A JOINT MODULE OF IMPROVISATION
Subtitled "From Score to Creation", this module aims to take pieces from the repertoire as inspirational starting points to develop improvisations. As a consequence, students will become more aware of compositional principles, and learn to improvise with a group, and communicate with musical means. So there are actually quite a few areas that have to be addressed at the same time:
• learning from existing compositions, develop compositional thinking
• learning to improvise, decide what to play in the moment
• learning to listen to others while playing
• respond in an intelligent way, with responsibility for the whole
Fortunately, for most students in the master these are not entirely new things, as many have already had experience in some of these areas. What may be new however is that they will have to develop ownership and authority in the field, and despite the fact that there are four professors from three different institutions involved in the process, they will bear full responsibilities for the outcomes of the final presentation concert.
THE GROUP
The group consisted of 11 students playing a variety of instruments: voice, piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute. Nine were studying in the instrumental master, two students were from the educational master.
CLASSES
Classes were organized as 8 sessions of 3 hours each during the first semester of the academic year 2018-2019. Of the 8 sessions, four were led by myself and my colleague Bert Mooiman, the other four were led by our guest teachers. After the lessons followed a period where the students had to prepare a concert program by themselves, choosing freely from materials and inspiration from the classes. In January the final presentations were played in two presentation concerts.
TEACHERS/COACHES
As already mentioned, the unique organization of this course involves sharing of teachers of different METRIC institutions. The teachers for this course were:
• David Dolan, Guildhall School of Music and Drama
• Yves Senden, Royal Conservatoire Antwerp
• Bert Mooiman, Royal Conservatoire Den Haag
• Karst de Jong, Royal Conservatoire Den Haag
These teachers have very different backgrounds and pedagogical approaches. As a result, the module is directed toward exploration and inspiration of improvisation, rather than attempting to teach something very specific and defined. With this in mind I would like to mention here that further down I will only describe some of the work I have done myself with the ensemble, and consequently only specific parts of the outcomes of the module will be discussed.
THE CREATION PROCESSES
As the subtitle of the course From Score to Creation indicates, during the classes we have taken various pieces from the literature as starting points for exercises in improvisation. This was not done to make them improvise new versions of the repertoire, but rather to give them certain starting points to create their own improvisations. As the course description states, this should achieve various objectives: broaden their perspective as a performer, exploring performance perspectives by means of improvisation, and acquiring ownership of tonal/modal languages, forms and modes of expression. The coaches can take very different and personal approaches to achieve these objectives, and the students can select what works for them.
As a first example of some of the working methods let's have a look at a session inspired by Steve Reich's piece Music for 18 Musicians. We started by listening to a recording of the first section of the piece, and then without discussion we played the recording again while everyone was invited to improvise along. There were no rules, other than just to listen and making the basic decision to play or not to play. When playing, one could simply copy something that was happening in the piece, or play something contrasting or new. Once finished, some discussion followed on what was actually happening in the piece, noting the continuous pulse and rhythmical patterns, as well as the layers of instrumentation. After this we decided to play a jam of our own, without the recording. A small impression of this jam can be seen on the video fragment to the right.
To summarize, this working method has roughly the following steps:
1) Listen to a piece of the repertoire
2) Play along with the recording
3) Discuss and analyze: materials, harmonic structures, rhythmic structures, layers in the composition, texture etc.
4) Play along another time with the recording
5) Improvise a version together without the recording
6) Think about and discuss the following questions: what am I supposed to play? what is my role? when to play or not to play? what playing techniques to use?
7) take home the exercise: isolate certain materials from the piece and play with them, turn them upside down until you have not just a mental understanding of them but you also know how they feel and sound, how they relate to your own instrument.
THE THREE R's: ROLES, RESTRICTIONS AND RULES
Over the years I have developed a slightly more systematic (but still rather loose) approach for shaping improvisations, as well as creating exercises. This approach is what I call the 3 R's: they stand for roles, restrictions and rules. Especially for group work, focusing on them can take away the panicky feeling of 'not knowing what to do'. It also offers a nice bridge to the world of composition: restriction of materials, using designated roles, and shaping a larger musical structure by controlling those parameters over time. The rule part is maybe something more particular to improvsation, it allows various forms of game-play and regulation of the interactions of improvisers in an ensemble. In this particular course I have worked mostly with roles and restrictions, of which I would like to give a few practical examples.
First of all, roles:
Their number is basically infinite, but in most music a few roles one can take are very common, such as: stand out as a soloist (either instrumental or singing), be an accompanist, support another player by teaming up and imitate or play a counterpoint, take a complementary position by providing contrast, provide the bass line, be a storyteller with words, set yourself apart from the group by doing something completely unrelated to the rest etc. The list is longer and depends on the imagination of the improviser or composer. But in my experience it is fruitful to let students recognize these roles and practice them in improvisation. Having worked with many classically trained students who had never improvised before, the first thing they do is to do what the others are doing. In other words, we automatically imitate, resulting in creating flat musical structures. Roles can also be taken more literal: a singer can express and enact a situation, other players can interact with this by taking on roles for themselves.
Secondly, restrictions:
Again there is an infinite number of parameters in music that can be restricted. To give a few common examples: only use a single note, only use a single scale (pentatonic, diatonic, chromatic), only play within a carefully defined ambitus or register, use only a single rhythm, use a single playing technique (like pizzicato), play inside the piano with a feather, only use ppp dynamics, only use overtones or harmonics etc.
Many improvisational ideas can be based on these roles and restrictions, and one can practice with them. I often start with duo improvisations, alternating between both players adhering to the same restrictions and choosing their own restriction. For the others in the group it can be a nice game to guess who is applying which restriction, so thagt we learn at the same time even when not actively playing. Once students become comfortable with choosing and applying these fixed restrictions, they can move on to restrictions that dynamically change over time, combined restrictions or restrictions that change into others according to a pre-planned structure.
A FEW EXAMPLES
Last but not least I would like to show a few examples of improvisations developed and played by the students at the end of the course. The first example is a type of role-play. The singer in the middle is expressing a stressful situation: she is getting ready to go out for the night, feeling stressed about her looks and at the same time excited for what is coming. Her material is basically restricted to consonances and vowels of the English language. The two players surrounding her are responding to her emotions, somtimes agreeing, sometimes not. As an audience we did not get an explanation, and we do not need one, the piece speaks for itself and is open for a multitude of interpretations. This is also what makes it interesting and entertaining to the audience. The video on the right shows a fragment of the improvisation.
A second example is from a duo improvisation for Double Bass and Piano, with a quite clear tonal restriction that is shared between both instruments, combined with different roles for each player. There is a slow development of the parameters. The video on the right shows an excerpt of the improvisation.
The next example is a riff-based improvisation. A rhythmical ostinato pattern forms the basis for the beginning of the piece. We see spontaneous responses looking for complementary roles, a solo melody and an accompaniment. The players automatically adapt to the key region of D major, probably because the initial ostinato is so clearly tonal in character. Quite soon the soloist introduces some chromaticism, and the accompanist starts to look for a contrasting playing style in the form of pizzicato. When the cellist joins the change of textures leads to a middle part with the soloist keeping her role. Around the 2 minute mark the cellist brings the initial ostinato back, and all agree on a varied recapitulation as the last part of the improvisation.
The whole process is musically quite logical, but according to the students it was spontaneous for a large part. This proves that they have internalized much of the knowledge and skills needed to build up and tell such a story. Their experience in improvisation is also demonstrated at 0:54, the 'mistake' of the cellist not exactly remembering the initial position of his riff does not lead to stopping, but adapting and finding a way forward.
The final example is an improvisation inspired by the image of monks and a temple. As the students explained themselves, by preparing the instruments with tiny clothespins, they disguised the string sounds to create percussive, gong-like sounds. While improvising they imagined a procession with gongs. From this improvisation it is clear how effective this strategy can be: by creating a direct relationship between a sonic/playing-technique restriction and a mental image, the improvisation starts to flow easily, and the essence is evolving from the interaction and listening within the trio.
