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Old 07-23-2006, 04:20 PM   #1
synthany
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Default about improvisation

i'm curious what people think about different outcomes of improvisation.

here we have an opportunity to experiment with various levels of abstraction, but it seems to me that most jammers strive to imitate established musical styles.

anyone?
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Old 07-24-2006, 04:40 AM   #2
Ayreon
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I'm personally all for unusual improvisation, and Ninjam is a great tool for such things.

Last week I had a great time playing spacey-dubby-middle eastern flavored textures with a bunch of guys, and I hope to be a part of more fun jams like that, where you're not really obligated to any kind of structure and are free to be creative.
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Old 08-01-2006, 03:36 AM   #3
Keru
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hello,
i didnt even try the soft, but wanted to say that it might be great a jam with no structure like you said, nobody juging and everything to try
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Old 08-07-2006, 10:06 AM   #4
RobinDeanDotCom
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I think there's only two kinds of music ... good and bad.
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Old 08-16-2006, 04:20 PM   #5
fivestringfretless
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Quote:
Originally Posted by synthany
i'm curious what people think about different outcomes of improvisation.

here we have an opportunity to experiment with various levels of abstraction, but it seems to me that most jammers strive to imitate established musical styles.

anyone?
One thing that typically happens at jam sessions is someone will just start playing, maybe something they know, maybe in a recognizable style, and the others will just start playing once they hear what's happening. Maybe the thing to do is set the topic to say "let's be experimental" or something like that...

Another thing that's understandably typical is to establish a chord progression or one-chord jam ("What's the tonality?" is a common question). Seems to me that in a free jam, you normally want to avoid chords, given they are quite powerful in making implications about what's going to happen next.

I'm just guessing here, but it seems like if you're after a "free" jam, you'd want to start with a "no chords, no stylistic rhythms" guideline, and then if you hear quotes later, they won't be so objectionable because they would be played in passing; you can make it even more open (by eliminating all guidelines) once you have a few players that have either done it before or played with you for awhile or something like that.

When are you around? I'll try my hand at this
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Old 08-18-2006, 04:13 AM   #6
Keru
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no chord is nice, i dont know chords
else i like that idea but yes maybe it should be said to people who come in the jam or something like that, but following a chord in a free jam is also a liberty no ?
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Old 09-08-2006, 12:01 AM   #7
fivestringfretless
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Keru
no chord is nice, i dont know chords
else i like that idea but yes maybe it should be said to people who come in the jam or something like that, but following a chord in a free jam is also a liberty no ?
It depends a lot on what kind of jam it is... if you're trying to avoid structures of any kind, then it isn't a good idea to follow the chord other than for a fairly short duration and by using a melodic fragment/idea rather than laying down a chord.

One way of going about it is to have everyone "solo but listen" and take turns introducing some sort of idea, then everyone might explore that idea momentarily, and then something new is introduced. "Something new" in this context probably means a rhythm and/or melodic idea, that way you tend to avoid implying something with an unbalanced amount of influence.

You might also experiment with varying degrees of clarity, meaning that you can lay down something chordal and rhythmic and be very clear about that, and as time goes by diffuse it gradually more and more, maybe fade out a bit and either wait for a new idea or introduce one.

Of course, you're very right to say that someone (or the topic) should tell people what's happening.

I think what's in common to -all- jams whether on ninjam or some other media (such as air) is that you should always listen first, and this is an absolute requirement before you play any note at all.
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