Improvising!

I had three fun experiences doing some improvisation recently. Since I am a "classical" musician, I haven't done much improvisation. When I was teaching, though, I used to make up all kinds of expressive music on the piano for children to move to: giant, heavy steps in the bass -- next, fluttery notes in the treble so that children could listen to various kinds of music and move to them in imaginative and expressive ways. I felt very free to play anything at all on the piano because, after all, they were children and they didn't care about what I played -- they were enjoying themselves!

The Dance Jam

Recently there was an announcement about a Dance Jam at the nearby dance studio. I wanted to go and dance there; it was to be just improvisatory dancing. There were to be drummers and other musicians who would also improvise. So I took my recorder and my violin. I danced for awhile, then I picked up a small percussion instrument and played with the drummers. I danced for awhile, then I stopped and picked up my recorder and improvised along with the drummers. After awhile, someone said, "Aren't you going to play your violin?" So, I picked up my violin and began to play with the drummers. Just then, two belly dancers stepped into the middle of the floor. As I watched their undulating bodies, I experimented with some of the basic tricks that violinists can do: trills, sliding from note to note, percussive strokes with the lower part of the bow, double stops and soulful melodies. When I finished, everyone was very kind and said, "Liz, you are amazing!" I was amazed myself because I had never improvised on my violin in public before and hardly ever in private!! But, as a classical violinist, I know a lot of tricks and it's easy for me to put them all together and it sounds amazing to others.

Tai Chi Class

Now I was emboldened! At my Tai Chi class during the break, we got on to the subject of Asian music. I said, "I guess everyone knows that Asians use the 5 tone scale. In fact, anyone can improvise on the black keys and it always sounds good." They were intrigued and they said, "Liz, please improvise like that for us while we do the form." All of our Tai Chi exercises are done in total silence so this was quite new for all of us. I went to the piano in the room and I improvised on the black keys for about 8 minutes. They all said they had enjoyed it so much! I tried to keep it rather minimal because a lot of fancy playing would distract from the "Tai Chi mood".



String Quartet

Finally, I planned to ask my string quartet to try a joint improvisation. So, at our rehearsal, after we had played our usual classical music for over an hour, I said, "Ladies, let's be brave! Let's try to improvise together!" To their credit, each one was brave and they said yes! I asked the cellist to start a pattern, then the viola could enter, then the other violin, then me. We played for about 5 minutes and it was a really fun experience! As a string quartet, it's very important for us to listen to each other as we play and I think the improvisation thing can help us to do that. I hope we do it again!!

Life is full of adventures. I wonder what tomorrow will bring!! Thanks to certain friends of mine who inspire me and encourage me!

Comments

Just a note: I changed the "Comments" section so you don't have to have a Google Account to comment. Anyone can comment now! (Please do, if you wish.)

Inspiration?

Where do songwriters and composers get their ideas? I wonder about this.

Sunday's Parade Magazine published this Q and A:

Q: Does '60s model Pattie Boyd take credit for inspiring her former husbands to write three rock classics: George Harrison's "Something" and Eric Clapton's "Layla" and "Wonderful Tonight"?

A: No. "It wasn't anything I said or did," Pattie, 63, tells us. "Musicians always have music in their heads about their perceptions of the world."

Perhaps she was being overly modest? Both men were madly in love with her, I guess. That "mad feeling of love" must have been the inspiration for their songs, even though Pattie said she didn't say or do anything. She was just there, being beautiful. But, maybe songwriters and composers always have some kind of bubbling music background within them as they live their lives?

Queen in the car

Riding through the beautiful country side of Connecticut with my brother in his car-- he played Queen on his CD player. It's heaven to hear music while riding through beautiful country! My brother rediscovered this old rock group and he loves it. [He found out you can hear all the tracks of a CD, even in its shrink wrap, at the store. You just swipe the barcode over the player and you can hear it immediately. That's how he chose 3 CDs. ] As my brother talked about Queen and we listened to the music I got an insight to my brother: he has an emotional/musical life that not everyone would know about. It's like me, too. I am sure that very few people know about my emotional/musical life. It's quite a private thing, I guess. I felt closer to my brother after that, because he shared that with me and he knew I would understand. Also, listening to music in the presence of someone else who loves that music can help you to understand it.

Climaxes

On my morning walk today, Tristan and Isolde (Liebestod) came up on my iPod "Shuffle Songs". I remembered what my friend, P.C., the conductor (now deceased, alas!), once told me. He said something like, "When performing music, it's important to shape the architecture of the music. For example, build to a climax. Building to a climax creates musical tension, then release when one gets to the climax and after it."

As I listened to Wagner's music, I thought about what a genius he was -- in this music, for example, he created climax upon climax upon climax. This music is ecstatic. Just when you think it's the top, he drives you higher upward!

My new blog

Today is the first day of my blog. It will be fun for me to write down my thoughts and experiences. I don't know who will be interested -- maybe a few friends and a few relatives?? Many of my musical experiences are very personal and may not make sense to others. And my musical interests are very broad, ranging from electronic rock to opera. Perhaps someone who reads my blogs will get introduced to some new kind of music which will open the doors of their ears to a wonderful world!