React and play!

Through the development and testing of a program with specific exercises focusing on the need to listen to each other when playing music together, Thommt Andersson investigated whether it gave the musicians more insight into listening.

In the exercise program, these 4 elements were the main focus:

• RYTHMIC
• ARTICULATION
• DYNAMICS
• SOUND

The thesis of the project is as follows:

Establishing an understanding of the connection between rhythm, articulation and dynamics is a prerequisite for creating a shared qualitative sound.

The exercises focus on the importance of (and the necessity of) not accelerating results in an ensemble playing situation, as well as getting all musicians in tune - to sound together - and working with the above four basic musical elements as a starting point for the content of the exercises.

The focal point of the exercises is to strengthen the musicians' common understanding of sound and harmony, and to challenge their prejudices/conceptions about how they experience themselves and each other in a group.

There is an artistic development dimension in doing the exercises, as they also serve to uncover the most basic elements of the participating orchestras' music.

Common basic knowledge such as harmony, melody, form, patterns, claves, etc. are integrated as a natural part and an extra dimension to the four cornerstones on which all the exercises are based.

Likewise, the exercises can be seen as creative approaches to artistic collaborations across and/or within other artistic directions, where groups of performers work together to explore a common sound/expression.

The exercises are intended for musicians, educators and ensembles. The exercises are described in full and can be simplified or made more challenging to an appropriate level in relation to the ensemble's capabilities.

PROCEDURE

The exercises have been tested primarily on conservatory students at the DNA of Music, and MGK students at the Music College in Frederiksberg, but also on professional music groups (including choirs, string quartets, jazz groups) as well as some middle school classes.

I have used the exercises with my ensemble class at DNA of Music every session from August 2016 - now. In the start-up phase, we have typically used the first part to rehearse an exercise to activate the concentration in an already rehearsed exercise, and then switch to a new one.

For many in the ensemble, it was a new approach to not play songs at any point, but instead constantly work on basic skills such as dynamics, rhythm and articulation.

The ensemble at DNA of Music consisted of saxophone, trumpet, piano, electric bass, double bass, drums and 2 guitarists. I have proceeded roughly chronologically and have managed to try out most of the exercises with this team.

The first exercises are very much about - with the use of long notes: intonation, common dynamic sound and the general sound of the ensemble.

It offers different challenges on different instruments - how to play a certain pitch on drums - and how to solve the long notes on piano/bass/guitar?

This was a good opportunity to explore the possibilities of the instruments from an unbiased perspective in relation to aesthetic traditions, and gave the musicians a good understanding of the characteristics of each instrument (harmonics, attack, dynamic possibilities, decay, etc.).

The general response from the students was very positive, initially perhaps a little doubtful about having to play the same note over and over again - without any kind of tempo, defined harmonic context etc., but gradually the doubts were replaced by an aha experience as they sank into the sound of what was going on and began to experience it without reservation. As this happened, the ensemble experienced their blend significantly better and a unified sound gradually emerged.

Later exercises are performed at an underlying tempo that is not played explicitly, and here they have benefited greatly from practicing together, being responsible for maintaining a common 'time', where you constantly have to react and adjust so that everyone is on the same page 'time'-wise. When, for example. When, for example, only markings that move on the beats in a longer loop have had to be played, the ability to hold on to your inner sense of time/period despite the few external sounds played has been put to the test.

Some exercises make use of different subdivisions that are switched between in certain ways, and here the musicians became aware of the degree to which some of the switches between some subdivisions were more difficult than others.

Several of the musicians used simplified versions of the exercises in their own ensembles outside of lessons at the conservatory, as well as in teaching situations where they themselves educated in ensemble playing at music schools etc.

Especially exercises where different subdivisions are played simultaneously, but only one musician is allowed to play in each layer at a time, and you can change layers as you like, makes it necessary to be able to listen to other subdivision layers while playing a layer razor sharp - and it can easily be differentiated so that someone, for example. simply play a note, while others try to build phrases.

In the same way, the awareness and execution of articulation and dynamics are practiced in subsequent exercises.

Reaction time is especially practiced in exercises 10-13, where a short note is passed around the band circle. It's simple, the participants find it super fun and it's also a very demanding concentration exercise over time, a kind of musical presence marathon.

These exercises worked very well in all the contexts where I have tested the exercises, including a school class (4th grade) and various classical ensembles.

Together with 3 students from DNA of Music and 2 professional musicians, I have recorded demonstration videos of all the exercises, as I hope that the descriptions of the exercises will be easier to understand with this visual supplement.

CONCLUSION

The majority of the musicians involved who have tried all the exercises have found a more creative and concrete approach to listening when playing with others.

The musicians (students) that I have been with over a longer period of time at DNA of Music, say that they can feel that their musicianship, after doing the exercises, has gained significantly more:

• awareness of sound
• open readiness
• physical language
• focus on the differences between instruments
• desire to concentrate
• feeling a new kind of fatigue after playing music

They also appreciated the illumination and experience of how important joint concentration is for the development of the interaction.

Throwing yourself into an exercise directly with the awareness of timbre, common 'time', sound and open readiness, as well as the fact that the exercises are not genre-specific and can be easily differentiated for the individual participants. The exercises are also open and simple enough that you can easily expand on the concepts yourself and create your own exercises as needed.

If a music teacher who has insight into and/or a desire to improvise uses the exercises in their teaching, it will provide a particularly great benefit.

It has been exciting to put into words how the musicians have continuously experienced a concrete difference in their musicianship in the contexts they are part of.

As the exercises require everyone to act as a leader in the exercises, a clearer communication between the musicians arises, both physically and with their instruments.

Many of the exercises are performed in a format where the group is divided into simultaneously playing duos, and this had a great effect on the participants' ability to zoom in on a particular instrument as a whole and experience the differences between the instruments. Conversely, it also seemed good to be able to step back and observe the process in the exercises where duos play alone.

Some instruments present challenges in terms of performing the exercises, such as drums and pitch and tone length. It is important to emphasize that these challenges should be worked on in parallel, alone or with a main instrument teacher.

With these exercises, I hope that those who try them will develop their own methods and tools in the form of new exercises that can strengthen the work ethic and mutual understanding between the musicians in an ensemble, so that they can listen to the whole, are aware of their own role and have practiced the ability to make quick (improvised) artistic choices along the way, where common energy and concentration are developed based on their own and a common understanding of harmony.

I hope that the exercises can contribute to musicians in higher music programmes, students at music schools and pupils in primary schools, as well as musicians in general in the professional environment, regardless of genre, being inspired to work with the exercises used in the project in combination with their regular working methods.

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