TRANSFORMING THE FRISBEE: FIRST STEPS IN MUSIC IMPROVISATION

In a June 2011 article in Early Music America Magazine, “Contextual Improvisation, or Why Swat Flies with a Frisbee,” I suggested that expecting our classical music training to help us improvise makes as much sense as swatting flies with a Frisbee; that we need to learn some new skills and tools, and to repurpose some old, familiar ones. Comparing our improvisations to composed music has skewed our sense of what makes a good improv—in short, improvisation is process-driven not text-driven, collaborative not soloistic, and fluid not fixed, more like a ball game than a classical concert.  A good way to learn music improv is to take up theater games: they’re simple enough to focus on one skill at a time, silly enough to avoid shame when making inevitable mistakes, and impossible to do without being in the moment.

People have asked me to go into more detail “But in smaller chunks, please,” so I’m starting a summer blog to talk, not about learning how to improvise, but preparing to learn how to improvise. What’s the difference? I think that before the practical ‘how to improvise in specific styles’ there’s a hidden step that we’ve got to go through before we can absorb the practical training.

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SOUNDCATCHER WORKSHOPS —  USEFUL SKILLS FOR ANYONE MAKING MUSIC Arlington, VAMay 14-16  IMPROVISATION INTENSIVEDirector: Tina ChanceyAdditional Coaches: Loren Ludwig, Sarah CunninghamFIRST U.S. INTENSIVEAnyone can improvise but few of us do. We scare ourselves by comparing our improvs to written music; that’s like comparing a ball game to a ballet. Improv is a spontaneous process, it’s collaborative, it tells a story,  and it requires different skills from interpreting composed music. This three-day intensive workshop makes you aware of the music you have inside yourself, and gives you the skills to start sharing it.  Useful for musicians at any level.May 21-22  PLAY BY EAR INTENSIVE Directors/Coaches: Tina Chancey, Bruce HuttonDon’t be paper-trained! A two-day intensive teaching skills that help you play medieval, Renaissance, Old Time and Irish tunes by ear. You will learn how to make aural maps, use your ear like a tape recorder; listen for modes, harmonies & melodic patterns. Requirement: a basic facility on your instrument: know note names and fingerings.TUITION–IMPROVISATION–$150   PLAY BY EAR–$100Out-of-town participants will be housed with local musicians, meals will be cooked and eaten communally.For more information and application form contact:Tina Chancey, 3706 N. 17th St.,Arlington, VA 22207; 703-525-7550tina@hesperus.org;<www.hesperus.org> www.tinachancey.net

After watching engineers cut reel-to-reel tape with razor blades for a few years and then slice and dice electronically for two decades after that, I’m finally learning how to use Pro Tools myself. I’ve been threatening to do this for a while but right now a few elements have come into confluence: I have the time and energy to learn a new skill, the equipment is available and Jim Robeson at Bias is willing to coach me, and I’ve got three recording projects in the can and very little money.My new Folk Viol CD, the third in the Versatile Viol series, is a particularly good candidate for experimentation—although I learned something about multi-track recording when I produced Scott’s Banshee’s Wail CD in 2001, this one has a bigger cast of characters and seems to require many more decisions. With Pro Tools I can listen to individual lines for hard-to-hear mistakes, make small edits, change the balance, mark problem spots, and generally prepare for studio time. It makes perfect sense.It also satisfies that cursed yearning for perfection that’s a real bugaboo for the improviser. In improvisation, no matter how much you rehearse, perfection is just not a practical goal. The more CD producing I do, for myself and for others, it’s becoming clear that playing concerts and editing CDs are two different, almost contradictory kinds of music making for me. When I improvise I engage in a dialogue with whomever I can—the other musicians, the audience, the hall, the last piece, ultimately with myself. When I edit a CD, I plan how to direct the listener’s attention to avoid hearing the problems (there are always problems) and let the story of the music sweep her away. The first is process driven, the other works with a fixed content, though my goal is to shape the listener’s experience of that content.I can’t seem to find the people to practice this kind of improvisation with. I think improvisation is a loaded, scary term for a lot of classical musicians today, and I’m going to do what I can to unload it. In the meantime, I edit recordings that end up saying what the composer, performer and editor all want to say—they’ve got to dovetail or it won’t make a good recording. Every once in a while you get to share some of this ‘philosophy of editing’ with a client; they’re usually surprised that someone else is putting so much thought into reconstructing the music they just played into a microphone one day. It’s particularly funny when you’re editing your own recording. On the one hand you want to pitch change your part, clean up the timing, fix the whole thing electronically; on the other, you find yourself thinking, ‘Why don’t I just play it again and do it right this time?’   Tina Chancey