Improvisation Texts

Jim Hearon

(straightforward, somewhat serious)

You will be a great success socially and

in some artistic calling.

You will be a great success both in the

business world and in society.

Your temporary financial embarrassment

will be relieved in a surprising manner.

In the beginning, something has to happen. 

            Question: How do I begin?

            Answer:   Play only short notes.

            Duration:  The exercise lasts for twenty seconds.

(Exercise 1.  Short Notes)

(a good strategy to employ at the beginning is to ask more questions.)

Inner World of the Garden Glove.

Is that really a renown florid hot lavender egg?

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Wanker Pastorale.

Who wears pork sealant?

Which earnest raw polka?

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Masks of Glory Island.

Which ark of syllogism sand ?

Who’s glossary of sand milk?

Which dry folksong salamis?

What sly ass flora kingdom?

Is that your garland of silky moss?

Where are the frisky modal slogans?

Context

                Represents aspects of the setting or situation when improvisers come together for the purpose of improvising.  It includes the physical environment of the performance, as well as instrumental, biological, cultural and personal aspects as well.

emotional, economic, time, space, approach, vocalist, instrumentalist, environment, general, institutional, political, cultural, demographic, composer, professional, virtuoso, attitude, competition, familial, conductor, amateur, novice, folk, nationalistic, solo, ensemble, teacher, religion, student, electronic, acoustic, technological, instrumental, musical, other arts, personal, properties, potentialities, mood, scene, values, styles, history, seasonal considerations, personality, lunar phases, familiarity, relationships, live performance, disposition, temperament, location

Decision(choice)/Action         Evaluation/Direction

            as bipolar 'valve' and further reduction of the six categories where the individual makes choices or decides to make a sound, then evaluates that sound,

and chooses a direction based on that perception.

                The evaluative process is actually an a multileveled awareness such that

many things take place in an around that moment, including the subjective and

the objective, personal and impersonal, etc. which help determine the direction.

                Essentially then the process moves from the inner world into the physical world where it is evaluated (from within), and then set free again, and again.

                The goal should be to make decisions which are not  based upon perceptions altered exclusively by personal assumptions, but rather upon accurate evaluation of the physical phenomenon of the moment.

Context

                time, space,  environment, personality, relationships, live performance, disposition, temperament, location

Content

                Content is the process which take place, and is represented by the music of the improvisation.  There may be many processes at work in an improvisation.  Among the several important aspects of content are momentary responses, expressed in the moment, as well as projection and retrospection of content.

automata, sampling, found objects, natural music, instrumental technique, idiomaticism, ideation, compositional technique, intelligent body, disorganization, deconstruction, chaos, visualization, color, unpredictability, musical styles, literary allusions, patterns, anarchy, amorphousness, guidelines, synesthesia, plans, schemas, free form, projection, topology, restrictions, original instruments, engines,  representation, illustration, modeling, descriptions, gestures, quote, sound garden, clock time, essence, reduction, expansion, traditional compositional practices, path

WAYS TO PLAY:

Play a note as high as possible on your instrument

Listen and play sounds which blend with the texture

Play a loud, high pitch

Play intricate, rhythmically complex passages

Play a long, low note

Start playing fast, energetic phrases

Stop playing and listen

Play several short notes in different registers with varied dynamics

Play a part which is subsidiary to the others

While playing, watch someone else play and try to match their physical gestures.

Play a cadenza-like passage

Play harmony

Play loud

Play soft

Play a loud, abrupt sound, and repeat it

Play a melody in a mode

Play atonally

Play only intervals

Play minimally

Play stochastically

Play, then stop, then respond to someone else

Play like a rock star

Play like you're in pain

Be happy and sound like it

Play something sad

Play fast

Play grievously

Play aggressively

Play with angst

Play lustily

Stay low and groovy

Get in a groove

Be funky

Play classical

Play jazz

Play blues

Be blue

Get down

Get up

Stay high

Play a major seventh

Sustain a minor triad

Play two melodies at once

Play a melody with implied harmony

Jump up

Play hip

Play cool

Be cool

Spank it

Tear it

Stroke it

Work it

Tear it up

Bleed a little

Be sorry

Be pathetic

Wake up

Get it on

Play an arpeggio

Play a chord

Gliss down

Gliss up and down

Gliss up

Trill

Tremolo

Trill then tremolo

Play harmonics

Play overtones

Play as soft as possible

Play sweetly

Be a hero

Solo

Be subdued

Dig

Build

Climax

Reach

Experience

denouement

Level off

Retreat

Move

Forward

Work it out

Work it in

Stand up

SOUNDS TO MAKE:

Pop

Click

Tap

Rap

Hit

Bonk

Thonk

Creak

Moan

Sigh

Cry

Scream

Pluck

Blow

Bow

Scrape

Strike

Stroke

What do you do when you improvise?:

Aggression

Reaction

Cognition

Suppression

Transmission

Relay

Produce

Expel

Excel

Propel

Rewind

Inhibit

Transist

Forgo

Deny

Refuse

Refute

Accentuate

Denounce

Demonstrate

Pronounce

Refuse

Explicate

Dictate

Show

Compel

Advance

Spill

Obviate

Deduce

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APPENDIX 1

ONE NOTE

            To start playing with a single tone promotes the initiation of a germinal idea which is imbued with potential.  To repeat that tone promotes reflection.  To play a different pitch instead of repeating the first pitch, begins an emotional journey only which the player's intention and projecting the pattern of the melody's pitches can reveal.

GRAB

            Grab is a gestural technique which is like counterpoint.  You imitate another player's gestures, by "grabbing" what that player is playing at a particular moment.  Imitate or "grab" what another player is playing, but do it only briefly.

BRIEF DISCUSSION ON MELODY

            This gestural concept of melody takes the approach of what is perceived as melody--or the gestural idea of what is melody--compared with other musical techniques in general.  For example, what makes melody stand out as melody when it is juxtaposed with other techniques?  How does say an arpeggio transform from being an arpeggio into a melody?  Primarily, in a gestural improve environment where many techniques may be employed all at once for the purpose of making music, a slower and more direct approach to pitch playing generally results in what can be perceived as a melody.  The idea of connecting pitches, or near pitches, together to shape a direction--or a string of tones-- albeit inbetween which other filigree gestures can be placed, is a basic, general, recipe for melody making. The string of tones that are intended as melody should have an interesting shape and be imbued with an appropriate expressive quality concomitant with the sounds evocated by the tones.  For example if the tones are more "Eastern" sounding then the evocative emotional expression might be one more meditative. 

            A complex melody, which is something different from a single straightforward melody, may actually consist of arpeggios as well as connected tones too, or may have more than one part or voice involved which contributes to the indigenous nature of complexity in the melody.  However part of the problem gesturally or spontaneously while improvising even a simple melody is that if the classical model is emulated (such as antecedent/consequent phrase structure etc.) then the music resulting from that model can usually sound somewhat classical too, or even classical new music sounding.  Thus the problem inherent in "melody" is that it is a somewhat outmoded concept in experimental music making.  Therefore the initial point of this brief discussion was that what can be perceived as melody, or what can be carved out of the general sonic landscape and made representative of melody, is normally a basically slower and more direct approach to connecting the tones.  Yet care should be taken to maintain an overall feel for experimentation and for being flexible and being quickly able to move into another technique,  which may not be perceptible as melody, at a moment's notice when the improvisation requires it.

ATTACK

            The Moon's surface is an excellent visual analogy for understanding something about the concept of attack.  Imagine all the different types of imperfections such as cracks, craters, mountains, holes, dips, dings, etc. along the Moon's surface.  Next imagine that each imperfection or impression was caused by some object striking the Moon's surface.  Thus the act of striking is analogous to attack or articulation--where each attacking object has different forces, velocities, impacts, energy etc.  Thus the Moon's surface is the result of a myriad type of attacks, while say a golf ball, with it's carefully measured small round indentations maintains a relatively uniform style of attack.  The Moon's surface is like a very strange piece of music with many different kinds of articulations represented by the various shapes along the surface which were formed by the different objects "attacking" the surface at various rates of speed and force.

More On Emotion

complex descriptions such as:

a dark, cold, stillness

travel: accelerating past a myriad of vistas

voyage into the unknown

a code riddle, and solving the code

advancing speed of communication

time warp

            meditative amazement and wonder

SNEAK

            Sneak is a sudden, pernicious, stealthy move on the player’s part.  The performer should play as if keeping the music a secret; then with sudden bolts, and bursts, and jabs.  Sneak is all about the breaking of a barrier with the unexpected; and then having an introspective, curious, questioning motive to the playing—as if doing something dangerous, then ck’ing out to see if anyone noticed.

            Sneak could also have an ulterior motive such as changing into anger or deconstruction—or perhaps sneak could move full sail into an attack.  In any case “sneak” should be played with genuine emotion as if slightly guilty-but quickly striking and retreating.

            Sneak should be preceded by a gesture which will make it apparent such as serenity or calm & sustain for example.

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References:

Fortunes  from  Chop Chop and Su Hong's.