Improvisation Workshop with Chris O Connor

Another week, and another sound experience to add to our banks of knowledge. Being informed to come into the class today with a sound maker of some sort I of course had that ready yesterday night. With that in my bag I attended our first lecture. He seemed like a really enthusiastic person which was a good boost to the class's attention. Feeling a bit like a kid again, not that it was a problem at all we participated in a series of games to keep us attentive. The first was a vocal game of harmony. Every person sung a note with the lights off, and upon hearing a note you liked and running out of breath you mimicked it. and sooner or later a harmonious choir could be heard at one point or another. The next game was the facial conductor, a single person, the 'conductor' stood in view of everyone and made facial expressions where we had to mimic that expression but at the same time create a sound based off the facial. So if the conductor had closed lips, we of course would have to mimic it through humming. And next was another game of sound, clapping. By retaining the beat in our head each person was assigned number one or number two. You were only allowed to clap on your number while the first number two in play determines the speed of the game through the interval of clap between him/her and the first number one. And soon we were given the opportunity to change numbers in between sticking to the rules of course. Keeping in time, not just jumping back from one and two back and forth, and the change had to be instantaneous from one to two and two the one, and the interval between swapping back to the original number required at least two claps first. With the games done it was time to do some real improvisation with what we had brought in with the sound makers. As a class we attempted with the sound makers we had to first create ambient sound, the nice quiet stuff. Then, the sweet spot by attempting to get the sharpest sound that our sound maker could produce. Lastly, the scribble, to go crazy and follow instincts by creating random noise of what we had that had no plan behind it much like a child's scribble on paper. An interesting day for me and one I probably won't soon forget. Music isn't simply the organization of bars to music but the art of making sound because all sound is and can be beautiful. The pitter patter of rain, the stomping of feet, the plucking of a guitar. Learning this has taught me much, sound isn't confined to instruments or vocals. Sound is everywhere and sound can be utilized whenever needed.