Yesterday I posted my ‘Campfire’ challenge recording on Musical-U, not because I thought it anything special. Just because I’d mentioned the challenge there and had tried t descibe waht it was about, so posting an example seemed like an idea.
I was playing Alwyn, my 10 string graphite Chapman Stick, plugged direct into my Zoom H4n recorder, with no effects, and doing it early in the day (before breakfast), feeling peaceful & comtemplative.
I was using my adaptation of the Day 5 constraints/guidelines. Day 5 includes “The Siesta”, a deliberate hiatius that can be introduced after a low note in the left hand (probably a low ‘5’) during which you comtemplate the decay of the previous sounds & anticipate what you are about to play. On a keyboard (which is what the guidelines are designed for) you’d have the sustain pedal down. On a fretted instrument I don’t have a ‘sustain pedal’, but the Stick does have a very long sustain of its own for held notes.
Usually I stick (no pun intended) with the same left hand right hand split as is used on keyboard but for some reason when I started playing yesterday morning I instead played the foreground Camp & Fire both with right hand, with the left hand playing occasional held low pedal tone ‘Logs’ (low root notes), It wasn’t a planned experiment, I just hit record and started, then noticed I was doing something different, so I stuck with it for a while to try it out for size. I think it worked out okay & provides another substitute for the sustain pedal to add to the options I have. Previously I’ve also used both a sustained drone tone from a synth, and a ‘swell’ effect on the bass (left hand) side. After a while I switched back to the usual, but I think I brought the pedal tone in again at least once later. I’m particularly fond of the sonorous low tones a Stick can produce.
‘Playing to explore’
I thought I’d post it here too but even using a lower bit rate (96 rather than my usual 160) the 6m recording is still a bit too big for the 4MB forum limit.
@mem I have now found this pair of short (6m & 9m) videos in which Andrew talks about the book & what he sets out to do in it. I hope they may be of interest to you & maybe to others too?
PS. The domain mentioned in the video title, i.e. www dot sitonarock dot com, no longer seems to be in use (which is why I used dot rather that writing it ‘correctly’.
@mem It occurs to me - somewhat belatedly - that I probably should not be distracting you from your clearly stated aim with more examples of free improvisation! Please feel free to ignore them.
Thanks @hender99, for the encouragement. Like learning a new language, you want to be able to express yourself (say what’s in your head), without using a phrase book, and have conversions with people without consciously translating in your head. Playing in sessions is like having conversions with music.
Thanks @DavidW, I’m really interested in the free improvisation stuff, I haven’t listened to a lot of native American flute.
The Andrew Bishko stuff is very interesting. Did you buy the book, I’m tempted to get the kindle version. I listened to an interview he did on Musical U. When he got his Native American flute he said he didn’t want to get bogged down with theory and technique, he wanted to flute to teach him how to play it.
My drawings are more to show the structure and shape of a tune rather than my instrument. Like where phrases are repeated, or where the melody goes up or down. Just trying to create a mental image to help me remember the tune.
I heard someone talk about meditation, and say that when we’re given the instruction to concentrate in your breath, we’re giving our “thinking” brains something to do while our unconscious brains does the beneficial stuff. Maybe its the same with music.
Yes @mem . It’s been on my “To Be Read” pile for a couple of years. LOL! Since we are within the Campfire Challenge 10 Day ‘window’, this week I’m just pre-reading the book (it’s not a long read). Next week, once the 10 Days are done I hope to did a bit deeper & add a “Sit on a Rock” exercise to each day’s practice, either separate to the on-going Campfire, or possibly a blend (I think that at least some of the ideas might work together - especially as I’m adapting both to a different instrument)
I appreciate that. I was thinking more generally than my example. In general I find that sketches & diagrams of ideas often go on to form part of how I recall them. However I appreciate we all have different ways of thinking. My memory is quite visual. Not photographic, I more ‘feel’ & ‘follow’ what it was I’m recalling than see it in detail (e.g. if recalling a quote, I am often aware of where it was on the page!).
Quite possibly. I guess that part of the trick is getting the “something to do” at the right level to not get in the way?
I can’t resist the temptation to drop in one of my favourite quotes:
“Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.” B.L. Whorf
Whorf was studying Native American language, but I feek the general idea is applicable well beyond spoken language. I first came across the quote in a book by the original designer of the C++ computer programming language. I think it fits “music as a language” (or even as a set of languages?) just fine too.
Yes. That’s actually the “next day” (Sunday) which was even bigger (nearly 9m before I looked at the timer). If you’d like to compare to Saturday, ask on popMATICS.
I’d like hear any insights from the book, once you get into it.
Sure does. Even the way we learn language as children, very organically, but as adults, we think a lot in the learning process, studying grammar and syntax, but even more useful to use the language to communicate in every day settings.
Your Campfire recording sounds good, tricky transferring to the stick, but effective. Wonder if I could try something on flute (…)
Really leaning heavily into the Feel the Numbers tracks from Ear Training for Creativity. I’ve imported the mp3 tracks into the AnyTune app, where I can alter the pitch output. This way I can re-use the tracks in different keys.
I have two flutes, one a silver concert flute which is fully chromatic, and the other a simple system keyless flute. I much prefer to play the keyless, but it is limited in the keys you can play easily. D and G are the easiest, and I’m wondering if my ears will get more used to recognising notes in these keys, but not much in other keys. I know we’re not training absolute pitch recognition, but pitch relative to the tonal centre, but I thinking maybe our ears will just get more used some pitches if we limit ourselves.
I think I should switch to my other flute more often and practice in a few more different keys.
That’s one of the appeals I see in the abc notation angle I’m experimenting with, i.e. once the sequence is in abc notation then with a player such as EasyABC you can transpose (or change tempo) at the click of a button. A thing you don’t get with abc is the great backing that you have with real IFR FtN. I’m experimenting with various ways of handling that (& will report back in due course…).
I suspect that might be fun to try with the “How io Sit on a Rock” book?
In order to be able to plays tunes in sessions and for small performances I have to commit them to memory. So, I’m looking into strategies for memorising music.
Finding out lots about memory and how it works. We have different types:
motor/physical/procedural
incorrectly referred to as “muscle memory”
visual - a mental picture
aural/auditory - hearing sounds in our heads
theoretical/conceptual - a structure or model or map
These different types can be trained, utilised and improved in different ways. I’m now looking for specifics in the realm of music, ie memorising musical pieces and what strategies to employ.
I’m discovering lots about the memory, and how we may be losing our abilities to use it because it’s so easy now the rely on other technologies, like writing or other devices. When did you last try to memorise a phone number? We are now used to just storing numbers in our phones and no longer have to commit them to memory.
Just started reading “The Memory Book” on the subject (Harry Lorayne).
I’ve also just come across an innovative music notation system called Dodeka, which is interesting. I’ve been using my own notation system, a bit of a hybrid of ABC notation and IFR-like notes/numbers/durations. Dodeka uses a 12 note chromatic system on a linear staff.
It’s odd that I’ve just been watching the IFR piano series and reminded of Exercise 1:Landscape and the unbroken chain of half steps.
There’s a website on the Dodeka system and a free ebook available which explains the concepts.
@mem That Dodeka system looks interesting. I’m finding that I think across the whole chromatic scale much easier after months of changing the musical key every day for practice.
I learned a lot about memory and music by reading Josh Turknett’s LAWS OF BRAINJO. He’s a banjo player, but more importantly also a brain doctor. You can get a free version of all his main teachings here (be sure to scroll down the page to the list of LAWS under the Table of Contents heading and follow the links there) The Immutable Laws of Brainjo: The Art and Science of Effective Practice
@mem How to represent music in notation is such an interesting, and deep, problem. I think of it like programming languages for computers. There are a zillion different programming languages, each with their own strength and weakness. Essentially, they all do the same thing, but some are easier for some tasks than others. Some are more efficient, some are more user friendly. Most programmers know several languages.
The history of music notation reminds me of the history of the computer keyboard, which came from the typewriter. Early typewrites would jam if you typed too fast, so they rearranged the keyboard to slow typists down. And then that became the standard that everyone learned. So when people came up with better keyboard arrangements, most people said “I see it’s better, but I already know how to type, and I’m not going to relearn it from scratch. I’ll stick to what I know”. The analogy is not exact, but it shows that once there’s a well accepted standard way of doing things, it’s impossible to get most people to move from it.
@mem Regarding losing our memory capabilities, I don’t disagree. But there’s a famous passage in Plato’s writings somewhere where he has Socrates rant on about how it’s terrible that people are starting to writing things down instead of just relying on memory. Socrates thinks the new writing technology will be the doom of humankind.
Interesting but I think they missed an opportunity by sticking with an extended solfege system for note names (Do / Ka / Ré / To(l) / Mi / Fa / Hu / So(l) / Pi / La / Vé / Si.) & and extension of the usual letters for the avvreviated form, using the initials of the ‘extra’ note names for the extras (C / K / D / T / E / F / H / G / P / A / V / B).
Numbers just seem ideal for the purpose (except for singing, but compromises can be made there, e.g. ‘sev’).
I think that if I was trying to re-invent the musical notation wheel & taking a clean sheet approach I’d go for a number system. Regardless of whether the system had 7 or 12 main notes I’d be strongly inclined to have 0 (zero) as root, rather than 1.
I also think I’d be inclined to stick with 7 primary notes, plus sharps & flats because for the vast majority of music all notes are not equal. I’m perfectly happy with the 7 primary tones being the numbers and having sharp or flat to indicate the ones in between. Having both sharp & flat available allows an expression of intent to be included in the notation.
When it comes to a ‘staff’’ in a clean sheet approach I think I’d be inclined to something based on the approach I take with melody path diagrams, in which I give each of the 12 a space. The ‘printed’ staff might or might not have a half-tone shading on the spaces representing 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6?
Ah yes, I’ve come across him before and dipped into his stuff. The consolidated ebook is quite cheap, I might invest and read through his insights.
The notation stuff I thought was interesting. I like to write down my own version of tunes in a way that will help me analyse the structure, identify learnable chunks, and hopefully commit it to memory. That’s the goal anyway.
Yes, I too prefer the IFR numbers system, and always as a movable map. The black keys on piano always look like second-class citizens, which is why I prefer the unbroken chain of half-steps notion.
Memory is an interesting topic. I’m reading that our visual memory is the strongest and most reliable, and classical musicians can memorise musical scores visually, notes and other instructions. But, the neural pathways we build are quite specific, and to play by ear we want “sound to motor” pathways. I think I got this from the Brainjo website.
