This item is not in the library — it is a part of: C. Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Intuitive Music: A Mini Handbook.
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.
The wording above is by Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen, as written in Intuitive Music: A Mini-Handbook, licensed CC BY-NC 4.0 (Bergstrøm-Nielsen 2009, 15)
Click buttons to add all relevant tags:
competitive cooptional cooperative
no-props board cards dice score props
free-improv on-off (constellations) in-genre algorithm ambient loop spatial minimal
dance draw (art) gestures guess interpret listen memory kids
composers events insert narrative quick random role-play simple
dimensions rhythm speeding-up timed tonal
acapella found (+preparation) keyboard words
Finish tagging (_game) (regular library entries)
Finish tagging (_non-game) (rare, mostly to hide the above buttons)