tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-232315772011-06-08T02:36:09.102-04:00everyone can improvise, even classical musicians like me. musings, resources, and first drafts for a bookEric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.comBlogger701100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-37561606082275577532008-11-27T07:21:00.002-05:002008-11-27T07:25:03.700-05:00

[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.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-69600596182028650042008-11-27T06:35:00.002-05:002008-11-27T06:38:40.890-05:00

[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-4337487381539387152008-11-20T23:30:00.001-05:002008-11-20T23:32:23.815-05:00

An 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.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-73804299661941013262008-11-20T23:28:00.001-05:002008-11-20T23:30:29.851-05:00

Priming 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-91710630115855577402008-11-20T23:26:00.000-05:002008-11-20T23:27:00.329-05:00

Cresting 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-79237818240384410242008-09-11T10:13:00.002-04:002008-09-11T10:16:44.740-04:00

Cross-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 Musicians

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-24347643716812574952007-11-18T19:41:00.000-05:002007-11-18T19:42:14.748-05:00

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-32832891223297341502007-11-18T11:14:00.000-05:002007-11-18T11:15:31.089-05:00

After 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-54458318392312249612007-11-08T21:07:00.000-05:002007-11-08T21:15:43.855-05:00

While 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-15275668750147127272007-11-07T22:36:00.001-05:002007-11-07T22:45:27.949-05:00

I 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-91676471048626239062007-11-04T09:49:00.001-05:002007-11-05T01:06:13.737-05:00

Shortly 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-68287079293679695942007-11-04T09:46:00.000-05:002007-11-04T09:49:02.852-05:00

I'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-32917386117298497242007-07-04T13:51:00.000-04:002007-07-04T14:22:11.200-04:00

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.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-34565985376159428072007-06-28T22:52:00.000-04:002007-06-28T23:55:10.958-04:00

Two 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-18960825500907830222007-06-28T22:25:00.001-04:002007-06-28T23:56:27.540-04:00

Thanks 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-37122233703384905352007-06-25T19:03:00.001-04:002007-06-28T23:57:05.297-04:00

I 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-70728759700713290192007-06-25T09:30:00.000-04:002007-06-28T23:57:53.824-04:00

To 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-45412559934534849002007-06-22T14:30:00.000-04:002007-06-28T23:58:33.954-04:00

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 new

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11342186532892729329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-61095979825265751712007-06-18T14:22:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:12:33.535-04:00

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-46814360772149788132007-04-25T21:44:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:13:16.124-04:00

There 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-55755575424426482912007-04-18T21:47:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:13:40.571-04:00

The 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-74820368080397667622007-04-18T21:17:00.000-04:002007-06-28T23:59:39.124-04:00

Eric 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-14443013256756312692007-03-25T00:01:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:14:57.324-04:00

Gottagopractice 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-51031076608135698702007-03-24T12:13:00.000-04:002007-06-29T00:00:44.408-04:00

Ah, 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-88178155731320420142007-02-21T21:51:00.000-05:002007-06-25T09:16:58.068-04:00

My 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.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-21505930792601318692006-12-17T20:47:00.000-05:002007-06-25T09:19:43.948-04:00

The list of streaming NPR clips related to improvisation is growing (click here then scroll down a bit). Someone over there is obviously quite taken with Gabriela Montero; at least five pieces on her in the last year. Great interviews and performance recordings of others, including Robert Abramson, Paul Horn, Keith Jarrett, Robert Levin, and Rolf Lislevand. I'm keeping the list pretty much

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-50160344626950775112006-12-09T18:09:00.000-05:002007-06-25T09:20:37.465-04:00

I've recently met Eric Barnhill (in person, at the ISIM conference) and David Dolan (via email), each a wonderful classically-trained pianist using improvisation in different ways. What is similar about them both is that they improvise in a common-practice musical language. Eric, who has a blog of improvisations (such a great idea and one I may appropriate for myself), described his style to me

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-51496649237139396262006-11-02T19:09:00.000-05:002007-06-25T09:21:16.389-04:00

All I can say is that teaching improvisation classes to DePauw School of Music freshmen is the absolutely best job in the world. I've been having such an amazing time this semester that the amount of experiences to recount is so overwhelming that I haven't known where to begin.Today's class ended up centering on "saying yes" to one's own ideas and the ideas of those one is improvising with. I

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-91729284433384183662006-10-06T21:35:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:21:59.111-04:00

Everyone has learned to play a one-octave dominant seenth arpeggio through the circle of fifths. well, some more than others, but each of my students is on his or her way to getting this down. In Tuesday's cello class, I taught them a one-octave blues scale, and to play a pizzicato "Bo Diddily" blues bass line, as David Darling taught it to me.We all had a good time with it. It did sound like

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-89939917249740798042006-10-06T21:09:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:23:03.557-04:00

It's so hard to remember everything!In today (Friday)'s improv class, the fourth session with this new seminar rotation (13 students), we did the following:free drummingindividual students took turns leading the drum circle, making eye contact with each member of the circle, showing the beat in their bodies, shouting, "look at ME!,"and practicing cutting off the group (by shouting, "one, two,

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-5254210137378539712006-09-29T10:50:00.000-04:002006-09-29T10:54:48.345-04:00

Today we had our final session with this rotation. Great students; I wish I could be with them longer.We started by sharing the societal/world issue that most concerns each of us. The students were very open; one was, I think, crying at one point. Then we made music. I don't have time to describe the pieces now; I'll just mention we ended with a blues that took a while for everyone to get

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-7283971057114369482006-09-28T12:35:00.000-04:002006-09-28T13:35:18.167-04:00

This class I'm teaching is DePauw's School of Music seminar for first-year students (I described part of yesterday's session in my previous post). Our 52 first-years (formerly known as freshmen) are divided into four sections, and they rotate among five different faculty for units on creativity, music software, writing about music, the effect of recording technology on classical music, and

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-37989915757821426302006-09-27T12:56:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:23:30.350-04:00

One of the activities consistently taught in the Music for People musicianship and leadership programs is doing rhythmic improvisations to a metronome. The metronome, which we so often relate to as an instrument of torture, can become a friendly accompanist and partner.In this morning's first-year seminar class, we started out with a relaxed group jam session. Then I placed a metronome on the

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-48906084842809735482006-09-27T12:44:00.000-04:002006-09-27T12:56:02.698-04:00

In our cello studio class at DePauw yesterday, we started out working on shifting. In particular, using the ear to control the left hand by playing scales and arpeggios with just one finger. The game, so to speak, is to slide/siren/glissando between the notes, stopping the movement of the hand when the desired pitch is reached.Then it was improv time; our first group cello improv session of

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-89920524560141246322006-08-26T10:41:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:24:31.707-04:00

Greg Sandow closes Episode 9 "Improvised Delights" (the most recent one as I write) of his online book-in-progress, The Future of Classical Music, with the following:So am I urging us to return to some 18th century (or early 19th century) paradise? Hardly. There were many problems then. Performances, by our standards, were very likely bad. Again by our standards, they were barely rehearsed.

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-87690975444749029782006-08-25T11:38:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:25:08.767-04:00

Now the new school year has started, and I'm using improvisation in my teaching. I'm teaching cello, of course, and also one section of the DePauw School of Music's first-year seminar for music majors. It's an unusual class, in that the students rotate among five faculty members over the course of the semester. We have four sections of the class, with 12-13 students in each. Each class has a "

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1154893683550103252006-08-06T15:47:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:26:10.911-04:00

If anyone is still checking this blog, since it's been so inactive, I'm back and I anticipate I'll be writing more frequently. It has been very helpful to take some (unplanned) time from writing about improvisation. It's given me time to think about the book itself, and how it wants to be structured. While in my original writing each entry was meant as a draft of a chapter or part of a chapter,

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1152895995432642732006-07-14T12:42:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:27:04.615-04:00

The Giles Apap videos have triggered a good bit of controversey, including this thread in the ICS Cello Chat forum. (The thread will probably disappear in a month or two.)Greg Sandow likes it:The cadenza must be about eight minutes long, and involves gypsy music, whistling, tapping on the violin, music for the orchestra as well as the soloist, and a lot of joy. The joy is one reason the whole

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1151158285647259652006-06-24T09:49:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:27:35.176-04:00

Ah! Gilles Apap.An email from a friend just introduced me to this classically-trained violinist who improvises in virtually every musical style. My friend is a classical concert pianist who loves jazz and Piazzolla, and is generally adventerous. He loves this cadenza to the third movement of the Mozart 3rd violin concerto. It brings up an interesting issue. Apap throws in everything but the

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1147353417291173632006-05-11T08:08:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:28:11.019-04:00

Ah--it's the last day of classes of the semester. I have only a couple of hours of teaching today, and a little more time to think and write.Sunday night I returned from a Music for People weekend. Music for People was started about 21 years ago by Bonnie Insull and David Darling. Bonnie (if I understand correctly) was a classical flutist who had attended some workshops with David at the Omega

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1146807812940007862006-05-05T01:40:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:28:40.667-04:00

It's the end-of-semester crush. The status report on my Faculty Fellowship project was due this past Wednesday, so I was in overdrive working on the draft of my book, writing a number of sections I have yet to post.I'm off now to a Music for People weekend. Some time for creative insanity. Improvisation is the absolute best thing to do field research on! I get to go be with "my people," as my

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1145894205920948582006-04-24T11:46:00.002-04:002007-06-25T09:29:27.281-04:00

Stephen Blum, in his New Grove article on “Composition”, points out that, Many societies place great value on songs, instrumental pieces, dances or ceremonies that have been received as gifts or acquired by inheritance, study, theft or purchase. Notions of the proper uses of existing compositions range from insistence on accurate reproduction to demands for continual

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1145828527390808592006-04-23T17:35:00.000-04:002007-06-25T09:30:26.497-04:00

Here I’m thinking out loud, inspired by my current reading of Bruce Ellis Benson’s The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue: A Phenomenology of Music and by Richard Taruskin’s Text and Act. When I started this project, I had no idea that I would find myself morphing into an armchair musicologist, philosopher, and phenomenologist. (Wow! Phenomenologist turns out to be a preexisting word, according

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1145826580799020342006-04-23T17:02:00.000-04:002006-04-23T18:12:23.103-04:00

Victor Rangel-Ribeiro’s Baroque Music: A Practical Guide for the Performer is one of my favorite books on making music. (And so, of course, it is out of print). Rangel-Ribeiro is a novelist and short-story writer as well as a musicologist and impresario (former director of New York’s Beethoven Society). He opens the first chapter of his book with an anecdote that sums up the “dark side,” so

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1145580823936420782006-04-20T20:26:00.000-04:002006-06-27T23:47:23.213-04:00

Now back to the subject of improvising music with a creative focus that incorporates a very small amount of musical material, such as one, two, or three notes.We've also touched on the subject of repetition, something that is an important factor in all music, and that can be very useful in improvisation. In Western music, we are rather obsessed with the changes in music. Contrasts and

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1145578665627723232006-04-20T19:43:00.000-04:002006-04-21T19:53:05.016-04:00

While I'm on the subject of resources that provide excellent starting points for improvisation, here's another one. If you play the piano, or want to play the piano, and like New Age music, Edward Weiss's Quiescene Music site is a great resource. Edward does an excellent job of providing chord structures, which he describes in a way that does not require previous piano experience or the

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1145575373054907852006-04-20T19:05:00.000-04:002006-04-21T19:52:20.646-04:00

Sometimes things just happen when they need to happen. I start writing about improvising with "creative focus" (or "creative limits") and Mikael Elsila emails me that he has written an entire book of short musical "cells," as he calls them, meant to be used as staring points for improvisation. You can order the book of 206 of these short units, and an optional CD at www.cafepress.com/Morphs.

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1145565393325687882006-04-20T16:07:00.000-04:002006-04-20T16:36:33.346-04:00

I've had a couple of email messages from folks who like the one-note piece idea. I love email, of course, and I would also encourage readers to post comments, so that there's the opportunity to respond to one another, not only to me. Whatever you are comfortable with is fine, but know you are most welcome to post comments. Once you've tried out one-note pieces--and let my emphasize again that

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1145247476387400632006-04-17T00:13:00.000-04:002006-04-17T00:17:56.390-04:00

I read somewhere that when people are tested for "creativity" a typical exercise is to be asked to think of as many possible uses for a brick as you can within a certain time limit.Ugh. Can't think of anything more boring.Similar, but genuinely fun, at least to me, is to take just one note and improvise a piece using it."Just one note?" my students will groan when I ask them to do this. And sure,

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1145243964394751292006-04-16T22:53:00.000-04:002006-04-16T23:19:24.420-04:00

When I'm asked to do an improvisation seminar somewhere, I call it "Expressing Yourself Through Sound: Improvisation for Everyone."Because that is what improvisation is to me: expressing one's self using sounds. Any sounds. It's quite convenient that we life in a post-musique concrete world in which composers embraced what had formerly been considered noises as musical sounds. When I teach a

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1144929837278511852006-04-13T07:39:00.000-04:002006-04-13T08:03:57.820-04:00

Robert Levin is one of my heroes. A Harvard professor, he's a concert pianist, musicologists, and extraordinary improviser in the "classical" (i.e., Mozart/Beethoven) style. He is famous for improvising his own cadenzas. A couple years ago, when he played the Beethoven C Minor concerto with the Indianapolis Symphony, my friends in the orchestra were just blown away by the fact that it was a

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1144928244944391142006-04-13T07:33:00.000-04:002006-04-13T07:37:25.580-04:00

Classical musician starting to improvise? (And we are back here to “improvise” in the common-sense view of improvising notes and rhythms.) Go ahead and, if you feel like it, make music as ugly as all hell. As David Darling and other Music for People folks like to say, embrace dissonance. Make all the ugly, even brutally ugly sounds you want. Play a minor second and play it for a long time

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1144677717466421192006-04-10T09:54:00.000-04:002006-04-10T10:14:28.196-04:00

There's some good discussion going on over at Greg Sandow's The Future of Classical Music site regarding the issue of dull performances. Which, the consensus seems to be, are not helping the situation.I read recently that Richard Strauss said that conducting had to be a balance between "faithfulness to the score and inspired improvisation." Of course, Strauss was talking about improvisation of

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1144445361449826472006-04-07T17:17:00.000-04:002006-04-07T17:29:21.476-04:00

Well, almost a week since I've posted and not much to add. I'm doing more research on the role of creativity in the performance of tradtional classical music, especially the way many aspects of a performance can and should be improvised.More thinking, too, about the fact that any successful improvisation is dependent on rigorous preparation and then "letting go" to the moment. And reading and

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1143912739240836702006-04-01T12:30:00.000-05:002006-04-01T12:53:05.406-05:00

[A quick note: I know I am posting way too much, way too fast, for anyone other than me to keep up with. Greg Sandow’s procedure of posting new material every two weeks is much better if one wants to give readers a chance to reflect and comment. But after being blocked for a long time, things are flowing fast. And I’m under an external deadline pressure to have a rough draft done.] Rigor and

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1143865779356576622006-03-31T23:18:00.000-05:002006-03-31T23:32:57.556-05:00

Those essays on why classical performers don't improvise? Just kidding.Now I’ll flip things around and argue that, in fact, the improvisational aspect of performing classical music, or perhaps better put, the creative element of performing classical music, is alive and well. It’s just gone underground, at least compared to the days of performing improvised complete pieces, improvised

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1143729139353573422006-03-30T09:23:00.000-05:002006-03-30T10:21:50.976-05:00

Mike Echo, in a comment on “Why Classical Musician’s Don’t Improvise, Part II," writes,I think one answer to the riddle you propose is a kind of Zen approach. If a student asks you, "Why should I improvise or compose -- the great masters have already done it much better than I?" the answer could be: "If that's how you feel -- then don't!" Not all classical musicians "should" improvise or compose.

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1143586429593053732006-03-28T17:50:00.000-05:002006-03-28T17:53:49.610-05:00

It is a persistent question, this one of, “why don’t classical performers (for the most part) improvise?” Especially since classical performers used to do it. In Part I of my ruminations on this phenomenon, I began to explore several possibilities: We just don’t have time to learn how: with 400 years of repertoire to learn, even the time to eat and sleep can seem an irritating

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1143406453119395562006-03-26T14:46:00.000-05:002006-03-27T01:28:42.643-05:00

There are many reasons that creating music through improvisation and composition no longer has the central role it once had in the education and professional lives of performing musicians. Perhaps the biggest reasons are the development of a traditional, canonic repertoire which young classical performers must learn and master, extraordinarily high performance standards, and a culture in which

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1143124132601744732006-03-23T08:22:00.000-05:002006-03-27T01:32:59.326-05:00

I tend to think in black/white, either-or terms. Something is this or that. Part of growing up, for me, has been learning to accept shades of gray, mixed elements, internal contradictions, and paradoxes.I remember some years ago having a difficult time connecting with the Wagner Ring cycle, because the "good guys" all seemed corrupt, while the "bad guys" didn't seem all that bad. I mentioned

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1143058508407393102006-03-22T14:59:00.000-05:002006-03-22T15:17:18.746-05:00

A reader of and occasional commenter on my blogs, Terry, has supplied the link to this Cello Accompaniment Concepts page as an example of the type of thing he is hoping to read more about here (but is afraid he won't).The page he refers to has some good references about improvised cello accompaniments in the history of music, especially (but not only) folk music. Eventually, I will be writing

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1142950593720484112006-03-21T08:30:00.000-05:002006-03-21T11:26:32.020-05:00

I wrote in the post about the tradition of organ improvsation about the misconception that many people have that improvisation equals jazz. The truth is that musical improvisation exists in many, many different musical genres, as well as outside established musical genres.As I work on writing this book about improvisation for classical musicians, and in my discussions of improvisation over the

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1142893981558595542006-03-20T17:26:00.000-05:002006-03-20T17:33:01.590-05:00

By the way, I'm working on developing both a list of online links and a formal bibliography of resources directly relevant to improvisation in the classical-music tradition, improvisation as a mode of learning classical music, and improvisation as a path of personal development and healing. (Basically everything except jazz-specific resources, which are not only abundant but well documented

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1142889884622564442006-03-20T15:08:00.000-05:002006-03-20T16:32:37.866-05:00

Many of us classically-trained musicians are at least vaguely aware that improvisation used to be an important part of classical music.The early-music movement has beaten into most of our heads by now the historical fact that in the Baroque period, keyboard players worked mostly from "figured bass" parts, which were essentially chord charts: the bass line and some numerical symbols, or figures,

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1142884603693215462006-03-20T14:32:00.000-05:002006-03-20T14:56:43.783-05:00

In the last entry, I described how I approach what we in Music for People often call "one-quality tones" (or "sounds"). An excerpt on the MfP website explains a "one quality sound" as "one note or tone--just one!--that authentically expresses how your feel at the moment you sing or play it."This quality of spontaneous self-expression, playing music that express how one genuinely feels at a

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1141863608317392942006-03-08T18:41:00.000-05:002006-03-20T15:06:44.840-05:00

Many classically-trained musicians fear, or just assume, they lack the ability to improvise and compose. But as organist Jan Overduin writes, "improvisation is within the grasp of everyone, even those with minimal keyboard skills." (Making Music: Improvisation for Organists, vii) Overduin also quotes the famous improvising organist Gerre Hancock as saying, "The plain truth is that all musicans

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1141426534452668962006-03-03T17:02:00.000-05:002006-03-04T10:31:33.956-05:00

A quick note if you are just joining us. I'm writing a book on improvisation for classical musicians. I'm most comfortable writing short (or shortish) essays, especially ones based on my personal experience. So the book is, most likely, going to take the form of a collection of essays.As this project starts out, I'm focusing on my observations regarding why it is so difficult for so many

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1141423033600767452006-03-03T15:52:00.000-05:002006-03-03T19:52:33.030-05:00

One of the things that makes improvisation so challenging for many classical musicians is that we are so often in the mindset of being correct rather than creative. Especially in the post-WWII period, classical musicians developed a “modern” approach which I call textualist. It’s summed up by the philosophy that the performers purpose is to play (or sing) exactly what is on the page (the text),

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1141321759751042042006-03-02T12:16:00.000-05:002006-03-04T08:02:11.526-05:00

As I began to explore in my first entry, "Sometimes It Takes a Crisis," classical musicians can be blocked from improvising by overly-ambitious standards or expectations. For me, the problem was that I had imposed a standard of having a tremendous amount of harmonic control, even though I play a melodic instrument. Classical musicians, especially professional classical musicians, often have our

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231577.post-1141240333765512832006-03-01T12:26:00.000-05:002007-06-25T09:11:35.835-04:00

Sometimes it takes a crisis to shift one's life in a different direction. For many classical musicians who improvise, it took a crisis to get us started. In this entry I'll start to explain, using my own story as an illustration.Once I started improvising and discovered the world of Music for People, I found that I was far from the only classical musician to have a burn-out experience and turn

Eric Edberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07737822569353843831noreply@blogger.com1