System 50:50 You have to give them something to listen to!

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Written by Phillip Morton

If it is created by listening, you must give them something to listen to!

Introduction

If it (free ensemble improvisation) is created by listening, you must give them something to listen to!
A 50:50 epiphany and mystery.

But first, let us look at tomato sauce!

Marco Pierre White on the BBC Maestro series unpacks the secrets for a classic passata sauce; it builds up to the revelation that the key to a good tomato sauce is that it should taste of tomatoes. He is a maestro, after all. It is the challenge of simplicity. Is this minimalism mashed up (literally) with complexity?

Okay, let us look at System 50:50 for improvisers.

Phil Morton's big takeaway from the productive and rewarding inaugural Ensemble 50:50 Ceredigion session in Aberystwyth was, wait for it: `If free ensemble improvisations are not created, and they generate themselves from the act of listening (T Nunn)` Then Phil Morton writes `You have to give the musicians, the improvisers something to listen to.`

Well, Marco Pierre White has nothing on me.

The participant in Aberystwyth voiced TACET (as used in System 50;50 for improvisers) is not a restriction on the freedom of playing but alternatively an opportunity, a space for her to listen to the wonderful players in the room. There were twelve players in the room. `Hear, Hear, me too,` whispered her sister in spirit.

My takeaway was that if there were only four players in the room, the numbers limit the diversity of sonic material, and it MAY follow that the player's engagement will drop. Speculation: if we have a higher number of players in the room, not only does it follow that the potential diversity of the sonic material will increase, but the TACET function in System 50:50 amplifies this diversity by creating the spaces: for it to be played, and for it to be heard.

If the music is self-generating at source, the fuel is listening: you have to give the improvisers something to listen to that engages them.

The option of planning or pre-composing this (diversity) is weak and limited. But so too is the other option: let us be free, as the threat or (be polite) the LIMIT with freedom is that free improvisers are prone to the habitual, the repetition of the self, peer-to-peer expectations, and constant playing. These behaviours that freedom allows reduce diversity and, by extension, the opportunity to give those new to the genre something to hang on to, a sound mark.

If free ensemble improvisations are generated by listening, we have to give the players something to listen to.

If there are thirteen players in the room, creating a framework that allows the diversity (in the room, in the people present) to speak and be heard is difficult if we are approaching this with no shared histories.

System 50:50 for improvisers works straight out of the box.
It creates space to listen and to be listened to.
Its methodology is simple and not an obstacle: the TACET option.

For the players in the room (all levels of experience), we have to give them something to listen to.
We have to give them something to listen to.
For everyone else there is Marco Pierre White's tomato sauce: it tastes of tomatoes!

Notes

The article, the blog, is the first draft: cut me some slack.
After 30 edits it will improve.
Writes Phil Morton

Random notes

The premis that: free ensemble improvisations are generated from/by `listening` or listening in the moment may be a fallacy.
Related topics:
- Do participants new to System 50;50, free improvisation need to go through a preparatory phase before engaging in 50:50 or free improv. Citation needed.
- TACET, there is an article on this here.

About System 50:50

The goal is

to encourage music created in the moment by those present.
to encourage music created by ensembles of three to thirty musicians. to support large ensembles to play free.
to explore the possibilities of freedom and improvisation and their limitations.

The approach is

To shape the sound with silence,
To shape the ensemble size moment by moment.,
To empower the musicians with agency over their contribution.
To shape the music through active listening.

+ - Description Click to collapse

Description

The duration of the piece is agreed before the start of the performance..
A performer must play for 50% of the duration of the piece and remain silent for 50% of the duration of the piece
Example

If the duration of the piece is 16 minutes, the performer plays for 8 minutes and is silent for 8 mins. Each player is free to choose when they play and when they are silent within the duration of the piece but they must have a 50/50 balance between playing and being silent. It is expected that each player will improvise their music.
Quick summary using 50:50 ratio

Each player `improvises` for 50% of the piece
Each player is `tacet` for 50% of the piece
The totals are aggregated
Each player/improviser has their own clock and manages their own time
Each player has `agency` over the content they share during the performance.

+ - Detailed description and history Click to collapse

System 50:50 for improvisers - Click the link for a detailed description and history.

https://www.improvisersnetworks.online/system-50-50-an-introduction

+ - The use of clocks to deliver the aim Click to collapse

Delivered by the primary and preferred time management option:

Mechanical chess clocks are required to facilitate the aim of the system. One of the pair of dials is called ‘tacet’ and the other ‘free play’.See image above. Each performer has an individual chess clock to monitor and manage their contribution. The performer plays when the ‘free play’ dial is running down and is silent when the ‘tacet’ dial is running down.

Youtube demonstration, Duration 1 minute Ratio 50:50 or 1:1 Content, is speech, status managed by the rocker (lever): URL LINK

Link to image of an adapted chess clock URL LINK

+ - Feedback from improvisers Click to collapse

Selected feedback about system 50:50

Simon Ross (Macclesfield), Blank Canvas Octet - Liverpool

System 50/50 works well - it’s a really good way to get a group to play effectively without egos , virtuosity , and shyness getting in the way. It is democratic, inclusive. coherent, leaderless, focused, there is room to think and time to listen, choices. It is less competitive more cooperative. Ends well.

Charlie Collins Sheffield

On system 50:50 “Definitely something with LOADS of possibilities - the reaction in the car driving back was unbelievably positive - no one could remember playing in a large ensemble that was so "open". The openness allowed me to play quietly, which meant the dynamics were incredible for an improvising large ensemble.”

Dan Goren, Oxford Improvisers.

`"It seems to me that any attempt to restrict what free improvisers play, presents a threat to the core nature of their music. Generally, 'To play or not play' is about as far as any predetermination can productively go, the player retaining (almost!) complete formal agency regarding when and what (s)he decides to play"

Richard Harding Liverpool.

``Sometimes in free improv it is just not working but we carry on in the hope it will get better, in system 50:50 if it (free improv) is not working one can select tacet and stop playing`

Jon Aveyard, Lecturer UCLan University England

`It gives me permission to do nothing`

Helen Conning, Liverpool.

It is democratic

Maggie Nicol - West Wales.

I want to buy twelve 50:50 clocks

+ - Strengths Click to collapse

The Open House online session supports

Ensemble improvisations made without prior preparation.
Using Zoom break-out rooms means we can support any number of participants.
Open access - there is no peer-to-peer review of applicants - all levels of musical experience are welcome.
You can bring whatever is in your sonic toolbox.
An online session to support a hybrid working pattern for improvisers.
It will increase your frequency of playing and ensemble improvisations.

Zoom Supports.

You do not have to travel to the venue, come rain or shine.
The participants will come from a more extensive geographical capture.
A different social, community vibe - you are often face to face with everyone in the room.
In Zoom, it is a simple process for the host to record a session. The Zoom host can share the recordings to support your interest and development in playing improvised music.

System 50:50 for improvisers supports.

The shaping of sound with silence
The shaping of the ensemble with tacet.
System 50:50 works well on Zoom.

Here is what Simon Ross wrote about System 50:50

System 50/50 works well - it’s a really good way to get a group to play effectively without egos , virtuosity , and shyness getting in the way. It is democratic, inclusive. coherent, leaderless, focused, there is room to think and time to listen, choices. It is less competitive more cooperative. Ends well. Simon Ross