Improvisation
MY HISTORY
Improv entered into my world ever since I tried to separate myself from classical literature and started playing what I was being inspired by in high school, which was all the so called rock, metal, new age, alt/indi rock, and experimental music that was coming at me from every direction. From the structured melodies of speed metal, to the sonorous contrapuntal harmonies of Tangerine Dream, with the modern voices of Psychic TV and Skinny Puppy, is how I evolved my listening skills to a heightened level of discerning notes to sounds, sounds to notes in a whole new way.
In the summer of grade 8, I was in Atlanta visiting my friend and his family. I was very influenced by his brother who was a master of the guitar and trumpet. I was trying to learn some metal riffs on his Yamaha v50 synth. The piece was Mr. Crowley, by Ozzy Osbourne, and more specifically it was Randy Rhodes’ guitar parts that I was transcribing by ear. I haven’t touched on that stuff in a long time, d-minor, a-minor, f-major, c-maj, etc. It seemed to me at this point that metal/rock took off where classical music as we know of it stopped. The virtuosity of writing etudes and fantasies had evolved into metal ballads and metal solos. I saw it everywhere, in metallica, mercyful fate, megadeth, to just name a few; they all sounded like Liszt, Pagannini, modern day Bach 3 part harmonies with guitars all playing counterpoint.
Improv became a little easier for me as I started studying the art of writing a song, using what I had learned in music theory up to that point. And it wasn’t until later that Keith Jarrett’s performances did I really jump into improving with emotion being a key element to trap within the notes. I recently started playing more Debussy and Ravel, and I have noticed something, I could be wrong but I am starting to hear a lot of Debussy’s style in Jarrett’s improv. I need to get my dusty old theory books out and sharpen my knowledge, but I am looking to find out theoretically why I keep hearing undertones of Debussy, especially in the Köln Concert. Any comments are very welcome here.
CURRENT TIMES AND HISTORIC TIMES I have been reading about Lydian-Dominant Theory, and just when I thought I understood music theory, I have found myself standing before volumes of literature to read and reprocess thru my head. I suppose like math, there are many ways to describe the same thing. We’re using terms and theory to describe what we are hearing. The difficult question is, “is it music then theory or theory then music?” Are our brains working out this expression in terms of playing its own music? We’ve come to understand music in physical terms because of the great minds like Pythagoras, Philolaus, Plato, which made us understand tuning systems. Is the brain playing its own form of music? The brain seems to be transcribing synapses, emotions, and feelings, into physical vibrations by using instruments. It is a double hop so to speak; one hop is taking emotions (the body’s way of writing notes of the brain’s activity) and turning them into energy by expressing them into breath, and movements of hands/legs to control human made instruments which in turn moves air molecules in a very scientific way, and that result goes back into the ear physically, and is resampled into synapses that the brain understands. Incredible isn’t it? That is quite a process and it happens all the time thru out your day.