The Improvisation Companion


Book Description




Composing while Dancing


Book Description

Composing while Dancing: An Improviser’s Companion examines the world of improvisational dance and the varied approaches to this art form. By introducing the improvisational strategies of twenty-six top contemporary artists of movement improvisation, Melinda Buckwalter offers a practical primer to the dance form. Each chapter focuses on an important aspect of improvisation including spatial relations, the eyes, and the dancing image. Included are sample practices from the artists profiled, exercises for further research, and a glossary of terms. Buckwalter gathers history, methods, interviews, and biographies in one book to showcase the many facets of improvisational dance and create an invaluable reference for dancers and dance educators.




Concepts for Improvisation


Book Description

(Jazz Book). Improv fundamentals for teachers and students, covering the blues, modes, scales, progressions and more, plus chapters on phrasing melodies, the "swing" concept, phraseology in modern jazz, chord nomenclature, and solo development.




Taken by Surprise


Book Description

First comprehensive overview of improvisation in dance.




Music Theory Through Improvisation


Book Description

Designed for Music Theory courses, Music Theory Through Improvisation presents a unique approach to basic theory and musicianship training that examines the study of traditional theory through the art of improvisation. The book follows the same general progression of diatonic to non-diatonic harmony in conventional approaches, but integrates improvisation, composition, keyboard harmony, analysis, and rhythm. Conventional approaches to basic musicianship have largely been oriented toward study of common practice harmony from the Euroclassical tradition, with a heavy emphasis in four-part chorale writing. The author’s entirely new pathway places the study of harmony within improvisation and composition in stylistically diverse format, with jazz and popular music serving as important stylistic sources. Supplemental materials include a play-along audio in the downloadable resources for improvisation and a companion website with resources for students and instructors.




Improvising


Book Description

Gerre Hancock has long been renowned for his extraordinary improvisations, and has for many years taught the art of improvisation at classes and workshops across the United States. Now he has codified and organized his teaching into a book which carries the organist from the scale through thefugue, covering on the way interludes, hymns, hymn preludes, sonata form, canon, and more. Written in an informal style and illustrated with musical examples and exercises, this book opens wide the door to musical and technical skill.




The Routledge Companion to Improvisation in Organizations


Book Description

This innovative volume provides a comprehensive overview of improvisation as a pervasive organizational process, essential in ever-changing business environments. Exploring theories of organizational action as well as contemporary challenges, it highlights improvisation’s rich potential in theory building and practice. The value and relevance of improvisational capabilities and processes in organizations are more apparent than ever: the global pandemic has forced organizations to reinvent themselves and to adapt to dramatic change on a massive scale. This surge in improvised activity starkly illustrates how the capability to improvise is key to organizational resilience: organizations that are able to improvise effectively are better prepared to bounce back and even thrive. From the latest thinking on improvisation in organizations to future avenues for research, this volume demonstrates the rich potential for both theory building and practice and provides a valuable resource for researchers and advanced students in organizational strategy, entrepreneurship, product development, information systems, disaster management, and HRM.




Improvisation for Classical, Fingerstyle and Jazz Guitar


Book Description

Improvisation for Classical, Fingerstyle, and Jazz Guitar - Creative Strategies, Technique and Theory: Is the product of over twenty five years experience as a professional musician and guitar tutor. Contains more than sixty exercises, in both standard notation and guitar tablature, ranging from simple, clear examples of the topics under discussion, to longer more complex sections of music that illustrate how these ideas can be developed. Suggests new techniques, and strategies, offering guitarists practical ideas for solo or group performance, recording, music exams, and expanding musical horizons. Demonstrates how to use improvisation as a universal way of making music, enabling Classical, Fingerstyle, and Jazz players to learn the essential skills to create sophisticated and rewarding improvised pieces. Places theory and practice in a much broader context, by including discussions on the historical development of improvisation, along with supplementary information on a wide range of inter-related literature and listening. Contains an extensive appendix showing how to adapt and apply the CAGED system, demonstrating how its five basic patterns can be transformed into hundreds of interlocking modes, scales, arpeggios and chords. www.paulcostelloguitar.co.uk www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-Costello-Guitar/328473160531215




Contingent Encounters


Book Description

Contingent Encounters offers a sustained comparative study of improvisation as it appears between music and everyday life. Drawing on work in musicology, cultural studies, and critical improvisation studies, as well as his own performing experience, Dan DiPiero argues that comparing improvisation across domains calls into question how improvisation is typically recognized. By comparing the music of Eric Dolphy, Norwegian free improvisers, Mr. K, and the Ingrid Laubrock/Kris Davis duo with improvised activities in everyday life (such as walking, baking, working, and listening), DiPiero concludes that improvisation appears as a function of any encounter between subjects, objects, and environments. Bringing contingency into conversation with the utopian strain of critical improvisation studies, DiPiero shows how particular social investments cause improvisation to be associated with relative freedom, risk-taking, and unpredictability in both scholarship and public discourse. Taking seriously the claim that improvisation is the same thing as living, Contingent Encounters overturns long-standing assumptions about the aesthetic and political implications of this notoriously slippery term.




Jean Langlais


Book Description

"All these aspects of his life and art, including the rigorous training and arduous practice that transformed a blind peasant boy into a superb musician, his lifelong friendship with Olivier Messiaen, his sometimes turbulent family life, and the body of works he left - only J. S. Bach wrote more compositions for the organ - are narrated and analyzed by Ann Labounsky, who is uniquely qualified to write this definitive biography. A favorite Langlais pupil, she was asked by Langlais himself to write it and had his full cooperation for numerous long interviews over many years."--BOOK JACKET.