I made it…
Ok, i bet i’m the only one that needed to check out the tutorial on how to blog, i know it’s shameful but i’m finally here and i must apologize to ye all for being so late.
First off i’d really like to thank everyone for making the first session of this lecture (which, when performance based can really be nerve-wracking) a real encouraging experience. I’m really looking forward to learning from ye as well as Han and I feel being in such a small class will really help us to get the most out of it.
Some of the comments i see floating around so far is on the matter of instrumentation and the fact that three quarters of the group are string players. However, from listening to the recordings i already feel i can take a lot from the methods employed by the other players, and the addition of a percussion instrument, rather than brass or vocal, will really keep the four of us on our toes.
The first session really got my head tumbling on a few topics and my behaviour during a performance. Years of adhering to certain ‘rules’ can really get a person stuck in a hole he is unaware he has climbed into. For this reason i already had some notions of what was expected of me, already these have been scraped. Also I couldn’t believe how locked away in myself i was during the first performance until Han pointed it out to me, and i really couldn’t believe how odd it felt during the second when i had to do something so simple as look up.
The big question we needed to tackle this week; WHY IMPROVISATION, yeah it’s a big one. As I’ve said many of my notions on improv have already been scraped as it can be really difficult to hold down concepts on what i feel it should entail. Any thoughts i’ve come up with are easily broken down with more questions. But of course this is one of the attractions, it is new to me and needs to be experienced and studied to really begin to comprehend it.
As for free-form v’s the karate kid route i really see the positive and negative points in each. Being able to explore our own path is exciting but getting guidance from a experienced performer is reassuring. I’m looking forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts on this matter in the next class.
Apologies again for my late blog.
Paul.
