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Re: Composition & Improvisation (was Re: Terje Rypdal was ECM guitarists)



Just a fun thought relating to this thread: Yesterday I was at a
studio to play "a guitar solo". The guy put the part of the song in
cycle mode and said "you're on, Mate - go ahead". From a musical
performance point of view that's just a totally perverse method! Which
the situation did prove ;-))   We stopped, I had a listen to the part
for three times and then made sparse first-take that was hundred times
better then I would even come close by following the "DAW context" of
recording lots of crap in cycle mode and have some poor bastard spend
the night up trying to splice together scattered samples into
something that might tell some kind of story ;-))  Cycle recording
might be good to build up backing vocal layers, though. Besides,
didn't The Beatles play six nights a week for two years before even
beginning writing their own songs and record them! Obviously that
approach was quite successful.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se
www.perboysen.com



On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 1:30 PM, Gareth Whittock<buddhamachine@live.co.uk> 
wrote:
> Good points Per.
> This whole thing follows on from a discussion I was having with my wife 
>on
> recordings that seem to be endlessly playable, (I'm thinking of some 
>classic
> Zeppelin, Tangerine Dream etc). The way they recorded was to play live
> together then maybe add some overdubs as opposed to today's recordng
> techniques of laying tracks down singly, (unless it's jazz). I love the
> freshness and energy of some of this material and I'd lke to keep that 
>in my
> own work but condense it down to the really magc parts. The notion of a
> performance just for that moment and not to be recorded is an interestng 
>one
> that I hadn't thought of though. Thanks for that. I shall mull it over...
> Thanks for the compliment too Per :-)
>
> G
>
>> Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 12:33:08 +0200
>> Subject: Re: Composition & Improvisation (was Re: Terje Rypdal was ECM
>> guitarists)
>> From: perboysen@gmail.com
>> To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 11:20 AM, Gareth
>> Whittock<buddhamachine@live.co.uk> wrote:
>> > I'm curious as to what you think when you guys listen back to 
>recordings
>> > of
>> > your own performances. I've recorded some jams which I thught were 
>quite
>> > acceptable while I was playing them, only to fell that they fell well
>> > short
>> > of expectations whilst just listening.
>>
>> I agree. Listenening to recordings of live improvised music isn't the
>> best way of enjoying it. Better standing their in the room and
>> experience the energy as it happens.
>>
>> But sometimes the "improvisation energy" makes it into a recording.
>> Check out Kulu Se Mama for an example of a great live jam recording!
>> http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=5991
>>
>> People talk about The Greatful Dead as "a great jam band" but although
>> I have been listening to some live recorded stuff I don't find in
>> there much of the communicative sensibility I tend to like in
>> improvised music. So maybe "The Dead" is a bad example? I like it when
>> you clearly hear how musicians are looking for common ground to unite
>> in harmony or even being obstructive and destroying every component
>> that could have caused "good music" to form. The Grand Wazoo by Zappa
>> is a nice take on composing and arranging those processes, but it is
>> more fun IMHO to hear it done by improvisation - even though fifty
>> percent of the notes fall outside the proper scale/key.
>>
>> One important point is that improvisation definitely needs structure!
>> This is not saying the music needs structure. No matter if players
>> follow or avoid the structure, there is always a structure as a
>> musical backbone because music can not exist without being about
>> something, expressing something. If there isn't a structure,
>> expression, direction, movement... well, then the musicians simply
>> play bad and should immediately stop to start a new piece in a better
>> mode. Eh... maybe you're post hints at those embarrassing occasions
>> when playing is bad and for some reason doesn't stop? ;-) l-o-l
>>
>> For the record; I totally get Garteh's initial point in this thread.
>> Hearing his wonderful concert back at the Zürich Looping Festival I I
>> found it especially cool that the music he performed on duo was well
>> prepared to sound great, arranged with defined areas for improvisation
>> to take off. I look at that as related to how you work with pop or if
>> "playing for fans when having records out". It brings a different
>> energy than the improvisational flow IMHO.
>>
>> Greetings from Sweden
>>
>> Per Boysen
>> www.boysen.se
>> www.perboysen.com
>>
>
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