Improv Quote of the Day: What does improv do for you?

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English: A classical music icon

As for the question, “What does improvisation do for a musician?”

For one, it gives me a break from tackling my wrong notes, distasteful vibrato, and being torn between interpretations in the practice room. There are no wrong notes, no wrong inflections. I wouldn’t say that a note during improve with “distasteful” vibrato/intonation/whatever was necessarily done on purpose, but was made in the moment and without expectation. There is something very freeing and empowering about this. What happens on accident- a cracked note, or a gasping breath, can turn into inspiration for what is to come.

At the same time, I can tackle my classical music troubles through improv. Lately, I’ve had issues with controlling the style of my double tonguing. I’ll start moving my fingers, with no regard to scales or my piece, and focus solely on my double tonguing. This allows my mind to be entirely focused on the production of my tonguing, because I am not going to be distracted by the fingers in an awkward passage, or by the monotony of scales.

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Improv Quote of the Day: Back to the Future

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Improvisation, c.1915-1916

The advent of music publishing, which brought so many benefits to the development of music in Western civilisation, had a serious downside in its potential to strangle invention. Nevertheless, for over two hundred years, improvisation managed to flourish alongside notated works, probably because composers left opportunities within their published scores for performers to add their own ideas.

From the Romantic period, however, composers began to fill in all the detail. The music was their creation, their expression and there was little scope for the performer to contribute. A common repertoire and standardised performance practice began to emerge. These became the norm, wherever the notation was used. Music recording brought about even narrower standardisation. One thing is certain with musical skills – if you don’t use them, you lose them! With few creative demands placed upon performers, improvisation began to disappear from classical music.

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Improv Game of the Day: Hello/Goodbye

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English: Chamber Music Concert

3-6 players. Player One sits or stands by herself in the middle of the floor; the other players on the sidelines. She begins improvising a piece. After the mood/style seems established, any other player may go to the middle and join her in the piece. At various intervals, other players also do this until all have joined the group (note: being in the middle does not mean you have to play all the time – you can and should have pauses where you listen). As soon as all are out there, one player (any player) leaves the group. Other players leave at intervals until only one player (any player except the starting player) remains, who brings the piece to a fitting conclusion. Repeat the game with a different player starting the game each time.

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Improv Game of the Day: Glassy Music

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English: Image of the glassharmonica, invented...

Image via Wikipedia

1 player. Your instrument is a series of glasses, tuned to distinct pitches by filling them with water to varying levels. Normal water glasses will work if you play them by tapping them (gently!) with metal spoons. For a more refined sound, as well as the option of eliciting long tones by moving a moistened fingertip around the edge, use delicate thinned-walled crystal glasses. Make up your own glassy music.

Suggestion 1: Do a search on Wikipedia (or other source) for the glass harmonica and read up on the history of making music with tuned glasses. Did you know that Benjamin Franklin, Marie Antoinette, and George Washington were glass harmonica players?

Suggestion 2: Locate and listen to recordings of the glass harmonica by composers such as Mozart, C.P.E. Bach, Beethoven, Donizetti, and Richard Strauss. Be inspired!

English: Thomas Bloch plays his glass harmonica

Suggestion 3: Acquire some fluency on your glass instrument, experiment with numbers, tunings, and arrangements of glasses, and then integrate the glasses into improvisation sessions with friends.

Improv Quote of the Day: Ives & Improvisation

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Charles Ives

The improvisational attitude toward music, so familiar in swing, affects all of [Charles] Ives’s mature work. It affects his conception of performance and composing… Ives leaves a great deal to the mercy of the performer. In his compositions, the notation of a work is only the basis for further improvisations, and the notation itself, frequently of music first conceived many years before, is a kind of snapshot of the way he played it at a certain period in his life.

–Elliott Carter, Collected Essays and Lectures                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Improv Quote of the Day: Arts => 21st Century Education

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Bertrand Russell's views on philosophy

Arts learning experiences play a vital role in developing students’ capacities for critical thinking, creativity, imagination, and innovation. These capacities are increasingly recognized as core skills and competencies all students need as part of a high-quality and complete 21st-century education.

–Sandra Ruppert, President of Art Education Partnership