Re: [Harp-L] Creativity Question

[Chesper Nevins <chespernevins@xxxxxxxxx>]

Nice question!  My approach goes roughly like this -

Learn the piece by ear, starting with memorizing the melody until I
can sing it all the way through at any time during the day.

Then I transcribe the harmony.  If some of it is not obvious, I slow
down the track and find the notes of the bass line and various harmony
voices.

This process alone makes the piece forefront in my memory.

Then I analyse the melody and harmony, playing it on piano and
harmonica.  I also analyse possible harmonic and melodic approaches to
improv that I think might work well on the tune and on harmonica.

In performance, I attempt to be in the moment as much as possible, and
to hear the group behind me.  When improvising I sing melodies and
rhythms as clearly as I can in my head and try to capture that on
harmonica.   Sometimes this is easy and sometimes it seems to take a
lot of energy.  (One time when I was really tired, I could clearly
hear melodies in my head and the sound coming out of my harmonica was
something different - I couldn't make them match - not a successful
session in my view.)

I think doing all the preparation makes the spontaneous more informed.

How about you?

Jason
http://myspace.com/jasonharmonica

On 4/28/10, icemanle@xxxxxxx <icemanle@xxxxxxx> wrote:
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>  Do you memorize solos and repeat them or do you improvise in the moment?
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>  If you memorize and repeat, are they your own creations or do you figure out another's solo and reproduce it? If so, how do you keep it sounding fresh?
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>  If you improvise in the moment, what is your mental/creative approach?
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>