Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Free improvisation, post yours.

Hey everybody, I listened to a bunch of the stuff you all have posted a couple of weeks ago. There's a lot of great playing going on! I've always had an interest in free playing but only dabbled in it from time to time. But being in a slump with my jazz for awhile, listening to what you all posted inspired me and got me thinking about what I'm doing with my music. So I decided to record some stuff to see what would happen. Turns out I really enjoyed it! So much so I decided to put the recordings together as a record. I put up a website where you can download all the music for free. I hope you all like it and thanks for providing the impetus and inspiration for my new musical direction.

www.watchingmythoughts.weebly.com

Great stuff Scott, that is really a project you undertook. What you say about 'the feeling of connectedness' is definitely something I can relate to and something that playing free can really increase, it did for me anyway.
I have only listened to the first track so far but it has a really nice feel to it. You say you are in a slump with your jazz but this is jazz, to me at least, and it is far from slumpy. You may find that all this free playing also helps with playing more straight ahead jazz as well.

Ted, your improvisation is amazing you are able to keep it going for so long. What is your motivation for such work?

beeboss, I really liked your improvisations. Very professional sounding and quite moving, actually. Very impressive.

Scott - that's an incredible number of tracks! Really interesting is the variety among them. It's a great deal of work. Did you do those over a few days or weeks, or in one day? I agree completely with beeboss - the larger you can expand your own musical vocabulary in all styles of music, they will apply to your jazz focus when the opportunity presents itself.

Thanks, beeboss and Ted - - glad you enjoyed the short takes.

Here are a couple more short and sweet improvs, one quite different from the other. A friend provided those names after she listened to them.

A Long Year: https://www.box.com/s/qufzrhtc4cd21du0vzh6

Sun Up: https://www.box.com/shared/6g112ld9cp

Glen

Thanks Beeboss and Inlanding for checking out my stuff.

Beeboss, I know what you mean by still considering this jazz. I'm just cautionary with labels after realizing that for some people, this can open a whole can of worms.

Inlanding, I recorded the first 5 tracks, back to back on Tuesday... right after getting my piano tuned. Then I recorded the last 4 on Wednesday. By the way, I listened to your two new postings... very nice!

Some earlier ones were much longer but I have limited myself to half an hour recently to avoid strains, dystonias and the like. It is its own motivation. It is a completely reliable source of ecstasy. I have always had a relentless drive to create at the instrument since I was a kid. I composed and wrote out many pieces when I was younger but these days improvisation is close to everything. It is the ideal medium for people like me who have an infinite supply of ideas but modest musical ability, even less musical training and a psyche which doesn't fit the usual social patterns of musical interaction.

To put it another way, I'm not very good at anything else !

Great work Scott

I've listened a lot of amazing music in this thread. I was wondering how a lot of material is, in some way, such personal.

A question for you all: how, if u do, do u practice this kind of stuff? Do u have exercize? Study composition? Just do an re-do?

I'm not sure to have a very rigorous manner to train this skill.

Practising improvisation is almost a contradiction in terms for me. To practise implies the existence of another state which is the real thing, like performance for a concert pianist for instance. When I improvise it is always real and unique to the moment.



The only technical work I do is a few minutes night and morning on my silent Virgil Practice Clavier. But even that varies from day to day. I don't go up and down scales and the like in the same old way day in and day out as some people do.



I have never formally studied composition, theory or harmony and do not understand them. I wrote out a large number of pieces when I was younger, but most of them crystallised out of improvisation over time.



Precise repetition I find very uninteresting. Even within a piece, regular or strictly periodic cells I find very dull. "Almost periodic" cells are much more vital and more likely to spawn successive ideas.

I've spent a huge amount of time practicing improvisation in the jazz tradition. That has involved studying theory, composition and technique, as well as a fair amount of transcribing and ear training. Mostly, for me, improvisation is about having a vocabulary to work with. Unlike Ted, I find that alot of repetition is necessary to absorb things, but I spend an equal amount of time exploring primarily for the purpose of finding things to absorb. So I would say that I have two approaches to practice... 1. absorb ideas through repetition, analysis, understanding, and 2. practice performing improvising. Again though, for me this has been almost entirely in the jazz tradition for more than 10 rigorous years, and classical and popular stuff before that (which didn't involve improvising much at all).

I listened to all nine pieces, Scott, and found them deeply calming and optimistic. Perhaps I might do well to consider such ambiance myself, as my own playing usually leaves me feeling like a limp rag. The exception was your fourth, which seems to spring from an entirely different haptic process, one which seems full of possibilities - a sort of modern baroque perhaps. I listened to that one several times.

Thanks Ted! Glad you liked it. Yeah the 4th track was considerably different. Not sure why.

I've uploaded on my soundcloud page some free/open improvisations. You can hear them here

https://soundcloud.com/alberto-forino

any kind of feedback is very welcomed

aL

Hi Alberto~
It's been two+ years since we last participated in this thread! Nice to see you again. I listened to your music - quite nice. I sense a great deal of energy in your playing. Thank you for your music.

Here are a couple of free-play tunes from awhile ago - feedback is welcomed and encouraged:

Forth and Back
https://app.box.com/s/s80lj1f6a4nk9wxcmiwv

MajorMinor
https://app.box.com/s/dzcgs0yuggyd1z3ukwyh

Some from Feb.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sX0icN-Kx9I

Mark, I very much enjoyed the wide spaces and long sustain of your thoughtful set of improvisations.
Glen

3 Impromptus :


Lydian blues for Lydia :

https://soundcloud.com/jazzman1945/blues-for-lydia


In memoriam Vagif Mustafa zade :






Passacaglia sentimentale

Glen,

Thank you VERY MUCH for your comments. They're much, much appreciated.

Ab,

Mark

Very interesting! Each improviser has its own individual handwriting, and such differences ! I am especially interested in the primary impulse: the sound; interval sound complex; timbre, rhythmical trigger . No less interesting is that each performer has in his pocket a permanent scenario under which he plays, even unconsciously. Very interesting! Each improviser has its own individual handwriting, and such differences ! I am especially interested in the primary impulse: the sound; interval sound complex; timbre, rhythmical trigger . No less interesting is that each performer has in his pocket a permanent scenario under which he plays, even unconsciously.
Thanks to all who laid out here his / her recordings !

https://soundcloud.com/dr-bekken
Here's one of my improvisations, 'Downriver'.

Wow sounds great. Thank you for posting. Your recordings have changed how I view non-traditional piano voicing; I think you give nice life to that old-worn-out-hammers piano sound.

Thank you! The piano was an old Schimmel grand which had not been tuned for a while. The instrument also had some issues technically. It adds to the mood somehow. Generally, I like good instruments, but occasionally, I enjoy the sound of pianos which are old and ever so slightly out of tune. Maybe I need help.