A Case for Improvisation

Maybe we’ve got it wrong.  Maybe it’s the other way around.  Maybe it’s improvisation that should be the basis for all musical study.  Why not let music evolve the way language does, allowing the young student to babble and experiment, encouraging the forming of original sentences?  Why not teach young musicians to play by feel before learning to play by sheet music?  Why not widen the possibilities before narrowing the road? 

Preparing for the Improv 2020's: Make Your Practice a Priority

be determined to make your practice a priority

(you will always be able to find excuses not to practice)

so don't accept excuses

(sometimes you miss out)

but always you gain

respect your practice

(and everyone else will too)

sorry, i can't today

(clean or shop or wash or email or cook or organize or plan or meet)

because i must practice

(this thing whatever it is)

that which drives me

(maybe you don't even know

what your practice is)

still, by making it a priority

you will (someday) find

(with patience)

what you didn't know

(was there)

To Do List: Submit Work to Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Triennial

Preparing for the Improv 2020’s

Words and Images by Joanna Dane (except where noted)

Sounds by Joanna Dane, Tad Neuhaus, and Matt Turner
Sound editing by Tad Neuhaus

Mrs. Watson’s Bango

A collection of banjo songs and fragments Tad and I made spontaneously on my porch during the summer of 2013.

The Diddley Bow Album: Until the Glass Breaks

Tad was hosting a diddley bow making workshop at The Wisdom of Wombats Pop-Up Gallery so we thought why not make an album to give away at the workshop.  But we only had a few days.  So we spent one evening playing around with the diddley bow until we broke the glass bottle that held the single string and Tad edited it into The Diddley Bow Album.

Old Shakuhachi Woman*

When listening back to our first improvisation with the shakuhachi (Japanese flute), I heard the soul of an old woman.  And so we improvised with the intention of channeling the voice of this old woman.  And listening back, I heard the story of her life. 

*exhibited as an interactive art and sound piece, Trout Museum Members Biennial 2015

Tiny Songs

During that year if we didn’t improvise more than five new tiny songs in an evening, we were disappointed.  I brought in lyrics I wrote during the week.  Tad played.  I sang.  We captured over a hundred songs in their infancy, many one minute long, still full of wonder and curiosity.  92 are on the album, about half of which are published in the Tiny Songs Chapbook accompanied by drawings from the blog A Terminal Case of Whimsy.

Houdini**

We wanted to make something for a Houdini themed exhibit.  So Tad bought some chains and I checked out some books from the Appleton Public Library, taking notes in the form of lyrics.  And then we improvised. Soon, we realized we could make an entire biography.  So we did some more research and filled in a few gaps and got lost tromping around by the Fox River looking for the historic Houdini plague.

**exhibited as an interactive art and sound piece “Escape from Death”, Feather and Bone Gallery, Mile of Music 2015

Coming Soon on the Mile of Music Underground

this track:

tad neuhaus, drums, chains, and other stuff

joanna dane, vocals

other tracks with matt turner

Interviews with Interesting People: Matt Turner discusses his latest album of solo cello improvisations, Virion Impasto

Listen to Matt Turner 

(master improvisational cellist and pianist,

professor of jazz and improv at Lawrence University's Conservatory of Music)

discuss the methods, titles, and techniques of his newest release

Virion Impasto

acoustic solo cello as never heard before

(featuring:

experimental anti-music avant-garde outsider fringe improvisations)

Support Matt and all he does 

for music students worldwide 

by ordering Virion Impasto here.

the knotty pine
photo: Daria Van De Loo

Are you Ready for the Improv 2020's? Guideline #12 : Aim to be Underrated

Getting attention for making something stimulates the human being in a way that causes us to want to do more making.  The problem with craving attention is that it eats up a lot of our energy.  We get some attention and that feels good, so we immediately want more.  Where does it end?  If we are disappointed that only 12 people came to our show, then it doesn't matter how many come, we will be disappointed because that is how we have trained ourselves to think.

Someone once told me that some famous musician advices that there is always one person in the audience who needs to be there.  Play for her.

Isn't it possible to make the choice to thrive off the pleasure of making rather than the attention for making?

Isn't it a skill we can develop, like being able to walk a tight rope?

If we practice focusing on the making, and practice recognizing opinions as being light and ephemeral as smoke*, we can begin to diminish the power of emotions that drain our energy and breed our contempt: jealousy, greed, self-loathing.  We all have these emotions.  But by practicing allowing them to pass through us without becoming attached to them, we free up energy for our making.

Underrated artists have more time for making.  Underrated artists are more free.  Underrated artists don't have to please.  Consider becoming an underrated artist today.

* Just think of how easily our opinions change depending on the time of day, the weather, our mood, who we are with, our health, our expectations, our beliefs, our influences, our status, our clothes, our income, our sleep, our nutrition, our cravings, our addictions, our thirst, our comfort, etcetera.

all drawings selected from the tiny collaborative book "devices" 

Imagine City Park collection

Are You Ready for the Improv 2020's? Guideline #11: Make Signs

Wednesday, May 27th

7pm

The 602 Club

avec artiste extraordinaire

Elyse Mische

for 

Imagine City Park

(only 4 days to go!)

and a tiny song for Nostalgia's sake:

tad neuhaus, guitar

joanna dane, vocals

Improvisational Duets Class. April 17, 2015. Renaissance High School for the Arts, Appleton, Wisconsin.

Instructions:

1:  Find a spot outside to sit in a circle. 

2:  Designate a Facilitator.

3:  When everyone is settled, the Facilitator reads:

Sit tall.

Close your eyes.

Listen to the sounds all around.

4:  Sit for 5 minutes.

5:  Notice your breathing. 

6:  Add vocal sounds to the breathing cycle.  Be free.  Try playing with the sounds that you hear by mimicking sounds, creating sound patterns, veering off into new patterns, being silent and listening.  Always listening.  Try to see how deep you can go into the sounds, as if you are diving to the bottom of a pool.

7:  Discuss:  What did you hear?  What came to mind?  How involved did you become in your thoughts?  What happens to our listening when our minds become involved in thought?   Is there a state of being that is devoid of thought? 

8:  Create a Duet Circle:  Place a rock before two people on opposite sides of the circle.  Listen to the breath.  The two people with rocks, add vocals sounds to the breath.  Respond to sounds from all around.  At any point a person can decide to pass the rock counter clock-wise (since this exercise attempts to dissolve a sense of time by becoming completely present.)  Try to avoid passing rocks at the same time.  Try to create meaningful sound conversations by listening and responding without being critical or defensive.  Go around as many times as feels right.  After once around, anyone can raise a hand to indicate that the next full time around the circle will be the last.  (Three times around minimum.) The last circle around leads to the ending.  Always end at the beginning so everyone gets the same amount of turns.  Always end with an ending.

9: Discuss:  What did you hear?  How does your listening experience change when you are involved in making sounds?  What connections did you make with others in the circle?  How much of your listening was compromised by emotions brought on by insecure thoughts?  How deeply were you able to listen?

Listen to the first Improv Duet Circle created spontaneously at The Refuge in Appleton:

Are you Ready for the Improv 2020's? Guideline #10: Listen to IsabelleDuthoit and Franz Hautzinger

When I played this video for the students in the Improvisational Duets class at Renaissance High School for the Arts they were annoyed.



I, though, was fascinated and had the good fortune to see this duo perform the next week at the Paradigm Coffee and Music in Sheboygan.  After the show, I interviewed Isabelle and Franz, hoping they could shed some light on their music for the students.  Indeed, they did.

Listen here:



Thank you Isabelle and Franz and best of luck on the the rest of your tour!
Thank you Heimo and Jon and for your lovely accompaniment.
Thank you Tad and Ellen for the ride and your help with the recording.

Isabelle Duthoit and Franz Hautzinger at Paradigm

with special guests Heimo Wallner (above with a ceramic homemade horn) 

and Jon Mueller

(photo by Cameron Wittig)

Are You Ready for the Improv 2020's? Guideline #7: Cultivate a Practice

(listen)

it takes a lot of practice to realize that it doesn't matter what you practice

(as long as the practice does not harm)

it is the act of practicing that is the essential art

(without practice there is nothing)

so why not practice that which brings the most joy

(practice requires frequency)

so that practice becomes the joy

(allowing the practice to evolve)

so that when we notice it becoming drudgery

(we can change our practice)

and practice what feels best to practice

(and never be ashamed)

 by giving others permission to practice whatever they want

(we receive permission)

by allowing delight

(when shown a new creation)

we are free

Seven Piano Exercises for Improvisations

place fingers of both hands on the same consecutive white keys

(different octaves)

example:

#1

practice playing one finger from each hand simultaneously*

in a random order

with a steady beat

*variation:

alternate right, left

#2

practice playing with a steady beat

in a random order

with left hand playing every other beat of right hand*

*variation:

with right hand playing every other beat of left hand

#3

practice playing #1 and #2 with varied rhythms 

(hold some notes longer, makes some notes shorter)

#4

practice playing #1, #2, #3 with one black key (same for both hands)*

example:

*variation:

choose a different black key

#5

practice playing two fingers from each hand* for #1, #2, #3, #4 

*variations:

play one finger at a time with left and two fingers at a time with right,

vice versa,

or

play one or two fingers with each hand randomly

#6

practice inventing new variations for each #1, #2, #3, #4, #5

#7

practicing playing without using any fingers

Are You Ready for the Improv 2020's? Guideline #6 - Give Permission

Dear friend who is considering buying a banjo,

Buy it, bring it home, take it out, and play around with it.

Don't go searching for how to properly play it, or even how to properly tune it.

Pluck it, strum it, thump it, make as many different sounds as you can.

Howl right along with it.

Do that for a while.

Don't put it away in its case, but keep it out, in a room you frequent.

When you see it, pick it up.

Play with the strings while turning the tuning pegs.

Hold it one way, and then hold it another.  Play with it lying down, standing up, as well as while you are sitting.

Set your goal to explore rather than achieve.

I know you know all this already and even taught me some of these things.

It's not as easy as it sounds, and yet it's the easiest thing there is.

I give you permission, just like my kids gave me, to take that banjo and play it however it makes you happy, wherever this path may lead.

And if that's not working for you, try something else until you find something that does.

(listen)



*Works the same for accordions, violas, pianos, harps, trombones, shakers, castanets, harmonicas, violins, tubas, basses, flutes, drums, cellos, trumpets, sitars, glockenspiels, vibraphones, recorders, bagpipes, kazoos, symbols, clarinets, bassoons, french horns, organs, berimbaus, marimbas, saxophones, cajons, didgeridoos, guitars, ukuleles, zithers, ___________.

Improv Sutras 1-3

Are You Ready for the Improv 2020's? Guideline #5: Play Outside

I've always had this obsession with steel drums.  Where I hear them, I go running to see.  I'm the same way with bagpipes and didgeridoo and gamelan and anyone playing music of any kind outside including little kids with kazoos.  An early, powerful influence was this bit from Sesame Street:

I can recall every detail of its brilliance, how he explains to the kids that everything has rhythm, how the old white man is at his service, this very hip dude riding in the carriage playing steel drums to the beat of the horses' hooves.  How he smiles when he hears the water crashing.  How he rolls the notes along the wave.  Who this man is?  I'd like to thank him and whoever made this.

tad neuhaus: tom and cymbal
joanna dane: steel drums

Are You Ready for the Improv 2020's? Guideline #3 - Get to Know Your Neighbors

I've been planning for a while to have Jim come talk to the Internet Artist class at the high school, and today is the today!  At first he said no, because Jim always says no because he used to always say yes and then he had a bad experience volunteering for something and after that made it his policy to always say no.  But I kept at him until I got a maybe, and though I never got a definitive yes, I made the plan and let him know about it, so by that time, he didn't really have a choice.

Last year, Jim's Kickstarter made big news with Barbie armor that he made on his 3D printer.  His video found here: faire-play-barbie-compatible-3d-printed-medieval-a is well worth one minute and seven seconds of your life.  Stay tuned to Jim's website. Kickstarter #2 is coming soon, and I have a feeling Barbie is going to be kicking some major ass.

Jim is one of our neighbors.  While out walking one day before it turned so unbearably cold, it came to me what I hope the students will get out of Jim's visit.  It's probably not the same thing Jim hopes the students will get out of the visit, but here's what I was thinking:

(listen)*

*A friend who follows this blog by email advised me to put (listen) whenever there is an audio track since the audio doesn't appear in the emails.  Most of the time, I forgot to do this.  So, if you follow by email and a post doesn't make sense or seems to be lacking something, maybe there is an audio track to go with the post, or maybe it just doesn't make sense to anyone by me, or maybe it is lacking.  In the email notification, you can click the title of the post to get to the audio, or you can listen to all the tracks here: Whimsy Audio.

Thank you for your patience.

Are You Ready for the Improv 2020's? Guideline #2 - Screen-Free Sundays*

Be bored.

Space out.

Day dream.

Practice Screen-Free Sundays*.

Coming to your community soon.

*or Saturdays

Are You Ready for the Improv 2020's? Guideline #1

Acquire an instrument that you don't know how to play.

Play with it everyday.

Are You Ready of the Improv 2020's?

tad neuhaus, resonator

joanna dane, shakuhachi