A leave of absence of mind. (In binary form)

I’m not a fan of puns masquerading as titles. On occasions when I encounter punny titles I generally feel that the author is condescending. Or worse: being cute. I swear I have been none of the above. Rather, I have been brutally honest. I could have chosen, “A leave of absence An absence of mind,” this would not capture the duality of the absence which I have taken.
The last year has been one of many changes. For starters I put my overly substantial undergraduate studies behind me. At the same time I left a city and community that I was growing to love. I lost two relatives, one of which was my last remaining grandparent. I then left friends and family behind to move across the country. This trend of Changes did not cease in California. My vision of playing in orchestra full time has been lain to rest; the more precise vision of freelance music (oxymoron?) replacing it. Finally my journey to enter ministry has halted, for I have begun falling in love with a young lady. This will not be my last year of changes, but it certainly has been the most drastic to date.

The California Institute of the Arts

This Los Angeles art school is where I have chosen to pursue a graduate degree. My time here has been one of finding ways to tap into creative abilities. I have tried composition and song writing. I have engaged in deep consideration of composer’s intentions. I have even collaborated with artists from other métier. While each of these experiences have been valuable in some way, the greatest path to the expression of musical ideas has been one of improvisation.
The improv I have discovered is neither the improvisation of jazz musicians nor of classical cadenzas. It is contemporary free improv. Unlike more traditional forms of improvisation such as those based in jazz or ethnic musics, there are no fast rules to follow. Performers must make decisions on traditional things like intonation and volume, but they also make decisions on whether or not to play, what instrument to play, etc.
My time at Calarts has focused on small improvisation ensembles. Unless they use a form such as the jazz standard “trading-eights”, free improvisers must rely on their ears and their intuition to tell them when to play. When one has decided to play, they must then make a decision on each of two subjects: whether to play in a complementary fashion to the other performers, or to go against the other sounds, and whether their idea is what should be heard as a melody, or a supporting figure.
Performers generally play someone else’s music. Therefore, creating is something performers don’t experience in abundance. Within this style of improvisation a performer must make many decisions based solely on their musical intuition. Herein the performer is also creator.

Note: I am publishing for the next few weeks simply to get used to writing once again. To this end I will be resurrecting unfinished entries and posting them even if they still suck. Case in point: the second half of this one