Schillinger in two ideas
Joseph Schillinger (1895–1943) taught composition as arithmetic on rhythm and pitch, and his students included jazz and film composers such as George Gershwin. Two of his ideas turn straight into improvising exercises:
- Interference. Two pulses, one repeating a times and one b times in the same bar, create a third rhythm where either one sounds. 3 against 2 gives 2+1+1+2: a rhythm you could not easily make up, and it always fits the bar.
- Permutation. Take a short motive and play every ordering, rotation, mirror image and reverse of it. Three or four notes give dozens of phrases that all belong together.
Rhythm by interference
againstone bar of 4 beats atbpm
Resultant: 2 + 1 + 1 + 2 (in 1/6s of the bar)
Improvise on it: play only on the pink dots, or tap the long and short notes in a scale you know. Mute a pulse to feel it from inside the resultant.
Permuting a motive
Choose 2 to 4 degrees (in the order you click):
All 24 orderings
Improvise with it: choose one ordering, play it in time, then move to the next without stopping. Inversion mirrors the shape around the first note, inside the scale.
Games
Improv roulette
- Key
- G Major pentatonic
- Rhythm
- 5:4 (4+1+3+2+2+3+1+4)
- Motive
- B E A
- Rule
- Play the motive backwards (retrograde), then forwards.
Done 0 · streak 0 · best streak 0 · challenge #1
Name that rhythm
Listen to the bar, count its long and short notes, and say which two pulses made it.
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