Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 12:54 AM, Anders Bergdahl <anders_e_bergdahl@hotmail.com> wrote: > I would say that my attempts at looping tells a story but soloing over > backings does not. I agree. > And there where not that much storytelling in playing > "Sweet home alabama" in a cover band :-) In music with vocals the lyrics also weighs in to bring over "the story", hopefully the same story as the music is about. And a story doesn't have to be long and evolving. It can as well be just about delivering a sudden impact of a mode or attitude. <nevynnowhere@gmail.com> wrote: > pre think their story? Composition are of course always "pre thinked". When doing improvised music my "pre thinking" exists as decided attitudes, strategies and modes. I think everyone knows what I mean with attitude and mode, but strategy may need some explanation. One important strategic aspect in improvisation is the use of time. Before starting to play, or before making a change to the music, I center myself into a time strategy; making the decision whether I will start a process to be going on for a long or short time, the exact time it will stop and the goal it arrive at. Another often used strategy is the number of "embryos" you set off in the music. With "embryo" I mean something that has an identity of its own; a theme, a sound or an emotional entity. These embryos has also to be given their unique character as a way to interact between each other; themes may go close together (as the multi part guitar solo in Hotel California, to take a bold example) or they can stay apart by counterpoint and merely imply the main theme without it ever being explicitly played - but a listener will even so hear the un-played main theme in his/her mind. I call this "a psychedelic technique" and use it as much as I can. A third strategy that is important is how to start and end a musical improvisation. Especially when playing together with one or two other musicians I find this an important storytelling tool. Music is not the sound you produce but the reactions it evokes in the listener. There is a lot more of "pre thinking" than this to improvisation, but the above is fine as an example. A common misunderstanding is that improvising music means just doing anything out of nowhere. Regarding composition I think of it as "synthesized improvisation". The composer puts time and effort into "re-creating" and improvisational situation in order to optimize the expression. One can also compose extremely intricate music that the real-time performer needs looping devices to come up with during improvisation. Greetings from Sweden Per Boysen www.boysen.se www.perboysen.com