Improvisation

An example of something that interferes with "improvisation" and a slight essay on the rest. Film 201 stuff, btw.

This is a "visual exercise" that helps you understand how some of the things you are used to, and know, tend to hurt the improvisation moments, and as Dean suggested previously, this would be the spot where you end up using as much as you know or are capable of bringing up from your memory.

The only concern here, is when you are paying attention to your "memory", can you properly pay attention to what the other members of the group are doing? And this is the only really big "secret" there is in any improvisation, and the acting exercise that I have mentioned before shows this in the change between the 1st and 2nd, and then the 2nd and the 3rd hours of the exercise.

Notice that I don't like to use the word "process", since any "improvisation" is not necessarily about a process, although you can use something or other to begin it with.

Here is the bit that you have seen in film over and over again:

You see two people sitting and having dinner. They are sitting across each other. The camera sees his face, then switches point of view to her face, and then to a side shot showing them both, and so forth. Think about this. In a novel, this is not how it happens. And this is the type of "conditioning" that you can find in film, theater and any of the arts, that prevent one from finding new ways to communicate. Now, you end up seeing something like that French director and his films are 100% first person, and you will walk out of the films before they go halfway, mostly because they are violent, but also, they are very difficult to adjust your sights to see what is the film doing, and how is it that it is interfering with your perception. Generally, in music, everyone is "first person", or everyone is "third person", or as I like to say, playing together really well! You rarely mix the various point of views, with the exception of the "solo" that may or may not be necessarily a part of the song, or music, itself. Same with the film. Wait a minute, how can I know for sure her feelings, his feelings and my feelings? The only story I have ever read where the point of view is by different folks in the same story, is Lawrence Durrell, and how many folks here know him? This is more difficult in music, as it can be considered invisible, and the other member of the band could have written that solo, and not be the one playing it!

1. That conditioning, always brings you to what you know and understand first. And you respond likewise. We could say that is human nature. No question there.

2. That conditioning, locks you into thinking that is the way that things should be as time goes by. And this tends to be the first thing that shows up in an improvisation at first, and then disappears, with a "quiet" period that would suggest the person is trying to figure out what they could, or should do.

3. The conditioning, locks the possibilities for seeing things differently, and this is the major thrust of a lot of Jean-Luc Godard films, the biggest clown with a camera in his hand, but one thing he does a lot, is make sure he makes fun of that conditioning.

Now, let's take this to music.

1. As you play, you are using chords, notes and musical details that you know and have learned.

2. As is the case with some jazz musicians, the relationship and transitions between these chords and moments are what the music is about. It is a really nice area to play with, although this is not really done in rock music, that has been stuck on a design that limits a lot of its abilities. The same thing MAY happen in rock music, but it tends to always come back to a bridge, or theme, whereas most jazz, might not necessarily do that, except in popular styles of "jazz", usually known as "easy listening" in the old days!

3. Throw in the proverbial kitchen sink and chair into the improvisation, to force adjustments and details that can only be done as a result of what happened instead of the musician locking up, and then falling back on things that he/she knows that they have used earlier in the exercise. Sometimes that is not the favored thing to do, as the mood, and atmosphere of the exercise, might not want "regimented" material as much as attention to the detail of the moment, should have been given, and addressed likewise. Ex: It is a loving scene, and you have to play it melodically, not clinically (so to speak!).

Now, AFTER the fact:

The biggest advantage these days, is that you can record these and it's cheap. So, in the case of King Crimson's first album, it would be easy to say, let's keep this section and then smooth it to this section. That is what theater, tends to do with a "director" that most rock/pop music does not have, or use. However, attention should be given here to musicians that are far more able to see music history and its details, and find a spot or two that can be smoothed out and then played, and not come off as "jagged" and "impersonal" as some improvised music can.

Now, going back to the other "styles" of improvisation, this is something that we can add to those words, and I'm going to see if we can put together all of them into a sensible form, for folks here, not to be a "guide", but as a serious study of the forms that are so prevalent in the study of any art.