Adaptable Tonalities
Although not belonging to parameter exercises according to my definition, these are related to them because they deal with musical material which can be considered just one part of the total universe. Obviously, chord progressions, so characteristic of what we usually call “tonality”, require a heavy amount of arranging and ensuing predictability which would contradict the idea of free improvisation. Yet some simpler forms of tonality can be encountered and also practiced so as to have a keener awareness about them when they pop up.
1) Drone-tonality: agree on a tone. It should be sustained in a low register throughout, but its execution could well be divided between several players overlapping freely, so they can be free to change their roles during playing. Other players play free melodies departing from, and coming back to, the central tone. Participants should feel free to join into a polyphonic web, although they should also listen well and make pauses enough to avoid a too tight texture that could blur the melody/drone relations.
2) Interference-tonality: this form utilizes in its most direct forms absolute pitch, as it bases upon those vibrations produced by two or more tones near each other in frequency. The resulting sound may sound like one tone with a vibrating, complex environment. This phenomenon is often referred to as employing “microtones”, although the point here is gradual sliding change of pitch, not stepwise movement. Participants must be able to sustain and gradually change their pitch. This rules out a number of instruments, but voices are fine, and it may be easiest to start with them. The first time, point out some participants who keep a sustained, agreed-upon tone, while the others make free, ever-so-small slides away and from it. Later, alternation between sustaining and sliding may take place freely. With both male and female voices, try to find a pitch both can sing, low for the female and some comfortable place in the upper register for the male ones. If not feasible, one octave’s difference may work anyway (for instance, when one sex is in the majority). If still difficult, try to divide the group into smaller ones. Listen and enjoy…
3) quotations: this is the possibility of nevertheless entering glimpses of well-known music into the improvisation. It is described under (PAR) Parameter Exercises (↑).
4) tone repetitions: fast repetitions establish a kind of “very local” tonality – maybe a polytonality – in glimpses. Try it out, in pure form or together with other material. Avoid triads and chord-like figurations that may lock up the sound which should be kept open.
5) interval structures: make sure everyone can make long, sustained tones – else practice first (tremolos and the like – should sound as even as possible). Play/sing different ones polyphonically with individual pauses. Like previously, avoid triads and chord-like figurations that may lock up the sound which should be kept open. (This could be named ‘atonal chords’ were it not for the fact that “atonal”, despite its strict meaning of “no tonal center”, for some people sounds like “noisy and scratchy”, which need not at all be the case. This could rather become a “chamber music”-like thing halfway between traditional tonal music and music with all kinds of sounds).
Difficult Parameter Combinations
The more you can use parameters independently, the more possibilities and the more flexibility you will have with the musical sound. Try these combinations:
- fast, pianissimo
- sharp timbres, pianissimo
- soft timbres, loud
…and maybe more that may appear odd to you.
Little Parameter Exercise
This is an easier version of the Build-Up Parameter Exercise (↑) for beginners. Vary one tone in terms of dynamics, durations (also irregular ones), pauses, timbre, etc, as many as you can overcome. The number of parameters may be slowly increased and new ones introduced over a period of time.
Build-up Parameter Exercise
(previously: Big Parameter Exercise)
This may be done as an alternative to the parameter exercises focusing on one parameter at a time, or as a supplement to them.
Participants improvise according to the instruction of varying as much as possible in a given time period, e.g., one minute. That which the group does is to sound as varied as possible thus demanding collective responsibility for the outcome. (A discussion about here-and-now in music may be engaged in first.) After listening to a recording, the teacher points out what did not become varied. This is repeated with sensitivity for what is going on in the group's working process. At a suitable point, the teacher asks which parameters and dimensions can be varied, with a dimension being that which is variable as to one characteristic. A short explanation about the acoustic nature of music and pitch, timbre, intensity and durations as fundamental properties may be offered here, but a long discussion should not be engaged in immediately before or after the improvisation. A good idea is to make a list on a blackboard of proposed parameters that should be copied by all. Refer to (PAR) Parameter Exercises (↑) for a list of parameters and propositions how to work with them.
This exercise should be taken as far as is reasonable according to the situation and can either sensitively lead to other activities or just settle into the participants. Here is a quotation from a student: "Much has happened in music in this lesson." (Although the playing lasted only 5 x 1 minute, however intensely!) You may end by listening to all of the improvisations focusing on the development in them.
Here is a true story about the pre-history of this exercise: At a concert with the Group for Intuitive Music in Ghent 1977 I asked the lighting man at the rehearsal to vary the light as much as possible. He faded the various lights up and down with regular intervals. "No, I mean in all parameters," I said to him. "Oh, in all parameters," he replied. Because he was trained in new music and improvisation he was then able to immediately do as I desired.
Parameter Exercises
Based on concepts directly related to music moving freely within a large universe of sound, these exercises both stimulate the musical appetite to explore “that which I have not tried yet” and at the same time train the perception of what is going on in the complex sound. Each one is important and has its special impact on the music. You do not need to practice them in the sequence given below. Density influences group dynamics in a special radical way and may be taken first, for instance, with an advanced group. And working with pulse — no pulse may solve a basic problem many beginners have.
Practice improvisations focusing on one parameter/one aspect at a time and striving to explore it through intuitive changes.
Pitches:
- registers: use during the improvisation all the space between highest and lowest (an “orchestral” sound may result).
- other uses of pitch:
1) Imagine (silently, in your fantasies) fluctuations in loudness for approximately 15 seconds. Then sing or play music with fluctuations in pitches according to this imagination for approximately 20 seconds. Thus, the fantasies about loudness fluctuations in the imaginary music are transformed into pitch fluctuations in the real music. Let these pitch fluctuations be the most important thing in this music. Repeat the process. This works well if the teacher times the various segments and gives signals for pausing and playing. The purpose is to move past habitual melodic ideas.
2) Improvise while focusing on movements up-down, a terminology that I propose to use instead of the word "melody," the employment of which will probably result in a different musical product, although the two instructions are identical. Again, expansion of habitual melodic ideas is the point.
One (1) may be done with other parameter combinations and two (2) with another parameter other than pitch. In this case, find out for yourself…
Durations:
1) Vary between many sizes of split-seconds to very long (10 seconds and maybe much more). In order to sound long, sounds must be static! To make long, sustained tones and sounds possible, this may be trained first. For pianos, xylophones and other percussion, tremolo and similar techniques are most important to be familiar with, so as not to exclude the possibility of playing long sounds.
2) Use sound materials analogous to "points," "dots," or other brief sounds lasting only split-seconds, or no more than two seconds each. After this, participants report how they experienced the kind of musical communication which took place.
This may be done with a series of improvisations, especially in the event that the first one does not illustrate the possibilities of a musical "stream of consciousness" – the teacher could make suggestive comments if necessary to make this happen. Other possible titles for improvisations here could be "table tennis" or "popcorn." A recording of popcorn popping may be listened to!
3) Right Durations
This activity brings participants' attention to the collective feeling for the durations of sounds and pauses, helping the individual to limit the amount of his/her activity. It also highlights how the feeling for durations changes in a "seismographic" manner. The verbal instructions for improvisation in this piece by Karlheinz Stockhausen are as follows:
Play a tone. Play it until you feel you should stop. Play another tone. Play it until you feel you should stop. But whether you play or pause, listen to the others all the time.
Play preferably when someone listens.
Do not rehearse.
The last two sentences may be omitted when the instructions are read to a group. However, it is safer to write it (on a blackboard, for example) than reading it as no one should be in doubt about the text.
These suggestions are certainly most easily implemented with instruments capable of offering sustained tones, such as wind and bowed string instruments and of course voices. Pianos and percussion instruments will have to employ tremolo and similar techniques – avoid wrestling with this problem unless musicians have enough training for doing it easily and keep to the other sound sources or other exercises! If the room produces reverberation, this may lengthen all sounds considerably. If this is the case, participants should take responsibility for the lengthening of sound duration; it should not be considered "something we have no control over."
Timbres:
Vary between
1) Tone — noise (find appropriate instrumental techniques; with voices, experiment with consonants)
2) Hard — soft (try to distinguish this from loud —- soft)
Dynamics:
1) Create interesting sound-patterns by making individual variations in dynamics, fast and slow.
2) Collectively, try to make only sudden changes of dynamic levels together. This is the so-called “terrace dynamics” of the baroque period. As ever in this context, no conductor of course. Try to achieve an effective approximation by paying close attention to each others’ playing.
Density:
This parameter is strategic for the group dynamics.
It is pragmatically defined here as how many parts are sounding at the same time (polyphonic density). Play, and let density vary intuitively. This is a collective task that can only be realized through listening and willingness to take initiative or pause for a while according to the perceived need of the musical totality.
Aim for a complete equality of the density “values” from zero (nobody playing) to maximum (all playing) over time – and also for this to happen in spontaneous ways. You may imagine a measuring instrument showing this variation… So that you will hear many combination sizes and variations of them, sometimes a solo, and they may have greatly varying length, etc. Even if this ideal may be extremely difficult to reach or even approach, every step forward may benefit the playing afterwards. Clearly, it is indeed a fundamental resource of an ensemble that you can experience such different sub-groupings apart from the tutti.
Pulse — no pulse:
This parameter is strategic for the integration of traditionally-pulsed music idioms with non-pulsed, freely flowing ones. The conflict between those can be a major block to free improvising, especially for beginners. But with the experience that a successful going in and out of pulse according to the group’s inspiration is possible, this can radically change.
Play, focus on the allowing of free changes between shared pulse and no pulse at all (or, at least, no shared one). Intermediary stages between the extremes comprise such ones with individual but different pulses, as well as those where pulse is difficult to hear but could be suspected to exist somewhere underlying. They are, of course, interesting in their own right. Changes may happen variously often and with various speeds, but do not think they can only be few and slow. Spontaneous, collective joining in on a new pulsed idea may occur in split-seconds when the inspiration is right, and once you have become aware, collective “enough is enough” feelings occur with spontaneity, too (although creative conflicts and negotiations are not excluded). The teacher may encourage many and fast changes, for an advanced variation.
Preparatory exercise: clap hands together (or, sitting, clap your legs for a more quiet version) with a pulse. Just the naked pulse, no subdivisions! Go on ensuring that the pulse is really felt with a collective beat, springy and precise. Then gradually let it decay by allowing tempi gradually to deviate and fluctuate into slightly slower or faster ones. After some time of disintegration and a maximum of unpredictability, go slowly back again.
Original material — Quotations:
Explore using quotations — glimpses of well-known music pieces, or just well-known styles. Mix it with any other material — and leave spaces to make fast change possible. Caricatures and "dirty" playing is allowed! This parameter is strategic for integrating improvised playing with everything else in music…
Degrees of contrast:
1) vary degrees of contrast or similarity between individual parts/players,
2) vary degrees of contrast between sections in the improvisation (so that there arises both “rather similar”, “different”, “very different”, etc. sections),
3) vary the amount of continuity, that is, move freely on a continuum ranging from no sections at all, instead static character or only gradual change — and to having many collective, marked changes.
Practice these one at a time. Making such changes is of course, once again, a matter of collective intuition. Almost all the individual player can do is to pay attention and be ready to join in.
Flow Exercises
These deal with the collective flow of ideas. Improvisations often feature alternating sections being built up by a kind of negotiation by participants. One could also call it dynamics of conversation. Or in still other words, by the group adopting something from a participant which seems a "good idea".
Many good ideas:
Try collectively and spontaneously during playing to make a number of sections short and quickly alternating. Or oppositely, let sections be long and weighty.
Discussing Your Rhythm Of Ideas:
Try together before playing to discuss what you did previously from this viewpoint and let participants state their thoughts and ideas about it. Notice if it influences your subsequent playing and if participants liked the musical result.
Thoughtful Responses:
Try individually to vary the responses to each other: imitation, caricature, in the same direction, something else, something very different…while still maintaining sensibility in listening to and reacting to each other.
Know What You Are Doing
(from Malene Bichel)
At any time, act according to the following three possibilities:
1) Stillness (no sound no movement)
2) Searching
3) Do something that must be done.
Shifts ad libitum.
Searching is a legitimate part of free improvisation — acknowledge it when relevant. If there is something you feel is important to do, do it. And if there is no special reason to make sound, be still, thus making more room for the sounds and the other players.
Houdini Exercise
(from Cornelius Cardew)
Strong medicine, to be used wisely. Play with your hands tied together on the back. You will have to invent other ways to use instruments than usual, probably also very primitive and awkward ones. Keep this exercise instrumental so that vocalizing is not an easy way out.
I have used this a number of times to effectively shake experienced players out of too much routine. More experimenting and playfulness resulted, and, most interestingly, much more spontaneous interaction.
It is recommended to have a number of pre-cut, short pieces of rope ready in advance. Houdini was a magician famous for his escape shows that could involve handcuffs and similar devices.
Psychogram
(Piece by Max E. Keller, see appendix [in the original])
Strong medicine, to be used wisely. This piece contains a wonderfully large selection of ways to react, most of them beyond being “nice”. Yet, because it is written you can just play what is there and feel confident that no one will blame you.
Ending
(from Tom Hall)
Learning how to hear and create endings is as important as any other part of improvising, for one simple reason — something has to end in order for something else to begin. This is true for every part of music, whether it’s a sound, a phrase, a part of an improvisation, an improvisation, or an entire performance.
We all understand endings, because our lives are full of beginnings and endings. This makes it easy to learn how to use the concept of endings in improvisation. All that’s needed is to stay aware of potential endings as they occur, and to be ready and willing to end at any time.
Once a group has developed the ability to recognize endings and make use of them, this becomes an important compositional tool. But in order to use this tool the group must develop the shared awareness that a potential for ending has occurred, and that someone has made the choice to end or to not end.
This simple exercise is great for developing awareness of endings. It can be done with any number of people, but I have found duets get the point across the fastest. It helps a lot to have an experienced “ender” listen for and point out potential endings.
Exercise
Start playing.
Stop at the first potential ending that occurs.
Once that’s been mastered, here’s a series of variations of increasing complexity!
Variation 1
Be aware of the first ending and choose whether or not you want to go on.
Variation 2
Be aware of the first ending and choose whether or not you want to go on. If you choose to go on, be aware of whether what you’re doing is a continuation of the 1st section or a new section.
Variation 3
Be aware of the first ending and choose whether or not you want to go on. If you choose to go on, be aware of whether what you’re doing is a continuation of the 1st section or a new section. If there is a third section, is it a continuation of the 1st section, a continuation of the 2nd section, or a 3rd new section?
Miniatures
This seems a “classic” exercise among improvisers. Play many short “pieces” of one minute each. This makes participants alert to utilize opportunities before it’s too late, and also of how the endings take place.
Play For A Long Time
For participants with previous training together. Play for a long time – an hour or several hours. This will allow for a variety of textures to emerge and for change of roles, in a natural way. In teaching contexts it may be felt by participants as liberating, as they will have more freedom to decide for themselves than usual. This practise is also likely to produce interesting material if you record it and play it back later in excerpts — see (AWA) Analyzing Recordings (↑)
Casual Playing
(from Eckhard Weymann)
Play casually along, without looking for anything in particular, but be open for what might happen unexpectedly; and then follow that up with determination! (Expect the unexpected.) The trick here is not to find too quickly, but to prolong this first moment of openness, of not knowing, this state of suspense „preceding the creation of the world", not to start „tinkering around" here, but to wait in an active state of mind, playing, until something really unexpected occurs, something convincing and compelling.
Fantasy Journeys
Participants lie down with closed eyes on mattresses or in some other comfortable position. The leader provides instructions to facilitate the participants' relaxation. A story may be told and questions asked of participants about their own imaginations — sounds and music may be played. It is especially recommended to make this journey without sound and music as an introduction to allowing participants play afterwards.
For this exercise, the instructor should be experienced in being a participant him/herself. A practical idea for getting started is for the instructor to seek a suitable therapist or psychologist (obtain recommendations from people you know, newspapers, magazines, or the telephone directory) and make an appointment for a fantasy journey. It is also possible to work with other interested persons using each other as experimental subjects. Participants should know what a fantasy journey is and accept the idea of engaging in one. In contrast to working with adults, in employing this technique with children the instructor must take the responsibility for deciding whether the participants are mature enough to benefit from it.
The relaxation instruction may take a simple form mentioning different parts of the body such as the following: "Feel your head lying on the mattress — let go and let it relax." All of the instructions should be able to be followed by the instructor together with the other participants.
The journey takes place exclusively in the present even when the instructions are to look back in time: "And now, imagine yourself looking back on what has happened. Is there anything you especially note about it?"
It is a central technique to ask questions about what the participant experiences so that they may create their own content. The story should typically incorporate a broad framework. Pauses, sometimes really long ones, are important, and questions should always be followed by pauses.
Starting from the story, participants are to contact their own feelings and fantasy and the practice of "Fantasy Journey" encourages the resting of conscious and rational activity. Semi-conscious and unconscious material may arise and the experience can be dream-like and intense as novel aspects of the personality emerge. At times, intense, repressed feelings may be brought forward.
With this activity, I have used subjects like "The Forgotten Music" and "Playing Among Foreign Musicians." As an author of journeys, start with simple scenarios like journeying and arriving at places. Again, the framework must be clearly imaginable by the instructor while preparing! You may find further inspiration in psychological literature.
The instructor must take responsibility both for having a secure setting and for being well aware of the process. No one should enter the room after the story begins (put a message on the door and lock it, if possible) and the room should remain quiet. No interruptions of the journey can be accepted — this could greatly disturb the participants.
It is not possible to "correct" errors nor to make disturbances undone—they must be integrated in the whole! In spite of all precautions, should a disturbing noise from outside nevertheless occur, it is possible to proceed in the following way. Let us assume that in the middle of the journey you have said: "You are now very far from any noises. This is a very quiet place." At this point, someone hammers very loudly at the door (in spite of people outside having been informed). A possible way to integrate the disturbance is to say: "Suddenly, you think of a disturbing experience you once had. What kind of disturbing experience was this?" There is then a pause, the instructor takes steps to end the disturbing noise, and peace returns again. The instructor takes time to get back to the point in his/her own imagination where the disturbance took place: "How was your experience of that. (Pause) Now, go back to the landscape. How do you feel in the peacefulness here?"
In the case of a participant being in an intense emotional state after the playing is finished — crying, for example — the instructor and group should respect these emotions and take care of the person in question. However, do not try to excessively calm the person — the emotions have their reasons for coming up and normally one's personal defenses will limit the expression to a level that is safe. Should aggressive criticism of the form of the journey occur, it is not necessary to take this at face value. If the instructor believes that inner forces in the person are pushing him/her a bit too far, the instructor should try to redirect attention to the person's own mind, the investigation of which is the mutually agreed upon purpose of the fantasy.
After the journey, people are instructed about gradually returning from the fantasy: "And now, come back to yourself, lying there. (Pause) When you are ready, begin to move your body a little and open your eyes. (Pause) Gradually, stand up and begin playing the way you feel like."
Analyzing Recordings
The teacher or a participant takes home a tape recording and analyzes it with a goal that suits the group and the situation. If specific sections of the improvisation are to be referred to, then excerpts may be copied to facilitate their availability. If the analytic task is complex (as is often the case) and/or you wish to save time, during the improvisation you may note the time at important places. This exercise is good for highlighting the significance of the improvisation as a whole as well as the specific sections illustrated.
Listening To Recording
Listening to a recording of an improvisation immediately after creating it is an effective way to gain a broader perspective. We listen with different ears from when we are in the midst of playing. This takes a significant amount of time, especially when discussion of the music follows the listening.
It can be made into a repeated procedure. The composer Helmer Nørgaard describes a rehearsal practice for a group that played regularly. They began each time by playing for thirty minutes without previous verbal agreements as to the nature of the music. The entire recording was subsequently played back.
Discussion may be without an agenda or focus on themes such as:
- what became musically/aesthetically significant and how did we arrive there?
- what were we individually attentive to?
- on which grounds did I take decisions during playing (consciously, intuitively, spontaneously, thinking ahead…)?
- etc…
Listening to improvised music not created by the group itself may help to expand the perspective.
See also: Analyzing Recordings (↓)
Listening To Surroundings
Listen to your surroundings for a brief time, perhaps one minute, with closed eyes. Afterward the listening period, write down what you heard. Use concrete terms that describe the quality of the sounds as accurately as possible. For example, "whirring and rattling" would be better for the purposes of this exercise than would "the coffee maker is operating." Share your descriptions aloud with each other.
If-Then
The pieces If-Then VIII and IX (see the closing section [in the original]) adress participants’ critical awareness whether the music process is interesting or not! This is, after all, what everything is about. Different opinions may exist, but that does not make it less meaningful to have a clear perception of it and to act responsively. These pieces take the attention to an oscillating process between listening to what is out there and paying attention to one’s own impulses and imagination. Action must then follow. You can pick that one of the two that fits best or take one after another to repeat the effort from a slightly different angle.
Taximeter Exercise
This activity is oriented toward leaving room for others and making economical use of the shared musical space. Participants are divided into two groups who play for each other, in turn, using the "Taximeter Principle." This principle is that the duration of sound multiplied by the dynamic intensity of sounds equals "consumption" of musical material. From the perspective of the participant: if you play for some time without pausing, if you play loudly or if you do both, it must be balanced by being proportionally quiet at other times. You may imagine that the music offers you a certain amount of space and you are responsible for your own household. And you may imagine a taximeter which is influenced by both duration and by how loud you play.
The listening group points out when the musical process is clear to them and when "overconsumption" occurs, producing a "muddy" sound. This may be done by each member raising a hand, the higher the more overcrowded they think the music becomes.
Cutting Down On the Material
(from Mauricio Kagel)
Engage in free improvisation for a few minutes. Participants should have only one or two short sound(s) or event(s) at their disposal. This forces attention away from the continuity in one's own playing and toward the sound as a whole. Often, by subsequently listening to a recording of the music (which I strongly recommend!) people will be surprised at how much is nevertheless happening, and it will be evident how the process is clarified when we are not overwhelmed by an excessive density of sound. Playing this way might make people feel frustrated or perplexed — probably because it demands much attention and resolute initiative while at the same time continuous physical playing activity is not possible. Rather, a sort of meditative quietness must be sought after.