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Re: Improvising vs. composing



Title: Re: Improvising vs. composing
on 1/31/04 10:30 PM, Dan Soltzberg at d.ans@rcn.com wrote:

Hi gang,


Would love to hear peopleıs experiences with this dilemma:

Iıve been doing a project, Orange, for a couple years. Tonight, I packed my gear out of a rehearsal space and turned in my keys after 3 months of struggling with trying to take this improvisational project and make it more structured‹ i.e., take stuff weıd made up and recorded at various shows and sessions and re-learn it and make a bunch of songs out of it. I just found I wasnıt enjoying the process of trying to do this.

So it seems Iım no longer very interested in writing and playing songs‹ what I really get inspired doing is going out on a limb and making the music up as I go. I canıt seem to get the kind of spiritual high I get when Iım improvising if Iım playing stuff thatıs pre-structured. Not that I donıt like structure‹ I just like creating it on the fly.

Problem is, 1. Itıs kind of intense to go to every show having no idea of what Iım going to play, hoping the muse is on the guest list

2. Itıs hard to bring other musicians in without having at least some structure.


Thoughts? Similar experiences? Solutions?


Dan


personally, i dig both-- but if i had to choose ONE-- id be improv. what i love about playing is reaching so many people, without having to talk to each one individually. same with the players im with. i just love the forehead connection and communication thru eyebrow motions. obviously it comes from a deeper part of us--words always fall short when describing emotion. id say realize every musician is differant and some might want to go your way-- totally mental. some might at least need basic form charts. its always worth the wait, though, right? take care.

              a looping bassist/violinist

            are--jay hoffmann