Improv Project – Day 4

Today I switched to a different exercise that focuses on rhythm, texture, and articulation over pitch.  I call this 2-note improvs, and I learned it from one of my teachers, Robert Dick.  In this exercise, you pick two notes and then you improvise only with those two notes.  They can be in any octave, and … Continue reading Improv Project – Day 4

Improv Project – Day 3

Today, I continued with "what note is next" + dynamics.  I needed some more time to wrap my head around this, so I took it.  Just a friendly reminder to anyone who forgets, including myself, it's OK to take your time with this.  These exercises use different skills that don't usually get exercised in 'normal' … Continue reading Improv Project – Day 3

Improv Project – Day 2

For Day 2 of my Improv Project, I took the exercise, "What note is next", (created/taught to me by Robert Dick, I forgot to credit him yesterday), and added another parameter, dynamics. Adding this second parameter made it much more complicated than I had anticipated, and I had a much harder time working with both … Continue reading Improv Project – Day 2

Summer Project – Improv Everyday

For the next month, I'm going to post one improvisation every day.  There are a few reasons why I'm doing this: I have been focusing more on traditional repertoire recently and haven't been improvising as much; my traditional repertoire is a little stale and not quite at the level I want it to be; and … Continue reading Summer Project – Improv Everyday

Pre-Michigan Prep and Edgar Varese

I'm super excited to be going home for a week to do so many music things.  Because of all the awesome music things happening, I've been doing a lot of prep work, mostly research and practicing. The practicing is obviously necessary, but research?  The same way you need to understand the context of a piece … Continue reading Pre-Michigan Prep and Edgar Varese