Musical Improv - notes from the open space

[Patrick Short]

I was honored to lead 13-15 folks to some wonderful musical discoveries in the Sunday open spaces.

Many of the exercises we did come from my musical improv guru, James Bailey, from ComedySportz-Los Angeles.

The following are jolts and skills we explored. If you were at the workshop and have any to add, I would be delighted to have you remind me of what they were!

Music is part of our souls - it's very personal, and scary for some of us because we've been told that we aren't "good" at it. But what is vocal music? It's sustained speech. That's all.

We did a "Yanni": sustained and legato chords on the piano without falling into a strong rhythm or discernible pattern. (Keyboardists or guitarists should stay in the same key.) Vocalists walk around the room, vocalising without using any words - play with sounds, play with high and low sounds, pay attention only to you - until the very end, where we come together physically and naturally make sound that supports each other. (As always, this sounds extraordinary!)

Using the song "I Like Peanut Butter", we learned that playing a character or singing in a musical style gives us permission to make mistakes and thus frees us to create beautiful things. It also gives us a beginning point of view for our sound and our lyrics.

We discussed what is sexy in someone - it's CONFIDENCE. If you are confident - or play a confident character, your audience will love whatever sound comes out.

We played with dance - which frees us to sing unconsciously.

We learned that story and feeling in a song are more important than rhyming. Rhymes are frosting on the cake.

We gave ourselves permission to not rhyme. When this happens, we rhyme wonderfully.

We learned a simple rhyming scheme - the 7-5-7-5 scheme. ("Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" is a clear example for many people of this scheme. Count along with the syllables - there 7 in the first and third line of each verse and 5 in the second and fourth lines.) Rhyme the 5's, don't worry about the 7's.

We learned that planning a "target" word for the final rhyme in a solo verse, and then improvising toward that target, is MUCH easier than coming up with a word in the second line and hoping you find a rhyme in time.

We sang some songs in 7-5-7-5 in quartets. And a duo once. In our second group, we sang solo verses in a Doo-Wop acapella jam.

We learned about choruses in improvised songs. Keep it simple, repeat it at least once. Longer titles will sound like mush the second time around because no one remembers the whole thing.

We tried blues and a couple of other styles. We rapped a little. I gave away free CDs. You can download my music at http://www.shortboule.com.

Take your time. Start when you are ready.
Musicians are the masters of "follow the follower".
Take charge onstage.
Plant your feet.
Play a character.
Sing loud.
Love your failures.

In the first group, I advised Mike on styles for improv on the guitar, which he uses for his group.

In the second group, I also gave 5 minutes of pointers on chords and chord progressions for improvising pianists. Tip of the iceberg.

I am grateful and hope to share this with the wider community in the next couple of years.

[Mira Ames]

Patrick - your workshop was a high point of the conference for me. Thank you so much. I can't wait to see where this exploration of improv with poetry, speech, movement and music leads me! Except: the journey is so good, I am enjoying the "wait" :-) Look forward to seeing you again soon in our hometown . . . . All my best, Mira

[Chris Corrigan]

Thanks for posting these notes Patrick...really looking forward to playing with these more. I'll let you know how those go. Especially loved the dancing and the incorporation of the body into the work.

Would love to hear more about the styles tips for guitarists.

[Patrick Short]

Thanks, Chris!

Using any instrument for musical improv has some limitations where styles are concerned.

Audiences may want to hear Blues, Jazz, Country, Reggae, Metal - even made up things like "African-Alaskan" (got that once - what a gift THAT was!) How can you really do all of those on the spot with just a guitar or a piano?

You use hints and context. Do something rhythmically or a little riff that suggests the style and you've satisfied the need; what the vocal improvisers do if more important than a musician trying to absolutely re-create a style. Since the suggestion was the style, the audience is expecting you to honor it, and even the smallest honoring of the style will be met with delight.

Vocalists do it by using character - emotion, physicality and generalizations about the style. These will all inform what they create.

That said, listen to various styles and try things on the guitar. Maybe even have some riffs ready for the most popular styles to get your people comfortable; with experience, you can expand what you do. The five styles above, along with Rap and Hip-hop, are by far the ones we hear suggested the most.

Does this help?

[Chris Corrigan]

Yep...just confirming what I know. Whenever I have to improvise styles on guitar my instincts take me to these starting places (try these with a basic I-IV-V progression like G C D (beginners might have to Google some of these terms):

Rock and Roll and Metal: power chords steady 4/4 rhythm.

Reggae: divide the bar, pick the bass note on the down beat and strum on the upbeat (1 2 3 4 becomes D/chord/D/chord" and so on). Slow and easy.

Polka is identical to reggae but faster. Think boom-chuck-boom-chuck

For blues, use a 12 bar form and maybe replace the C and D with ninth chords. At the very least feel where to put in the seventh chords to move the progression along.

For country, pick the bass note runs. For example to start, play D, E, F# and then hit the G on the down beat of the first bar. Keep the bass line really present. Alternate between runs and picking between two bass notes on alternating beats.

For jazz you might need to make some substitutions, and use a turnaround. depending on the type of jazz, get very free with the rhythm.

Punk: strum fast and hard and make lots of mistakes but keep a driving rhythm End in the middle of a bar for good effect with a massive noise.

Hip hop and Rap: turn your guitar over and drum on the back.

Lots more you can do but if you are new to styles on the guitar, these might get you started.

[Patrick Short]

Chris,

Exactly so! Thanks for contributing.

On Punk - I often do Em to C on the piano and just repeat those two measures over and over - let the singers create the style over that.

Another good pop sequence is 1 minor6 4 5 or G Em C D - fifties, do wop... but even good for ballads.

For both piano players and guitarists, keep it rhythmic and simple. Inside an improv show is not always a great time to show how technically gifted you are; supporting well is playing well.

[Chris Corrigan]

Yeah that great 50s drop to the minor...

Also for reggae, better to that with a minor progression. in fact if you play a Dm progression for reggae you can go into that G progression with polka style right afterwards and do Afro-Polska complete with a modulation and a tempo change.

Seconding the rhythm too...whatever you do, it is always better to stay on one chord and play steady than move around and lose the plot!

Fun!

[Maya]

Wow, what a rich thread & sounds like I missed a good Open Space session! I've been wanting to learn the guitar and eventually get good at improvising with it - this gives me a ton to draw from.

Btw Patrick - thanks for the gift of an improv song game at the Brody on Saturday night. We all kicked butt with 'I'm moving to the North'!!

[Patrick Short]

Hey, Maya!

It was a good workshop, but you've already learned the lessons about singing without fear - which you demonstrated at the closing. That was terrific!

The whole jam was a delight - but singing is always fun! I think 14 people played on that song!

[Alan Montague]

Thanks for the session.
I really enjoyed the signing and the learning
Alan