Pedalless

[furtwaengler]

Placing limits on either composition or improvisation can be a way of grounding in a creative sense. I think of some of Ligeti's etudes which thrive on certain set laws he imposes (the LH black notes, RH white notes and rhythmic sets of Désordre, the canvas of scales in Fanfares, the mixed whole tone scales, LH, RH in Galamb Borong etc.).

Not for any hygienic purpose, or not for the sake of grounding, or any such thing, but because I enjoy it immensely, I routinely find myself playing around with no pedal, allowing a different type of voice and expression to emerge from my fingers, because in such a case they control everything regarding note lengths, articulation and quality. As listening goes, I've grown to really find this particular one special.

Enjoy!

[ted]

You are certainly producing an agreeable effect here, it makes things like double notes very clear, but at the same time demanding because any slips cannot be disguised in a wash of pedal. Any idea, I suppose, is at once liberating and restricting, the former by what it does do and the latter by which it cannot do. A corollary to this is that I invariably find it easier to characterise someone's creative playing by noticing what is never, or seldom done rather than by trying to analyse what actually is played. It is, in fact, a very easy exercise, the results of which can be a helpful revelation to the player. Bill Harris's telling me I hardly repeated a cell more or less than four times was one such. Another was Derek's pointing out the rarity of diminished chords in my playing. Both these might as well have been self-imposed limits had I even realised their existence above the unconscious level.

[furtwaengler]

Thanks. That's a fascinating idea about what is not done as opposed to what is done in improv. Whatever happened to Derek?

[j_tour]

Nice idea -- I've been into using pedal as little as possible, just as a gaff, even where it's usually used IMO a bit indiscriminately, namely Brahms and middle-period Beethoven, but I never thought to use the "no/little pedal" technique while improvising.

You have some nice ideas, BTW -- someday I'll maybe get to where you're at in non-jazz improvisation.  Very nice.