Lesson 5 - Musicality Continued
Up until this point, you’ve all worked very hard and digested a lot of information. For this reason, this section of the series will focus on evolving and further integrating the musicality concepts that we have introduced. I hope this will give you an opportunity to deepen your comprehension of these important topics as well as give you a bit of a theoretical break as you really start to dig into the creation of your pieces.
Musical Cardiogram
Now we are going to explore a concept dubbed the "Musical Cardiogram", that will help us define melodic paths and then choreograph to them.
THE CONCEPT
When you think about the rhythm, you can play it on your hands, or your lap, clap along and follow the patterns of the dums and teks, but if you had to try and express the path of the melody how would you do that? It’s not nearly as easy to plainly express the movement, path, notes, and changes that occur in the melody as it is to show the rhythm or percussion. For this reason, I have developed this concept to try and visually express the melody, and push dancers to really listen more closely to the music.
One of the most important purposes for this concept, for me personally, is to get a greater understanding of what music is being played, so that you have more options and understanding of how to move to it. Dancers don't always realize that your ability to hear the music can be the key to your success or your downfall. If you aren't paying attention to your music, I mean really paying attention, parts go by, accents, emotion, variations, and you lose an opportunity to create dynamic movement, you lose an opportunity to fully express the music, and you lose options for your own artistic expression. If you can’t hear it, you can’t express it.
I do not advocate dancing exactly on top of the music all the time or hitting everything that is thrown your way. Music can be full and rich, it gives us plentiful options, our job as artists is to pick wisely based on our personal expression of the piece or any styles we are trying to emulate. Knowledge is power, the more you hear, the more possibilities you have, and the more intentional your artistic expression becomes.
HOW TO DO THE MUSICAL CARDIOGRAM
In order to do a Musical Cardiogram, grab a large piece of blank paper, a pen, and below is a song that I want you to listen to.
ACTIVITY 1 - MUSICAL CARDIOGRAM
COMPLETELY READ INSTRUCTIONS FIRST AND THEN PLAY MUSIC AND FOLLOW THE ACTIVITY
Start the music and place your pen on the paper.
As the melody starts I want you to draw from left to right on the page. Imagine that the melody is like a cardiogram, and you are documenting the highs and lows of the melodic pulse in the music. If you get to the edge of the page, go back to the left just beneath your cardiogram line and continue. If the melody stops, pick your pen off the page, if it starts again, put it back down and follow the winding path that it takes. (See example below)
This is a personal process so find a way that works best for you to represent the movement of the melody on the page. You can make big long strokes, short and rapid, you can circle around, whatever translates in your brain as a visual explanation and representation of the music.
Once the music stops I want you to ignore what you've already drawn and move further down on your piece of paper and do the process all over again. This time I want you to focus harder, listen more and get more detail into your musical cardiogram line than you did the first time. Try and pick up on nuances that you might have drawn more broadly previously.
After, move down the page again or on the back of the page, and do the process all over again.
DO NOT LOOK AT OUR PREVIOUS WORK. Focus on being more detailed, hearing more changes, more subtly, more of everything. At this time I do not want you to draw anything that isn't representative of the melody, so leave any percussion accents out of your drawing.
When you're done, you should have 3 different Musical Cardiograms of the same section of music, and you will most likely see a development from the 1st to the 3rd, becoming progressively more detailed and expressive of your music, or some containing different emphasis or accents.
MUSICAL CARDIOGRAM EXAMPLE
Here is an example of a musical cardiogram done to the same clip of music. This is just conceptual, remember to draw how you feel you want to in order to express the music. See if you can find patterns, how can these patterns or sounds be interpreted on the body. The drawing is of just 3 rounds. See the similarities and the differences. Mostly pay attention to your own process when doing this 3 times, seeing what you hear more of, or what because more important for you to express on the paper. It’s not about being perfect, or getting it right, it’s about opening ourselves up to more possibilities and seeing what stands out for us for our own expression.
CHOREOGRAPHY APPLICATION
Many times what I see dancers do in this process, and in their presentation of the music, is a very simplified version of the cardiogram/music. They gloss over the details and just go for a synopsis, but that doesn't help you become a better dancer and it doesn't help you create insight into the music with your movement. Push yourself!
ACTIVITY 2 - CHOREOGRAPHY APPLICATION
PICK A SECTION OF MUSIC - Think about a section of music from your song that you could use this process to explore. Maybe it’s a section that has a lot of activity and you want to understand it better, maybe it’s a section that exhibits a lot of accents, maybe it’s a section with a lot of highs and lows, a taqsim, or a really windy path. If you’ve already identified the musical instrument you want to focus on and it’s a melodic instrument (including vocals, chorus), take yourself through the Musical Cardiogram process and see if it highlights information for you, or clarifies your focus.
USE IMPROVISATION TO EXPLORE - Once you’ve done this exercise, then think about how you want to express what you’re seeing on your page and what you’re hearing in the music. Select one of the improvisation exercises that best supports your ideas, like the layer cake, qualities of movement, or Muse. Keep your Musical Cardiogram close by, and focus the improvisation through the lens of what you’ve decided you want to express and highlight in the section of music.
Musicality Application
As we continue processing our music, we're going to discuss a concept I refer to as "overlying concept” versus “on the music". In this concept, we discuss the differences between dancing to the music "exactly" or “on the melody/music”, or dancing to an "overlying" general concept of the music, which at times can be the same as “dancing on the beat”. One is a more exact representation of the music and the other is a more generalized approach that can use a single or multiple layers of music for its interpretation.
OVERLYING CONCEPT VS. ON THE MUSIC
When we practice our musical cardiograms we are intending to listen very carefully to our music. Even if later we choose not to follow it as specifically, we're still starting from a place of visualizing and understanding as much as possible about what the music is offering.
When you're dancing to your music, you have the option to represent more specifically what the music is presenting, or you can give a more generalized movement representation. Often pop music lends itself to doing more "overlying" concept movements because it's more synthesized and offers less specifics in the music that standout. This can be a double-edged sword. Pop music is easy to dance to, because you can do almost anything at any time and it won't necessarily look wrong, this is applying an "overlying" approach. But it is easier to become bored and feel monotonous with pop music because it doesn't offer many variations or as many dynamics. You can be left feeling like the music doesn't actually lead you to dance in any sort of way, thus you have fewer indications on how to express the music, it can feel aimless. Whereas a classic song with strong melodic instrumentation and rhythm changes can really dictate a certain expression, pushing you to choose certain instruments for your musicality choices and certain ways to express them.
Another way to think of dancing to the “overlying” concept is that you are incorporating multiple layers of the music at the same time, what you do isn’t focus on any one specific layer, but instead if taking in multiple layers and selecting an interpretation based on that. Additionally, maybe the movement you select is based on the overall feeling that you get from all of the layers of music at one time, or an idea about how you want to present movement that isn’t specific to what is going on. An example of this is sometime when you hear the music going really fast, but the dancer chooses to do a large slow hip circle. This can be counterintuitive, but the dancer is making an overlying concept choice about how to present the music, and it doesn’t feel wrong when you see it.
THEORY - WHEN DO TO WHAT
There are specific styles or sections of music where you may want to go one way or the other. When you're performing a Taqsim (melodic instrument solo improvisation) you might want to stick to a more "exact" representation of the movement, allowing for overly concept during certain movements. Taqsims are traditionally done as an improvisation, so not knowing what you're about to hear will make things more difficult, but allowing yourself to breathe and follow the lead of the instrument is a wonderful experience. That being said, the overlying concept has a place during Taqsims, you will never be able to be “on the music” the whole time, and it’s not necessary to try. Using the overlying concept can allow you to bridge between more “on the music” sections and express less intense aspects of the music.
You can then move between these two concepts to pick your battles with the music. The objective is to pick the moments when you want to follow it very closely and times when you want to give it some space. The objective is you making artistic decisions about how you want to explore the music with the skills you have at hand.
Pop music is an example of a time where you would probably be more benefited to dance to the overlying concept because of how most pop music is written and produced. On the other side, when you do have sections of the pop music that stand out or are very articulated, try and pull those out with a more "exact" representation to give variation to your piece.
There are certain melodic instruments that may lead one way or the other. The kanoun is an instrument that you will probably apply "overlying concept" to instead of "exact" because of how rapidly it plays the notes. For this reason, it is commonly associated with shimmies. The Nay and the Violin are instruments where you will have a much easier time applying the "exact” concept.
OPTIONAL ACTIVITY - SONG MAP DEVELOPMENT
Go through your song section by section, and list which section you want to apply a more "exact concept" to and which sections you want to apply a more "overly concept". If the sections are a mix, that’s fine too, never think they have to be all or nothing. But you might find yourself leaning one way or another.
Add a Column to your Song Map (Overlying, Exact, Mixed)
Write if you're going to apply overlying, exact (on the music) or both.
Write the reason for your selection.
Then, for each section that you list as "exact" or both, do a musical cardiogram for this section.
Movement Application video
On the Music Vs. Overlying Concept & Improv
FEEDBACK, CRITIQUE
& CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
Remember to apply the theory from this lesson as well as from all of the other lessons. Each Feedback video compounds ideas from the previous lessons, so keep that in mind.
Feedback Critique Video
QUESTIONS
How were the concepts of “Overlying & On the Music” applied in this video?
How did my choices in the video align with the objectives for my Baladi piece?
Lesson 5 Assignments
DUE ON TUES/WEDS DEC 13TH OR 14TH
OR JAN 3RD OR 4TH
These to be turned into amandaroseonline@gmail.com
Musical Cardiogram Activity 2 - Submit the Musical Cardiogram that you’ve done from a section of your song. Explain if this activity has helped you define or evolve this section of your piece.
Video Submission - Send an updated video of all of the sections of the choreography that you’ve developed. If there are gaps you can treat it like a “Talking Walk Through" and walk and talk through the sections you do not have, and then perform the choreography in the sections that you do have. You can also submit different sections in multiple videos, but not multiple videos of the same section.
Combo of Section for Group Critique In Live Group Session 6 - Prepare to share a section of your current piece that you are working on and have hit a roadblock or want suggestions about. Prepare a video clip that only includes the part of the choreography you want to share (a max of 15-20 seconds but can be shorter). Explain to your fellow participants what your overall Message is, what your focus is for this section, and what you want help with? We will be sharing in small groups in the next live session.
Feedback, Critique & Constructive Criticism - Answer the questions and submit.