The Workshops. After practicing and experimenting with my improvised practice, a question arose: how would this process be of any use to other musicians? Can this process of systematised practice on metric improvisation prove helpful for other artists? Can it generate inspiration for other musicians too? And, lastly, can it lead to the creation of new works in contemporary modal music? While interviewing my mentors and esteemed artists, most of them were defending the view that improvisation could not be practiced. However, there are some things that can help: the practice of the tools, the concrete practice on the instrument, and active listening. In this view, I focused on experimenting with this kind of practice. I argue that, if one is going to try to improvise metrically, a certain type of practice is required that allows the artist to come to a level of awareness that provides ‘freedom from thought’. My experience as an improvising artist in this idiomatic improvisation has shown that ‘freedom from thought’ is a state of mind that resembles the state of flow as described earlier. In trying to achieve this state, I argue that the more tools one has in one’s toolbox (rhythmic, structural, expressive tools), the more it becomes possible to approach a state of ‘freedom of thought’. As a teacher, I was faced with different levels of musicianship and different states of mentality amongst the various participants. Nevertheless, both improvising artists and amateur musicians who had never improvised before were faced with similar issues when required to perform a metric improvisation. Namely, how can one have control over the rhythmic cycle, and what kind of 159 From a personal interview with Xxx Xxxxxxxx available at xxxxx://xxxxxxxxx.xxxx.xx/files/index.php/s/3S6DSw4Zj8QGcbR rhythmic tools can one utilise to make the performance of metric improvisation interesting? How can one develop large structures in one’s performance and, finally, how can the process of metric improvisation eventually lead to the creation of fixed pre-composed material (compositions). To give answers to these questions, I decided to create and conduct workshops within which I could experiment with the results of the research and apply the tools and ideas derived from it. In the following chapter I will refer to two of them,160 one conducted in November 2018 in Codarts University for the Arts, Rotterdam, and the other conducted online in April 2021 for the non-profit organization olipoli which is bas...
The Workshops
