Re: [Harp-L] AFTER YOU'VE GONE-- shtreim & making improvisation succeed

[Richard Hammersley <rhhammersley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The boundary between what works in music and what doesn't work is  
quite fine. Too much 'human' on the drum machine becomes annoying, too  
little is boring and sterile. Many performers, even those who  
improvise,  play in a comfort zone where what they are doing will  
always 'work' for the audience because they are nowhere near the  
boundary. In the old days the really challenging stuff was kept for  
after hours 'cutting' sessions. Others play right up to the boundary a  
lot of the time. For instance,  it sounds as if Herbie Hancock and  
chums (accidentally reviewed by Brendan Power on this list) were over  
it into unlistenability on the night. Another night they are probably  
fantastic because the improvisations worked better somehow. Keeping in  
the comfort zone risks being dull on a bad night, rather than  
difficult to listen to. It is hard to keep the edge all the time.

Digital multitracking is quite interesting as a learning tool here (I  
use Garageband nowadays) because you can play 'live' stuff then adjust  
it as you like - put it into time, tune it properly, speed it up etc  
etc. Except for very gentle tweaking, these improvements usually make  
things sound worse when I am trying to make ordinary music.

Richard



Richard Hammersley
Grantshouse, Scottish Borders
http://www.last.fm/music/Richard+Hammersley
http://www.myspace.com/rhammersley
http://www.myspace.com/magpiesittingdown