Much is based on improvisation. Here the performer is not given a score, but makes it up on the . Usually there are agreed guidelines and in an improvisation so that the players have a good idea of what to expect from one another. In Jazz, performers often play a set piece together, then take turns playing a , then play the piece together again to finish. Although this kind of performance incorporates an of improvisation, it relies on a shared view of the musical material - a shared melody, chord progression and beat.

Many pop songs are by the process of improvisation; they are worked out on instruments or voices and never written down in notation. Recording is a form of '' or keeping a record of the music, as an alternative to writing it down. Other performers then have to work out how a song goes from repeated . Memorisation is the oldest way of '' music.