How can techniques of motivic development be used as a foundation for me as an improvising musician?
The techniques I have practiced during this time has become the new approach for me as an improviser. Before I had a lot of focus on playing the right notes, play fast and play to prove myself. Motivic development has changed the way I want to present what I play. I think it has brought a more mature and honest expression to my personal sound. It has helped me to search more from within myself and find what I like playing and hearing. It also makes it easier to interact with others when improvising and take inspiration from a drummer’s rhythmical motives for example.
How can different techniques be used to create a structure while improvising?
Bringing these techniques into my practice routine gives me the tools to play in a more structured way. I force myself to build my improvisations on shorter ideas. When having these techniques, I could put myself in a lot of different genres and ensembles, but always have something that could give me a direction to follow. I could rely on one technique to find out where to start and where to resolve. I trained myself to take the opportunity to listen and react to what I played.
How can I use motivic development to incorporate motivic material from the melody into my improvisations?
In this case the motivic development techniques can be used tools for connecting the composition to the improvisation. The techniques have something to rely on, the melody. The motives I have chosen from the melody gives the different compositions a chance to be present in the improvised parts. The motivic development combined with the melody and composition in whole makes my improvisations vary in what and how I play. The song is going to stay with me.
During the time I have worked with motivic development I have found that I have started listening in another way. Using the motivic development techniques to analyze and try to understand other people’s intentions. This project had a lot of focus on how I could approach improvisation. Listening and how it connects to interplay is something I am curious about. Are there answers to what to listen for in others or my own playing? Can that be a way to widen my use of motivic development and improve my interplay with others?
I have been working with these techniques to create a structure when I am improvising. That has made me look at what I play under a microscope. I have realized that I have a different approach when practice the techniques and when I play with others on rehearsals or live performances. In the practice sessions I focus a lot on the technique. I limit myself to only use one technique to find all possibilities it can bring without involving another. I made the practice sessions very controlled but when I released myself from the rules, trying to play and not practice, the improvisation came to life. I could hear that when I was practicing, what I played, sounded forced. I could hear that I was doing an exercise rather than improvising. I held back and lacked dynamics. I compared it to what I played with others in rehearsals or in live performances and heard a difference. At the time I was playing I didn´t think I used motivic development in my improvisation. but when listening to it afterwards I could hear it being present in the improvisation. The embodiment of the techniques I had practiced was now allowing me to be free. In comparison I could feel my presence, energy and dynamics in a more natural way, not held back.
The melody of a composition could easily be forgotten when one starts to improvise. The idea I had was that I wanted the melody to be present in my improvised parts. To me the melody is important and often what I like about a composition I want to play. When using the techniques I used the melody as a starting point or as inspiration for what to play. When using these techniques, I can pull out motives from the melody and develop them. That connects my improvisation to the composition and makes me play within the composition instead of on top of it. To use the melody can both give me new ideas when improvising and make the improvisations vary in sound depending on what song I play.
The importance of limitations and rules became very clear to me. Less is more, I found the beauty and confidence in playing small ideas, nurture them and not judge them too early. Instead focusing on connecting a thread of ideas or invite the melody to be present to allow creativity and freedom to exist when I improvise. I can hear more space in my playing. I can feel my attitude towards myself is letting me be in the music and be more creative with the ideas that I have. What I hear in my recordings is that I am letting more of my personal sound take more space when I play.