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Re: Improvising vs. composing



Title: Improvising vs. composing
Dan -
 
I can understand your question very, very well. 
 
Like yourself, I've been improvising for years.  Solo, and in "band" situations.   Yet, there are times when recreating a piece seems useful/important.  For example, I've felt the desire to prove that I have command of my performance and my instrument and that I can recreate a song or whatever, and I'm not just another freaky dude with a few pedals throwing sonic-paint all over the place and calling it "art."
 
I've re-learned jams for solo shows and within a band context.  A few things come to mind.
 
1. Learning how to "re-play" an improvisation is not actually composition, really.
With Super-Cannes, (a little instrumental band in Boston) we've relearned jams - with various degrees of fidelity and success.  Indeed, we've taken recorded jams and edited them to create a new form we like, and then learned THAT.  In some ways, this is kind of close to what some JAZZ guys did 50 years ago.  
 
It can seem boring to re-learn an improvised piece, because it never seems to exhibit the élan of the initial improvisation.  The trick is to work PAST the stage of just being able to mimic the sounds and order of events.  After you've mastered the sounds and order of events, you can then start to "play" the music again.  It can take a little time, and it needs patience.   What's that saying? -- "5% inspiration - 95% perspiration."
 
Three months may not have been long enough.  I'd say if you're playing with others after three months you're just beginning to find your collective "group voice."
 
The more complex the jam, the more complex the "re-learning" will be.  I've had to write down effect settings, changes and "events."  Some of these sheets have over 25 "moves I make / changes / parts."  I have a binder full of these sheets.  It takes time to memorize all that.  Not that you need to -- classical musicians have sheet music in front of them, right?
 
It can sometimes help if you've more people in a "band" context.  As each person contributes a part toward the whole piece, they proportionately only need to learn their part of the whole -- the "recreation" burden is shared, if you will.
 
 
2. Being open to changes
In the process of re-learning a jam, new ideas come to you and obviously there no reason you can't include them, right?  Sometimes adding in new parts this way makes the re-learning process be more creative - and fun. 
 
When performing, surprizes await us all when something unexpected happens.  As long as everyone understands that can happen, these "mistakes" can open a piece up to allow something new to come forward.  These mistakes often yield great moments where you get to improvise it back to where you want it, or take a new road.
 
 
3. Performing regularly helps make it worthwhile.
If you don't get enough regular chances to perform, it can seem like too much effort to compose, relearn or rehearse.  Weather you're 100% improv or 100% composition based, each of us finds a personal balance on the "preparation to performance" ratio.  That never changes.  
 
Perhaps a mix of some structure, and some improvisation (either within a set or within a tune) can help.
 
Personally, I've also learned never to judge music as successful or unsuccessful for an audience based on my emotional feeling on the stage as the music happens.   Too often on stage when I'm struggling I come off to hear "Wow - that was intense, I loved what you did."  Other times when I'm feeling filled with the muse and flying along honest friends whom I trust will inform me they thought I sucked!  :-)
 
 
4. Adding musicians when there isn't structure -- It's all Me vs. Sharing
Obviously, it can be done - you just need to find the right people -- just like for "normal" composed/rehearsed music.  Allowing each person space and control is what matters.   When we can loop and layer, it can be really fulfilling to make all that sound and follow our each and every impulse.  With multiple players it's critical to share space and to "sit down" so someone else can take fly.
 
 
5. As Ernie Boch used to say, "come on down."
Dan, we've performed together and as you know, I have a space in Boston that you've been to.  If you feel like coming down and jamming, let me know.
 
David
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2004 12:30 AM
Subject: Improvising vs. composing

Hi gang,


Would love to hear people’s experiences with this dilemma:

I’ve been doing a project, Orange, for a couple years. Tonight, I packed my gear out of a rehearsal space and turned in my keys after 3 months of struggling with trying to take this improvisational project and make it more structured— i.e., take stuff we’d made up and recorded at various shows and sessions and re-learn it and make a bunch of songs out of it. I just found I wasn’t enjoying the process of trying to do this.

So it seems I’m no longer very interested in writing and playing songs— what I really get inspired doing is going out on a limb and making the music up as I go. I can’t seem to get the kind of spiritual high I get when I’m improvising if I’m playing stuff that’s pre-structured. Not that I don’t like structure— I just like creating it on the fly.

Problem is, 1. It’s kind of intense to go to every show having no idea of what I’m going to play, hoping the muse is on the guest list

2. It’s hard to bring other musicians in without having at least some structure.


Thoughts? Similar experiences? Solutions?


Dan


--
ghost 7/ Orange
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d.ans@rcn.com