Improvisation

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TODDLER wrote: ... Skills have a great deal to do with graceful and tasteful improvisation and the few musicians who CAN pull that off...I believe are outnumbered by the majority who can't. ...

It can go both ways. It's easy to say that when we're all "musicians" and expect that to be the answer and the "proper" way to make and create music. But that is not the way that a lot of us youngsters revolt against tradition and the way that things are/were.

Krautrock specially, made a key point, of staying away from western music concepts, and what you are saying is exactly that, which they would revolt against, in order to find something else.

This was the case in film, and theater in Germany at the time, as it was in London, and was one of the important things that helped create the Pink Floyd's, the Soft Machine's and others, who, in reality, were just trying to define themselves THROUGH their instrument, which is a similar thing to krautrock in some funny ways.

I'm just curious why we have to lock them down with a musical concept and idea, when it might not have been the case whatsoever.

Likewise, at the time, check out the experiments of Joseph Chaikan, and even the Living Theater. They are not music, but gives you an idea, that Peter Gabriel could have known who that person was and likely saw him at West End, and so did Christian Decamps, for example, who would have known the Living Theater, which was big in Paris! Not to mention the Peter Brook's experiments that started in London!

TODDLER wrote: ... It's also a direct turn off to audience members who have been subjected to poor quality in improvisation and hold little remaining interest in hearing those who are universal at it. WHICH...not everybody reacts that way..but it's a shame for the amounts of people who do. The skill is a vital key.. ...

I don't know. Any musician, being that self-critical, is kinda nuts. The number of folks in the audience (specially pop music!!!!), that have any idea of what is going on musically, is the most horrendous minority you can imagine.

You could say, that in terms of the improvisation, if something ends up very melodic, it makes it easier for the audience to enjoy, since that is a musical venue that they can relate to and enjoy. And many times, the harsher stuff is very difficult to appreciate, and you don't want to have me tell you the horror stories of people trying to catch Riley's and other electronic concerts in the early days, with people even contesting if that could be called music!

TODDLER wrote: ... My son does this with the piano. He's 7 years old, plays "L' Enfant" by Vangelis without reading it and because he heard the notes off the cd. But then he will create little ideas all on his own that baffle me and I'm confused because he knows little theory and I assume this is natural ability. ...

Now you know why the exercises for improvisation are important, in acting, to be done as "children". You WANT to suspend the reality and what you know, because it is the only way to find something else aside from your "knowledge". This was also the same thing with the Carlos Castaneda thing, that so many people reacted violently against. They got him ripped "so we could get a few things done, and learn a little more", but this is something that the pre-conceived state of music and the arts, is deadly afraid of trying, and working with. AND, the minute it shows up somewhere, like Krautrock did, we immediately have to find a musical definition and corner it as composition, because we do not like, or appreciate, the idea that anarchy, and/or a child, could create something we didn't, or couldn't!

It's all about, how open and receptive are we, to something else? Something we don't know, understand or recognize. The answer often is, no we're not open to it at all, unless it can be done with the preset musical (whichever artistic) conditions, which, of course, didn't happen!

In so many ways, the history of the arts, has been about trying out all kinds of new and different things, regardless of what it was. But it was interesting, different, and good enough, that it survived to live a lot longer than the naysayers.