Calling all Upper Valley young musicians! Grab a recording device and your instrument
How to join: (all you need is 40 min in a quiet room with a recording device)
Improvise something interesting and/or beautiful. (Choose your tempo or keep it free form. Length between 2-8 measures.) Steal some ideas from a piece you are working on or something else you like. Or just make something up completely.
Tip: Do several takes
Enjoy the process and if you want, you can create a 2nd track and play a duet with yourself. You will need headphones for this, and it works best with Garage Band or something similar. If you don’t have headphones, record a 2nd track separately and enjoy the surprise of finding out if it sounds good when you play it back simultaneously with the 1st track. (Unless you have amazing tempo memory, that works best with free-flow non-metronomical phrases.)
Check out the full session of the improv I did at the top of the page. Nothing you send has to be this complicated, simplicity is wonderful!
To create a cohesive piece, we may reach out to you to request additional specific notes or musical figures, and might suggest varying tone quality or other expressive features. We welcome your ideas and suggestions!
If you would like to learn more about recording using loops in GarageBand, express interest in a workshop.
If you would like to attend an in-person jam party with other students in person, get on the invite list. You can do both when you send your audio to us with the form above.
My son said after his improvisation session today, “the amazing thing about improvisation is that it forces you to work with your mistakes and turn them into a new path to follow.”
Send us your audio!
Click here to express interest and get the password to send your audio file.
Once you receive your password, click here to send us your audio file.
Thank you for contributing!
Recap Instructions:
How to join: (all you need is 40 min in a quiet room with a recording device)
Grab a recording device and your instrument
5 min
Improvise something interesting and/or beautiful. (Choose your tempo or keep it free form. Length between 2-8 measures.) Steal some ideas from a piece you are working on or something else you like. Or just make something up completely.
If you would like to do several tracks that go together, you are welcome to.
Do several takes
15-30 min
Enjoy the process and if you want, you can create a 2nd track and play a duet with yourself. You will need headphones for this. If you don’t have headphones, record a 2nd track separately and enjoy the surprise of finding out if it sounds good when you play it back simultaneously with the 1st track. Unless you have amazing tempo memory, this works best with free-flow non-metronomical pieces.
Send us your audio file(s)
5 min
You can upload it here, or contact us for an email. Contributions can be anonymous or clearly credited to you, you choose!
Click here when you are ready to send us your file
Wait for the final piece
TBD
We will mix it together with others’ submissions, maybe add something, and post it here!