tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-232315772024-03-07T02:16:12.656-05:00Improvisation and the Classical Musicianeveryone can improvise, even classical musicians like me. musings, resources, and first drafts for a bookEric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.comBlogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-37561606082275577532008-11-27T07:21:00.002-05:002008-11-27T07:25:03.700-05:00Music for People[Note: this blog is moving to www.classicalimprov.com, which will have more resources that are easier to find, too; I'll cross post for a while; meanwhile please adjust bookmarks and links.]Music for People is one of the most extraordinary organizations I've ever encountered; what makes it so extraordinary is that there's a clear sense of mission. However stated, there's a shared sense of Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-69600596182028650042008-11-27T06:35:00.002-05:002008-11-27T06:38:40.890-05:00"The most impressive part of the music we play is the art of improvisation"[Note: this blog is moving to www.classicalimprov.com; I'll cross post for a while; meanwhile please adjust bookmarks and links.]Those of us trained in the traditional, improvisation-phobic classical musical culture often don't realize that improvisation played a key role in the way people made music, even much of what we now think of as classical music, through the nineteenth century. While Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-4337487381539387152008-11-20T23:30:00.001-05:002008-11-20T23:32:23.815-05:00Video: Self-Expressive Improv, Part 1An invitation to explore self-expressive "free" improvisation, in which, as we say in Music for People, "there are no wrong notes." (I blogged about the comedy of errors I experiened making these videos here.) These videos are cross-posted with my other blog.Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-73804299661941013262008-11-20T23:28:00.001-05:002008-11-20T23:30:29.851-05:00Video: Self-Expressive Improv, Part 2Priming the pump of the creative imagination by improvising just one note at a time.Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-91710630115855577402008-11-20T23:26:00.000-05:002008-11-20T23:27:00.329-05:00Video: Self Expressive Improv Part 3Cresting an extended improvisation (longer than one note, anyway!), listening inside yourself for the first note, then the next and the next.Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-79237818240384410242008-09-11T10:13:00.002-04:002008-09-11T10:16:44.740-04:00Improvisation Games for Classical MusiciansCross-posting with my other blog:I see that Greg Sandow gave Jeff Agrell's book a great mention last April, calling it " a complete delight, radiating both love and deep understanding of music from every word." I wrote my own review of Jeff's wonderful book last February for Connections, the Music for People newsletter. But I neglected to post it here!Improvisation Games for Classical MusiciansEric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-24347643716812574952007-11-18T19:41:00.000-05:002007-11-18T19:42:14.748-05:00Iowa Concert: Parts 2 and 3Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-32832891223297341502007-11-18T11:14:00.000-05:002007-11-18T11:15:31.089-05:00U of Iowa Improv Performance, Part IAfter a good bit of trial and error, I have finally managed to get video from my camcorder all the way to YouTube. Here's the first part (2 more to come) of the solo improvisation set I did at the University of Iowa School of Music Contemporary Improvisation Weekend two weeks ago (November 3). (I've posted this on my personal blog as well.)Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-54458318392312249612007-11-08T21:07:00.000-05:002007-11-08T21:15:43.855-05:00Greg HeffernanWhile we are all waiting for me to get my video loaded onto YouTube (I know you are probably losing sleep over it), here's a very enjoyable cello/piano improv I just found there. The cellist is Greg Heffernan, working with his friend Kamel.It's interesting that many of the comments on YouTube are skeptical that this is actually an improvisation. When people improvise a lot, they have no Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-15275668750147127272007-11-07T22:36:00.001-05:002007-11-07T22:45:27.949-05:00Recording ImprovisationsI had an email earlier today from a new friend at the University of Iowa regarding recording improvisations and then discussing them. This is a great thing to do--if you are a teacher running an improv class, for a group to do themselves, and to do with your own solo improvisations. You can then reflect on the process, and also assess the improvisation as a piece. I just watched the video of Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-91676471048626239062007-11-04T09:49:00.001-05:002007-11-05T01:06:13.737-05:00The Darling ConversationsShortly after I began improvising on my own, I discovered the recordings of David Darling. The simple yet beautiful solo improvisations on his Tao of Cello album were important and empowering to me: an improvisation based on a simple idea, not harmonically complex, not highly developed, could be beautiful and worthwhile and enjoyable to listen to, and "good enough" to be released by a label. Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-68287079293679695942007-11-04T09:46:00.000-05:002007-11-04T09:49:02.852-05:00In IowaI'm at the University of Iowa this weekend, and have started blogging about it here.Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-32917386117298497242007-07-04T13:51:00.000-04:002007-07-04T14:22:11.200-04:00What Do I Want to Create?As I mentioned below, the book is flowing again. A very different form emerged, seemingly out of nowhere, and its working well. The creative process is like that. You wrestle and wrestle with something, give up, and then, when you least expect it, the idea appears.Many people talk and write about the creative process as a form of problem solving. You present your imagination with a problem, Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-34565985376159428072007-06-28T22:52:00.000-04:002007-06-28T23:55:10.958-04:00Barnhill and Gurga, each improvising in concertsTwo wonderful young classical pianists whom I am privileged to know gave performances yesterday combining improvisation and classical music, perhaps simultaneously. Eric Barnhill participated in a recital at the International Dalcroze Institute in Boston. From an email he sent to friends and colleagues:I'm here at the Dalcroze Summer Institute in Boston and the institute put on a public Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-18960825500907830222007-06-28T22:25:00.001-04:002007-06-28T23:56:27.540-04:00Thanks. I'm lightening upThanks for the encouraging comments and email messages. Let's see. I had a very busy semester, at the end of which (in May) I put together an 11-concert summer chamber music series, raised a bunch of money for it, then performed in the first concert, packed my office for the move to our new building (including sorting through mounds of stuff and discarding 18 years of built-up, unneeded paper), Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-37122233703384905352007-06-25T19:03:00.001-04:002007-06-28T23:57:05.297-04:00More on not getting goingI have always had difficulties bringing projects to completion. I get blocked by perfectionism and fear of rejection and ridicule. How many CD projects have I started and not completed? I get to a certain point and my mind just won't focus on it anymore.I've decided to be as open as possible about my process because I know I'm far from the only one who has this sort of thing come up; perhaps Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-70728759700713290192007-06-25T09:30:00.000-04:002007-06-28T23:57:53.824-04:00Audience and purposeTo pull together all the material I've written here and elsewhere on improvisation, I need to have a clear audience in mind. One thing that's had me stuck is not knowing for whom I want to write. In the blog version, I've been writing primarily to myself and a variety of real and imagined readers. In the book version, there needs to be a specific audience in mind. I don't see where I actually Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-45412559934534849002007-06-22T14:30:00.000-04:002007-06-28T23:58:33.954-04:00Stuck . . .I am totally blocked! Or I just can't get into it. Perhaps there's still some end-of-semester, start-of-summer-concert-series burnout going on. Oh well, it will start to flow. Meanwhile, I watched a Bobby McFerrin DVD yesterday (how wonderfully inspiring), started Christopher Small's book Music, Society, Education (I've become quite a Small fan over the past year), and squeezed out a bit of newEric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-61095979825265751712007-06-18T14:22:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:12:33.535-04:00What I'll do on my summer vacation . . .Ack.It's summer "vacation." I have two months in which to take the material in this blog (and other things I've written) and edit it, revise it, rewrite it, etc., into the book it is meant to be and for which DePauw has given me extra money and some teaching release time over the last three years.I meant to write a pretty straightforward, mostly objective text to use in improvisation-related Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-46814360772149788132007-04-25T21:44:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:13:16.124-04:00Gabriela Montero begins podcastingThere are now two Gabriella Montero podcasts available; you can also subscribe to them through Itunes (where I found them). She says in the first that no one before her had ever made a totally improvised piano recording. Keith Jarrett might take exception to that. Perhaps she meant no classical pianist ever did this before. Her improvisations are more crossover than classical though. Her Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-55755575424426482912007-04-18T21:47:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:13:40.571-04:00With kids like this, there's some sort of future for classical musicThe eminent pianist, scholar, and author Charles Rosen was on the DePauw campus this past weekend to give a lecture and recital. Nearly 80, he plays beautifully and more important interestingly, and once warmed up continues to have amazing technical facility.The lecture was, to me, fascinating, and to some others difficult to follow, if nevertheless impressive. Rosen speaks without notes, and Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-74820368080397667622007-04-18T21:17:00.000-04:002007-06-28T23:59:39.124-04:00Eric Barnhill improvises on Chopin and MozartEric Barnhill has recently posted two interesting sets on his "Daily Improvisation" piano blog. Chopin, with improvised interludes, and also Mozart's extremely simple published cadenza for Piano Concerto No. 23, K 488, and two of his own.As Eric explains quite well, it is very unlikely that Mozart himself would have performed something as elementary as the published cadenza. It was probably Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-14443013256756312692007-03-25T00:01:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:14:57.324-04:00There are sound clipsGottagopractice commented on the previous post that she'd like to actually hear something. Well, the whole "Just Musicking" concert was recorded. As soon as I get permission from the students, I'll post links to the MP3 files. Meanwhile, I'm trying to demonstrate respect for intellectual property rights for the students. And this reminds me that after my website meltdown of some time ago, I Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-51031076608135698702007-03-24T12:13:00.000-04:002007-06-29T00:00:44.408-04:00Just Musicking, No ScoreAh, spring break. After eight weeks of classes in this spring semester, my DePauw students--and I--are exhausted. In the midst of exhausting outselves, though, we've done some interesting things. The members of my "Improvised Chamber Music" class put on a performance Tuesday evening. They chose 9:30 PM as a starting time, as a way to attract more students. 7:30 PM is the standard School of Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-88178155731320420142007-02-21T21:51:00.000-05:002007-06-25T09:16:58.068-04:00My other improv blogMy book-writing process is in a phase where I'm working out complicated thoughts in a way that doesn't lend itself well to blogging. I am teaching a course this semester at DePauw called Improvisation in Western Art Music. The course has its own blog. And this week I have started writing a daily synopsis of what we do and discuss. The course is a cross between a series of improvisation Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com4