Emile

Showing Tag: "improvisation" (Show all posts)

DailySing - 127 (6.6.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Thursday, June 7, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I started tonight with the idea of using unique, new, and different sounds for my vocal palette.

The exploration also delved into juxtaposing various time signatures and rhythms within the same musical context.

Soloing was different because even if I went to a default melodic place, I still did it in this new way with a unique, new and different sound vocabulary. I explored lead guitar improvisational lines and it wasn't easy at all. I rediscovered that an instruments dictates the development o...
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DailySing - 83 (4.23.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Tuesday, April 24, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Tonight's DailySing was explosively original. 

I found IT! I can't describe IT except to say that IT's a certain concentration of energy focused outward. 

I let go of the reins of my mind, and felt as imagine it would feel like to be a berzerker of ancient Germania. The combination of raw power and freedom expressed in the explosive series of violent clashes is what I am experiencing at this point in my improvisation.

To listen to DailySing - 83, click here.


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DailySing - 77 (4.7.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Wednesday, April 18, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
You'd think that I'd try to sing at different times during the day, but it's not been working out that way. However, I have discovered singing in the Element. In the car I have more freedom to let loose and sing big... It's fun!

Tonight's DailySing went places I hadn't expected to go. I was inspired earlier this evening by two events. First, by a friend who's working with autistic kids, using horses to calm, ground and reconnect them. The second, by two of my teachers who have received Sri Chi...
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DailySing - 71 (4.11.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Thursday, April 12, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I really enjoy my beginnings, the starting points in my improvisations. That moment when my mouth is open and I've initiated sound, yet it hasn't broken through to be heard, is the spark. Once that door has been opened, once that key has been turned, there's no going back. Once I hear the note, I try to feel it as I follow it to the place where it's going, and beyond to the next note and the next note and then I jump on the wave just below the threshold of the notes. That's the ride, that's t...
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DailySing - 55 (3.26.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Tuesday, March 27, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Tonight's vocal exploration felt like a journey along a linear path... Kind of like a Grateful Dead jam, you know... Lots and LOTS of improvisation, for long periods of time!!!

I find myself stretching my capacity to sing octaves, to jump back and forth and land squarely on the note. A little like life.I am stretching my capacity to ask for what I want, for what I am worth and for what I deserve. I am expanding myself enough to see a glimpse of my core and that place that recognizes my self wo...
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DailySing - 54 (3.25.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Monday, March 26, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I decided to start with a slow ballad-like melody to push my voice a little, to listen to my tone, to test my vocal control. I dipped, dove, soared, tumbled and spun with my voice. It was like an aerial display for my voice. Like last night's DailySing, I was trying to keep it together at the extremes of my range, by jumping back forth between the melody, the bass and solo motifs.

About halfway through, I switched from improvisation to singing Afro Blue. After a few passes I started to stretch...
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DailySing - 50 (3.21.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Thursday, March 22, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Tonight's DailySing was a straight ahead journey into the unknown. I didn't put any restrictions on myself, or devise a structure upon which to hang the improvisation. It felt like I was gliding from one idea to the next, making the rules up as I went along. It was a freeing experience! I just opened my mouth and got out of the way! I didn't try to guide the improv, or anticipate the improv. I just rode the creative wave and embraced the process of birthing soundscapes while maintaining no at...
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DailySing - 49 (3.20.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Wednesday, March 21, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
This DailySing was a little more coherent than the last one. I was so sleepy last night that I couldn't string together two simple thoughts, let alone describe what was going on in my inner musical landscape while I was singing.

Tonight, I explore my voice as "jazz singer", as another instrument in the band, as a tonal center. Kurt Elling, Al Jarreau, Frank Sinatra or Harry Conick Jr, all can sing in the same register in which they speak, so I tried it. I attempted to keep my throat and chest ...
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DailySing - 46 (3.17.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Sunday, March 18, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I'm proud of myself tonight, and feeling better about my ability to keep a theme going. 
I can depart from the original idea, play around, then come back to the main melodic phrase, then explore some other aspect of this thing called improvisation, and again return to the same main melodic phrase. I often come back to a variation of the main theme because I get so lost in my exploration that I forget what the theme is exactly and can only express an approximation of it.

 Tonight, I struck anoth...

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DailySing - 45 (3.16.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Saturday, March 17, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
"Dodging the Judges" should be the title of this blog entry. How to create  beauty yet stay unattached? The line between investing oneself and remaining unattached is undefined for me when I create music in the moment.
 
On the one hand I can stay hyper vigilant, as during a performance where I straddle being in control, yet spontaneous enough to keep the listener engaged. My spontaneous creations demand flexibility and adaptability, yet clarity and pitch can be greatly affected during an impro...
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DailySing - 23 (2.23.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Friday, February 24, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
A friend suggested various interpretations of Happy Birthday for today's DailySing. So, I started several birthday improvs which led to variations of the birthday song I never envisioned. As this is happening at the end of a long day, I am aware of my focus coming and going. Sometimes, I thought I fell asleep, other times, I forgot what I was doing and would vamp until I'd remember that I was doing some guerilla arranging on the fly and add in a happy birthday line or two. I also put the reco...
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DailySing - 14 (2.14.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Wednesday, February 15, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
One good thing I am doing is staying true to the spirit of improvisation when I do these DailySings. I know this because I am always surprised at where I end up, whether it be on a harmonic tangent, in a percussive interlude, or at the end of the whole piece. I never know where I'm going from one second to the next. Some very happy accidents happen this way. In fact, I'd say that a good portion of new innovative musical ideas are the result of unexpected occurences, "mistakes", my piano teach...
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DailySing - 13 (2.13.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Tuesday, February 14, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Started out with a plan... First mistake! If you're going to improvise, then improvise, don't plan! Planning is the opposite of improvisation!!!
Thought I'd begin with some vocal percussion (vp), and explore how to develop those ideas for the full 15 minutes... Hah!!!
First of all as soon as I had that great idea, I could no longer come up with any vp parts. My brain shut down and I had already begun the 15 mns of improv. I tried desperately to come up with parts in a vacuum, where there were a...
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DailySing - 8 (2.8.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Thursday, February 9, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Tonight was very flat feeling. I fell into my improvisation with the artless slothfullness of a jellied stone. I tried to stay open, but stayed blank instead. In the blankness, snipets of music come, some decent ideas even, but I try not to hold on to them. I'm trying to just be and let it flow through me, whatever form "it" takes... My brain is very busy, as I try to stay blank. Shards of thought debris litter the ground, as I try to navigate through them without touching them. I fail and th...
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If you can talk, you can sing


Emile Hassan Dyer I believe that singing is our birthright, and that it is good for our brains, bodies, and spirit. Singing releases oxytocin in the brain, and many studies have shown a correlation of oxytocin with human bonding, increases in trust, feelings of calmness and security, as well as reductions in anxiety. In other words, SINGING IS GOOD FOR YOU! I get high making up music on the spot. I get high(er) when I can do it with several people at once. There's nothing like riding the crest of a creative wave, linked harmonically and rhythmically, supporting, leading, following, creating, coaxing, cajoling, p-l-a-y-i-n-g... THAT'S MY BLISS! Singing for 15 minutes a day means trusting yourself. It means clearing your mind, opening up and discovering what sounds can come out through you, if you allow it. To listen to each of my daily sings, click on the "songs" link on the left in the grey field above the most recent post or on the link at the end of each post.

Categories

My DailySing practice is inspired by Will Hewett's Sing15 practice.

You can learn more about Sing15 at www.willhewett.com.

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"creative wave"percussive lyrical vocal solos melody "richard bona "sing out loud 'vp guy" riffs sounds patterns 4/4 4/4 feel 4/4 time 6/8 6/8 bell 6/8 feel 6/8 time a cappella a cappella thang abandon accented beat accents act of singing actors adaptability addendums aeolian african vocal delivery afro blue afro funk afro-cuban air flow alive ambient apex approach arc arc of the improv architecture arrange arrangements arranging art artless aspect of music atmosphere attacked the singing audience backbeat background hum balance ballad ballad-like bass bass line bass lines bass llne be the sound beat beatbox beatboxing beats berimbaus berzerker bird song birthday birthing the melodies blog blues bluesy body percussion body rhythms bp brain brassy bre bridge bridges burst carlinhos brown catchy tune cd channel chant chants choices choir chops chorus clapping claps clarity classical clave climactic crescendo codification of play cohesion color compose compositions concert conduit 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