Improvising Music

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2008-04-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

Only two and a half weeks until the end of the year. This semester has flown by and I am can remember writing the reflection of what I want to accomplish by the end of this class. I am pretty impressed with what I learned. Playing with strangers and in front of strangers. I was thought that the carrying musical skill and technique of some of my class mates would make the improvising clash a lot but it did just the opposite. Everyone added something to the class, making it totally improvised and different than any class I have ever experienced. I am excited to find what is coming ahead in the class with performances and such. I would like to see more on the spot improvising in class instead of getting groups to meet outside of class. I feel that most people have not really strayed from a particular style and I would like to really experience something with the whole class without making it sound as if there were so many noises that each instrument is unnoticeable or even, if people agreed, allowing a jam and have everyone switch of on instrument, a musical chairs type of thing. Clashing with that idea, I would like to see everyone do some sort of solo improv on their instrument of choice. I would really like to narrow in on that and hear something straight from what a single person can do without musician to musician influence.

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2008-04-28T16:04:00.000-07:00

Well summer tour dates are being posted finally, my favorite and most exciting part of the year. I have already purchased tickets for Dave Matthews Band, Phil Lesh and Pearl Jam, all pretty big users of improvisation. I am excited to actually participate in some audience-musician improv. As for class, I was pretty impressed with the performance. I missed the class previous to that one so I did not know exactly what to expect so I had a fully improvised state of mind. I liked the game aspect and not being able to get to rehearse some sort of structure before playing in front of the crowd. Speaking of the crowd, I was surprised to see how many people showed up. I was also very surprised that I had a very huge lack of stage fright. I had gotten used to playing in front of the same people every week but to play in front of a larger, different crowd I expected to really freak out. I hope to really experience something like that before the year ends.

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2008-04-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

I have stumbled onto a sort of breakthrough in my improvising. I have been working on a lot of ear training and have been attempting to memorize all the notes on a fretboard. I have always looked at a guitar as pictures or patterns and never as each note. It has been coming along pretty easy and seems to really help with ear training and overall playing and improvising. I hope that more learning and growing follows from there. As for the reading, its hard for me to jump into. What I am getting is sort of examples of and vague images of improvising. I am not sure Sync or Swarm really helps my improvising, maybe the way I view improvising, but not exactly the way I make sound.

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2008-03-24T12:27:00.000-07:00

This week in improv...
I had a visit with my new group that was going to focus on funk improv. I must say that it didn't turn out the way I had forseen. Most people didn't show up so we were stuck with for guitars, three of which were acoustic, which did not make for some good funk. We definately used what we had and came up with a bluesy type of funk but I think funk is totally bare without bass and drums. Funk is nothing without a tight rythm section laying down the foundation.

As for my presentation, I have mixed thoughts on how well it came out. I didn't realize how long my part would be until the end and couldn't even show the class everything I would have liked to. It was a really rough sketch of what a jam band is but I hope I shifted some people's thoughts on what a jam band really is.

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2008-03-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

I am pretty excited about the John Zorn presentation tomorrow, I have never heard of him before this class so it will be nice to learn and hear something new. It is funny because I never figured that there were many types of improv. I always figured that jam bands and jazz musicians were the only big users of improv so it will be nice to hear something outside of that. This past week in improvising I have been listening to a lot of Dave Matthews. That is not out of the ordinary for me but it just got me to thinking that the improvisation that the band uses is widely overlooked and underappreciated. Everytime I listen to them I feel that they are one of the best live bands out there, especially today. They're blend of instrumental and vocal improv and their mix of instuments makes for a perfect sound as my ears would say.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=45mti6tAqac
I have also been listening to a lot of funk lately. I never knew how much improv was used in funk music until I saw George Clinton perform live and until I heard the energy that James Brown brought to the stage. A funk concert seems like more of a party than a concert with everyone from the performer to the audience in total improvisation.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=99pY1wcXTh4&feature=related

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2008-02-23T14:58:00.000-08:00

As for my presentation, I have put a lot of though into it this week. First of all the Phineas and I will present jam bands. I figured that I would like to focus on the many different genres that can be found within the jam band and festival scene of today. There is no way that I will be able to cover all types of jam bands because to me, jamming is improvising, so any music with band that improvises can technically be a jam band in my eyes. I'll use examples of bands that are household names and some that you may only find at the side stage at a festival. I'm excited to see how the class will respond to this type of music because I feel most of the students are not as interested with jam bands like myself, but it will be fun to teach them and also learn a few things that I may gain from this class to better understand my favorite type of music. That is the reason I chose to present jam bands, because I have always admired band that make songs that I can sing to but have something different about them everytime they're played, may it be soloing, scatting, freestyling lyrics or anything new.

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2008-02-23T13:42:00.000-08:00

In Improvising Music class, we have only met four times and have already accomplished more than I had expected. There has been already been the first class presentation which gave a good summary of what jazz is and told of some major names in jazz. Also, everyone in class has performed at least twice. I learned a lot during those performances. I learned of many different types of improv through the very experimental pieces that were played and that music can has restrictions according to sound and that people actually listen to and love what others may just call noise. On both occasions that Peter and I played for the class, I was wicked nervous. I had never played in front of an audience of that size, which may sound pathetic but stage fright is one thing I hope to overcome while in this class. My nerves definitely got in the way of my performances and prevented me from stretching out of the few chords that I stuck to. The first time that we played it was totally improvised, we didn't have anything planned but kept it somewhat simple. The second time that we played we figured that we would keep the playing in the key of A about five minutes before we started. I tried some playing lead somewhere in the middle but quickly stepped back just because I didn't get a sound I was going for and it was kind of hard to solo over a banjo. I'm sure we'll get into that more next performance if the nerves don't come into play again