I realized today as I played a bit of Chopin that even after such a short time of improvising, my classical playing has been changing.
I'm not the best of multi-taskers... in fact, I'm pretty bad at it. It translates into my music. Something I've always struggled with has been to hear consecutive lines polyphonically over a long period of time while I play. Of course, I've gotten better at it over the years through a lot of musical training, but still, not my strong suit. So as I've been improvising, I've been trying now and then to play multiple lines in canon, usually failing. I don't think I posted any of those. ;) But it's given me a real appreciation for the layering of lines when I am able to play them, and thus when I play through classical stuff, my ears grab that stuff a lot more easily.
I'm also breathing differently. A handful of years ago, when I started getting into flamenco, I began to understand how important it is to listen to improvised music. Especially to interpret composers that use folk music as a basis for their pieces, like Bartok, Dvorak, or even Chopin. It made me realize that I have to access the music from the standpoint of someone who is sitting down at an instrument, making sounds that they like, and then somehow having to translate that onto the page. I think when we're students, we try to play what we see there in the notes, but that's as far as it goes. There is a disconnect from the composer who initially had to translate the sound onto the page to begin with. And to any of us who have had to write music onto a page, it is nearly impossible to imply everything that we intend through the pen. The timing and breath of music cannot be expressed exactly in written music. Musical notation is just a loose representation of the intention. So what must happen to interpret music through a score is to reach through the page and to try to play what that composer sat down and played as it was born in the first place. Anyway, I could go on with this part, but hopefully I've gotten my point across with just this. What I was getting at is that when I realized all of this, I still had to struggle to achieve it, whereas now, it seems to flow quite a bit more naturally. I don't know how it happened. Magic!
One thing that I have been bummed about in my improvs is that I have a tendency to always stay in 4/4 time. Probably a side-effect of living in the late 20th century, early 21st, when virtually all pop music is in common time. So today I went for a 6/8. Not sure if it worked, but anyway, you'll hear it.
Here we go, Day 20: https://ia800501.us.archive.org/4/items/Improv9311/9_3_114_04Pm.mp3
and Day 20, Part 2: https://ia700706.us.archive.org/10/items/Improv29311/9_3_113_56Pm.mp3
because pretty things are pretty.
I'm not the best of multi-taskers... in fact, I'm pretty bad at it. It translates into my music. Something I've always struggled with has been to hear consecutive lines polyphonically over a long period of time while I play. Of course, I've gotten better at it over the years through a lot of musical training, but still, not my strong suit. So as I've been improvising, I've been trying now and then to play multiple lines in canon, usually failing. I don't think I posted any of those. ;) But it's given me a real appreciation for the layering of lines when I am able to play them, and thus when I play through classical stuff, my ears grab that stuff a lot more easily.
I'm also breathing differently. A handful of years ago, when I started getting into flamenco, I began to understand how important it is to listen to improvised music. Especially to interpret composers that use folk music as a basis for their pieces, like Bartok, Dvorak, or even Chopin. It made me realize that I have to access the music from the standpoint of someone who is sitting down at an instrument, making sounds that they like, and then somehow having to translate that onto the page. I think when we're students, we try to play what we see there in the notes, but that's as far as it goes. There is a disconnect from the composer who initially had to translate the sound onto the page to begin with. And to any of us who have had to write music onto a page, it is nearly impossible to imply everything that we intend through the pen. The timing and breath of music cannot be expressed exactly in written music. Musical notation is just a loose representation of the intention. So what must happen to interpret music through a score is to reach through the page and to try to play what that composer sat down and played as it was born in the first place. Anyway, I could go on with this part, but hopefully I've gotten my point across with just this. What I was getting at is that when I realized all of this, I still had to struggle to achieve it, whereas now, it seems to flow quite a bit more naturally. I don't know how it happened. Magic!
One thing that I have been bummed about in my improvs is that I have a tendency to always stay in 4/4 time. Probably a side-effect of living in the late 20th century, early 21st, when virtually all pop music is in common time. So today I went for a 6/8. Not sure if it worked, but anyway, you'll hear it.
Here we go, Day 20: https://ia800501.us.archive.org/4/items/Improv9311/9_3_114_04Pm.mp3
and Day 20, Part 2: https://ia700706.us.archive.org/10/items/Improv29311/9_3_113_56Pm.mp3
because pretty things are pretty.