Vince's Feedbag of Myopic Discordance

Item 1: Alesis AirSynth

http://namm.harmony-central.com/WNAMM01/Content/Alesis/HotPick/airSynth.html

The Alesis AirSynth an interesting entry into the world of electronic instruments back in the mid-late 90s. It certainly wasn't a hard concept to market: creates amazing sounds just by moving your hands through the air! And there is no doubt that it did just that; making music was another thing entirely. After a while, Alesis moved the AirFX technology from music maker to sound alterer. As an instrument, it was simply too hard to use without a significantly higher amount of skill than most people were willing to attain.

Difficult as it is to use, I found the AirSynth to be a wonderful plaything. It was so much closer than I'd seen previously to: the image of magic from high fantasy and Japanese anime, with arcane hand and finger motions and convoluted gesticulations giving life to forces and beings we could only dream of. Okay, so all it was doing was playing a strange sound while my hands were in a certain position in the air, but I loved playing round within its space, imagining that I was drawing flows of energy or guiding wind through tightening spirals...

Item 2: Improvisation

http://www.apocalypsewow.com/random/improv.mp3

Music improvisation was one of the scariest things in the world to me. Back when I was a young 10 year old boy, I couldn't fathom being able to conjure up music on the spot. I actually hid under the piano when my teacher was first introducing the concept of improvisation to me. It was just too much for me to handle...

Eventually it grew into something I learned to accept. I stopped being afraid of wrong notes. I started learning how to work with what I knew to make things keep consonant.

This improvisation that I did when I was 16, however, was so far beyond anything I did previously.

Kind of a mix of Chopin and Scriabin, strong melodic figure that occurs many times throughout the piece. Interesting build throughout.

Up to the second before I played the first note, I had no idea what I was going to do. I was confident in recording an improvisation on this amazing piano that I was allowed to touch as one of the favored piano students in the DelMarVa area, but I just hadn't a clue.

By the end of it, I still wasn't sure what I had done.

All of my very best work seems to share something in common with this improvisation. Once it hits, that's it, it's done, it's ready to go. Once it's done, I look back at it and have no clue the why and how of making it. In the middle of it, I seem more conscious of the hand and finger position than I am of the resultant music (not unlike how I play my airsynth). I am so in the moment that the notes I just played and the notes I am about to play seem as far off as next year.

Being in the middle of a great improvisation is the best musical experience I've ever had.

Item 3: Before Sunset

http://imdb.com/title/tt0381681/

Before Sunset feels a lot like my improvisations. Its motion is such that I don't bother tracking the path but instead focus on how wondrous each individual moment is. Each phrase, each motion seems to beg for my attention, much as each note I played in that improvisation grabbed me. The nearly 1-to-1 passage of time in the movie is fascinating, almost improvisatory; it goes well with my respect and admiration for other masters of the live venue, from talk radio to tabletop RPG DMing. It makes me wonder about the possibility of doing something of that scope in a truly live setting.

Performing live is the one constant I've had in my thesis brainstorms...