The original exercise taken from Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit is “When I improvise in a studio, alone or with other dancers, I always have a video camera getting everything on tape so I can review it later. For me, scratching for ideas became a technical scheme of improvising (generating ideas), getting them on tape (retaining), watching the tapes later on (inspecting) and finding a way to use them in a dance (transforming)” (Tharp 2006). My adaptation is as follows:

To adapt this method, I first suggested that the recording can just be audio and video is optional. This is because I think the visual documentation is less critical in music composition than in choreography. Then, I translated the four steps mentioned into a format for composition. 


Case study, “Fantasie for Vocal Solo”


For this method, I began my practice every day by pressing the record button and starting to improvise. After a few days of collecting ideas in this way, I went back through the recordings and listened to the materials I had gathered. About two minutes into the recording I made on February 8th, I noticed a section that caught my attention because of the continuous development through it. I decided to transcribe this section and notate it to review the content more concretely. After this, I only made minimal edits to the original content. I clarified some pitches and removed a few measures.

Transcription of the Original Improvisation from the Recording on 2/8/23  (with what changed for the final version).

Final Version

Lyrics: N/A

Melody/Harmony: This piece has balance in the ascending and descending motion of the melodic line. Within this motion, there is a near total equivalence in the amount of ascending intervals and descending intervals: out of 512 intervals, 234 are descending and 237 are ascending (the remaining 41 stay the same). I interpret this as having a balance of melodic shape.

Form: The three-part structure provides the setting for the development of three different motifs. 

Performance: I found this composition to be a great challenge to my vocal technique. The original recording is relaxed and some of the pitches are not precise. Singing the composition accurately and capturing that same feeling took time but became a fun vocal workout.

Thoughts from my reflective journal: February 8, 2023- “I thought going into it that I would have trouble deciding from so many ideas what I like the best to develop further but it really is the opposite. To me, a lot of the ideas are sounding more improvisatory than compositional.”

February 17, 2023-

“After editing the piece more I am surprised by the amount of content that I am keeping. So far, I haven’t been changing much…. [The] editing I have done is just removing some redundant phrases.” 

Composition workbook results: Composer 4 noted, “I didn't come up with like anything crazily new just because… I think it was just a perspective that I usually would write from.” Composer 9 agreed that this method was similar to their standard writing process. Composer 6 summarized this method led them to think "okay here's ten ideas that we normally come up with but now they're on recordings we can just choose which one works the best.” Composer 8 commented on the time limit, “I think it's like super cool because on some level it's like whatever comes out, that's what you get and if it sucks, it sucks and if it's good then maybe you can use it.” They continued by saying, “When I listen back, it tends to be…like a treasure chest of motifs and compositional fragments and things like that more than in any other way because… it’s just judgment-free.” Composer 8’s experience was most similar to mine. 

Results:

Although at first this method seemed similar to one of the ways I often start composing, by playing around and once I hear an idea that I like, going with that immediately and to further develop that idea, there are some subtle differences that for me led to unique results. The key differences for me in this method are the separation between the improvising/composing and editing processes and recording for the purpose of listening back afterward. The structure of improvising for ten minutes straight then listening back to a recording separates the improvisation from editing which is a new process for me. Recording the method for more immediate and intentional use was also unusual as I usually record interesting ideas I have at the end of a session to be saved in an idea repository with no guarantee of being used. 


The piece I created from this method that I liked the best has no lyrics and is primarily diatonic, unlike my other compositions. Typically I write lyrics with every composition and even if the melody of a song is diatonic, the harmony steps outside of the diatonic palette. Using this method changed my workflow as I found it was most natural for me to improvise vocally with no piano and I generally compose while singing at the piano. After reviewing the audio recording and writing out the piece, I settled on keeping the orchestration solely for voice. To me, the harmonic and melodic content is clearly defined and I thought the technical aspect of many of the interval jumps and range would be best featured solo. Additionally, the piece sounds improvisatory in nature. Each of the three sections within the piece has its own character and focuses on developing a small melodic motif. Furthermore, the tempo is flexible, going between Rubato in the first and third sections and A Tempo in the second section but with Ritardandos and Fermatas throughout. Because of these elements, this piece sounds quite different from anything else I have previously composed. At first, I was skeptical of the content I produced (noted in my first journal entry) but, after sitting with it further, I decided to embrace its unique elements. The improvisatory, organic nature gives the song a different character than my other pieces making it a new addition to my personal repertoire. 


In the editing stage (inspecting and transforming), I remained largely faithful to the original recording that I made. It surprised me that I kept so much of the original material but I enjoyed the flow and development of the melody. I also felt that over-editing the raw material would detract from its spontaneity.

My colleagues received this method less enthusiastically. A few brought up the fact that it is already similar to how they approach writing. I also found it to be similar to my normal writing process. There are some key differences that I discovered while experimenting but they are not obvious in the wording of the exercise itself. For that reason, the wording of this exercise could still use refining. This method may not have drastic results or even work for everyone who tries it. I also found that instinctively in my experimentation, I improvised with just voice and not piano (whereas I usually write using both instruments). Since it is not clearly noted in the exercise instructions, one could try the exercise using multiple instruments (ex: piano or guitar plus voice) or off their main instrument (ex: a horn player writing on piano). It is impossible to tell how much my choice to improvise using only my voice influenced the final result, so in the future, I would like to experiment with this method again adding piano to compare the results.