Have you become too serious about your music?

 

Are you questioning why you are doing it or where the element of fun has gone?

 

Well, please read on, make sure you get to then end of this Article and by that time, I promise you, you’ll remember what it was all about.

 

I’ve written quite a lot about the benefits of free improvisation.

 

A lot of the time, however, many musicians find this exercise one of the most confronting ways of playing their instrument.

 

The reason is that improvisation, especially free improvisation, highlights our inner critic, which can be an uncomfortable presence in our creative activities.

 

The more uncomfortable you are with improvisation, the more critical you may be of your music and the harder you find it to become satisfied with your creative experience.

 

Some people consider free improvisation utter nonsense.

 

To those people I would say that nothing would ever change in the Arts, or indeed any area of life, without taking risks and trying out “unconventional” ideas.

 

However, free improvisation is now far from an unconventional idea and in this Article I wish to illustrate what free improvisation would look like for different instruments.

 

One of the most famous improvisational concerts was the 1975 Köln Concert on solo piano by Keith Jarrett.

 

Listen to this beautiful music as you read on.

 

 

Before Keith sat down at the piano, he had no idea of what he was going to play.

 

“Jarrett arrived at the opera house late in the afternoon and tired after an exhausting long drive from Zurich, Switzerland, where he had performed a few days earlier.

 

He had not slept well in several nights and was in pain from back problems and had to wear a brace.

 

After trying out the substandard piano and learning a replacement instrument was not available, Jarrett nearly refused to play and Brandes (the promotor) had to convince him to perform as the concert was scheduled to begin in just a few hours.[4]

 

The concert took place at the unusually late hour of 11:30 PM following an earlier opera performance. This late-night time slot was the only one the administration would make available to Brandes for a jazz concert – the first one ever at the Köln Opera House.

 

The show was completely sold out and the venue was filled to capacity with over 1400 people at a ticket price of 4 Deutsche Marks (about $5.00).

 

Despite the obstacles, Jarrett’s performance was enthusiastically received by the audience and the subsequent recording was acclaimed by critics and became an enormous commercial success.

 

It remains his most popular recording and continues to sell well more than 35 years after its initial release.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Köln_Concert

 

Although this improvisation is based mainly on two chords, I would still say it is freely improvised because Jarrett is composing purely in the present moment without a formulaic agenda.  In other words, he is freely “channelling” music.

 

“Jarrett opened up his heart and played whatever notes felt right at the moment. Missing from the show was overly flashy displays of instrumental prowess; instead of being found playing the perfect lick, Jarrett chose instead to get lost in the melody. He used virtuosity to advance, get this, art instead of science.” http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=56417

 

For me, this is one of the most inspiring performances I have ever heard.

 

It illustrates a truly creative moment that can only come from an exercise of spontaneous creativity that only free improvisation can provide.   Every time I listen to this recording it is as though I am at the concert for the first time, hanging onto every note and every silence.

 

Piano is one instrument on which really lends itself to improvisation but other instruments can be harder.

 

I think the hardest of all is voice.

 

This is because of all the instruments, our voice is the most personal and completely individual.  Therefore any criticism can be (and often is) interpreted as a direct criticism of the person producing that vocal.

 

I also think people can be a lot harsher critic of vocals and vocalists.  (Perhaps this is because anyone who can talk is also a potential singer!)

 

Here is a video of free improvisation on vocals by UK jazz vocalists Filomena Campus and Cleveland Watkiss live at Riverside Studios, London, recorded June 2009.

 

This is a really interesting one because it involves two people, spontaneously composing together.

 

Not only are they confident of vocalizing what they hear and feel at the time, it seems that as the performance continues they are completely in the same space, hearing the same music.

 

This illustrates one of the most important musical skills to nurture – that of listening.

 

The result of these creative and listening skills is a wonderful true free improvisation performed without any fear.

 

One of the most wonderful aspects of free improvisation is that of exploration.

 

How often do we get to hear all the potential sounds of our instrument?

 

I think the above vocal improvisation explored many different ways to express the human voice but here is another very interesting improvisation on guitar.

 

Angelo is really in the right headspace of just accepting anything that comes out from the guitar but he is also very lovingly exploring his instrument, experimenting with different sounds and really enjoying all his discoveries.

 

I love this improvisation because it is so free and truly expressive and I just can’t help but smile when I listen to it.

 

Really, it’s like watching a child playing in a new environment, discovering a hose, for example, for the first time.

 

Of course, this is may not be the music you choose to listen to when you go out on a Saturday evening or as an accompaniment for cooking your evening meal.

 

But what free improvisation does is remind us of the playful aspect of music, and remember that’s what we do – we PLAY music, we don’t work it.

 

I think all too often we can take music far too seriously and forget about the fun aspect of it.

 

Free improvisation is a great way to get in touch with that feeling in yourself and in your music.

 

If you can do that, it will leak into other styles of music you play, other improvisations too so you can be a childlike again, having fun and attracting other children (listeners) to your game because they will want to have fun with you!

 

Here is one last free improvisation on trumpet.

 

I like this one because it uses technology too – an effects pedal.  The human and the machine are therefore spontaneously creating together.

 

Again it contains humour, fun, complete acceptance, exploration and play and illustrates that experimentation too is an important for the development of all music from the personal to the collective.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this Article, but more than that, I hope that now you too will be inspired to go to your instrument and rediscover it through play and total acceptance of whatever sound you produce.

 

Please leave a comment and tell me how it went!

 

 

 

One of the greatest mentors in my musical life has been Kenny Werner.

 

You may, or may not have heard of him but a lot of what I write in this blog supports his teaching style.

 

For those of you who haven’t heard of him, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce you because I believe you can truly benefit from his resources.

 

I was first introduced to Kenny Werner’s work when I read “Effortless Mastery”.

 

What I gained from reading that book was an understanding that I already had the ability to play music, and all I had to do was know that and allow myself the freedom discover that music.

 

Of course, technique still needs to be practice along with everything else that goes with the study of music, but it was the way I studied it which would give me results.

 

Here is an example of Kenny Werner’s teaching:

 

Inspirational message from Kenny Werner

“The joy of playing is liberation.

The joy of practicing is concentration.”

Separating these two functions in our minds

solves the age-old problem of freedom versus discipline.

Instead of them being opposed to each other,

they can support each other.

Freedom is a great thing.

But freedom alone can be boring.

I once heard a great Rabbi say that the problem

with the 1960′s is that

people sought “freedom from, not freedom to . . . “

Isn’t that an amazing realization?

Do you get it?

Freedom without mastering form and technique

leads to stagnation and ultimately, boredom.

The true joy of life, the game, if you will,

is learning to find freedom in form,

mastering the forms and techniques involved in one’s art

until they are performed effortlessly,

until the body and mind can perform automatically.

Once those moves are committed to mental and muscular memory,

one may play with absolute joy and freedom.

…

Mastery attracts us because we have

the possibility of mastery inside us.

Study is the act that supports us.

Study is the preparation so the performance can be free and joyful.

But study with the assumption that greatness

is already present within you.

Imagine you are allowing that greatness to emerge

more and more by practicing your art or sport.

 

Every time I read Kenny Werner’s work I am inspired to practice, but practice with great love and concentration.

 

This has allowed me to continue enjoying my music at what ever level I am at.

 

And I think this is the most important thing to remember… It is no use believing you will be happy with your music “when you reach a certain stage”, because you won’t.  You have to be happy in your music NOW, even if you are the most basic of beginners.

 

• letting go of the ego
• being present and enjoying the simplicity the moment, and
• and allowing yourself freedom in your practice of music.

 

Here is the link to a great teacher who is sure to inspire your music and turn your world around.

 

http://kennywernerlive.com/

Although his lessons are simple, they are in depth and some will take you a lifetime to accomplish… but there’s no harm in that!

 

 

Taking Risks

One of the first exercises I gave you in this series was recording yourself playing your ugliest music.

 

It was probably a difficult exercise, but what I hope you gained from it was that you found you were capable of a lot more varied colours and sounds than you were used to exploring.

 

You probably felt uncomfortable to do this exercise and it would have been challenging for you if it was the first time you have done something like this.

 

But nothing new was ever discovered by playing it safe.

 

And when you explore your capacity for making music, it is vital you explore its entirety – not just the “pretty” sounds.

 

I think you would agree that each of us has many facets to our personality, we are not just the “nice” person we present at a job interview or on a first date.

 

There is much, much more to us than meets the eye and all of us have “ugliness” or aspects to our personality that are shadowy.

 

It is this complexity and multi-facedness that makes us individuals and if you are to play authentically, you need to be able to represent that in your music.

 

This means you have to be unafraid to sound “ugly” or make “mistakes” and often you will have to take musical risks to find that pot of gold that makes your solo or composition stand out from the rest.

 

You may ask why I have put the words “nice”, “pretty”, “ugly” and “mistakes” in inverted commas.

 

I have done this because these are judgements, which your critic makes and they often do not ring true in the musical result.  More often than not, it is in playing “ugly” and “making mistakes” that the real musical treasure is discovered.

 

So bottom line is, in order to stand out from the crowd and discover your authenticity, you will need to take the risk of sounding ugly and making mistakes and that is something you will need to practice if you want to be free in your performance.

 

Free Improvisation is a great exercise for becoming accustomed to taking risks and working on the desire to constantly ‘edit’ the musical performance.  This Article outlines how to do this.

 

Here is a great video which demonstrates how letting yourself take risks and be free of preconceptions of what music “should” sound like can lead to authentic, vibrant, enthralling performance.

 

Just remember when watching this, that none of it would have happened had the musicians not let themselves be totally in the moment and free to take risks.

 

 

“What you are seeing and hearing is totally improvised, unrehearsed, and the students have all been put on the spot and have no clue what’s going on! All brave enough to get up on stage in the first place in front of colleagues and strangers, and even braver to take risks and be thrown IN, OUTside of their comfort zone. Nevertheless, they are all listening and reacting to each other and the situation around them, and succeeding in making glorious music and entertaining us audience to laughter as well as making us spellbound. I thank these musicians from the bottom of my heart for the courage or foolishness to trust me and more importantly, trust themselves to make magic. I, for one, will never forget moments like these…”

 

 

 

When getting into song composition, one of the most important things is to not be afraid of the finished product.

 

Many people find song writing difficult because it is personal and sometimes we have a fear of having our songs heard in case we are judged or people don’t like what we have created.

 

I think it’s important to forget about all of that and don’t judge the songs you write – just write them.

 

Some you will love, some you will throw away, but the point is just to produce work and not be scared to write something that isn’t perfect.

 

Like everything, the more you compose, the better you will get at it.

 

In this article I’m going to give you some ideas on how to approach song writing and I will throw in some examples along the way to illustrate what I am talking about.

 

Just remember there are many ways you can approach composition and there is no right or wrong method.

 

 

1. Free Improvisation

 

Free improvisation is a great way to get original song ideas.

 

If you haven’t done free improvisation before, please read this article and do it a few times before you attempt to write a song from it.

 

You will find that, at first, this exercise is not as easy as you would think.  So just get to a place where you feel free to accept every note you play.

 

What I suggest is that you record a two-minute free improvisation and from there isolate any ideas you like and develop them into a song.

 

You can spend as little or as much time as you like doing this, and it can be especially fun when you are working with music programmes where you can add drums and other instruments.

 

Here is my Improvisation:

 

 

And here are the two ideas I have chosen to build on:

 

 

I think this is a particularly good way to write ambient music but I would like to hear your ideas on this and it would be great if you could post your experiment to the blog!

 

2. Using a Chord Progression From A Song You Like

I think you may be surprised at how many songs share the same chord progression.

 

Often, you wouldn’t know because of the variation of keys, melody, instrumentation, style, time signature, tempo and production.

 

You will be surprised at how original your song will sound if you take into account all these aspects of music and write your song with an inventive approach

 

I am going to take a well-known song (and chord progression) and change it for you to form an original song.

 

The song is “Let It Be” by the Beatles.

 

I am going to change:

 

• The tempo
• The Form – change the order in which the musical sections appear
• The style – dance music as opposed to pop
• The instrumentation – electronic as opposed to accustic

 

Here’s the original song:

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the beginnings of my new song:

 

 

3. Writing A Blues

 

The Blues has a set 12 bar form.  Please refer to this article for more detailed explanation.

 

As demonstrated in this “Joanna’s Diary” it is a great form in which to express ideas.

 

If you’re still not sure about the Blues, you can also read this article which will explain why it is a great form of music to get to know and compose in.

 

Have a listen to the various examples I have put in the article to hear how different your ideas can sound.

 

 

4. Writing Lyrics First

 

Sometimes lyrics just come into your head and not far behind them will be a melody line.

 

If you get these lyrics and a melody line, record them on your phone or any type of recorder, then it is just a case of finding the right harmony (chords to support the song).

 

If you don’t play an instrument, I suggest going to someone who does and ask them to help you find the sound you are looking for.

 

Collaborating is a great thing to do and often gives you the best work.  As they say, “two heads are better than one”.

 

Of course, you have to be able to communicate well together too, so find the right person.  It could be your teacher or a friend or an acquaintance.

 

5. Choose a Chord Progression

 

Sometimes you’ll just be mucking around on your instrument and come across a riff or a chord progression you like.

 

Make sure you record these little snippets.  Keep them in a file and use them to begin to write songs.

 

Sometimes you may be lucky enough to find that a few of them go well together and over a period of time you have a song already put together.

 

 

 

I hope you find this article useful and I look forward to hearing your songs.  Send them in if you like and I can post them on the blog.