notesdontmatter

Improvisation Workshop Week 10 12th October 2006

Today’s jam certainly took me by surprise. Whoever the other David Dowling is at this university, he must have had a funny look on his face when reading the e-mail that was meant for me. Perhaps it was the surprise factor and the lack of associated anticipation that would go hand in hand with awareness, but I felt the session was a little flat. There was no issue with patching studio five and getting everyone playing, but too many of us seemed reluctant to settle on an idea, or a specific sound source.

Another issue with these jams arises when everyone sticks to a simple riff for too long (I am probably the worst offender in this category), and it becomes difficult for anyone to change the momentum or direction, such as the key for instance. We seem to become glued in the one spot, with no one willing to take the initiative to make something workable into something really interesting. Towards the end of the session, to his credit, Dragos tried to pull this off, but by that stage everyone was in their own little world and failed to notice.

I’m not sure if it really was just not knowing beforehand that this is what we were going to do today, or if it was the absence of the influential DJ Tr!p, who served to make our groups sound really come alive last week. I may be on to something here, perhaps our group is too large for people to be absorbed in doing their own thing (it can become a real ‘wall’ of sound at times). Maybe we need a leader, or conductor of sorts, to let us know when our own personal contribution is giving too much or too little. There was certainly a lot of this energy coming from Tr!p last week, as he tentatively coaxed a preferable performance out of those nearest to him (myself included), with looks of either encouragement or puzzlement, but never outright dissatisfaction.

It’s funny, the presence of a solid rhythm track should really help us come together and play as a unit (it certainly did last week), but today I felt it rendered us a little stagnant. There were still some good moments, but I know we can be more consistent and do better. Next Thursday’s session awaits, I shall meditate and fast for seven days in preperation.


Here is a sample of an inspiring moment (1.1Mb Mp3)


Reference:

Stephen Whittington. “Improvisation Workshop”. (Lecture presented at EMU Space and Studio Five 5th floor Schulz building, University of Adelaide). 12 October, 2006.

posted by David J Dowling @ 4:16 PM