Recommended Reading
This is the introduction to a dissertation I recently wrote on practicing entirely improvised forms of music.
The concept of ‘Free Improvisation’ is difficult to define. It has been called many things, and there have been many eclectic exponents of it from almost all musical backgrounds. To me the concept of ‘Free Improvisation’ means simply to play, with no pre-decided rules to govern the direction that the improvisation may take, or the parameters in which it must stay. I feel that it is comparable to immediate composition, the simultaneous creation and performance of a new piece of music.
“Composing is a slowed-down improvisation; often one cannot write fast enough to keep up with the stream of ideas”
In his book ‘Improvisation’, Derek Bailey suggests that free improvisation is the oldest form of music;
“Mankind’s first musical performance couldn’t have been anything other than a free improvisation.”
You could go one step further than this by suggesting that free improvisation is at the core of all conversation and communication. Stephen Nachmanovitch asserts that;
“Every conversation is a form of Jazz. The activity of instantaneous creation is as ordinary to us as breathing”
My first attempts at the free jazz genre came about within larger compositions. In the quartet I was playing in we all became quite interested in using free jazz as a compositional tool, a way of breaking up the solo sections. At this point I had little experience in listening or playing this music. In fact for a long time I may have said that I didn’t enjoy this type of music. However, as we began to include more and more free material in our sets I started to realise how much I was attracted to this style of playing. It felt to be the best holistic use of my Jazz and Classical training. Training that everyone in this group had shared. This led me onto listening for the first time with a truly open and receptive mind.
After asking around the first albums I bought were by Alex von Schlippenbach and his trio with Evan Parker and Paul Lovens. I was immediately encapsulated by the ensemble, and how effective their music was. As a pianist I was fascinated by Schlippenbach’s technical and harmelodic abilities. As well as being moved by the music he was creating. Around this time I went, with friends, to see a concert at the Vortex in Dalston Kingsland, London. It was Evan Parker performing with Tony Marsh and Jonathan Edwards. I was blown away by this gig. Their natural, improvised, sense of structure and ability to sustain music that was always engaging over prolonged improvisations of up to 45 minutes I found quite incredible. I made a decision that free improvisation had to become a regular part of my practice so that I could aspire to make music like this.
My first group performances around this time had been somewhat on the safe side, and always with the compositional parameters to support us. Early recordings sound very contained around one mode, as players we follow each other around with no real leader or sense of individual character within the group. We also tended towards quite linear textures and structures that held no real depth but simply served a purpose within a composition.
Through my undergraduate degree I learnt an efficient way of learning the repertoire that was required of me. This was with the help of some fantastic teachers and trial and error on my part. By the end of the four year course I felt at my most confident with learning and memorising notes on a large scale and felt that I had developed a method for doing this which was personal to me. I came to Trinity College of Music to develop these skills and transfer them onto the music that I love, Jazz. With the help of my teachers I feel like I am starting to find my way with Jazz practice, I am beginning to be able to problem solve for myself. To be able to self-diagnose and design practice that will help me move through obstacles in my playing. When I sat down to practice ‘Free Jazz’ however I found that I didn’t know where to start. I imagined that many of the principles that I had learnt whilst studying the Jazz and Classical disciplines may be transferrable but how would I design my practice to be both, efficient, structured and regular as well as being relevant to this supposedly ‘free’ genre of music? Also, was this valid for music which presents itself as purely spontaneous and unprepared?
I am also particularly interested in developing a duo that I have with Trumpeter Jack Davies. In a conventional Jazz band, or classical chamber music group the question of how to fill rehearsals is somewhat more obvious. In Classical music you work on a group interpretation of the score, as well as working towards an ensemble awareness that is almost instinctive. In Jazz, often it is important to work through an arrangement, to become more familiar with each others playing. However, again, when coming to rehearsals with this new duo I was unsure how to progress. If our music was supposed to be improvised then what could we viably prepare in the rehearsal room? Arrangements are not appropriate, similarly there is no pre-existing musical content from which to draw an interpretation.
I plan to investigate ways of practicing free jazz so that I can design a practice method that is personal to me and my duo.
“The requisite variety that opens up our expressive possibilities comes from practice, play, exercise, exploration and experiment. The effects of non-practice (or insufficiently risky practice) are rigidity of heart and body, and an ever shrinking compass of available variety” S Nachmanovitch
This quote seems to perfectly outline the key areas of practice and it is this ‘Compass of available variety’ which I think is, more than anything else, the goal in preparing for free improvisation. Here is how I will approach each aspect of his practice model;
Practice
For this project the practice content will be designed around challenging the more intuitive ways that one may improvise prior to any deeper thought. Using musical aspects such as Dynamics, Texture, Structure and Articulation I will design exercises that aim to challenge what comes naturally in order to develop my ability to improvise with a more complex narrative in all of these things. Having recorded myself at the start of the project I will be able to assess the ‘available variety’ in my playing. From this I will then devise practice exercises that will aim to broaden my pallet of musical ideas when improvising. These exercises will take the form of parameters (or constraints) that will focus my attention on to one particular aspect of the music and how it develops through the course of an improvisation. I will record the process of practicing these exercises, both individually and with a group, and then record myself again at the end of the project to assess how useful my exercises have been.
“The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self of the chains that shackle the spirit” Igor Stravinsky
“Structure ignites spontaneity” Nachmanovitch
Play
The concept of play is vital to developing all types of improvisation. When Nachmanovitch refers to ‘Insufficiently risky practice’, I believe that this is the most crucial aspect not to overlook. At all stages of the project I will aim to record myself playing. This will serve not only to try out some of the concepts that I have been practicing, but also to discover new techniques and sounds that can feed back into practice. Alongside the exercises I outlined above I will also always aim to record at least one ‘Free Play’ in each practice session, so not to neglect this side of my practice.
“In practice, work is play, intrinsically rewarding.” Nachmanovitch
Exercise
Many of the great free improvising musicians are also great technicians. Those musicians have developed not only a virtuosic facility on their instrument but also a great command of harmony which allows them to express without limitation. Although it is important to keep in mind that ‘You create through your technique, not with it’, it is certainly true that for many musicians the craft of their instrument is an important part of forming their musical personality. In this genre there are musicians who actively advocate the resistance against technical virtuosity. As Derek Bailey writes;
“There are those for whom it is an activity requiring no instrumental skill, no musical ability and no musical knowledge or experience of any kind, and others who believe that it can only be reached by employing a highly sophisticated, personal technique of virtuosic dimensions”
I will look to design a regime of technical exercise practice that both develops my facility on the instrument and helps develop concepts that can be used in free improvisation.
Exploration
For the purposes of this project I will take this to mean the exploration of recorded musical sources. I will analyse recordings in order to take ideas for my own performance. I will also keep recording my own practice and performance in order to assess what I like and don’t like in my own playing. I will aim to take a cue not only from recorded free improvisation but also explore contemporary classical music to see what I can learn from the way that those composers construct their music.
Experiment
Ways in which experimentation will be important for my project will be when looking in to aspects such as extended techniques. A degree of experimentation is a crucial way of discovering new sounds and textures that can be used in my improvisation.
In addition to this I will be doing some research based work to support and challenge the ideas I have had. I will send out questionnaires to a group of notable free improvisation performers that will aim to find out how they think about practice.
Throughout this project I will also be delving into the deeper question of how relevant structured practice is to freely improvised music.
