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The Play list method


A personal view of the `rehearsal` and how it fits in the world of free improvisation by Phil Morton

The playlist approach to `the rehearsal` Refer to the video, Not strictly a workshop piece, but listed here for the moment.

The traditional approach in my experience is to start playing and later stop. There is no set timeline. The pieces tend to be longer rather than shorter, the number of pieces played tend to be statistically smaller rather than larger.

Phil Morton's playlist approach may go like this.

  1. First piece: duration six minutes 
    1. One minute break. No talking. Reset & refresh time
  2. Second piece: duration six minutes.
    1. One minute break. No talking. Reset & refresh time
  3. Third piece: duration six minutes
    1. One minute break. No talking. Reset & refresh time
  4. Fourth piece: duration six minutes
    1. One minute break. No talking. Reset & refresh time

After this first phase, there is an extended break, time for reflection, and social chit chat.

Second phase.
Two pieces performed as above but of a longer duration 12-15 minutes for example. Or move straight to `third phase`

Third phase
Open ended freeplay, the playing or performing of freely improvised music, played in the musicians own time, the piece starts and finishes as decided by the improvisers present.

Other factors to consider: the duration of the whole `rehearsal time` and the capacity of the improvisers to play `free improvised music`. The latter meaning, if the capacity measured in time is: A musician is active for one hour in total duration, the three phases maybe too much playing, musicians become tired and fatigued. A solution is to skip `phase two`but in practice, every rehearsal session will be different. the proposal really is to manage the rehearsal time rather than drift into `open play session` because that is what we always do.

end

pm 2018

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