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28 views4 pages

CH 5 Excerpt

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thialgomusical
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Special thanks to my friend, Lennie Peterson for his beautiful

artwork; !my wife, April Hall for her endless hours of design and
layout, and my mother, Barbara Hall, for the unending
support she’s given to all my creative endeavors.

Bee Boy Press


Published by Bee Boy Press
Bee Boy Press (USA)
117 Roslindale Avenue
Boston, MA 02131
www.beeboyrecords.com
www.freeimprovisation.com

Copyright © Tom Hall 2009


All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data


Hall, Thomas
Free Improvisation: A Practical Guide
p. cm.

Includes references and index


ISBN 978-0-615-32862-1

Printed in the United States of America

Written by Tom Hall


Designed by April Hall
Cover Art by Lennie Peterson
www.lenniepeterson.com

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copy-
right owner and the above publisher of this book.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the
permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic
editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of
the author’s rights is appreciated.
FIVE

Duets
The Art of Relationship
30 Tom Hall

Choosing and Committing


The initial offerings in every improvi-
sation contain the potential for many
different relationships. An improvisation
Tip: If you want to impro-
starts to take shape and make sense once vise in any other manner
the players have made a choice about besides stream of con-
which of those potential relationships they sciousness, it is essential to
be aware of the choices
are going to explore. This idea of making being made. Without a
and committing to a choice has already group awareness of these
been in play in some of the exercises above, choices it’s difficult to
develop them, improvise
but consciously focusing on it will clarify with them, or refer back to
the players’ understanding. them. In order to impro-
vise with something, you
Exercise 17: Staying in a Relationship have to establish it in your
own awareness, in the
Step 1: Two players start playing at the awareness of the group,
same time. Whatever occurs in the first and in the awareness of the
few seconds of the duet will be the only audience. This requires
both choosing and commit-
materials and relationship they can use in ting to those choices.
the improvisation.
Exercise 18: The Same, But Different
Step 1: Two players start playing at the same time. Whatever occurs in
the first few seconds of the duet will be the only materials and relation-
ship they can use in the improvisation.

Step 2: The same two players improvise another duet with the same kind
of material and/or relationship as the first. Try using the same materials
but creating a different relationship with them. Try improvising the same
relationship with different materials. Try using both the materials and
relationship from the first duet. Notice how these duets are the same
or different from the initial improvisation.

Tip: Understanding how to make a strong choice and commit to it is an


essential skill for every improviser. However, one of the beautiful para-
doxes of improvisation is that every individual choice is simultaneously of
the greatest importance and not important at all. At every moment you
must be both completely committed to what you are playing, and com-
pletely willing to let go of it if the music demands it.

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