Here is an improvised album by me on guitar, Harry Schlanker on bass, Maddie Abbotts Cosier and Theone Dawes on vocals and Ollie Patton on drums, keys and samples. I appear on every track except "Moon Doors." The album was created on the spot from scratch with the exception of some vocal melodies and lyrics, such as "Say To Me." I had never played with any of these musicians before so it was interesting to see the style of music that came out of it, combining a variety of tastes and influences.
This album gave us all a chance to experiment with atmospheric and more upbeat styles. In terms of my own playing on the album, it allowed me to develop melodic lines and phrasing.
"Insert Sample Here" - This song was a challenge to keep up with. It's quite a high tempo which means a lot of my guitar licks were out of time. Slower melodies with more sustained notes might've been more appropriate for much of this song although I think fast lines were necessary for the style.
"Cookey" - Although there is some good guitar phrasing in this piece, listening back it feels much more like one long attempted guitar solo. I remember focusing mainly on responding to Ollie's drums rather than the bass. This meant that there were few sections where Harry got a chance to push melodic ideas. I notice this a lot of the time when jamming with other musicians; I tend to twiddle a lot rather than enhancing established ideas.
There are some areas in "Cookey" where I have repeated a melodic line but failed to build upon it. The guitar in this song may have been more effective if I'd developed recurring melodies rather than constantly jamming. A better knowledge of chords would've helped with this song; it would've allowed more diversity in the guitar.
"You" - I tried using chords as much as possible in this song. They were predominantly basic chords such as minors, majors, minor 7ths and major 7ths, all with similar voicings. Listening back to it, I think the rhythm of the guitar is a bit too rigid. The style of this song was more atmospheric and flowing but my playing countered this. To most listeners, the vocals are probably the main point of focus. This means that more subtle guitar lines and sustained notes would've been more appropriate.
"Say To Me" - This song was interesting because the singers had already preconceived the song's structure. This meant that they already had melodies and harmonies in mind when they were singing. However, I was unsure what this song was supposed to sound like which made it more enjoyable. I haven't heard the song so I am not sure how it compares but I like what we came up with anyway. The interesting vocal melodies and harmonies allowed me to get into the song quite easily. The texture of both vocals at once meant that I could get away with playing much less.
For some reason, the descending bassline in "I'm Housin" by Rage Against The Machine came to mind when the song began so I tried to combine this with chords before we built the song up to a crescendo.
From the 7 minute mark I think atmospheric effects would've worked well. If I were to do this on guitar, maybe a delay pedal combined with my chorus pedal could work. I have a delay pedal ready for next time I try something like this just in case it is needed.
"... ... ..." - This track was played by just me on guitar and Harry on bass. I began the piece trying to come up with melodic lines and it took about 10 minutes for me to succumb to the strange bass sounds. A guitar slide helped here. I felt like I was limited here and more effects would've definitely helped. I need either more pedals or a multi-effects pedal next time I try something like this.
Overall, the main two things holding me back were my lack of chordal knowledge and appropriate tones. My tone rarely changes throughout; it switches between clean reverb and clean reverb with added chorus from my Pearl CH-02. I would've benefited from having more pedals. At the time I was only using a Pearl CH-02 chorus pedal with the amp's reverb on a clean tone. Next time I will use overdrive, distortion and delay so my playing is more varied. My melodic lines fit well in some areas but are sometimes misplaced and would worked better with more consideration in the future.
This is an improvised album created by me and four friends at college in February. The idea behind the album is that each member plays an instrument they are unfamiliar with. I played keys, William Allman played guitar, Harvey Jones played drums, Louie Marlow-Smith played bass and Harry Schlanker was on the trumpet and the mic.
We began by latching onto each others' ideas and developing them from there. It took a while to get into it but there are some coherent sections and a good level of communication in some areas. In my opinion, the track that demonstrates the highest level of cooperation and development is "One Day She'll Love Me." We all reacted to an idea initiated by Will, using a variety of dynamics and rhythms. The tune then goes through a number of transitions with the aim of complementing its progressive structure. I feel this has been effective in some areas, such as between 3.10 and 4.20, where we managed to bridge two more distinct sections with a fairly chaotic transition.
The idea of this album came from Will, who was inspired by comedian Jon Benjamin's jazz album, "Well I Should Have...*"
The idea behind Benjamin's album was to play piano, an instrument that he had no prior experience with, alongside adept jazz musicians. This meant that his performance was entirely improvised, without much in the way of musical influence, causing his lines to sound out of place and only vaguely rhythmic. He tries to respond to lines played by the other musicians to make it sound vaguely musical, like at the beginning of "I Can't Play Piano Pt. 3" where he attempts imitation.
Our album follows this theme. A minimal understanding of the instrument that we were playing allowed us to see the entire improvisation in a different way. There were no restrictions in terms of music theory or fear of sounding out of place because that was inevitable. We also had no expectations which meant that we could treat the project with experimentation and humour in a relaxed environment rather than trying to play everything perfectly.
This album was recorded more recently than "Yellow Flight." Recently, I have tried to listen more to every instrument involved in group improvisation rather than just drums. The use of call and response and developing ideas in this album is evidence of improvement in this aspect.
This improvisation was performed from my friend's graphic notation. This required us all to communicate with each other by listening rather than watching as we were performing in the dark. The only things we could see were the graphic notation and the mixing desk. I spent most of my time using the mic producing vocal sound effects and using objects around me such as congas and handheld percussive instruments.
This improvisation is mostly atmospheric rather than musical so we had to use the instruments we had in more creative ways. It allowed me to play around with the mixing desk. I had no knowledge on how to operate it before this but I tried to find appropriate effects for the mic such as heavy delay and reverb.
We began by latching onto each others' ideas and developing them from there. It took a while to get into it but there are some coherent sections and a good level of communication in some areas. In my opinion, the track that demonstrates the highest level of cooperation and development is "One Day She'll Love Me." We all reacted to an idea initiated by Will, using a variety of dynamics and rhythms. The tune then goes through a number of transitions with the aim of complementing its progressive structure. I feel this has been effective in some areas, such as between 3.10 and 4.20, where we managed to bridge two more distinct sections with a fairly chaotic transition.
The idea of this album came from Will, who was inspired by comedian Jon Benjamin's jazz album, "Well I Should Have...*"
Jon Benjamin - Well I Should Have...
The idea behind Benjamin's album was to play piano, an instrument that he had no prior experience with, alongside adept jazz musicians. This meant that his performance was entirely improvised, without much in the way of musical influence, causing his lines to sound out of place and only vaguely rhythmic. He tries to respond to lines played by the other musicians to make it sound vaguely musical, like at the beginning of "I Can't Play Piano Pt. 3" where he attempts imitation.
Our album follows this theme. A minimal understanding of the instrument that we were playing allowed us to see the entire improvisation in a different way. There were no restrictions in terms of music theory or fear of sounding out of place because that was inevitable. We also had no expectations which meant that we could treat the project with experimentation and humour in a relaxed environment rather than trying to play everything perfectly.
This album was recorded more recently than "Yellow Flight." Recently, I have tried to listen more to every instrument involved in group improvisation rather than just drums. The use of call and response and developing ideas in this album is evidence of improvement in this aspect.
Liquid Biscuit - Sense
This improvisation was performed from my friend's graphic notation. This required us all to communicate with each other by listening rather than watching as we were performing in the dark. The only things we could see were the graphic notation and the mixing desk. I spent most of my time using the mic producing vocal sound effects and using objects around me such as congas and handheld percussive instruments.
This improvisation is mostly atmospheric rather than musical so we had to use the instruments we had in more creative ways. It allowed me to play around with the mixing desk. I had no knowledge on how to operate it before this but I tried to find appropriate effects for the mic such as heavy delay and reverb.
