Random-oke, Improvisation and Collaboration

On Saturday, I attended a cool table reunion with Dog and Pony Sound, a karaoke service I used to kj (and continue to photograph) for. The "cool table" consists of the some great singers and ultra fun folk from the early days many years ago. I'm happy to report that major fun was had!

The first round of tunes turned out to be a game of random-oke. That's where someone else cracks the book for you and puts their finger down - and you're expected to sing whatever they hit. If you know the tune, you repeat until you're utterly clueless.

I managed to draw the Rolling Stones' "Not Fade Away." I had a bout of anxiety and actually filled in an alternate card on "Jumping Jack Flash," but the sense of fun beat out my insecurities in the end. Up I went to the stage and the mic to sing a tune I'd never heard before.

What's interesting was my knee jerk reaction to hedge the game. It struck me that a barrier to freshness and freedom in music making is the fear of failure and the pursuit of safety. Improvisation on stage in front of a live audience (or even laying down licks on your own in the home studio) requires a measure of abandon and fearlessness to avoid falling back into the familiar.

Improvisation

A couple of days later my in-laws came to visit. My mom-in-law loves to play the piano (she plays from classic music notation). She didn't have her music along, but sat down at the piano to give "Ave Maria" a stab from memory. She'd get into the tune, then bail and start over. It prompted me to sit down and gab about improvising to her briefly, outlining the basic mental processes behind it.

"Don't think in terms of notes as much as the relative motion of the chord progression. Don't think of where your feet are being placed, think of where your steps are taking you."

I started outlining basic triad and seventh chord progressions, the underpinnings of basic harmony. It made me realize that there's a lot of thinking and practice behind getting the instincts worked out.

That wasn't the best place to start. Time to switch gears.

Abandon Expectation. Embrace Exploration.

"Play without music more. Just leave it in the bench. Keep trying ideas until you like what you hear."

Collaboration

One of the things I like about the karaoke crowd at Dog and Pony is the sheer number of good singers there and the diversity of styles they represent. I have a lot of admiration for their music sense, so I'm hoping to warm up some collaborations on the album.

I gabbed with a couple of them Saturday night and mentioned my blog. **waves hello**