Nov. 20, each level will perform original pieces that students developed using improvisation they practiced in class, inspired by musical trends over the decades.
“I don't want (students) to do what (the musicians of their decade) did. I want them to listen to (the music), see where they were on the scale and start there,” Coleman said. “That's what a lot of (musicians do) anyways. They take a piece from something they like, and then they build off of it.”
Story by Margo McDaniel
Margo McDaniel is a senior and the Editor-in-Chief for the iliad Literary-Art Magazine at Clarke Central High School in Athens, Georgia. This year, she hopes to help creativity flourish at CCHS by giving student artists and writers a space to create, grow, and express themselves. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, listening to music, and spending time with friends and family.