Kindergarten 101: Taking Turns!
Posted on January 20, 2010
We all love singing so much, we can all think of something to add to any improvisation. Someone starts a riff and we all jump on like kids on a trampoline! Harmonious cacophony can be a thrilling effect, but cacophony is cacophony, and not always the desired effect, and certainly not for any extended length of time.
We've recently been exploring what happens when we strip away voices during an improv, making room for a soloist or duo to explore a theme on their own. We've discovered that this has many positive effects. Often the soloist takes the improv to a very different and exciting place, moving the piece forward, or the duo launches into an exciting give and take (a form we call "See-Saw") creating a previously unheard combination of voices and vocal tones. By changing the combination of singers mid-improv, suddenly the piece has new "geography." Quiet personal passages emerge. New themes may be discovered and picked up by all. A soloist might explore a bit, then find a logical place to re-introduce a previous theme giving the piece a fresh continuity. Such variations often provide for new re-entry points for all, and create interesting turns in the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic themes and textures of the song.
We've recently been exploring what happens when we strip away voices during an improv, making room for a soloist or duo to explore a theme on their own. We've discovered that this has many positive effects. Often the soloist takes the improv to a very different and exciting place, moving the piece forward, or the duo launches into an exciting give and take (a form we call "See-Saw") creating a previously unheard combination of voices and vocal tones. By changing the combination of singers mid-improv, suddenly the piece has new "geography." Quiet personal passages emerge. New themes may be discovered and picked up by all. A soloist might explore a bit, then find a logical place to re-introduce a previous theme giving the piece a fresh continuity. Such variations often provide for new re-entry points for all, and create interesting turns in the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic themes and textures of the song.
Working as ensemble means anyone in the circle might claim solo or duo space, or, upon hearing something interesting across the circle, might quiet others so this theme may emerge unhindered. It makes us each composers in and of the piece, even when we are not the ones singing! This also allows us the opportunity to gently explore solo improv in a supported setting, which, hopefully will lead to increasingly confident and effective solo pieces in the future. Turn taking is allowing us to truly appreciate and hear each other in a group improv setting. Who knew 'shutting up' could be so effective?