In your own timeSarah Stiles, The Strad
(This article in the February edition of The Strad
included Scratch from 'A Bunch of Violas')
Improvisation does not have to involve complicated chord progressions or wild, intricate fingerings with strange head-banging, hair-flinging gestures. And you don't have to have smoke and beer aromas exuding from your clothes the next morning after a session at some 'alternative' music scene. These preconceptions, while likely to motivate some musicians, inevitably discourage other potential improvisers. Improvising can be simple and fun. All that is needed is a gentle persuasion into this much underrated way of playing among classical musicians
The essence of improvising with other musicians is to listen and react to what others are doing, a prerequisite of any good ensemble performance, whatever the genre. Indeed, the challenges of playing together in the same way or even at the same time can often be freshened up by a communal improvisation session. Finding a theme for an improvisation however, can be one of the barriers to getting started. The imagination and enthusiasm may be there, but so are the insecurities. For a classical musician, with a tradition of notated music, there is often a need for suitable material - something concrete in front of you, to grab on to as you take your first steps. In Jazz and Pop, improvisations do not appear out of thin air either. Below is an example of two repeated bars which illustrates the potential simplicity of a theme for an improvisation.
- EXAMPLE FROM IMPRO -
Improvise on this rhythm by choosing your own pitch for each note. Listen to what the other person is playing and try to react, remembering that it is only the rhythm that has been written out.
The playing order is easy to follow - bar one, player one; bar two, player two - and you should keep repeating the two-bar rhythm pattern over and over again. Depending on your technique, or even what mood you happen to be in, the choice of notes can vary from open strings to simple melodic phrases or extreme atonal jumps. The second stage is to introduce slurs and gradually add more notes to the rhythm, although this is certainly not obligatory. You can make it more complex or decide to keep it simple.
This particular improvisation can go in any direction you want and nothing needs to be planned. It is this aspect of the unexpected which often creates the most surprising and refreshing results in improvisation. The basis of the improvisation can vary from a Baroque or Classical piece to a more contemporary kind of music. Whatever the style, the first player gets to choose the tempo, mood and dynamic by playing the first bar of crotchets. Player two hears the ingredients of the first bar and responds accordingly with the second bar of the pattern. In this way each player has four beats to listen to what is happening in the other part. Improvisation depends on personal choices but, most crucially, it involves listening and reacting to each other. For example, if player one has been playing pianissimo for quite a while does player two want to take the music in another direction by trying out a forte phrase or a crescendo? If the music is rather atonal, does one of the players want to bring it back towards a more conventional style? And vice versa. Perhaps player two rather enjoys experimenting with fierce clashes of notation and wishes to push the borders to see how far they can go with this. Hopefully player one will pick up on these new impulses and go along with them.
A comparison with the techniques of conventional ensemble playing is not as extreme as it sounds. Because the notes are not written out there is no need to focus, physically and mentally, on any pages of music. You are encouraged, indeed forced to pay attention to what the other person is playing and how they are playing it. If you don't, the end result will not sound like music, but bear more resemblance to a group of players each absorbed in his or her own individual world. Classical musicians are so used to playing in front of a music stand that it can be awkward to change this habit. Even when players know their music inside-out it is the safety of reading that stops them from looking away from the page. This insularity can be one of the major causes of communication problems in ensemble work. When players truly connect with each other, in improvisation or traditional performance, the music flows and can reach other planes.
The concept of the unexpected extends to players being open to what may develop while playing. The word 'mistake' should not be in the vocabulary of improvisation. Even thinking about this word makes us cramp up and feel nervous, wheras accidents could be used to your advantage, providing a new direction to the music. This can also benefit traditional ensemble playing: if 'the unexpected' is treated as an occasional fact of life, you may not wreck a good performance full of spirit and feeling which an audience is actually enjoying!
All classical musicians have the ability to improvise but tend not to do so because of a perceived lack of material and opportunity. If the material is presented in a familiar form, the results can be very satisfying and have a positive effect on other aspects of their playing. The ingredients for a successful improvisation are accessible, inspiring themes, an open mind and a willingness to listen and react to what someone else is playing. How far do you want to stretch the boundaries? The decision is yours. How far you want to travel away from conventional notation is equally up to you. Give it a try and you may be pleasantly surprised.