A WORKSHOP FOR MUSICIANS BASED ON THE FREE IMPROVISATION AND COLLECTIVE COMPOSING
Concept
In general, musicians with classical education are very well trained in the art of interpreting and reproducing a written score by a composer, but they have a lack in their own musical creation. There are also jazz, rock or pop musicians who, although they can improvise and create their own songs, cannot get out of the limitations set by rules of the genre or style like structures, harmonic sequences, hierarchies of interaction, forms, rhythmic patterns, etc. Composers often work in the solitude of their studio, often without interacting in real time with other colleagues. It is even common to hear of composers who accept that they have seen themselves in the «obligation» of having to abandon their instrumental practices because of the composition.
Musicians from the electronic or electroacoustic fields have they own practices. Often they coexist on stage with purely acoustic media musician, but still, there continue to be many practitioners from both camps who feel more comfortable with their own, than with the others.
Goals
The aim of the training is to develop a personal, flexible musical language. The participants learn to act in different musical environments, alone and in a group, in a communicative, autonomous, responsible, respectful and compositional consciousness.
The purpose of this workshop is therefore to acquaint musicians and performers from each camp or style with concepts, skills and practices more frequently found in the space of others. The desired outcome will be an expansion of personal sound languages, manners of listening, and approaches to transmedial discourse from a wide range of personal backgrounds.
We will offer a platform for dialogue with others, within a space that allows the abilities of students to imagine a new form and encourage them to re-invent their instruments in the very moment of creation.
Methodology
This workshop is practical and conceptual, but not technical. It is designed to help participants recognize and question their own concepts and values, and to develop new ones. These are matters that can be set in motion in a three-day or five-day workshop, and can subsequently be employed by participants to develop their own individual technical solutions as they see fit.
The workshop is constructed with and combines three types of activity: 1. exercises, 2. discussion and 3. free improvisations. Participants engage in exercises intended to increase their awareness of the matters mentioned above, acquiring new conceptual, listening and performing skills in order to shift their manner of dialoguing with others. Each exercise or series of exercises is followed by a discussion in which participants share questions, discoveries and concerns. Besides the direct benefit to participants of expressing their own concerns and sharing those of the others, these discussions help the teacher orient the ongoing process, choosing the next exercise or set of exercises accordingly. Finally, these activities are followed by free improvisations that allow participants to put their discoveries into practice and to recognize their own growth.
Video
To see a video documentation about a similar workshop that I moderated, please klick here
