Improvisation and Form Part 3: Memory

The second important skill for creating form in improvisation is memory.  Except for through composed improvisation (ABCD, etc.), every form involves returning to something that was played previously in the improvisation.  But in order to return to something, you have to remember it.  You have to remember what you played, what the other people you are improvising with played, and the relation between the two.  Awareness exercises like those in Part 2 help you be more aware of what is going on while you are improvising.  Now how do you remember it, so you can use it again later?

Remembering what is played during an improvisation does not come naturally, because the kind of present moment consciousness so vital to improvising stores what we are doing in short term memory.  This memory is what allows us to create continuity in our moment to moment existence, to remember the beginning of a sentence by the time we get to the end.  But it only stores information for a short time.  Unless something happens to transfer the information to longer term memory it is quickly discarded to make room for new information.

Everyone has to figure out for themselves the best way to make that transfer, how best to tell the brain to mark a musical event for longer term memory storage.  This involves not only memory of the music that happened and how it sounded, but also muscle memory of what you were doing and how you were doing it.  It is a learned skill set, and the only way to learn it is by doing it. 

You can practice remembering with any simple improvisational exercise, as long as part of your intention is to remember what has been played.  Here’s a few, off the top of my head, to get you started.  Although you can do these exercises with melodies made up of notes, you can also use any group of sounds as the “melody”

Improvise a simple melody.  Stop.  Now play it again.

Once you can do that easily, try this:

Improvise a melody.

Continue improvising, using the material of the original melody as the source material for your improvisation.

Play the original melody again.

Once you can do that easily, try doing it with other people.

One person improvises a simple melody, while the others provide accompaniment.  Stop.  How many people in the group can remember and play the original melody?

One person improvises a simple melody, while the others provide accompaniment.  Pass the melody around the group.  Play it with all different kinds of accompaniment, in all kinds of variations. After improvising with it, play it again.  

The simpler and clearer the intentions of the group are, the easier it will be to remember.  The more the group has worked on understanding and naming the relationships that occur in improvised music (but that’s a different subject, for another day!) the easier it will be to remember.  The more you have practiced remembering, the easier it will be to remember.  After awhile, it will become a habit to recognize the parts of the improvisation that may be useful in creating longer forms, and to remember them.

Once you have gained some individual and group facility in remembering, then you can start applying that skill to spontaneous group composition, which will be the subject of Part 4.

Improvisation and Form Part 2: Awareness

An individual and group awareness of what is being improvised is critical to successful group improvisation. You have to be aware of what you are playing without interfering with the flow of it. You have to simultaneously be aware of what everyone else is playing, and it's relation to you, without having it interfere with your flow.

This awareness is an ongoing understanding, a recognition of what the music is at any moment, and the only way to do this fully is to let go of any judgment, self-consciousness or preconception.  All three of these mental processes have their place in evaluating, understanding, and creating music, but they all slow down or stop the flow of creation in the moment it is happening.

Here are several improvisational exercises from Free Improvisation: A Practical Guide that will aid you in various aspects of developing awareness.

Exercise 14: Awareness 1
This exercise gives practice in simultaneous awareness of what you are playing and what else is going on around you.  You can do it with any number of players, or even solo, using awareness of environmental sounds instead of other players.  This exercise works well with long held out notes or sounds, changing slowly.

Step 1: Two players hold out a note or sound.

Step 2: Focus your attention on each sound separately, then hold both sounds in your awareness simultaneously, and with equal importance.  Hear both of the sounds, and the relationship between them.

Step 3: Observe this relationship, and your reaction to it.  Don't do anything, just watch as the sounds slightly change and subtle reactions occur.  Are you happy with the sounds?  Do you want to change them?

Step 4: If you feel the need to change, wait until the wanting to change becomes overwhelming, then allow this desire create the change.

Step 5: Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you want to end.

Step 6: Repeat Steps 1-5 with more players.  Take enough time in Step 2 to direct your awareness to each players individual sound, and to all sounds together.

Exercise 15: Hearing Relationship
A great tool for recognition and awareness is to practice hearing and naming the relationships that occur during an improvisation.

Step 1: Two people play a short duet improvisation.

Step 2: Discuss the relationship between the two players.  How would you describe it?  Did it change over the course of the duet?  If the players were not aware of their relationship have them play another duet, this time focusing awareness on what the other person is playing.  Pay particular attention to the choices made at each "ending point" (the point where one thing ends and something else begins). 

Exercise 50: Coming Together 1
This exercise is good practice in being strong, yet flexible.  In order for it to work, you must come in with your strongest idea, yet be willing to go to whatever becomes the consensus.  Don't focus on playing the same thing, focus on moving to the same place.  This can be done with a group texture as well as a group groove.

Step 1: Improvise a group groove.

Step 2: Everyone gradually gravitate to playing one thing together.

There are many improvisational exercises that can help give you tools for greater awareness when improvising.  The key to all of them is to freely and equally accept into your sphere of awareness what you are doing and what others are doing.  Allow this to create a third awareness: an awareness of the relationship between the two.  

Remembering this relationship allows the possibility of spontaneous group composition over longer forms, so next week I will talk about memory and improvisation.

Form in Improvisation: Part 1

One of my readers asked:  " I wonder if you could say something on your blog about improvisational form. How it emerges either consciously or unconsciously, and different exercises one might practice for developing form in improvisation."

Great topic!  Unless you are only going to improvise in a completely stream of (un)consciousness manner,  you will eventually confront the idea of form, because humans are form creators and sense makers.  It's just what we do.  Give us a mess of stuff, and we will make sense out of it.  Give us a series of random sounds and our minds create a pattern.  Give us chaos, and we will find the form inside it.  


In this universal sense, we are naturally and unconsciously always trying to create sense and form, and it is extremely satisfying when we succeed.  There are three basic skills that give us a better chance of succeeding in the creation of sense and form, both individually and as a group. 

The first is awareness.  You have to be aware of what you are playing without interfering with the flow of it. You have to simultaneously be aware of what everyone else is playing, and it's relation to you, without having it interfere with your flow.  Unless there is an individual and group awareness of what is being improvised, you can't spontaneously compose with it.


The second is memory. Every form besides ABCD etc. involves returning to something that was played previously in the improvisation.  In order to return to something, you have to remember it.


The third is a group willingness and ability to spontaneously compose together, to allow formal elements to occur naturally and fluidly in the course of an improvisation.


I will deal with each of these in the following weeks, and include some exercises to use in practicing them.