Clarinet Improv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEH5evQDffQ

I do not normally care for jazzy clarinets, but this one was rather nifty. I care for a more classical sound, but eh, it was nice. This relates to the improvising portion of our Drum Circle.

Maroon 5 Jam Session

First of all, Maroon 5 is my favorite band ever. This is a short clip of them at the very beginning of a 24-hour live session that they did for Coca-Cola. I chose to share this video because even though they aren't necessarily improvising, they are demonstrating parts of their process for creating music, which I think is really cool.

Immovable Do

I mentioned this in one of my comments, but I wanted to expand on this.  So as you can assume from the title, this piece is based on Do (C).  The C acts as a drone by being played continuously throughout the piece. I thought this was neat because after a while you forget that its even there.  Grainger starts it off by being consonant and pleasing to the ear, and as the piece moves on it goes in and out of the consonance.  This piece shows how droning can be done with instruments as well as just voices.

Jason Mraz and Scatting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9naL64p5o4

On the pop(ish) music end of the musical spectrum, Jason Mraz brings a spotlight to scatting.  His most famous song is "I'm  Yours" in which he scats for some of the song.  Usually when people think of scatting, they usually picture someone really jazzy.  Jason Mraz broke through this stereotype and made it more accessible to younger audiences.

This concept is pretty cool, basically the guy wants to Improv on percussion instrument everyday for one whole year. I think that would be cool to try sometime.

How Jazz artists Improvise

I love how his description of improvisation sort of mirrors how we were planning our stuff. Improvisation just doesn't happen, it has to be planned a bit. But god is the end result glorious.

You are the instrument

I think the most important thing to keep in mind about improvisation that was discussed in the readings is that the music comes from you. You are the instrument, and whatever you interact with is just an extension of yourself. The video is a somewhat free improv done by Hermeto Pascoal and his band. During this clip, Pascoal solos on the keyboard, sings, screams, talks, bangs the keyboard, and makes all sorts of noises, which all combines to create an intense expression of self. He demonstrates that the music comes from within him, and that he can do anything and everything to give his spirit to everyone listening.

Some people (including Professor Edberg) thought it was odd that I used the piano as a percussion instrument in the free improv I did with Kristin on the last day. I'd just like to say that things like that don't really matter in my opinion: people like Pascoal in this video teach me that all that matters is getting the music you want to hear out of your head, and you can do basically anything to achieve that, regardless of the tools you use or their intended uses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W821bgUU_mY&feature=plcp

Dance improv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICub2QxM0JM


This is cool to think about improv in terms of body motions.

Bobby McFerrin Plays...The Audience!

        When I had to solo in my group's improv performance, I was a nervous wreck because I had never really improvised in front of an audience in my life. In my panicked state, I wasn't really able to plan out what I would play, but for some reason I clung to the pentatonic scale (five note scale, e.g. the black keys on the piano) nearly the entire time.
       Looking back, I think I stuck to the notes in that scale because they felt familiar, but I had no clue why. Then tonight, I was on StumbleUpon (to which I am addicted) and I saw this video, and suddenly it all made sense. According to Wikipedia, the pentatonic scale seems to be hardwired into the human brain, as it shows up in the folk music of just about every indigenous culture around the world.
        So...do you think this scale is hard-wired into YOUR brain? Do you find yourself reverting to certain musical ideas when you improv? Do you find this video as awesome as I do?

Animal Beatbox

So this is one of my favorite videos ever. It's pretty cool and I like that it is vocal percussion using WORDS. How cool is that? I think it takes a lot of talent to think up something like this, and I really like it. Tell me what you think!

Tala Talk etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fu2s2H-hlc


After the interview part, this video has a great example of tala talk, the Indian tabla-related art of vocalizing rhythms. I think this a really cool application of a type of babbling because you can do some really fast or complicated rhythms with this technique, and a lot of it seems to me to be about loosening your tongue. This video also has a great example of call and response (between the tabla player and everyone else), something that you hear in drum circles and other types of improvisation.

Improv for T-Bone and Erhu (Chinese Violin)

First of all, I love the erhu. If I am ever given the opportunity to learn how to play it, I will absolutely take it.

I chose this video because it exemplifies a lot of the things that we've talked about as a class, and it connects with the performance by Dr. Edberg and George Wolfe on Wednesday. Like that performance, this is an improvised duet between a wind instrument and a string instrument that may not commonly play duets together. Although the drone element is not as prominent in this example, there are several good examples of simple ostinatos and call and response techniques.

Overall, I think that this is an interesting performance, and I thought that it would be cool to share it with you guys.

Drum Circle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdN6olQXHyo

This is pretty self-explanatory.

didgeridoo improv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdUYWUS7jwg

Just some cool improv.

Ostinato Practice

I looked up different ways to practice Ostinato, This guy is a little weird however what he does is really cool. Check it out!

Droning Sounds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUBtEirTREw

We have been discussing droning in our class, and also it's calm qualities. Also, droning was a topic of discussion in the "Darling Conversations".

Trumpet Improv

This is a video I found that I thought was really cool. It really is just a trumpet player improving over a track he found on youtube. I thought it was really cool and in a way is a lot of what we are trying to do in class. I hope you all enjoy it.

Drone

This band is actually a speed metal band that uses Celtic influences, but this song is from their acoustic album. When we talk about drone in class this type of music is what tends to come into my head. the drone is extremely present in this, we hear a flute come in with a melody over top, and the a violin joins, and the music builds. I just think this is incredibly beautiful, and wanted to share.

Comment Required: Homework for Friday 10/5

I enjoyed Wednesday's class very much.  Watching you connect with your ability to improvise melodies and accompaniments was a pleasure.

As I said in class, there are two parts to your homework.  One is to improvise on your own, and the other is to listen to three more tracks from 'The Darling Conversations."

Improvising on your own.  Explore and experiment with the starting points we've worked on in class (and/or listened to David and Julie discuss).  These include:

• "Release"--this might seem silly at times (putting your hands at the top of your head, and exhaling as your lower your arms), but it can make for a profound shift in one's state of being. Many of the Music for People improvisation approaches are designed to facilitate what the first statement in the "Bill of Musical Rights" describes: the need for express ourselves "in a way that invites physical and emotional release."
• Babbling--this frees you up, and gets the music/body connection going.  It's silly, and helps us get over the need to do something "right."
• Articulate babbling moving into rhythmic vocal percussion.
• Sirening with your voice and on an instrument.  
• Vocal grooves: percussive and scat sounds, pitched and unpitched.  This can be very enjoyable to do while walking around.  So what if people think you're crazy?
• Instrumental groves: use a pitched instrument like a drum.  Pick just one or two pitches and find a rhythmic groove.  You can let the pitches and rhythms gradually evolve.
• Long, "one-quality-sound" tones--both sung and played on an instrument (vocalists, use a piano if you don't play something else).
• Sing play a long tone and listen inside yourself for the next sound. That way a freely-improvised melody can develop.

In your comment, write a short (or long) paragraph about your experience.  You can connect this to the experiences you've had in class, both listening to and performing improvisations.

Listening.  Here are the "Darling Conversation" tracks from the syllabus:

• solo/drone (listen to “Solo/Drone,” track 20)
• solo/ostinato (listen to “Ostinato,” track 22)
• A-B-A form (listen to “A-B-A,” track 24)

Write a short paragraph (3 total) about your reaction to each track.

Coming up: Between Friday and Monday's classes, you'll be working in a small group (3-4 people), designing a structured, partially-planned improvisation using contrasting improvisation techniques .

Start thinking now about who you'd like to work with!

Comment required: Homework for W 10/3

Hi everyone--

Here (from the syllabus) is the homework for Wednesday (tomorrow).  All listening.

• Continued discussion of the Music for People “Bill of Musical Rights” http://musicforpeople.org/rights.html and tracks from “The Darling Conversations”
• One Quality Sound (track 3)
• Vocal Timbre (track 4)
• Babbling (track 5)
• Articulation (track 6)
• Sirening (track 7)

Remember, you access the audio files at http://audio.depauw.edu, logging in with your network/Moodle username and password.

Listen and in a comment below, talk about what you find most interesting/striking in each track. This can include what you "like" the most, and what you "dislike" the most.

And for class tomorrow, bring both a drum and your major instrument.

Ave Maria and Audience Participation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgvJg7D6Qck

One of the common themes in our readings and listening has been that everyone can make music and everyone should make music. The link above is from a Bobby McFerrin concert (if you don't know who he is, I highly recommend checking him out - I'm a piano player and I still think the things he does with his voice are phenomenal, and that his music is enjoyable and can teach a lot about improvisation and versatility). In it, he gets the crowd to sing "Ave Maria" while he sings the first Bach Prelude from WTC over it, creating this beautiful final product. What matters more than the product is how he approaches it - he tells the crowd to all sing, and if you don't know the song, just listen to those who do and come in when you feel comfortable. By encouraging this audience participation, he connects everyone to the music. This makes sure no one is left out and results in the strange beauty you always get when you have a large group of people singing, regardless of ability.

How to Report Your Blogging

The weekly blogging requirements are to write at least one original post, relevant to the content of the course, and to write comments on at least 5 posts by others.

The deadline for reporting your blogging activity for the week is 11:59 PM Sunday night.  Since I got confused and thought I'd already sent you the instructions, but didn't, you have an extra 24 hours, and your first email is due on Tuesday Oct. 2 at 11:59 PM.  

You document what you've done for your records and mine by sending me an email with the unique URLS of the posts and comments you've written.

Here's how to do that.

For your original post:

• From the main page of the blog, click on the title of your post.
• That will take you to the individual page for the post.
• Copy the URL from the address bar and paste it in a message.
• As an example, here is the URL for the very first post on the blog (which I wrote) in the previous rotation: http://mus130b2012.blogspot.com/2012/09/welcome-comment-required.html.

For your comments:

• From the main page of the blog, click on the title of the post on which you wrote a comment.  You can also click on the "[X] comments" link to the left of the original poster's name at the bottom of the post.
• That will take you to the individual page for the post.
• Next to your name, there is a time and date stamp.  Click on that, and a URL that leads directly to your comment will appear in the address bar.
• For example, when I clicked on the time/date stamp on Crystal's comment on that first post, this URL appeared: http://mus130b2012.blogspot.com/2012/09/welcome-comment-required.html?showComment=1347299733280#c3394461223297842858.  You'll see that if you click on that, it takes you write to her comment.  

Email format:

This is important, because if you use this format it makes it easy for me to find your email later in the semester.

• Write from your @depauw.edu account, not a personal account.
• Make the subject "[Your Name] Blogging Week Ending [Date]"

In the body of the email, write:

• "My original post: [URL]"
• "My comments: [list each URL on a separate line]

So it would look like this (using my previous posts and comments as examples):

Subject: Eric Edberg Blogging Week Ending 9/16/2012
My original posts:

• http://mus130b2012.blogspot.com/2012/09/welcome-comment-required.html

• http://mus130b2012.blogspot.com/2012/09/homework-for-wed-912-comment-required.html

My comments (these are from my "homeroom" section):

• http://mus130c2012.blogspot.com/2012/08/responses-to-first-class.html?showComment=1345944265965#c7193691378774377595

• http://mus130c2012.blogspot.com/2012/08/homework-for-monday-comment-required.html?showComment=1345944317824#c6042779233253323765

Remember, there should be 1 original post by you and 5 comments on posts by other people. The total of 5 includes the "comment required" posts by me.  

I hope that's clear!  There is often some confusion the first time these are due.