This is a repost from a blog run by the Adam Sliwinski, one of the members of So Percussion. I liked it a lot.
Here's his blog:
10 thoughts about improvisation:
1) Do no harm.
2) If you aren't feeling anything to add, either shut up or do something you never could have imagined yourself doing in that situation. Be bold - change the music, or don't.
3) Whatever you do, do it forcefully. Fully commit to every gesture you make.
4) Note about #3 - forcefully does not necessarily mean loudly. If you stop playing altogether that can be the most aggressive act imaginable. It all depends on context and intent.
5) When you are playing, cultivate a total disregard for what others might think of what you are playing. In fact, disregard what you might think about it. Later on, if at all, is the time for such thoughts.
6) Think like a composer: own all the music, not only what you play but what others play. Do not separate what is "yours" based on something so trivial as who is physically playing it. If you are improvising, you are playing all the music.
7) Never ever (almost never ever) imitate - it's the cheapest form of communication. If you must respond, respond on a parallel plane. Remember, "interaction" is overrated.
8) Don't try too hard. Don't try to make things "work." We aren't trying to make chairs. Human beings are complicated, and so is their art. They, and it, often don't "work." Especially don't try and play music. If it sounds like music, it probably isn't.
9) Don't practice something on your own and then insert it into an improvisation - this means you almost certainly have not been listening.
10) Beware of "strategies." Strategies are for golfers and hedge fund managers and are useless if you want to get to something authentic. Because what, in the end, are you trying to do, other than take what is in your insides and compare it with and connect it to all the other insides? Strategies, techniques, etc are all false choices. You might get oohs and ahhs, but you will not have an epiphany. Trust me, the epiphany lasts a lot longer.
and one more, the most important:
11) In the heat of battle, ignore 1-10.
-Bobby Previte
Friday, December 31, 2010
John Cage's "Some Rules for Teachers and Students"
RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.
RULE TWO: General duties of a student - pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.
RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher - pull everything out of your students.
RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.
RULE FIVE: be self-disciplined - this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.
RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There's no win and no fail, there's only make.
RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It's the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.
RULE EIGHT: Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes.
RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think.
RULE TEN: "We're breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities." (John Cage)
HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything - it might come in handy later.
© John Cage Trust
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
5/4 - What I'll Do Soon
This semester was cool and all, but hopefully this summer and next semester will top it.
This summer, I'm playing timpani with the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps. We tour all over the United States (except for like Montana and some of New England, unfortunately) for two months this summer and we've been working on music and the show in general since December. I'm equally excited and nervous, but it should be a blast, and I'll come back with a sweet tan, mad timpani chops, hopefully a sweet bod, and little energy left to start school.
But, I will start school, and it'll be a lot of fun.
Next semester, I'm signed up for Brazilian and Afro-Cuban Ensembles, which I'm really looking forward to. Jose Aponte seems like a funny, sweet dude who really knows what he's doing, and it should be a blast.
Oh, and I'm doing advanced South Indian next semester. Since Colin Hinton is going to Brooklyn to make a name for himself, hopefully I can play set in there a little bit, but I'm really just excited to play anything in there. I missed having my mind blown weekly and Sriji's accent this semester.
If you don't know who Colin is, by the way, you should look him up. He's a really creative, funny drummer with some crazy rhythmic chops in general, and if you're in NY you should help him get a gig. Thanks for the help, Colin.
I might be in an intro to Ethnomusicology class, but I can't remember. I really would like to dip my foot in that pool, since it was something I was considering as a major (even if I never got around to it). It's something I've always been interested in, so hopefully it will be enlightening but not overpowering.
Next semester I'm taking mallet lessons with Ryan Kilgore and drumset lessons with Henry Okstel. I've heard excellent things about both of them, and I'm excited for a new perspective on my mallet technique and for some real insight on my jazz stuff. Hopefully I don't have to change too much...?
I should still be in Singers next semester, and I would like to be in a percussion ensemble again. I also might be in a concert band or orchestra, since I'm doing those auditions, and I'll also audition for the jazz bands to hopefully make it into one of those labs. If all goes well, I'll be super busy with labs, which is the best kind of super busy.
I filled out a volunteer form for KNTU, the UNT radio station. They have student djs for the majority of their content, and I've always wanted to host something like that. I would probably have to listen to more jazz to be a jazz dj, but I'm open to whatever they want me to host.
I will probably be in a house next semester with the Senor Fin folks, which is, for the most part, really exciting. I guess I never realized that I would be 18 years old and looking for my own place, but it's pretty exhilarating. When I get back in the fall, I'll have my own room, and my own place to send mail and park my bike and call home.
Well. I guess that's all I've got for right now. I'm going to go practice.
This summer, I'm playing timpani with the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps. We tour all over the United States (except for like Montana and some of New England, unfortunately) for two months this summer and we've been working on music and the show in general since December. I'm equally excited and nervous, but it should be a blast, and I'll come back with a sweet tan, mad timpani chops, hopefully a sweet bod, and little energy left to start school.
But, I will start school, and it'll be a lot of fun.
Next semester, I'm signed up for Brazilian and Afro-Cuban Ensembles, which I'm really looking forward to. Jose Aponte seems like a funny, sweet dude who really knows what he's doing, and it should be a blast.
Oh, and I'm doing advanced South Indian next semester. Since Colin Hinton is going to Brooklyn to make a name for himself, hopefully I can play set in there a little bit, but I'm really just excited to play anything in there. I missed having my mind blown weekly and Sriji's accent this semester.
If you don't know who Colin is, by the way, you should look him up. He's a really creative, funny drummer with some crazy rhythmic chops in general, and if you're in NY you should help him get a gig. Thanks for the help, Colin.
I might be in an intro to Ethnomusicology class, but I can't remember. I really would like to dip my foot in that pool, since it was something I was considering as a major (even if I never got around to it). It's something I've always been interested in, so hopefully it will be enlightening but not overpowering.
Next semester I'm taking mallet lessons with Ryan Kilgore and drumset lessons with Henry Okstel. I've heard excellent things about both of them, and I'm excited for a new perspective on my mallet technique and for some real insight on my jazz stuff. Hopefully I don't have to change too much...?
I should still be in Singers next semester, and I would like to be in a percussion ensemble again. I also might be in a concert band or orchestra, since I'm doing those auditions, and I'll also audition for the jazz bands to hopefully make it into one of those labs. If all goes well, I'll be super busy with labs, which is the best kind of super busy.
I filled out a volunteer form for KNTU, the UNT radio station. They have student djs for the majority of their content, and I've always wanted to host something like that. I would probably have to listen to more jazz to be a jazz dj, but I'm open to whatever they want me to host.
I will probably be in a house next semester with the Senor Fin folks, which is, for the most part, really exciting. I guess I never realized that I would be 18 years old and looking for my own place, but it's pretty exhilarating. When I get back in the fall, I'll have my own room, and my own place to send mail and park my bike and call home.
Well. I guess that's all I've got for right now. I'm going to go practice.
5/4 - What I've Done So Far
Today I had two classes. That's it. No African, no study groups, no rehearsals. I still have practicing for my jury on Friday and some studying for finals to do, but other than that, I'm free. It's starting to feel like the end of the semester, and I like that a lot.
Not that I haven't done some cool things this semester. Let's see...
In Composition I learned about modes, atonality, polytonality, microtonality, serialism and all sorts of cool devices to possibly include in my music. But the real lesson was this: find things that sound good and use them, and if it doesn't sound good to you, don't do it. We've learned about all sorts of awesome music and it's changed me a lot. This was probably my most significant class this semester.
I had African and Gamelan, and those were a cultural learning experience both musically and, well, culturally. African was a lot of fun, sometimes surprisingly complex, but it was also interesting and pretty cool to see how laid-back Gideon was and how the class and the ensemble functioned as a community, just like it would in real life. Gamelan wasn't as much as a cultural eye-opener since Ed isn't from Java, but the music was really entertaining and as the class got to know each other better, we sounded better as a performing group.
Singers was a lot of fun. Even with a different rhythm section, we sounded pretty solid. I should have things we recorded up here soon.
Scarborough Fair by mason-lynass
My little percussion ensemble was a lot of fun too. I thought it was cool how different groups of people, whether it was my Sharpened Stick group, or the whole ensemble, or even the difference between this and Singers... we all had different things to listen to, and valued certain aspects more than others. I grew as a player and a team member this semester, thank goodness.
My lessons were really good this semester. Last semester, not gonna lie, I didn't take them as seriously as I should. But as soon as I was a disappointment to Christopher Deane, one of the nicest, most plain-spoken and knowledgeable people I've ever met, it really hit me that my lessons are what I need to focus on most if I'm going to be a good performer and a musician in general. And so I spent more time practicing and listening, and so far it's paid off, since I passed my timpani jury. We'll see about mallets... I'm a little more nervous for that, but hopefully it will go well.
And Senor Fin has really picked up this semester. We've played lots of free shows in houses and bars and on roofs and all sorts of cool places, and it's a lot of fun for me even if we don't get paid. Sometimes we did get paid, and even when it wasn't much, it was cool to be a professional musician finally, and it meant a lot for people to appreciate what you do so much that they'll pay you to keep doing it. That's pretty sweet.
We're recording this week and next week, and hopefully we'll have some cool stuff put up while I'm on tour. We recorded one of our newer songs yesterday, and I'm responsible for drum parts, snapping, some background vocals, piano, and throat singing. It should be pretty sweet after Jesse's done mixing it. I'll put it up here.
New Song!!
Contented Slumbers by mason-lynass
It's nice to look back on all of the stuff I've done, all of the hours I've been awake when I should have been asleep, and all of the extra rehearsal and practice time and see how much it's done for me.
M
Not that I haven't done some cool things this semester. Let's see...
In Composition I learned about modes, atonality, polytonality, microtonality, serialism and all sorts of cool devices to possibly include in my music. But the real lesson was this: find things that sound good and use them, and if it doesn't sound good to you, don't do it. We've learned about all sorts of awesome music and it's changed me a lot. This was probably my most significant class this semester.
I had African and Gamelan, and those were a cultural learning experience both musically and, well, culturally. African was a lot of fun, sometimes surprisingly complex, but it was also interesting and pretty cool to see how laid-back Gideon was and how the class and the ensemble functioned as a community, just like it would in real life. Gamelan wasn't as much as a cultural eye-opener since Ed isn't from Java, but the music was really entertaining and as the class got to know each other better, we sounded better as a performing group.
Singers was a lot of fun. Even with a different rhythm section, we sounded pretty solid. I should have things we recorded up here soon.
Scarborough Fair by mason-lynass
My little percussion ensemble was a lot of fun too. I thought it was cool how different groups of people, whether it was my Sharpened Stick group, or the whole ensemble, or even the difference between this and Singers... we all had different things to listen to, and valued certain aspects more than others. I grew as a player and a team member this semester, thank goodness.
My lessons were really good this semester. Last semester, not gonna lie, I didn't take them as seriously as I should. But as soon as I was a disappointment to Christopher Deane, one of the nicest, most plain-spoken and knowledgeable people I've ever met, it really hit me that my lessons are what I need to focus on most if I'm going to be a good performer and a musician in general. And so I spent more time practicing and listening, and so far it's paid off, since I passed my timpani jury. We'll see about mallets... I'm a little more nervous for that, but hopefully it will go well.
And Senor Fin has really picked up this semester. We've played lots of free shows in houses and bars and on roofs and all sorts of cool places, and it's a lot of fun for me even if we don't get paid. Sometimes we did get paid, and even when it wasn't much, it was cool to be a professional musician finally, and it meant a lot for people to appreciate what you do so much that they'll pay you to keep doing it. That's pretty sweet.
We're recording this week and next week, and hopefully we'll have some cool stuff put up while I'm on tour. We recorded one of our newer songs yesterday, and I'm responsible for drum parts, snapping, some background vocals, piano, and throat singing. It should be pretty sweet after Jesse's done mixing it. I'll put it up here.
New Song!!
Contented Slumbers by mason-lynass
It's nice to look back on all of the stuff I've done, all of the hours I've been awake when I should have been asleep, and all of the extra rehearsal and practice time and see how much it's done for me.
M
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